For my thesis/creative project, I created a prototype for a mental health app. Each section of the prototype has a purpose of instilling mindfulness and healthy habits that can promote and lead to sustainable mental health. Throughout the paper I explain my reasoning for starting this project, the science of mindfulness and how it can bring about positive mental and physical changes, and the design theory behind the prototype.

Home advantage affects the game in almost all team sports across the world. Due to<br/>COVID and all of the precautions being taken to keep games played, more extensive research is able to be conducted about what factors truly go into creating a home advantage. Some common factors of home advantage include the crowd, facility familiarity, and travel. In the English Premier League, there are no fans allowed at any of the games; furthermore, in the NBA, a bubble was created at one neutral venue with no fans in attendance. Even with the NBA being at a neutral site, there was still a “home team” at every game. The sports betting industry struggled due to failing to shift betting lines in accordance with this decreased home advantage. With these leagues removing some of the factors that are frequently associated with home advantage, analysts are able to better see what the results would be of removing these variables. The purpose of this research is to determine if these adjustments made due to COVID had an impact on the home advantage in different leagues around the world, and if they did, to what extent. Individual game data from the past 10 seasons were used for analysis of both the NBA and the Premier League. The results show that there is a significant difference in win percentage between prior seasons and seasons behind closed doors. In addition to win percentage, many other game statistics see a significant shift as well. Overall, the significance of being the home team disappears in games following the COVID-19 break.

Esports is the fastest growing sub sector within the entertainment industry, predicted to garner over 600 million viewers by 2022. However, there is a big category of esports - mobile esports - that are not yet recognized globally. This thesis project analyzes how mobile esports has risen in the Eastern countries of the world, primarily Southeast Asia, and compares it to the possibility of replication in the Western countries of the world, primarily the United States and Brazil. It examines the specific factors that caused mobile gaming and thus mobile esports to flourish in the East Region of the world. The thesis additionally incorporates current attitudes towards esports and mobile esports in the United States and discusses the viewpoints of consumers in those specific areas. This research uses primary data and literature synthesis to ultimately increase knowledge on how mobile esports has risen in popularity in various Asian countries and whether or not mobile esports can thrive in a different environment such as the United States.<br/><br/>This thesis takes data from the “Newzoo Global Esports Market Report” conducted in 2020 by Newzoo. This report does the following:<br/>- dives deep into the global and regional esports economy<br/>- provides a realistic estimate of the market’s future potential regarding revenue streams, audience numbers, key trends, and franchises<br/>- highlights financial and statistical trends for the esports industry in the future<br/><br/>Overall the thesis finds that mobile esports have succeeded in the Asian market due to an established demographic of esports fans and players, mobile first consumers, and wide technology network in Asia. Data analysis finds that currently many American gamers still find mobile gaming to be “boring” and ultimately that cultural attitude, generational shifts, and the ideal game need to align for mobile esports to succeed in the United States.

Employers perceive students are not qualified to enter the workforce. Students also feel unprepared to enter the workforce, resulting in a perceived skills gap between skills taught in schools and skills demanded by employers. My study examines the actual skills gap between skills taught in five Information Systems programs and skills demanded by employers in nine IT professions. In the scope of my analysis, I provide a discussion of my project methodology, answers for my research questions used to complete the gap analysis, and grounded recommendations to Information Systems programs on how to close the skills gap. Lastly, I also include future considerations that researchers may utilize to study my topic in greater detail. Students and schools can both use my analysis to improve their respective weaknesses and capitalize on their strengths in terms of hard skills required for the workforce.

Empathy Link is a creative project that looks at the universal problems that many college students experience. The show is an interview style podcast, in which the students come on and talk about their life experiences, specifically the dilemmas and emotional challenges they face. Furthermore, Empathy Link delves into student’s identities, and how many of the more “universal problems” that the students face, are also affected by the identity and background, such as ethnicity, gender, immigration status, class, etc. By analyzing the cross-section between the more relatable problems that almost every student experiences and the more unique identity problems, listeners are able to find common ground with students from different backgrounds from them as well as begin to understand struggles that they may not or will never experience. Empathy Link consists of a six-episode first season. Each episode is somewhere between 20 – 30 minutes long. The topics discussed in episodes were wide-ranging: disagreeing with the worldviews of one’s parents, wanting to pursue a passion but scared because of financial instability, the anxiety of over-working, the feeling of listlessness post-college life, and the passing of a loved one. Before each episode, I would perform a pre-interview for each guest to ensure they would be a good fit for the show, write questions for that guest, and schedule a time and place to record. Afterwards, I would edit each episode for clarity, sound quality, and flow to ensure the content was up to par. Empathy Link is a podcast dedicated to bridging the gap between the perceptions of college students, specifically those from marginalized groups, and the actual experiences and struggles that they face.

Graytech Operations Management Simulation is an educational videogame that teaches the fundamental principles of operations management. It was coded from scratch in Java and is playable as an executable jar file. Designing the game required creating a business case, designing a production process, and turning that process into a playable program. The simulation serves as a simplified version of what the player will face in their professional careers, giving them a solid way to practice and experiment with introductory operations management principles in a low pressure setting. The game puts the player in charge of a simple factory floor. The player controls direct materials ordering, manages the capacities of each process, and identifies and responds to changing bottlenecks, all while managing limited financial resources. Using the principles and strategies taught in their introductory supply chain courses, the player will attempt to maximize profits by manipulating the production system. Through playing this simulation, the player will gain a higher understanding of operations management principles while also having fun in the process. The finished game, supplementary tutorial videos, and source code can be freely accessed online at www.graytechsimulation.wixsite.com/download.

Data has quickly become a cornerstone of society. Across our daily lives, industry, policy, and more, we are experiencing what can only be called a “data revolution” igniting ferociously. While data is gaining more and more importance, consumers do not fully understand the extent of its use and subsequent capitalization by companies. This paper explores the current climate relating to data security and data privacy. It aims to start a conversation regarding the culture around the sharing and collection of data. We explore aspects of data privacy in four tiers: the current cultural and social perception of data privacy, its relevance in our daily lives, its importance in society’s dialogue. Next, we look at current policy and legislature in place today, focusing primarily on Europe’s established GDPR and the incoming California Consumer Privacy Act, to see what measures are already in place and what measures need to be adopted to mold more of a culture of transparency. Next, we analyze current data privacy regulations and power of regulators like the FTC and SEC to see what tools they have at their disposal to ensure accountability in the tech industry when it comes to how our data is used. Lastly, we look at the potential act of treating and viewing data as an asset, and the implications of doing so in the scope of possible valuation and depreciation techniques. The goal of this paper is to outline initial steps to better understand and regulate data privacy and collection practices. Our goal is to bring this issue to the forefront of conversation in society, so that we may start the first step in the metaphorical marathon of data privacy, with the goal of establishing better data privacy controls and become a more data-conscious society.

Since 1965, Billboard has been charting top songs to publicly inform music artists and consumers which music is most popular at a given time. Given the changes in culture, technology, and countless other factors over time, it seems as though there are very few consistencies across the board to answer the question of why a song makes it to the top of the charts. To analyze this issue, I look at both songwriting trends and consumer mentality as they relate to the following questions:

1. What does a consumer look for in the music they choose to listen to?
2. What do trends in songwriting show us?
3. How can artists make songs that stand out in an oversaturated market?

In examining songwriting trends, I utilize both secondary research and Python code for a dataset from Kaggle that contains over 5,000 records of Top 100 songs since 1965. To understand the consumer, I observe psychological, sociological, and psychographic behaviors that contribute to their music consumption patterns. To take time factors into consideration, I also consider the implications of our technology-heavy modern world.
Consumers seek male vocalists with noticeable effort exerted and seek to explore themes present in the Urban/Contemporary stage of their lives, which occurs around early adulthood and involves finding love and social acceptance. Consumers also seek familiarity within or immediately surrounding their music due to psychological factors pointed out by author Charles Duhigg. Popular structure has changed over time by becoming shortened due to a decrease in attention span, and lyrics have evolved to focus more on the self due to the increased presence of social media.
My results give songwriters a short, broad reference with which to understand consumers and create music that has a better chance at success and popularity. Though tailored to music, the results can be applied to all art forms, as the end consumer is very similar and the same societal shifts have shaped art for the past five decades. My goal is to inspire the artist that there is room for them in the ever-growing world of music that craves individuality as much as it does familiarity.