For our project, we explored the growth of the ASU BioDesign Clinical Testing Laboratory (ABCTL) from a standard university research lab to a COVID-19 testing facility through a business lens. The lab has pioneered the saliva-test in the Western United States. This thesis analyzes the laboratory from various business concepts and aspects. The business agility of the lab and it’s quickness to innovation has allowed the lab to enjoy great success. Looking into the future, the laboratory has a promising future and will need to answer many questions to remain the premier COVID-19 testing institution in Arizona.

For our project, we explored the growth of the ASU BioDesign Clinical Testing Laboratory (ABCTL) from a standard university research lab to a COVID-19 testing facility through a business lens. The lab has pioneered the saliva-test in the Western United States. This thesis analyzes the laboratory from various business concepts and aspects. The business agility of the lab and it’s quickness to innovation has allowed the lab to enjoy great success. Looking into the future, the laboratory has a promising future and will need to answer many questions to remain the premier COVID-19 testing institution in Arizona.

For our project, we explored the growth of the ASU BioDesign Clinical Testing Laboratory (ABCTL) from a standard university research lab to a COVID-19 testing facility through a business lens. The lab has pioneered the saliva-test in the Western United States. This thesis analyzes the laboratory from various business concepts and aspects. The business agility of the lab and it’s quickness to innovation has allowed the lab to enjoy great success. Looking into the future, the laboratory has a promising future and will need to answer many questions to remain the premier COVID-19 testing institution in Arizona.

For our project, we explored the growth of the ASU BioDesign Clinical Testing Laboratory (ABCTL) from a standard university research lab to a COVID-19 testing facility through a business lens. The lab has pioneered the saliva-test in the Western United States. This thesis analyzes the laboratory from various business concepts and aspects. The business agility of the lab and it’s quickness to innovation has allowed the lab to enjoy great success. Looking into the future, the laboratory has a promising future and will need to answer many questions to remain the premier COVID-19 testing institution in Arizona.

Previous studies about the effects of regulatory institutions on the outcomes of regulation have resulted in a lack of consensus on the nature of these impacts. This paper seeks to resolve some of this ambiguity by analyzing two dimension of electric utility regulatory outcomes, prices and reliability, with a broader panel of explanatory variables and with a Hausman-Taylor regression technique. The results suggest that elected regulators and deregulated electricity markets result in worse reliability outcomes for consumers without strong evidence that either institution secures lower electricity prices. Incorporating these insights into a theoretical model of regulation could give more detailed insight into how to create regulatory institutions that can optimize the outcomes of governance.

With the rise of fast fashion and its now apparent effects on climate change, there is an evident need for change in terms of how we as individuals use our clothing and footwear. Our team has created Ray Fashion Inc., a sustainable footwear company that focuses on implementing the circular economy to reduce the amount of waste generated in shoe creation. We have designed a sandal that accommodates the rapid consumption element of fast fashion with a business model that promotes sustainability through a buy-back method to upcycle and retain our materials.

As America undergoes a modern, civil rights movement, the reality of police brutality can no longer be disregarded by everyday voters. The Black Lives Matter movement has become ubiquitous, both in real life and in the media, after the murder of George Floyd. This moment has made way for widespread video coverage of police brutality incidents, a litany of written think pieces dissecting the long-term effectiveness of the police, and a myriad of articles discussing prospective policy actions. With a rise in coverage comes a heightened level of awareness of and conversation around this issue. We have witnessed the pervasiveness of the Black Lives Matter movement and an increasing conversation around the allocation of funding towards police departments. Change has been sparked, but which form of media has most effectively influenced the public? Seeing as one of the principal goals of police-related advocacy groups is to fulfill their vision of a properly functioning police force, including in relation to accountability and reform, it is vital to understand which medium the public is most receptive to. This study and its design serve to examine how exposure to different media regarding police brutality affects people’s opinions on Black Lives Matter, police reform policies, and similar changes. Moving forward, social movements will have a better understanding of which types of media can best target the public when trying to coalesce support around their movement.

Self-efficacy in engineering, engineering identity, and coping in engineering have been shown in previous studies to be highly important in the advancement of one’s development in the field of engineering. Through the creation and deployment of a 17 question survey, undergraduate and first year masters students were asked to provide information on their engagement at their university, their demographic information, and to rank their level of agreement with 22 statements relating to the aforementioned ideas. Using the results from the collected data, exploratory factor analysis was completed to identify the factors that existed and any correlations. No statistically significant correlations between the identified three factors and demographic or engagement information were found. There needs to be a significant increase in the data sample size for statistically significant results to be found. Additionally, there is future work needed in the creation of an engagement measure that successfully reflects the level and impact of participation in engineering activities beyond traditional coursework.

In mid-March of 2020, Arizona State University transformed one of its research labs into ASU Biodesign Clinical Testing Laboratory (ABCTL) to meet the testing needs of the surrounding community during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lab uses RT-qPCR, or reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, to match the components of a biosample to a portion of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. The ABCTL uses the TaqPath™ COVID-19 Combo Kit, which has undergone many different types of efficacy and efficiency tests and can successfully denote saliva samples as positive even when an individual is infected with various emerging strains of the SARS-CoV-2. Samples are collected by volunteers at testing sites with stringent biosafety precautions and processed in the lab using specific guidelines. As the pandemic eventually becomes less demanding, the ABCTL plans to utilize the Devil’s Drop-off program at various school districts around Arizona to increase testing availability, transfer to the SalivaDirect method, and provide other forms of pathogen testing to distinguish COVID-19 from other types of infections in the ASU community.

Early on in the pandemic, ASU leadership recognized an opportunity to involve the Biodesign Institute in an effort to keep local communities safe. Equipped with capital investments (and expertise) in diagnostic testing, university president Michael Crow tasked Dr. Joshua LaBaer - the executive director of Biodesign - to begin mapping out the lab’s logistic capabilities and operational plan. While initially testing through nasopharyngeal swabs, the Arizona Biodesign Clinical Testing Laboratory (ABCTL) eventually developed a saliva-based COVID-19 test that demonstrated higher efficacy and resource-efficiency. By maintaining rapid turnaround times for test results, the ABCTL has helped both the university population and local community operate safely. Lauded as a highly innovative testing site, the lab proved to be an essential asset as ASU, and the world, look to return to normalcy. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the ABCTL’s inception and development using multi-faceted approaches from the business realm. There will be five topics discussed which are: • Volume I- Stakeholder Theory and Analysis Regarding the COVID-19 Bio-design Institute at Arizona State University (Claire Agee), • Volume II- The Lab as a Business Within a University Environment (Samuel Cosgrove) • Volume III- A Managerial Economic Perspective (Michael Qian) • Volume IV- An Analysis of its Upstream Supply Chain ( Kyle Mattson) • Volume V- An Operations Management Perspective (Corinne English) After these volumes, there will be a discussion about the growth and sustainability of the laboratory looking into the future. Although the ABCTL is young,the ever-changing market dynamics leave the organization with critical decisions going forward.