I write a modern revamp of the 1960 romantic comedy-drama film The Apartment, intentionally filling it with topical issues and touching upon (post)modern concepts such as intertextuality and parody. Additionally, I contextualize my creative work with an academic supplement that gives weight to my various stylistic and content choices, and bring them into conversation with those utilized by the original 1960 film.

Optimal foraging theory provides a suite of tools that model the best way that an animal will <br/>structure its searching and processing decisions in uncertain environments. It has been <br/>successful characterizing real patterns of animal decision making, thereby providing insights<br/>into why animals behave the way they do. However, it does not speak to how animals make<br/>decisions that tend to be adaptive. Using simulation studies, prior work has shown empirically<br/>that a simple decision-making heuristic tends to produce prey-choice behaviors that, on <br/>average, match the predicted behaviors of optimal foraging theory. That heuristic chooses<br/>to spend time processing an encountered prey item if that prey item's marginal rate of<br/>caloric gain (in calories per unit of processing time) is greater than the forager's<br/>current long-term rate of accumulated caloric gain (in calories per unit of total searching<br/>and processing time). Although this heuristic may seem intuitive, a rigorous mathematical<br/>argument for why it tends to produce the theorized optimal foraging theory behavior has<br/>not been developed. In this thesis, an analytical argument is given for why this<br/>simple decision-making heuristic is expected to realize the optimal performance<br/>predicted by optimal foraging theory. This theoretical guarantee not only provides support<br/>for why such a heuristic might be favored by natural selection, but it also provides<br/>support for why such a heuristic might a reliable tool for decision-making in autonomous<br/>engineered agents moving through theatres of uncertain rewards. Ultimately, this simple<br/>decision-making heuristic may provide a recipe for reinforcement learning in small robots<br/>with little computational capabilities.

Collective human attitudes influenced by macro-forces that impact environmental issues are partially correlated to our behaviors for the good and the harm of the planet. In this thesis, I will explore how collective human attitudes contribute to pro-environmental behaviors, common and pre-existing frames of mind on major conservation dilemmas, and finally suggest future directions on how humans could be inclined to take on more environmental responsibility through an increase in human-environmental connectivity. It is found that humans are largely driven by institution structures, education, and social influence. In conclusion, more efforts should be placed to further analyze these structural incentives for pro-environmental behaviors and use them to make environmental stewardship more accessible for all people and diverse circumstances. This can be done by evaluating the human dimensions of what influences human attitudes and behaviors, how to use these forces to systematically influence pro-environmental choices, applying these structural forces to main conservation issues, and further incorporating moral discourse into the environmental research in order to appeal correctly to all aspects and perspectives. Only when human connectivity is understood in relation to the natural sciences will we be able to make positive change in the direction of a healthier Earth.

This qualitative project was done as a way to learn more about the personal experiences of Asian American participants surrounding education and how it has impacted their identities, and questions how and if the model minority stereotype has impacted the Asian American student particiapnts. 14 participants were interviewed one-on-one to see if there were any patterns in values that their parents had pushed, and revealed that cultural expectations influence the participants’s educational choices, leading to self-regulation in regards to education. Because the shared trait of these participants are being current Asian American students in university at the time of their interviews, experiences range with how acculturated their parents are, the ethnic background of their families, and prior expectations with education.

Video games are packed full of endless potential. They are the telling of impossible narratives with something for every type of person. So then why has the industry historically been one of the worst for representations of race and gender? In this thesis, I define "good" media representation and engage in the analysis of both Overwatch (2016) and Detroit Become Human (2018) to observe the ways these two video games, which so outwardly market their diversity, have failed marginalized groups. Accompanying the research paper is a video game poster representing a woman of color designed by the author which is meant to learn from the mistakes of its predecessors.

In late 2019, COVID-19, a new disease caused by a novel (or new) coronavirus began to take over the lives of many people. This study centers on how members of the Latinx community have been affected by COVID-19. Both quantitative and qualitative data were utilized to analyze the perceived risk of infection, preventative behaviors, and acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccine for individuals that identify as Latinx. Analysis of the survey and interview analysis found the majority of participants expressed abiding by recommended measures and becoming hypervigilant about their activities, and their desire to get vaccinated against COVID-19 when they are eligible. Individuals who did not express the desire to be vaccinated mentioned worries including side effects, costs, safety, and efficacy of the vaccine. Results from this research could aid in the creation of public health initiatives in order to increase the uptake of the vaccine tailored for the Latinx community.

Robots are often used in long-duration scenarios, such as on the surface of Mars,where they may need to adapt to environmental changes. Typically, robots have been built specifically for single tasks, such as moving boxes in a warehouse or surveying construction sites. However, there is a modern trend away from human hand-engineering and toward robot learning. To this end, the ideal robot is not engineered,but automatically designed for a specific task. This thesis focuses on robots which learn path-planning algorithms for specific environments. Learning is accomplished via genetic programming. Path-planners are represented as Python code, which is optimized via Pareto evolution. These planners are encouraged to explore curiously and efficiently. This research asks the questions: “How can robots exhibit life-long learning where they adapt to changing environments in a robust way?”, and “How can robots learn to be curious?”.

Information is a precious gift to all people. In order to preserve it for a long time to come, archives help maintain and provide access to information for public use. In this project, I explore a brief history of archives and detail my process of building one of my own for Canyon Voices - a literary magazine on ASU's West campus.

In this thesis, I am examining the decision making process of how we choose our romantic partners. I use the term “settling” and in this thesis that term refers to the idea of accepting less than what you want in romantic relationships; it is the action of becoming comfortable/content and not searching for what one might know is better for oneself. Although this specific topic has not been explicitly studied under this term, there are underlining concepts that relate to “settling.” These concepts fall under the broader study of relational maintenance and relational satisfaction that is found in interpersonal communication literature. Canary and Stafford (1992) conceptualize these terms as the communication approach one utilizes to preserve the desired relationships (1992). Additionally, relationship maintenance impacts the relationship satisfaction of a person in a relationship due to what efforts are invested in the relationship. Researchers have suggested that relationship satisfaction is a defining factor of a partner’s decision to remain or terminate the relationship (Jang, S. A., et al., 2002; Dainton, 2003). This literature review will examine relationship maintenance and satisfaction and how it may relate to people settling for their partners, and the likelihood of people to maintaining their relationship. Additionally, attachment styles can be a contributing factor in why people may settle in their romantic relationships.