From Antiracism to Abolition: The Role of University Culture Centers in Black Students\u27 Academic Identities and Language

Drawing on focus group, interview, and participant-observer data collected as part of this IRB-approved [19.177] qualitative research project, this dissertation provides insights about how Black American students develop academic identities through coursework and extracurricular involvement in a Black culture center on the campus of a historically white institution (HWI). I apply the lens of “abolitionist education” (Love) to explore the languaging that students and faculty in the Black culture center do to create community and racial uplift in a type of institution where racial identity historically has been marginalized and obscured—and where, the collected data indicate, such occlusion continues despite institutional efforts to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through this analytical lens, I consider how college writing teachers who are committed to antiracism might reimagine their work as abolitionist educators. This reframe illuminates not only the nature and scope of the structural work that lies ahead for people who aim to abolish institutionalized racism in higher education but also the collaboration necessary to see it through. I conclude by offering four means by which abolitionist educators, including but not limited to writing teachers, can strengthen their impact in their own institutions

Mindfulness meditation in first-year composition : effects on attention, metacognition, and apprehension

Advisors: Michael Day.Committee members: Doris Macdonald; Brad Peters; John Schaeffer.Amid ever-growing interest in cognition and learning and demands for pedagogy that channels the attention of increasingly distracted and disengaged learners, this thesis explored the effects of a mindfulness meditation practice on students' attentional control, metacognition, and writing apprehension. Students practiced the instructor-led meditation as a class for five minutes each class session, completing periodic surveys about their experiences and writing weekly timed essays. The repeated mindfulness practice allowed students to become familiar with their mental habits and challenged students to work through mental frustrations as they arose. The weekly writing session following the mindfulness practice allowed them to both reflect on and continue the practice while facing common academic-writing-related pressures. This study reveals a strong association between the brief but frequent mindfulness practice and students' attentional control, insight, and apprehension and offers suggestions for implementation as well as future research.M.A. (Master of Arts

The development of straightness measuring equipment. Final report

This report details work performed between Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc. (LMES) and UTE Straight-O-Matic (UTE) under the National Machine Tool Partnership program. This work included the design and construction of an automatic straightness measuring system capable of retrofitting to existing machines. 1 fig

Irrigation IoT Analytics

The goal of the Design Studio project was to develop a tool for generating machine analytics on Valmont irrigation equipment. The team was tasked with interviewing customers and exploring the Valley 365 database to refine the project scope, create a report generation system, and develop machine learning models to troubleshoot and predict on key areas

Valmont: Irrigation IoT Analytics

The goal of the Design Studio project was to develop a tool for generating machine analytics on Valmont irrigation equipment. The team was tasked with interviewing customers and exploring the Valley 365 database to refine the project scope, create a report generation system, and develop machine learning models to troubleshoot and predict on key areas

Nebraska Transportation Information Portal Phase 3

Government agencies rely on the Nebraska Department of Transportation (“NDOT”) to provide road project recommendations based on crash and traffic trends. To identify these complex trends, analysts have to be able to visualize trends from a state-wide view all the way down to an individual intersection view, housed in the Nebraska Transportation Information Portal (“NTIP”). This project refines NTIP by adding new tools and automating processes for analysts to take advantage of. The Design Studio team accelerated performance, added new visualizations to reduce clutter, enhanced rendering, and implemented intelligent crash placements to emphasize crash patterns. Furthermore, the team securitized the system so that government agencies can directly interact with the application with unique data and workflows. Less time is spent fighting the application and more time can be focused on drawing value from it–bringing new efficiency and value to Nebraska tax dollars