Eryn Zuiker Honors Portfolio

Eryn Zuiker\u27s honors portfolio captured in May 2020

Linear covariance analysis of atmospheric entry for sample return mission

Linear covariance analysis is an uncertainty analysis tool comparable to Monte Carlo analysis; both provide similar statistical information about the performance and uncertainties of a dynamic system. Linear covariance analysis linearizes the models of a dynamic system and propagates the state uncertainties alongside a reference trajectory. These uncertainties are similar to those computed from post processing a Monte Carlo analysis and require potentially significantly fewer computational resources. A comparison of the two analyses is performed on an example sample return atmospheric entry mission. The example mission is an unguided entry vehicle similar to the Stardust Sample Return Mission. Flight dynamics for entry are modeled with the three-degree-of-freedom translational equations of motion. Uncertainty in vehicle, environmental, and mission design parameters are included to determine expected flight performance. In the analysis, linear covariance results match Monte Carlo within 4% in determining the state uncertainties over the trajectory,while requiring only 0.48% the computational effort relative to Monte Carlo analysis. Further analysis using linear covariance shows that uncertainty in position is the largest contributor to state dispersions. The final state dispersion is highly sensitive to uncertainty in initial position. Comparatively uncertainty in initial velocity contributes much less to the final state dispersion and is insensitive. Varying the initial position dispersion by ±50% results in the largest changes in the 3−σ uncertainty in the altitude at parachute deploy which ranges from 995 m to 2076 m compared to the nominal 1495 m uncertainty

Researcher Profile: An Interview with Virginia Solis Zuiker, Ph.D.

Virginia Solis Zuiker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota. She teaches courses on personal and family finance, family financial counseling, family resource management, economic perspectives of families, and family decision-making. Her scholarly research focus is in the area of economic well-being of families with particular interest in self-employment and family-owned businesses. Her research focuses on the Hispanic family life and she is the author of “Hispanic Self-Employment in the Southwest: Rising Above the Threshold of Poverty,” (Garland Publishing, 1997). She received her B.S. from the University of North Texas, an M.S. from Texas Tech University, and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. She served three years on the Board of Directors for the Association of Financial Counseling and Planning Education

Consumer Embeddedness and Motivations for Farmers Market Patronage: A Qualitative Exploration in Minnesota, USA

The rise in popularity of farmers markets in the United States reflects consumers’ negative response to more traditional food distribution systems. Farmers markets provide consumers with a more local and often more personal food purchasing experience. The purpose of this study was to examine consumer motivations to patronize farmers markets through the lens of social, spatial, and natural embeddedness. A qualitative approach was employed utilizing semi-structured, in-depth interviews. These interviews were conducted in person using a set of predetermined questions and revealed nine themes. The findings indicate that two types of consumer choices with different properties exist in farmers market patronage (e.g., the choice of a particular farmers market vs. the choice of a particular vendor at the market). Inconsistency occurs in consumer choice patterns (e.g., economic saving does not greatly affect the choice to shop at a particular farmers market but can determine whom to buy from once at the market), implying that situational dynamics play a critical role at the point of purchase. While this study supports the usefulness of embeddedness as a conceptual framework for understanding farmers’ market patronage, it demonstrates a distinction between motivation to patronize the market and shopping behaviors exhibited once there

Real Work with Real Consequences: Enlisting Community Energy Engineering as an Approach to Envisioning Engineering in Context

This study describes an illustrative case study from a year-round program that positions middle and high school youth to explore the social value of energy systems in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods. Designed to center existing youth assets, interests and values, Community Energy Engineering (CEE) frames engineering as a tool that students can enlist in order to understand and interrogate their local socio-energy system while also acting to transform it. CEE partners with Title 1 schools in Latino/a neighborhoods in the U.S. southwest. CEE situates youth community-based solar energy innovation projects as consequential, evolving in and with historically contingent engineering practices, and shaping and shaped by interactions across multiple contexts. We present our analysis of an asset-based approach to pre-college energy engineering education by following an exemplary project team across 15 months of programming. We used critical design ethnography to address the research question: How do community-centered energy engineering projects organize opportunities for productive disciplinary engagement and consequential learning? Findings are presented through the endogenous, first-person accounts of five youth as they participated in their project, and as they reflected on their participation during interviews. We consider connections to a wider array of cases reported using a sociocultural theoretical perspective on asset-based approaches to pre-college engineering education. We discuss these connections in relation to reciprocity as an asset-based approach to ingenuity and care, as well as two overarching design principles that emerged: (a) real work with real consequences and (b) everyone a learner, everyone a contributor

Money and Emerging Adults: A Glimpse into the Lives of College Couples’ Financial Management Practices

Being in a romantic relationship is a transition that many college students enter while earning a college degree. Twenty-four students between the ages of 19 to 29 years old who self-identified as being in a committed relationship participated in this study. They completed an online survey that included both quantitative and qualitative (open-ended) questions pertaining to money management practices. Key findings suggest that participants believe in communicating about their individual and combined finances so as to prevent or solve financial challenges. They also discussed the importance of having similar perspectives about financial values within their relationship. Financial therapists, counselors, and educators working with the college student populations should be aware of the issues couples in committed relationships face, and should tailor their money management programming with this in mind

Commentary on "Investigator brochures for phase I/II trials lack information on the robustness of preclinical safety studies" by Sievers et al.

Drug Delivery Technolog