Our sponsor, Raise Wages Now, needs a tool for its members to build profiles which engage and incentivize them to answer more questions. Our main work is creating a member information collection tool, or a profile builder. As our sponsor uses the Drupal, a content management platform, on their website, our solution is to design a new Drupal module that we can add onto theirs. The main technologies we used in our solution were PHP for the back-end and Vue.js for the front-end.

Teen social media use and teen mental health struggles have been on the rise for many years. This correlation has created a great deal of concern but there has been little study into the content of teen social media information behavior. The Twitter accounts of 77 teens were analyzed for mental health related content finding that these teens were suffering significant stress in their daily lives, struggling with social relationships, turning to celebrities for advice and information, and that teens with an active focus for their social media information behavior were less likely to share mental health related posts.

With the rise in Venture Capital investments, it is necessary to provide investors with additional information apart from traditional data sources. A good investment indicator is the patent data of a company. Patents allow investors to know the technical capability and intellectual property of a company. This enables much more sound investments. However, a major drawback is the unavailability of a consolidated data source providing all the information. The project aims to resolve this by developing a novel algorithm for fast fuzzy matching of two companies between Pitchbook funding data and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) data.

Women Affinity Groups (WAGs) are the most prevalent Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) intervention methods utilized in the technology industry. Like other D&I interventions, WAGs have not been studied and their effectiveness has not been empirically assessed. This project investigated WAGs' characteristics using a qualitative approach conducting interviews and focus group, with industry professionals. The study explores WAG members and non-members' experiences and perceptions of WAGs. Findings suggest WAGs' benefits and highlight the complexity of perceptions and expectations of members and non-members; along with the importance of identifying differences in needs, intersectionality, and the stigma that exists relative to “women-only groups.”

This project seeks to create a resource for librarians new to selecting in comparative religion and/or religious studies that provides information to empower selectors to collect confidently from day one. It takes the form of a book with chapters on the field and its subdisciplines; avenues to keep abreast of conversations in the field; collection development; collection assessment; and comparative collection development policies. The first three chapters are submitted in completion of the capstone requirement, while the second two represent next steps before submission for publication.

Direct fieldwork at Boise State University (BSU) revealed that academic librarians with liaison responsibilities struggled to incorporate the BSU MakerLab into their instructional sessions. To investigate this further, I conducted unstructured interviews with academic librarians. Interviews revealed several barriers that academic librarians felt regarding the BSU MakerLab. To address these barriers, I developed the BSU MakerLab Toolkit, which is comprised of a literature review, an essay matching makerspaces to the ACRL Framework, downloadable lesson plans and handouts, and examples of how to other academic librarians have incorporated emerging technologies and experiential learning into library instructional sessions.

We have developed the browser extension voice enhancement system (BEEVES), an extension for Mozilla’s Firefox browser which supports voice extension development along with a visual agent. Interviews with extension developers verified a need for a framework which implements and integrates speech-to-text and natural language understanding components. User research suggests the need for a seamless voice experience bringing the benefits of mobile browsing to desktop. What we’ve built on open source components is aligned with Mozilla’s mission to ensure a private and accessible internet for all, and has the potential for enhancing commercial platforms.

Inspired by the Butte County Library (BCL)’s experience with the 2018 Camp Fire, we created ‘Building Better’, a resource website for fire survivor support planning. Most disaster recovery plans lack a survivor support component, so we researched the ways libraries can aid their communities in recovery. We surveyed Camp Fire survivors, interviewed BCL employees, attended library events, spoke with a disaster recovery expert, and researched other libraries’ responses to different types of natural disasters. Libraries can play a vital role in the recovery of their communities after disasters, and ‘Building Better’ can leave them better prepared to aid survivors.

Personal projects are the culmination of our intrinsic goals and desires but starting, working and completing them is difficult - we push them aside due to the lack of deadlines and consequences. Earlybird bridges the gap between intention and action by encouraging users to commit five minutes of work on their personal projects at a time and rewarding each commitment and additional time spent working on their project. The gamified experience coupled with mindfulness techniques to overcome procrastination barriers offers a unique solution that will help our users cultivate a habit of realizing their latest aspirations.