Honors Thesis Pathways

Join The Difference Engine, an ASU center dedicated to shaping the future of equality, as part of the esteemed fourth cohort of Barrett Honors students during the 2024-2025 academic year. 

This opportunity is open to juniors from all majors. After two semesters, Barrett students can stay on the team and complete their honors thesis with support from a thesis committee.

As a member of the research team, you'll play a crucial role in evaluating gender equity at large companies through the Women’s Power and Influence Index project. You'll collaborate closely with renowned professors and industry leaders, receiving guidance to maximize your impact. Selected students will:

• Assist in gender equity research & data collection to expand our Index
• Design & administer surveys
• Craft marketing strategies

This role also offers exciting perks, including networking events, national conference presentations, and trips to Los Angeles. Participating in The Difference Engine program grants students automatic honors credit. 

Space is limited! To learn more about the project and to join the Fall 2024 cohort, please complete this application: https://forms.gle/KgbmxvLFRAF44Nxc8

Hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship & New Business Design at the W. P. Carey School of Business, the Founders Lab is a 2-semester (6 credit) honors thesis opportunity for Barrett students to instigate their own entrepreneurial journey, and develop belief in their entrepreneurial skills.

Throughout this intensive program, students gain entrepreneurial confidence as they exercise their critical thinking, business writing, and communication skills through hypothesizing, testing, and adapting a business plan - ultimately targeting traction through user acquisition and sales. This untraditional academic experience focuses on empowering students to engage with a specific opportunity, identify a distinct audience, and provide something of real value (that your target audience will exchange value to obtain).

As outlined above, this program is intense and it requires self-direction (as is entrepreneurial), determination and commitment. We ask that all students who aren't able or interested in this commitment think very seriously about the requirements of this program before committing.
This program is available to current Barrett sophomores, juniors, and seniors and will result in a final thesis submission in the spring semester. All majors welcome! 

Program Logistics

• Approximately 100 students, in teams of 3, will design and launch a new user-centric business, culminating in a spring demo (defense) day.
• Thesis credits will be WPC 492 for 3 credits in the fall and WPC 493 for 3 credits in the spring.
• There will be required group meetings each semester with a schedule determined by the Thesis Director, Jared Byrne.
• Second committee members will be provided, and students will submit their prospectus during the fall semester.
• Full commitment and participation is expected for both fall and spring of the academic year.

To apply for participation for the upcoming academic year, visit Founders Lab - a Barrett Thesis Project. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to the Director of the W. P. Carey Center for Entrepreneurship, Jared Byrne jared.byrne@asu.edu.

The Humanities Lab provides students with the opportunity to engage in hands-on research on compelling social challenges of interest to today’s students while working with others who are also invested in making a difference.

All Humanities Lab courses offer automatic honors credit, and Barrett students have the opportunity to turn select Lab courses into their honors thesis across a two-semester Lab experience with approval from at least one of the professors teaching the course.

We recommend having a conversation with the faculty at the beginning of the semester to discuss your academic interests, your potential interest in the social challenge of the course, and how they can support you. Whether they serve a role on your thesis committee or assist you in locating faculty to serve on your committee, Lab faculty have agreed to support you in developing your thesis topic through their Lab’s social challenge. Barrett students in the Lab course may develop an individual thesis or a group thesis in consultation with the professors. 

Spring 2024 Thesis Pathway Eligible Labs

• Diplomacy Lab: Brazil
• Guns, Art-making, and Truth
• Ethics of Language Testing
• Sustainable Fashion

Fall 2024 Thesis Pathway Eligible Labs

• Educating for Democracy?
• Planetizing Citizenship
• Migration, Art, Place: US/GER
• Families Living (Un)Documented
• US Gun Culture and Gun Impacts

To get started, enroll in a Humanities Lab course offering a thesis pathway opportunity and then complete the Humanities Lab Thesis Application.

InnovationSpace® is a transformative experience, where students build the skills of the future and develop their capacity for collaboration and innovation as they produce extraordinary projects while working on transdisciplinary teams. The program provides students with a unique opportunity to complete a real-world product-development project. Using the Integrated Innovation model, teams of students from all majors spend one to two semesters researching, developing and refining concepts.

Barrett students have the option to turn this two semester project into their honors thesis. These opportunities are open to students from all majors, and your thesis committee is provided for you. To get started, enroll in one of the courses listed below.

Fall 2024 InnovationSpace Projects

• IVD 494 #71740 Creativity, Ethics and AI - Mon 1:30 - 4:15 p.m.
• IVD 494 #87964 Unhoused Communities - Tue 9 - 11:30 a.m.
• IVD 494 #86506 STEAMtank - Wed 9:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.

For more information on the projects, visit design.asu.edu/innovationspace.