Business and Entrepreneurship

Explore the various projects below categorized under the general theme of Business and Entrepreneurship. Be sure to return to the Barrett College Fellows Program main page and explore projects under the other 11 themes as well. You might be surprised at what you find and maybe you will discover the perfect research project for what you hope to study!

Please do not contact the research centers or faculty listed below directly (a formal application process is a required step to joining these research opportunities).

For questions about the Barrett College Fellows Program or specific research projects, please contact Dr. Sarah Graff at: BarrettCollegeFellows@exchange.asu.edu.

Back to Barrett College Fellows main page

Research projects

Database of Witch-Trials in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1500-1800

Project # 5

Center name: Barrett
Campus/Location: Tempe
Faculty lead: Michael Ostling

Project description

Description: The Database aims to record all surviving data about the trials of alleged witches in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth over a three-hundred year period. It further intends to make this information publicly available in a searchable, interactive form, allowing researchers and other interested parties to sort, trace, and explore the contours of a series of trials that took the lives of at least 1000 women and men.

Responsibilities: The Database is in a late state of development. Whereas in the past we have benefited from the skills of students with a broad range of abilities (from software coding to bibliography to cartography) at this point the project needs the help of a student with strong Polish-language abilities. The student would deepen the database by finding, sorting, and translating original historical materials, placing these in appropriate database cells, and ensuring quality control through rigorous proof-reading. Student must have reading ability in Polish at the advanced, fluent, or native-speaker level, and must have a willingness to work with difficult historical materials.

Special skills needed

Polish language (reading) at advanced or native-speaker level.
Excel or other spreadsheet abilities.
Excellent writing skills.
Proofreading, copy-editing, and bibliography.

Majors

All majors

Years

2nd Year Students, 3rd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors, ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work)

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Business and Entrepreneurship, Humanities, Journalism, Communication, and Mass Media

Osher Lifelong Learning Assessment and Growth

Project # 14

Center name: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
Campus/Location: Downtown
Faculty lead: Aaron Guest

Project description

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is one of 120 Lifelong Learning Institutes in the United States. Housed in the ASU Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions, OLLI at ASU engages in research pertaining to lifelong learning, adult education, and community building. We take pride in that our work is both research-inspired and research-inspiring. The incumbent for this position would assist in the OLLI Lifelong Needs Assessment and Moonshot Project.

Special skills needed

1. Attention to Detail: Ensuring accuracy in coding, data input, and interpretation.
2. Strong Written and Oral Communication: Articulating findings, synthesizing literature, and collaborating with team members.
3. Critical Thinking: Identifying patterns, drawing inferences, and addressing gaps in data or literature.
4. Time Management: Handling multiple tasks and meeting deadlines.
5. Collaboration: Working effectively in a team environment.
6. Flexibility: Adapting to evolving project needs and feedback.
7. Familiarity with literature reviews, data analysis, and surveys is beneficial.

Majors

Open to all majors, with an emphasis on Business, Social Sciences, and Health Programs

Years

2nd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors, 3rd Year Students, ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work)

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Business and Entrepreneurship, Data Analytics and Mathematics, Education, Health and Wellness, Journalism, Communication, and Mass Media, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Barrett SAEE (Space Architecture & Extreme Environments) ARC 493 Honors Thesis (3 credits - Spring)

Project # 36

Center name: MSD, Space Architecture & Extreme Environments (SAEE)
Campus/Location: Tempe
Faculty lead: Elena Rocchi

Project description

Barrett Honors students will participate in SAEE Barrett Research programs, including:
1) Working in the labs of the Interplanetary Initiative, The Next Lab, and the Luminosity Lab, contributing to cutting-edge science, with one student per lab.
2) Engaging in supply chain management within the Business program to contribute to designing the first Starbucks in space, with one student.
3) Participating in the SAEE Barrett Global Flex program in Rome, one of the space capitals of the world, providing an ideal environment for this program and open to all.
The faculty lead is Elena Rocchi, working in collaboration with the different lab directors, program heads, and faculty abroad. By the time of application, new opportunities in labs and cities may arise, so students are encouraged to schedule a meeting with me, as the leading faculty member, to discuss available placements and opportunities in more detail.

Special skills needed

Self-Time Management; Design Capacity and Interest in Making Things; Collaboration and Teamwork; Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving; Adaptability and Flexibility; Attention to Detail; Interpersonal and Cross-Cultural Communication; Initiative and Drive; Technical Competency; Global Perspective

Majors

Architecture,
Industrial Design,
Graphic Design (for virtual simulations/technologies),
Computer Science (for virtual simulations/technologies),
Design, Arts,
Mechanical Engineering,
Civil Engineering,
Urban Planning,
Business Administration (Supply Chain Management),
Environmental Design,
Aerospace Engineering,
Biomedical Engineering (for health-related research in space),
Materials Science,
Sustainability Studies,
International Studies (for global perspectives),
Electrical Engineering (for wearable technology design),
Physics (for space science and research applications)

Years

2nd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors, ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work), 3rd Year Students

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Art, Architecture, and Design, Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences, Business and Entrepreneurship, Education, Engineering, Health and Wellness, Humanities, Journalism, Communication, and Mass Media, Law, Justice, and Public Service, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability

Arizona Water for All Network: Building multi stakeholder connections to support communities facing water insecurity

Project # 51

Center name: Center for Global Health
Campus/Location: Tempe
Faculty lead: Amber Wutich

Project description

AW4A’s goal is to advance water security in Arizona’s most water-insecure households. Our international, interdisciplinary team works under the leadership of MacArthur Fellow, Dr. Amber Wutich. Based on the premise that it is impossible to create meaningful environmental justice impacts in communities without establishing trust and committing to long-haul connections with those communities, we are building a multi-stakeholder network facilitated through a partnership between Arizona State University (ASU), Northern Arizona University (NAU) and the University of Arizona (U of A) to engage and co-develop projects with water-insecure communities across the state.

At the AW4A network, we expect to create in-person and virtual spaces that allow stakeholders who are experiencing water insecurity to learn from each other, build leadership and advocacy capacity, and enhance existing opportunities for collaboration. Fully integrated into the AW4A team, the Barrett College Fellow will take a leading role in building this collaborative network, developing and implementing the effective relationship building and communication strategies that are vital to its success. This involves hosting workshops and webinars, as well as maintaining newsletters, blogs, graphic creations, and other media tasks to keep our partners and community engaged with our work.

Special skills needed

We are seeking a dynamic student invested in learning how to create and maintain relationships with multiple stakeholders involved in socio-environmental issues (i.e., water security in low-income communities) across Arizona. Skills that are valued are:
Strong written and verbal communication skills that enhance the quality of team and project outputs.
Critical thinking and problem-solving skills to deal with unexpected situations.
A desire to work on complex problems as part of an interdisciplinary team.
Curiosity and learning mindset about stakeholder engagement and community-based research.
Minimum basic understanding of Spanish.
Ability to work with Canva or other graphic design software.
Ability to work with Mailchimp or other newsletter design and distribution software.

Majors

Business, management, marketing, and related support services,
Marketing/marketing management,
Multi-/interdisciplinary studies,
Journalism,
Environmental studies,
Communication sciences and disorders,
Anthropology,
Global Health,
Liberal arts and sciences/liberal studies,
Graphic design,
Digital communication and media/multimedia,
Environmental design/architecture,
Geography,
Environmental/environmental health engineering

Years

First Year Students (new to ASU Fall 2025), 2nd Year Students, 3rd Year Students, ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work)

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Law, Justice, and Public Service, Art, Architecture, and Design, Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences, Business and Entrepreneurship, Data Analytics and Mathematics, Education, Engineering, Health and Wellness, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sustainability

Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning for Imaging and Medicine

Project # 54

Center name: Imaging Informatics Research (JLiang Lab)
Campus/Location: Flexible to remote and/or in-person
Faculty lead: Jianming Liang

Project description

This is a set of projects aiming to develop novel methods and systems in artificial intelligence (AI), artificial general intelligence (AGI), and deep learning (DL) towards multimodal medical foundation models for medicine, imaging, and clinical reports (based on ChatGPT/GPT-4, Gemini/Bard, and LLaMA) to support clinical decision-making and facilitate precision medicine. While my lab is working on the brain, heart, lung, skin, eye, and abdomen diseases across modalities (images, lab tests, reports, videos, and audio) you may choose to focus on one particular condition at one specific modality based on your interest. My lab has the infrastructure to accommodate multiple students in this research direction.

Special skills needed

Skills required:
1) Strong programming skills in Python -- you have taken courses in computer science and programming, and have experience in using GitHub;
2) Good understanding of machine (deep) learning -- you have taken courses in machine learning, and gained experience in training AI models;
3) Determination to pursue majors in computer science, computer engineering, data science and analytics, robotics and autonomous systems, software engineering, biomedical informatics, and biomedical engineering;
4) Deep commitment to conducting rigorous experiments to establish state-of-the-art baselines, and
5) Strong desire to publish a paper at a top conference and turn it into a journal article in your first year with my lab.

Majors

Biomedical Informatics and Data Science;
Computer Science;
Computer Engineering;
Robotics and Autonomous Systems;
Data Science, Analytics, and Engineering;
Software Engineering; and
Biomedical Engineering

Years

3rd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors, ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work), 2nd Year Students, First Year Students (new to ASU Fall 2025)

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences, Business and Entrepreneurship, Data Analytics and Mathematics, Engineering, Health and Wellness, Law, Justice, and Public Service, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Network Analysis of Real-World Networks

Project # 79

Center name: School of Complex Adaptive Systems
Campus/Location: Tempe
Faculty lead: Enrico Borriello

Project description

A key focus of complexity studies is understanding how interactions within dynamic networks give rise to emergent complexity and behaviors. By joining this project, the student will have the opportunity to explore the fundamental principles of network theory, including key concepts and quantitative metrics for analyzing network properties at both global and local scales. They will apply mathematical models and computational tools to investigate the structure and dynamics of complex systems across a variety of real-world domains, ranging from biological to social and technological networks.

Specifically, the student will gain the tools to identify network motifs associated with the directional transfer of information and uncover how these motifs relate to overall network functionality and behavior. This project provides a data-driven approach to tackling complexity science problems, integrating analytical methodologies with Python-based computational tools.

Special skills needed

Basic understanding of calculus, probability and statistics, and Python.

Majors

Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences, Business and Entrepreneurship, Data Analytics and Mathematics, Engineering, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Years

ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work), 4th Year Students- Seniors, 3rd Year Students, 2nd Year Students, First Year Students (new to ASU Fall 2025)

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences, Business and Entrepreneurship, Data Analytics and Mathematics, Engineering, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Organizational capacity building: Perspectives from nonprofit managers

Project # 116

Center name: Dr. Danbi Seo's research project
Campus/Location: Downtown, Flexible to remote and/or in-person
Faculty lead: Danbi Seo

Project description

Capacity building is widely regarded as essential for strengthening nonprofit organizations. Strong capacity helps nonprofits to achieve their missions, adapt to external challenges, and increase long-term sustainability. Researchers and policymakers frequently advocate for capacity-building initiatives, yet the concept remains a broad and often ambiguous buzzword. Despite its prominence in nonprofit management discourse, little is known about how nonprofit practitioners themselves interpret and implement capacity-building efforts in practice.

This research projects attempts to bridge this gap by examining how nonprofit managers and practitioners define, experience, and prioritize capacity building within their organizations. To understand the diverse ways capacity building is understood and operationalized, the research team will conduct interviews and focus groups with nonprofit professionals across various domains. Barrett fellows will be responsible for helping data collection and analysis in this process. The findings are expected to offer valuable insights for scholars, funders, and policymakers aiming to support meaningful capacity-building efforts tailored to the realities of nonprofit organizations.

Special skills needed

-Analytical thinking and ability to synthesize information from multiple sources
-Experience and/or interest in qualitative research methods (e.g., interviews, focus groups)
-Familiarity with nonprofit management, capacity building, or organizational studies would be a plus.
-Attention to details; time management skills; strong ethical standards to handle confidential research data

Majors

Nonprofit management, public affairs, business management, or social science broadly

Years

2nd Year Students, 3rd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors, ASU Online Barrett Honors Students (fully remote work)

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Business and Entrepreneurship, Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences

Supporting Lab to Market Efforts

Project # 121

Center name: The Biomimicry Center
Campus/Location: Tempe
Faculty lead: Sarah El-Sayed

Project description

Student will support existing activities related to lab to market for biomimetic innovations across campus, including developing an educational module on biomimicry to be used by Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The student will also maintain the social media page with periodic updates.

Special skills needed

Research methods, possibly grant writing experience, social media

Majors

life sciences, interdisciplinary, business, sustainability

Years

2nd Year Students, 3rd Year Students, 4th Year Students- Seniors

Themes

Cross-listed with the following themes:

Business and Entrepreneurship, Sustainability