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Workforce Needs and Labor Market Trends in Utah [Special Report]
No full textThis study examined Utah employers’ perceptions of workforce preparedness, hiring challenges, and emerging skill needs. Data were collected from 226 employers across different industries to identify priority competency gaps in the state’s workforce. Results revealed that Utah employers perceive the largest skill gaps in time management, critical thinking, conflict resolution, and ethical judgment, competencies essential for effective leadership and collaboration. Employers placed the highest value on experiential learning opportunities, particularly work-based projects, internships, and mentorships, as the most effective means of preparing graduates. Employers emphasized communication, teamwork, and analytical problem-solving as the most critical skills for the next five to ten years, alongside digital and AI literacy and lifelong learning. Over half of employers indicated that demonstrated skills are more important than degrees in hiring decisions, while industry-specific certifications and soft-skill micro-credentials were viewed as the most valuable credentials. Hiring challenges were most often linked to a lack of experience, unrealistic salary expectations, and limited critical-thinking skills. Employers also cited artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and digital transformation as emerging factors likely to reshape workforce needs in the coming decade. Utah’s workforce development strategies must strengthen applied learning, communication, and problem-solving across all levels of education. By integrating experiential, skill-based, and technology-informed learning opportunities, the state’s higher education and training systems can better prepare graduates to meet the demands of Utah’s rapidly evolving economy
Reconfigurable Antennas Using Varactors on a Planar Parasitic Layer and Pin Diodes on a Dome Parasitic Layer
No full textThis research explores two types of reconfigurable, steerable antennas. These antennas change their beam direction based on electric input signals. The antennas have a layer that overlays the main antenna circuit board. The layer has small copper rectangles (pixels) that may be connected using either varactor diodes (which behave as voltage-controlled capacitors) or PIN diodes (electronic switches). The first antenna can steer in the xz-plane in any direction within about 23° from boresight (straight up from the antenna) and in the yz-plane to about 29° from boresight. The antenna uses varactor diodes on a planar layer. The second antenna can tilt its beam much farther, about 50° from boresight. The second antenna uses PIN diodes on a spherical layer to connect the copper pixels. The antennas were simulated in HFSS, a full-wave EM simulation software, and the latter antenna was constructed and measured
Discovering Strategic Behaviors in The Floor Using Reinforcement Learning
No full textThis project investigates how a reinforcement learning (RL) agent can develop territorial strategies in a highly stochastic, grid-based approximation of the television game show The Floor. I design a custom Gymnasium-compatible environment that models the show’s core mechanics on a 10×10 board, including probabilistic duels governed by player skill, adjacency-constrained attacks, chain-attack rules, and a Randomizer mechanism for selecting new initiating players. A Maskable Proximal Policy Optimization (Maskable PPO) agent is trained under several reward configurations and evaluated against stochastic non learning opponents as well as random and “always pass” baselines.
Across experiments, the best-performing configuration achieves a win rate of approximately 5.2%, outperforming the win rate of a random agent despite acting under the same duel probability model. Behavioral analysis of this agent reveals a consistent, interpretable strategy: it passes whenever possible, never initiates chain attacks, and almost exclusively targets opponents on edge or corner regions of the board. Rather than favoring weaker opponents by skill, the agent prioritizes attacks that move its territory toward low-exposure regions, thereby reducing the probability of being challenged by multiple neighbors and improving its long-term survival.
These findings demonstrate that, even with simplified duel mechanics, a single RL agent can discover robust spatial heuristics in a large, stochastic multi-player environment. The environment and results provide a foundation for future work on more realistic opponent models, richer state representations, and multi-agent training in The Floor and related territorial games
Academic Standards Subcommittee Minutes February 19, 2026
No full textWelcome and approval of January 15, 2026 minutes Discussion Topics: Graduate Certificate Policy proposal Next Meeting: Thursday, March 19, 202
Academic Standards Subcommittee Agenda February 19, 2026
No full textWelcome and approval of January 15, 2026 minutes Discussion Topics: Graduate Certificate Policy proposal Next Meeting: Thursday, March 19, 202
Educational Policies Committee Minutes February 5, 2026
No full textApproval of Minutes - January 8, 2026 Subcommittee Reports Curriculum Subcommittee Program Proposals Academic Standards Subcommittee General Education Subcommittee Center for Civic Excellence Other Business Adjourn: 3:47 p
Evaluating the Response of Ageing RC Bridge Piers to the 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Using Bouc-Wen Hysteretic Models
No full textThis study examines the seismic response of reinforced concrete (RC) bridge piers subjected to ground motion (GM) records from the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake by comparing the impact of pulse-like versus no-pulse records. A suite of 300 nonlinear Bouc-Wen hysteretic models was developed to represent piers with varying nonlinear behavior. Each Bouc-Wen model was assessed under 24 pulse-like and 28 no-pulse GMs, resulting in 15,600 nonlinear time-history simulations. Subsequently, the relationship between Bouc-Wen parameters (i.e., period and yield displacement) and seismic responses (i.e., maximum displacement, residual displacement, and maximum acceleration) was analyzed. The results show that pulse-like records produce 5 times higher maximum and residual displacement demands in Bouc-Wen models, with the largest increase occurring in models with periods larger than 0.4 s and yield displacements lower than 0.05 m. In contrast, no-pulse GMs generated higher maximum displacement demands across a broader period range, where the highest residual displacement demands occur in the long-period range. In addition, irrespective of record types, maximum acceleration demands were obtained for short-period Bouc-Wen models (less than 0.4 s) with a yield displacement higher than 0.05 m
Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda February 17, 2026
No full text3:00 Call to Order Approval of Minutes January 20, 2026 3:05 Provost Search 3:20 University Business 3:35 Faculty Senate Business 3:50 Report Faculty Development and Educational Leadership Parking and Transportation 4:00 Information EPC Report - February 5, 2026 4:10 Old Business 4:15 New Business Special Faculty Forum Adjourn: 4:30 p
On Signifiable Computability: Part III: A Note on Unnameable Functions on Natural Numbers
No full textA writing system on an alphabet is a tuple (ℜ,), where ℜ is a finite set of text formation rules and is a finite rule application mechanism that generates texts on . A natural writing system forms natural language texts on an alphabet such as Sanskrit on Devanagari. An artificial writing system generates formal language texts on an alphabet such as Lisp on Unicode. Let ℕ ={0,1,2,…} be the set of natural numbers. A function on natural numbers :ℕ ↦ ℕ, 0 \u3c ∈ ℕ, is nameable by a writing system on an alphabet if, and only if, the system can generate a text on the alphabet that names f and no other function. We show that there exist functions on natural numbers unnameable in principle in that they cannot be named by any writing system on any alphabet. Our results imply the following computability-theoretic hierarchy of functions on natural numbers: computable ⊊ partially computable ⊊ nameable ⊊ , where is the set of functions on ℕ
An Autohistoria-Teoría of a Pasifika Neptantlera
No full textThis study was an autohistoria-teoría, a type of autoethnography, where I focused on my writing process as a Pasifika researcher creating a middle- grade fiction. As the researcher, my questions delved into how I engage in writing for a majority-culture dominated publication house in a Western-world writing genre while maintaining the cultural significance of the ancient Pasifika mythologies I reproduced and recontextualized in the novel. The research site was my writing process, and the data gathered came from the variety of ways I navigated cultural stimuli specific to writing the novel. The outcome engaged with the specific way Pasifika (and particularly Tongan American) diaspora engages with constructing cultural ties between abstract spaces like different national and generational identities.
The implications approach theoretical, methodological, and empirical. Theoretical advancements in Pasifika theory including the vahanoa and ’ofa-ki-he-vahanoa theories. Methodological contributions include adjustments in the use of creative writing and personification to characterize elements of identity, and a model to the responsibility researchers and readers must take as they create, consume, and proliferate research centering Pasifika and other communities. Empirical contributions include a caution for classroom teachers as they engage with the complex nature of cultural identity for diasporic learners