Carroll Scholars
Carroll Scholars, a service of Corette Library, centralizes, preserves, and provides access to the research, creative scholarship, and unique resources produced and deposited by Carroll College faculty, students, and staff. Carroll Scholars makes these resources easier to find, share, and use. Find out more about Carroll Scholars at https://www.carroll.edu/library/about/carroll-scholars-institutional-repository
Recent Submissions
Item Analyzing Baseball Umpires Using Machine Learning: A Statistical Learning Approach(2026-04-29)This project develops a probability-based grading system for Major League Baseball umpires using Statcast pitch-level data. Traditional evaluations rely on simple accuracy of umpires’ call correctness, which fails to account for the difficulty of judging high-velocity, high-spin pitches relative to an invisible strike zone. This study employs XGBoost and Logistic Regression models to estimate the probability that a pitch is called correctly, using engineered features such as the distance from the closest edge of the strike zone and pitch velocity. Hyperparameters were optimized via Bayesian search to minimize log-loss, resulting in well-calibrated probability estimates. The predicted probabilities were incorporated into an exponential payoff function, P(η, c), where η represents the ease of a call, derived from the logodds of a correct call, and c denotes correctness. This formulation rewards umpires more for successfully calling difficult pitches and penalizes errors more on easier pitches. This produces a nuanced measure of performance beyond binary accuracy. The XGBoost model achieved a log-loss of 0.254, AUC of 0.875, Brier Score of 0.081, and 88.1% accuracy on the testing set, demonstrating strong predictive capability. Results indicate that incorporating difficulty-adjusted grading better differentiates umpire performance, providing a robust, quantitative framework for evaluating accuracy in high-pressure, real-world conditions.Item Mathematics of RSA Encryption(2026-05-01)We explained the underlying mathematics that allow RSA encryption to function. Mathematical proofs are used to demonstrate the security of RSA encryption. We created a mathematical proof for a potential vulnerability of RSA encryption, and we addressed one way in which it can be prevented. This is all used to demonstrate why RSA encryption is still in use today.Item Project Baymax: Designing an AI Companion for Emotional Support and Therapy-Inspired Care(2026-05-04)College students frequently experience stress, anxiety, and loneliness, yet many hesitate to seek immediate support due to stigma or limited access to mental health resources (American College Health Association, 2023; Eisenberg et al., 2007). This study explores the development of an AI-based companion designed to provide low-pressure, emotionally supportive interactions in everyday situations. Inspired by the character Baymax from the Disney animated film Big Hero 6 (Hall & Williams, 2014), the system emphasizes calm, ethical, and non-clinical communication rather than attempting to replace professional care. The prototype is implemented as a console-based application that integrates emotion detection, intent recognition, and rule-based response generation. A pretrained natural language processing model is used to identify emotional tone in user input, while a lightweight intent classifier distinguishes between emotional expressions and general conversation. A safety module detects high-risk language and redirects users toward appropriate real-world support resources. Evaluation across 262 simulated user interactions shows that the system can reliably detect basic emotional states, achieving an average confidence score of approximately 0.81 in emotion classification. A hybrid refinement layer reduces low-confidence predictions and improves handling of ambiguous inputs. However, limitations remain in recognizing subtle emotional expressions and preventing misclassification of neutral statements. These findings demonstrate that interpretable, modular AI systems can provide meaningful emotional support interactions while maintaining ethical safeguards. The project contributes to ongoing efforts to develop accessible and responsible AI tools that complement, rather than replace, traditional mental health support systems.Item Washed in Time: An Invitation to Participation in the Divine Work through the Rhythms of Sabbath(2026-05-01)On any given day, one glance at the news headlines reveals that the world we live in is no utopia. We find ourselves embroiled in political and cultural polarization, crises of environmental and social injustice, wars, and facing many other incredibly complex problems. Followers of Christ are meant to be a people oriented toward an eschatological hope that enables them to live according to God’s vision, bringing the Biblical concept of shalom into their historical moment in the midst of all these complexities. However, Christians today struggle to live out this hope. We find ourselves complicit in the chaos in a way that distorts our own understanding of God’s vision and loses sight of the invitation to participate in the abundant peace God offers us and the world. At its core, the Biblical concept of Sabbath rest offers a pattern of formation that can help reorient Christians to the reality of God’s vision and empower us to become agents of shalom. While the language of “Sabbath rest” can evoke images of stillness and calm, Sabbath is intended to be, in fact, active, not only for a moment, but throughout the movement of time. Looking at the history and development of the Sabbath in the Hebrew scriptures and the gospel of John, we will seek to connect what could become abstract ideas, namely Sabbath rest and the concept of time, with the visible actions of Jesus Christ and offer a vision for dynamic participation by the faithful in our cultural moment.Item The Extent of the Retreat from Marriage on a College Campus: A Quantitative Analysis of Student Perspectives on Marriage(2026-02-03)While the retreat from marriage has been studied many times as a sociological phenomenon, the college demographic has not been isolated as an important population of study for research on marriage. Therefore this study concerns itself with this under-examined population, examining the extent to which the retreat from marriage is present on a college campus. Guided by life course theory, this research is conducted through the use of a quantitative survey distributed to current undergraduate students at a small, Catholic liberal arts college in order to understand student perspectives of marriage. The survey is finding that the majority of students do want to get married in the future, but the preferences guiding each individual’s marriage decisions vary due to the complexity of unique personal experience. The results of this study suggest that the extent of a complete retreat from marriage on a college campus is actually very small. Rather, there is evidence that the overlap of various personal and institutional influences supports delays in marriage among students.
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