Dozens of academically dynamic and diverse student researchers garnered top honors in 25 categories during California State University, Dominguez Hills’ (CSUDH) 12th Annual Student Research Day (SRD) Feb. 15-16, showcasing the value and breadth of faculty-mentored research at the university.
This year SRD yielded 349 research abstracts–more than any other year–from undergraduate and graduate students in nearly every academic department from which a total of 258 oral and poster presentations were selected for the conference. Topics at SRD covered a wide range of academic disciplines at the university, from history to health, business to biology, Chicana/o studies to computer science.
Jessie Kawata, lead creative design strategist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and keynote speaker, presented “Outside-the-Box Rocket Science: A Unique Trajectory to the Stars” during the SRD lunch program.
“While students are the most important part of student research, one cannot forget the role played by the faculty mentor,” said SRD Conference Chair John Price, professor and chair of CSUDH’s Department of Physics. “It can take the form of hands-on instruction–how to actually do research. It can be subtler, guiding the student in the selection of a research topic likely to lead to interesting results. Or, it can be somewhere in between, depending on the experience of the student and the difficulty of the topic. The common factor among them all is the close working relationship between mentor and student that leads to a transfer of experience to the next generation.”
Student Research Day concluded with the Reception and Awards Ceremony, during which the top two presenters from each session were announced. Ten overall winners will then be selected to represent CSU Dominguez Hills at the system-wide CSU Student Research Competition at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on April 28-29.
12th Annual Student Research Day Winners
Behavioral and Social Sciences I:
- First Place: Griselda Bernabe and Karina Aguilar “Family Diabetes History and its Influence on Health Outcome”
- Faculty Mentor: Silvia Santos, psychology
- Second Place: Emily Rose San Diego, Carlos Villalobos, and Jacqueline Hernandez “Examining the relationship between diabetes knowledge and health behaviors in college students”
- Faculty Mentor: Erin Merz, psychology
Behavioral and Social Sciences II:
- First Place: Carla Redmon, Aimee Fabila, and Nicole Trejo, “The Good Social Life: How Social Support and Gratitude Support Mental Health in Teens”
- Faculty Mentor: Giacomo Bono, psychology
- Second Place: Joshua Lozano, “Investgating the Long-Term Memory Benefits of Cued Recall vs. Recognition Tests”
- Faculty Mentor: Larry Rosen, psychology
Behavioral and Social Sciences III:
- First Place: Jonathan Pedroza, “The Effects of Media and Technology Use on Psychological Well-Being Independent of Health Habits”
- Faculty Mentor: Larry Rosen, psychology
- Second Place: Jonathan Pedroza, “Pokémon GO and Meet People. Examination of Technology’s Effect on Physical Activity and Social Connectedness”
- Faculty Mentor: Larry Rosen, psychology
Biological and Agricultural Sciences I:
- First Place: Eric Medina, “Using BACs to Study Gene Expression in Zebrafish”
- Faculty Mentor: Fang Wang, biology
- Second Place: Brianne Zapata, “Preventing the Evolution of High-Level Daptomycin-Resistance (HLDR) in Vitro in Strains of Streptococcus mitis by using DAP Combination Antimicrobial Strategies”
- Faculty Mentor: Nagendra Mishra, 0biology
Biological and Agricultural Sciences II:
- First Place: Erika Lytle, “Using population genetic analyses to distinguish between two morphologically similar species of rush lilies (Hastingsia)”
- Faculty Mentor: Kathryn Theiss, biology
- Second Place: Joselyn Yamamoto, Maricruz De la Torre, and Steven Sanchez, “Investigation of Gene Expression in Zebrafish Skin using In Situ Hybridization”
- Faculty Mentor: Fang Wang, biology
Business, Economics, and Public Administration I:
- First Place: Dhanushka Kumarasinghe, “Come Catch Pokemon at the Celadon City Department Store!: Player Perceptions Toward Businesses Within Pokemon Go Hotspots”
- Faculty Mentor: Keunyeong Kim, communications
- Second Place: Natalie Liberman, Jose Franco, “Google Glass: The Influence of Recording Interviews on Prefrontal Cortex Activation”
- Faculty Mentor: Thomas Norman, management and marketing
Business, Economics, and Public Administration II:
- First Place: Roxana Pleitez, “Marketization of Public Education”
- Faculty Mentor: Rui Sun, public administration
- Second Place: Hilary Valenova Dayag, Vandeysha Benford, and Cale Espinel, “Conventional or Authentic? Case Studies of Citizen Participation in Local Public Budgeting”
- Faculty Mentor: Rui Sun, public administration
Computer Science I:
- First Place: Alexander Ing, “Efficient Middlebox Placement in SDN-Enabled Data Centers”
- Faculty Mentor: Bin Tang, Computer Science
- Second Place: Michael Sanchez, “Harvest vs. Zombies”
- Faculty Mentor: Mohsen Beheshti, computer science
Computer Science II:
- First Place: Kevin Daley, “RTMP Video Streaming: Server Tool Development for Accessibility and Efficiency”
- Faculty Mentor: Mohsen Beheshti, computer science
Creative Arts I:
- First Place: Amelia Soto, Kiana Seva’aetasi, and Briana Garcia, “No Labels CSUDH”
- Faculty Mentor: Michele Bury, art and design
- Second Place: Meredith Gossland, “Japanese Family Crests as an Japanese Art History Timeline”
- Faculty Mentor: Kirsten Ellsworth, art and design
Creative Arts II:
- First Place: John Gonzales, Jon Domingo, and Cynthia Gutierrez, “The Watermen”
- Faculty Mentor: George Vinovich, digital media arts
- Second Place: Ruben Bautista, Karina Illescas, and Abdulla Al-Suwaidi, “The Queens”
- Faculty Mentor: George Vinovich, digital media arts
Creative Arts III:
- First Place: Andrew Paramo, Marcos Conchas, and Jessica Garcia, “Know Love: Healthy vs. Abusive Relationships”
- Faculty Mentor: Michele Bury, art and design
- Second Place: John Frandsen, Christian Jimenez, and Jacob Cruz, “Unplugged Technology Addiction Campaing”
- Faculty Mentor: Michele Bury, art and design
Education I:
- First Place: Magaly Ordonez, “Critical Pedagogy Honoring Community Cultural Wealth/Ventajas y Conocimiento in Non-Traditional Learning Spaces”
- Faculty Mentor: Corina Benavides Lopez, chicana/o studies
- Second Place: Cheryl Creese, “The Impact of Re-teaching Basic Math Concepts to Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities using TouchMath strategies to improve ability to Count Money”
- Faculty Mentor: Caron Mellblom-Nishioka, special education
Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Science I:
- First Place: Kevin Sun, Lauren Santiago, and Daniella Tarankow, “Living with Crohn’s Disease: A Phenomenology”
- Faculty Mentor: Claudia Peyton, occupational therapy
- Second Place: Serli Nazarian, Carey Maust, and Elaine Medina, “My Dog Saved My Life”: Dog-Veteran Companionship”
- Faculty Mentor: Claudia Peyton, occupational therapy
Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Science II:
- First Place: Samantha Chow, Ashley Carey, Aileen Chau, and Sherilyn Chau, “Occupational Changes After Death of a Long-Term Spouse: The Widow’s Experience”
- Faculty Mentor: Claudia Peyton, occupational therapy
- Second Place: Erin Besinque, Samantha Gruen, Robyn Cho, and Elisa Becker, “Gynecological Heath and Spinal Cord Injury”
- Faculty Mentor: Claudia Peyton, occupational therapy
Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Science III:
- First Place: Yea Ji Lee and Jessica Lontayo, “Musical Interventions for Children with Autism: Parents’ Perspectives”
- Faculty Mentor: Claudia Peyton, cccupational therapy
- Second Place: Betsy Cunningham, Lee Hasson, and Briana Gonzalez, “Caring Touch: An Occupational Therapist’s Perspective”
- Faculty Mentor: Claudia Peyton, cccupational therapy
Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Science IV:
- First Place: Alexander Garcia, “Preventing the Spread of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus: A Spring 2016 screening of the gym, library, and student center at CSUDH”
- Faculty Mentor: Payman Nasr, clinical science
- Second Place: Claire Morgan, Kailey Makuta, and James H. Kim, “Perceived Effects of Ocean Therapy: A Break from Suffering”
- Faculty Mentor: Claudia Peyton, cccupational therapy
Humanities and Letters I:
- First Place: Paloma Duran, “It’s About Bloody Time”
- Faculty Mentor: Vanessa Wenzell, English
- Second Place: Kimberly Miller, “When Civil Rights Fell out of Fashion: Charting the Impact of Civil Rights Era Language on American English”
- Faculty Mentor: Ed Zoerner, English
Humanities and Letters II:
- First Place: Lawrence Ramirez, “Significant Possessions: Altered States of Consciousness in Yoruba Masquerades”
- Faculty Mentor: Kirstin Ellsworth, art and design
- Second Place: Aurora Lara, “The Sandinista Revolution as Ignition for Social Movements”
- Faculty Mentor: Laura Talamante, history
Humanities and Letters III:
- First Place: Livia Bongiovanni, “A Society in Flux: Abhumanism in “Carmilla,” Dracula, and “Shambleau” and the Fin-De-Siècle Gothic Movement Towards Posthumanism”
- Faculty Mentor: Jane Lee, English
- Second Place: Laura Cisneros, “Sexual Assault Portals in Various Television Genres”
- Faculty Mentor: Sharon Sharp, communications
Physical and Mathematical Sciences:
- First Place: Natalia da Silva and Hector Salgado, “Numbers that can be written as differences of harmonic numbers”
- Faculty Mentor: Serban Raianu, mathematics
- Second Place: Hector Salgado, “Numbers that cannot be written as a difference of harmonic numbers”
- Faculty Mentor: Serban Raianu, mathematics
Poster Session I:
- First Place: Francisco Bautista, “Combination therapies for bacterial biofilm infections”
- Faculty Mentor: Lin Lin, LABioMed, Infectious Diseases Department
- Second Place: Erika Jimenez, A”dverse Childhood Experiences Affect Anxiety and Depression in College-Aged Female Students”
- Faculty Mentor: Bonnie Goff, child development
Poster Session II:
- First Place: Candace Teran, “Cross Cultural Differences in Perception Among Japanese, Caucasian, and Hispanic Preschoolers”
- Faculty Mentor: Megumi Kuwabara, child development
- Second Place: Nikkie Nguyen, Caithlyn Torres, and Cheyenne Luna, “Name Discrimination in the Hiring Process”
- Faculty Mentor: Zheng Yang, public administration
Poster Session III:
- First Place: Catrina Mendoza, “Black Lives Matter: A Visual Insight into a “Deadly Weapon”
- Faculty Mentor: Devon Tsuno, art and design
- Second Place: Kayla Villatoro, “The Effect of Reference Groups and Prestige on College Students Decision Making”
- Faculty Mentor: Silvia Santos, psychology
