Student Research Day (SRD) continues to be California State University, Dominguez Hills’ (CSUDH) premiere showcase of quality student research, and this year’s 14th annual competition on Feb. 13-14 was no exception. Beyond the well-deserved accolades and camaraderie students receive, the lessons they learned and applied underscore the true value of SRD and make all their hard work worth it.
This year close to 300 students put their analytical vigor on display during hundreds oral and poster presentations covering a wide range of academic disciplines at CSUDH. Forty-seven student investigators received with top honors during the SRD Reception and Awards Ceremony, an event that officially ends the conference and celebrates the success of faculty-mentored research at CSUDH.
Undergraduate student Andrew Luu, a psychology major and business minor in data analytics, was a standout during the awards ceremony. A previous SRD winner, this year he was called three times during the ceremony to be recognized in front of his peers for his award-winning solo research presentations, two of which garnered first-place honors.
“During Student Research Day you quickly begin to realize how important this competition is. Your research and awards not only add to your resume, they give you the experience of interacting with people while disseminating your work,” said Luu. “In graduate school, during Ph.D. interviews, and as a professor or researcher, one of the most important things you’ll need to do well is verbally talk about and emphasize the importance of your research to others. That’s what you learn at SRD.”
Luu’s first-place wins were for his presentations “Digital Effectiveness and Motivation to Succeed at College: from the Viewpoints of Generation Z,” and “Digital Metacognition Mediates the Impact if Technological Anxiety, Boredom, and Executive Dysfunction on Course Performance.” He took second for his poster presentation “Will Robots Take Our Jobs? Understanding Trends in the Future of Work and Skills fir a Digital Workforce.”
The day after the SRD awards ceremony Luu experienced firsthand how critical it is to be able to articulate his research. He flew a few hours after the ceremony to Auburn University in Alabama to be interviewed for a Ph.D. program in psychology studying cognitive and behavioral sciences, which is the field of his professional interest.
“I had a 10 p.m. flight, so it was recommended to me that I don’t do SRD this year due to time restraints and to be better prepared for my Ph.D. interview,” said Luu, who is a research assistant in CSUDH’s George Marsh Applied Cognition (GMAC) Laboratory. “I had put so much work into those [SRD] projects and wondered what was the point of doing all the work if I didn’t get to show it. My hard work paid off. The interview at Auburn went very well.”
Also recognized during the SRD awards ceremony was Digital Media Arts (DMA) major Tom Gonzalez and his teammates Jennifer Garcia and JP Zamora, who garnered second place for their “DACA Documentary” in the Creative Arts I category. The film focuses on educating the public—particularly college students—about DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) by examining the lives of those directly affected by efforts to end the program.
“Winning second place was a surprising and humbling experience. The team had not expected to place at all, so second was a blessing. We have also talked about entering the documentary in festivals, so the win has given us confidence to continue toward that goal,” said Gonzalez who is working toward a career as a videographer and editor for a creative agency. “SRD was just a great opportunity for my peers and me to put on display the projects that we had spent semesters working so hard on.”
Gonzalez also credits his team’s faculty mentor, DMA Professor George Vinovich, for their success and the lessons they will take with them after graduation. “He taught fundamentals while teaching the business side, but most importantly, he allowed us to create through hands-on experience—to be the directors, the cinematographers, and the editors. That’s what made all the difference at SRD.”
Communications major Porscha Singh also nabbed first place at SRD. She was awarded in the Humanities and Letters II category for her presentation “The Sweet Representations of ‘Queen Sugar.’” Her research focused on “Queen Sugar,” a television drama airing on the Oprah Winfrey Network. During her presentation, Singh argued that “Queen Sugar” is groundbreaking both on-air and behind the screens for women in media, especially for black women.
Singh is also in the first cohort of CSUDH’s Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program, which addresses the lack of diversity among university faculty by supporting students from underrepresented minority groups in their pursuit of Ph.D. degrees. She said that the fellowship has helped drive her interest in studying the representation of “female blackness” on television and how that comes across in society.
“I chose to research ‘Queen Sugar’ because it is something that me and my mother enjoy and analyze in terms of its black female characters, but along with the research, I really just enjoyed presenting the topic to an audience, and that was the type of experience that really drew me to SRD,” said Singh, who also benefited from learning how to condense large amounts of research into talking points and fielding the questions that followed her presentation.
“Being able to answer questions that the judges and/or audience had for me was a good feeling,” Singh said. “Speaking from a place of expertise helps me become a better presenter and gives me a higher level of confidence when presenting my research. The questions really added to the overall rewarding experience of Student Research Day.”
2019 Student Research Day Winners
Behavioral and Social Sciences I
First Place: Jessica Vinegar, health science, “Perceived Competency in Male Dominated Jobs among Gender Nonconforming Women vs Gender Conforming Women.”
Faculty Mentor: Archana Sharma, health science
Second Place: Jenna Knight, psychology, “Performance Validity Testing in Undergraduates.”
Faculty Mentor: Tara Victor, psychology
Biological and Agricultural Sciences
First Place: Autumn Henderson, biology: “Higher Expression of Motility Related Genes in Evolved Escherichia coli.”
Faculty Mentor: Karin Kram, biology
Second Place:
Lizett Gonzalez Carreron, biology: “The Characterization of the SspA Regulon in Escherichia coli in the Long-term Stationary Phase
Faculty Mentor: Karin Kram, biology
Computer Science I
First Place: Vincent Tran, computer science: “Protecting the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle from Cyberattacks.”
Faculty Mentor: Ajay Katangur, Computer Science
Second Place: Jeremy Smith, Computer Science: “Website Design through the Decades.”
Faculty Mentor: Mohsen Beheshti, computer science
Education
First Place: Jodi Aguilar, liberal studies: “Barrio Maestras – Introducing the Praxis of Queer Educadoras / Content / Theoria in K-5 Escuelas.”
Faculty Mentor: P. Zitlali Morales, University of Illinois, Chicago.
Second Place: Ariana Munoz, education: “Healing, Learning, and Beloved Communities: Applying a Trauma-informed Framework in Elementary Classrooms.”
Faculty Mentor: Edward Curammeng, education
Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Sciences I
First Place: Nicole Astorian, Theodora Chan, and Vivian Huynh, occupational therapy: “Exploring the Experiences of Occupational Therapists in Facilitating Animal-assisted Therapy.”
Faculty Mentor: Terry Peralta-Catipon, occupational therapy
Second Place: Aaron Halva, Teresa Cao, and Beverly Dovan, occupational therapy: “The Effects of Mindfulness on Occupational Engagement: A Narrative Analysis.”
Faculty Mentor: Heather Kitching, occupational therapy
Humanities and Letters I
First Place: Jaedyn Baker, English: Unchecked Curiosity and “Masculine” Science: Foes of a Domestic Eden in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1831)
Faculty Mentor: Debra Best, English
Second Place: Thaithao Nguyen, history: “The Vietnamese Women of Little Saigon.”
Faculty Mentor: Judy Wu, Asian American studies, University of California, Irvine
Physical and Mathematical Sciences
First Place: Elvis Carrillo, earth science and geography: “Assessing Social-Economic Impacts of Earthquakes in Southern California.”
Faculty Mentor: Brendan McNulty, Earth Science and Geography
Second Place: Scarlett Zamora, Earth Science: “Waste Audits at CSUDH.”
Faculty Mentor: Cheyenne Cummings, earth science and geography
Poster Session I
First Place: Andre Khachaturians, public administration: “American Attitudes on Immigrants Impact on the Economy
Faculty Mentor: Elena Kulikov, public administration
Second Place: Andrew Luu, Business Administration: “Will Robots Take Our Jobs? Understanding Trends in the Future of Work and Skills fir a Digital Workforce.”
Faculty Mentor: Nancy Deng, business administration
Third Place: Nathan Castro, communications: “Financial Literacy After-School Programs: A Survey and Exploratory Study.”
Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Brodmann, economics
Behavioral and Social Sciences II
First Place: Madeline Calixte, behavioral Sciences: “Outcomes of Fostering Our Youth’s Education.”
Faculty Mentor: Sonja Ulrich, behavioral sciences
Second Place: Karina Mendez, Matthew Iya, and Lisa Nguyen, occupational therapy: “Therapy Lived Experience in Transitions from Independent to Sheltered Living.”
Faculty Mentor: Heather Kitching, occupational therapy
Behavioral and Social Sciences III
First Place: Stephanie Gaston, mathematics: “On the Classification of Graphs Based on Their Rank Numbers.”
Faculty Mentor: Jobby Jacob (Rochester Institute of Technology)
Second Place:
Violet Quann and Stephany Ortiz Chavez, psychology: “Which Barriers are Correlated with Medical Compliance Among College Students?”
Faculty Mentor: Erin Merz, psychology
Business, Economics, and Public Administration I
First Place: Andrew Luu, business administration: “Digital Effectiveness and Motivation to Succeed at College: from the Viewpoints of Generation Z.”
Faculty Mentor: Nancy Deng, business administration
Second Place: Jason Richman, public administration: “Entrepreneurial Activity Analysis, Orange County versus South Bay.”
Faculty Mentor: Fynnwin Prager, Public Administration
Creative Arts I
First Place: Jennifer Garcia and Eric Ayala, digital media arts: “Body Dysmorphia.”
Faculty Mentor: George Vinovich, digital media arts
Second Place: Jennifer Garcia, Tom Gonzalez, and JP Zamora, digital media arts: “DACA Documentary.”
Faculty Mentor: George Vinovich, digital media arts
Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Science II
First Place: Sarah Mercado, Shawn Kim, and Allison Litzinger, occupational therapy: “The Lived Experience of Women Coping with Breast Cancer: A Photovoice Study.”
Faculty Mentor: Heather Kitching, occupational therapy
Second Place: Zurit Horowitz and David Holden, occupational therapy: “The Lived Experience of Participating in Extreme Sports as Leisure Occupations.”
Faculty Mentor: Heather Kitching, occupational therapy
Computer Science II
First Place: Aishwarya Murkute, computer science: “Object Detection and Recognition using In Real Time using OpenCV and YOLO.”
Faculty Mentor: Roman Tankelevich, computer science
Humanities and Letters II
First Place: Porscha Singh, communications: “The Sweet Representations of Queen Sugar”
Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Brandt, women’s studies
Second Place: Paula Sherrin, English: “Effects of the “Uncanny” in Jordan Peele’s Get Out.”
Faculty Mentor: Helen Oesterheld, English
Poster Session II
First Place: Stephanie Torres, psychology: “Differences Between the Use of Instagram and Twitter on Self-Disclosure.”
Faculty Mentor: Larry Rosen, Psychology
Second Place: Ryan Butler, psychology : “Can Google Cardboard’s Virtual Reality Platform aid in Learning and Memory? Faculty Mentor: Larry Rosen, Psychology.”
Third Place: Alicia Rodriguez, psychology: “Examining Motivational Factors among College Students Who Were Formally Foster Youth.”
Faculty Mentor: Phu Phan, human services
Business, Economics, and Public Administration II
First Place: Shainna Cato and Tiffani Cameron, management: “Wingstop Quality Service Analysis.”
Faculty Mentor: Orie Berezen, management
Second Place: Eugene Cox II, psychology: “Understanding Technology Competences and Digital Collaboration of African-American College Students and Their Peers: An Empirical Study.”
Faculty Mentor: Nancy Deng, information systems and operation management
Behavioral and Social Sciences IV
First Place: Andrew Luu, psychology: “Digital Metacognition Mediates the Impact if Technological Anxiety, Boredom, and Execitive Dysfuntion on Course Performance.”
Faculty Mentor: Larry Rosen, Psychology
Second Place: Ray Jaquez and Christian Harms, psychology: “Design Your Life: An Innovative Career Readiness Intervention for College Students.”
Faculty Mentor: Heather Butler, psychology
Behavioral and Social Sciences V
First Place: Sandra Cortez, clinical psychology: “Measuring Workplace Aggression Using Heart Rate Response.”
Faculty Mentor: Thomas Norman, management
Second Place: Ian A. Klinger, sociology: My Dad called Him a “Devil Worshipper”: Religious Deconversion Experiences of Students at CSU Dominguez Hills.”
Faculty Mentor: Matt G. Mutchler, sociology
Creative Arts II
First Place: Jessica Cisneros, Andrea Lupercio, Edward Rivas, and Drake Martes, digital media arts: “Ascent – Life of a Climber.”
Faculty Mentor: George Vinovich, Digital Media Arts
Second Place: Darlene Davis, child development: “Age and Cultural Differences in Contents of Picture Books.”
Faculty Mentor: Megumi Kuwabara, Child Development
Computer Science III
First Place: Ashwini Kumar Singh, computer science: “Continuous Integration and Deployment with Jenkins and Kubernetes and Docker.”
Faculty Mentor: Bhrigu Celly, computer science
Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Sciences III
First Place: Regina Sarnicola, Tiffanie Vu, Loree Pham, and Christina Villasenor, ocupational therapy: “Exploring Spirituality in Occupational Therapy Practice: A Phenomenological Study.”
Faculty Mentor: Heather Kitching, Occupational Therapy
Second Place: Oliver Maurice, orthotics and prosthetics: “Unconventional Static Positioning: A Pilot Study.”
Faculty Mentor: Julie Werner, occupational therapy
Poster Session III
First Place: Andrea Sosa, earth science: “Are CSUDH Restroom Fixtures Water Efficient?.”
Faculty Mentor: Cheyenne Cummings, earth science and geography
Second Place: Elvis Carrillo, earth science and geography: “Estimated Losses Associated with Simulated Earthquakes in Southern California.”
Faculty Mentor: Parveen Chhetri, earth science and geography
Third Place: Vanessa Frias, child development: “Children Perform the Same on Continuous and Discretized Formats in Proportional Reasoning Tasks and it is Not Related to Inhibitory Control.”
Faculty Mentor: Kreshnik Begolli, child development
