The 39th Annual CSUSB Student Research Competition is scheduled to take place on Friday, February 14th, 2025, inside the Center for Global Innovation (CGI). This competition offers CSUSB students a platform to enhance their presentation and communication skills while highlighting their scholarly and creative accomplishments.
Participants present their research findings to a panel of judges, with the top performers earning the chance to advance to the statewide California State University (CSU) Research Competition hosted at Cal Poly Humboldt. There, they will compete against other exceptional scholars within the CSU system. Successful participants in the CSU Student Research Competition have the opportunity to win accolades, with $500 awarded for first place and $250 for second place within their respective sessions.
What is the CSU Competition?
The California State University Student Research Competition is an annual event that brings together scholars from the 23 campuses of our California State University system. The competition showcases undergraduate and graduate research, scholarship, and creative works by recognizing outstanding student accomplishments. across the 23 campuses.
Current undergraduate students, graduate students, and recent alumni from all academic disciplines can participate. Each year, over 200 students from the 23 CSU campuses submit written papers and make oral presentations before juries of professional experts from major corporations, foundations, public agencies, and universities in California.
Each CSU campus appoints a campus coordinator and develops its own procedures for selecting student delegates to the system-wide competition. Only those students endorsed by the campus coordinator can enter the system-wide competition.
CSUSB Selected Delegates for the CSU Student Research Competition
We are delighted to announce the delegates from CSUSB who have been awarded the opportunity to represent our university at the 39th Annual CSU Student Research Competition at Cal Poly Humboldt on April 25-26, 2025. These students have been recognized for their exceptional research contributions and will present their work at this prestigious event. Please join us in celebrating the following students:
College of Arts and Letters:
Ash Goar, Undergraduate, English Literature
Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Marshall
Presentation Title: "Queer Embodiment, Immortality, and Progressivism in The Priory of the Orange Tree"
College of Natural Sciences:
Vishwa Bhatt, Graduate, Computer Science and Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Jin
Presentation Title: "Science of Revolutionizing AI with Prompt Engineering"
Calvin Glisson, Graduate, Computer Science and Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Qiuxiao Chen
Presentation Title: "Frequency Robustness for Self-Driving Cars"
Vicky Lopez, Connor Lahm, Mathew Eskola, and Katlyn Koski, Undergraduate, Computer Science and Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Yunfei Hou
Presentation Title: "FireEye"
Rene Toribio and Luis Trejo, Undergraduate, Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nicole Bournias-Vardiabasis
Presentation Title: "Evaluating the Effect of Nicotine Exposure on Drosophila melanogaster"
Sebastian Zazueta, Undergraduate, Kinesiology
Faculty Mentor: Wagner Do Prado
Presentation Title: "Low-Volume Resistance Training Increases Muscle Strength and Reduces Stress in Older Women"
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences:
Alewa Anaya, Graduate, Psychological Sciences
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nicolas Brunet
Presentation Title: "Eyewear’s Impact on N170 Amplitudes: Exploring Neural Mechanisms of Face Processing"
Luis Gonzalez, Graduate, Behavioral/Cognitive Neuroscience
Faculty Mentor: Leslie Amodeo
Presentation Title: "Changes in circadian rhythm and 24h activity patterns after fluoxetine exposure in adolescent rats"
Rachel Kanter, Undergraduate, Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Christina Hassija
Presentation Title: "Moral Injury and Religious and Spiritual Struggles: Pathways to Psychological Distress Among IPSV Survivors"
Michael Rubalcava, Undergraduate, History
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ryan Keating
Presentation Title: "The Binding Lines: Race and Unfree Labor in the Wills of Colonial Virginia"