Research Updates

Professional athletes and coaches watch game films to improve their skills and strategies. Similarly, the Center for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Training (CEMaST) at Cal Poly Pomona plans to use video to help math and science middle school teachers up their game.

Video analysis is a major component of a $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant that the university received to provide professional development to 20 middle school math and science teachers. The goal is to develop “master teachers” who will mentor beginning teachers at their schools and will have the skills to teach at the college level.

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Eight undergraduate students who show outstanding promise in chemistry and biology research recently were awarded $1,000 scholarships from CSU Channel Islands (CI).

The juniors and seniors work with faculty in the chemistry and biology programs, tackling issues ranging from examining the relationship between smog and local weather conditions to synthesizing drugs for Alzheimer’s disease.

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The NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., has selected San Jose State University Research Foundation for a five-year, $73.3 million cooperative agreement to participate in the development of systems for improving the safety and efficiency of air and space travel. NASA scientists, along with SJSU faculty members and graduate students, will collaborate on this effort, funded by the largest federal award in SJSU history. The principal investigator will be Professor of Psychology and of Human Factors and Ergonomics, Kevin Jordan.

“San Jose State University is both proud and grateful to be selected to partner in Human System Integration Research at NASA Ames,” Jordan said. “We are proud of the many accomplishments during our 26-year collaboration. We are grateful for the opportunity to build on that collaboration to meet the design challenges of initiatives such as the Next Generation Air Transportation System and the Space Launch System. We are well positioned to face those challenges and we are committed to partnering with Human Systems Integration researchers in advancing NASA missions.”

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Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) may seem like pests to most people, but their simple biologic structure makes them ideal hosts for a variety of scientific experiments.

For her work in identifying a fruit fly gene that can be useful in diabetes and other biological studies, Melissa Kaye Jones from Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) received the 2012 Don Eden Graduate Student Research Award at the 24th annual California State University Biotechnology Symposium held recently in Santa Clara. The CSU Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB) sponsors the statewide event.

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The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation has awarded California State University, Dominguez Hills a $250,000 grant allocated over two years to expand its summer and first year developmental math program to include all incoming freshmen who require additional math courses to bring them to college-level proficiency.

Lack of true college-readiness in math in the critical first year of his or her university experience has been shown to have negative implications on a student’s ability to continue their college education, especially for students who come from low-income areas and are often the first in their families to attend college. The grant also will allow the university to explore promising practices and pedagogy in developmental math.

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Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded $3.49 million to a San Jose State University-led consortium to develop and advance public transportation research and education. The consortium members represent a diverse group of universities, including Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ; Howard University in Washington, DC; University of Detroit Mercy in Detroit, MI; Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI; Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH; University of Toledo in Toledo, OH; University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Las Vegas, NV; and Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA.

Congresswoman Lofgren led an effort, in collaboration with San Jose State University’s Mineta Transportation Institute, to secure the funding.

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Enzyme-catalyzed reactions are vital to the agricultural, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology industries, and are important in speeding up the rate of chemical reactions in organic chemistry.

However, Professor of Organic Chemistry Roy Okuda says there’s a two-fold problem with enzymes, which are protein molecules in plants or animals that cause specific reactions to happen.

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The U.S. Department of Energy award strengthens the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Industrial Assessment Center.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a $1 million grant to Professor Asfaw Beyene of San Diego State University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering to continue funding the Industrial Assessment Center for at least the next five years.

Hands-on experience and more

The center trains the next generation of energy engineers by:

- Helping reduce the country’s energy dependency
- Promoting a clean environment by reducing emissions
- Creating clean jobs
- Enhancing the competitiveness of American industry in the global marketplace

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California State University officials got a chance on Jan. 24 to review science projects by three Sacramento State students and others from throughout the CSU system.

Katy Janes, Shannon Waters and Emilie Zelazo, along with the other students, displayed posters in Long Beach in conjunction with the CSU Board of Trustees meeting. Also invited to the exhibition were Chancellor Charles Reed, vice chancellors, university presidents, statewide academic senate executive officers and CSSA officers.

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