A Humboldt State student found that stem cells have the potential to help the bones of older individuals heal faster after breaking.

A team of Cal State L.A. engineering students developed new experimental designs for supersonic rockets.

A Cal Poly Pomona student is testing a new vaccine for the flu.

These are just a few of the nearly 200 student researchers who presented projects at the CSU’s 27^th annual Student Research Competition at Cal Poly Pomona May 10-11.

Ranging from social sciences to engineering to agriculture, the research was as diverse as the students and their academic fields. However, it all shared the power and potential to either help us understand our world, or make it a better place.

The annual CSU competition aims to foster student research and growth in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. All of the students who compete are already winners: in order to participate, they have to be selected by their campus or take top honors in their own campus research competition.

All student projects are judged by professional experts from major corporations, foundations, public agencies, and colleges and universities in California.

The first place winners are listed below. A full list of all participants and winners can be seen here.

Behavioral & Social Sciences

Carlos Gonzalez, CSU San Marcos (Undergraduate)
Ketamine-Induced Conditioned Taste Aversion Differs in Adult and Adolescent Rats

Elaine Clemings, Fresno State (Undergraduate)
The Effects of Classroom Acoustics on Reading Fluency in Primary School Students

Tony Ye, Cal State L.A. (Graduate)
Cognitive Inflexibility after Adolescent Methamphetamine Exposure

Kristi Hendrickson, San Diego State (Graduate)
You Can Look but Don’t Touch: The Real-time Dynamics Between Infants’ Visual and Haptic Responses

Biological & Agricultural Sciences

Amberle McKee, CSU Long Beach (Undergraduate)
Substrate Attributes Determine Gait in a Terrestrial Gastropod

Ashley Chui, CSU Fullerton (Undergraduate)
Aggregation of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins: An Investigation of the Behavior of Stathmin Aggregated in the Presence of Ficoll 70

Brandon Kim, San Diego State (Graduate)
Regulation of Tight Junction Complexes in Brain Endothelium by the Meningeal Pathogen, Group B Streptococcus

Brian Maurer, San Jose State (Graduate)
Optimization of a technique to measure bulk viable biomass, based on the hydrolysis of fluorescein diacetate (FDA) by ubiquitous enzymes

Business, Economics and Public Administration

Adam Sharma, San Francisco State
Patient No-Shows: Identifying the Determinants of a Patient’s Likelihood to No-Show

Creative Arts and Design

Todd Wilkinson, San Francisco State
Re-Connecting Manual Wheelchair Users With Nature

Education

Allee Macrorie and Bijan Ghaffari, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
NMR-Based Kinetic Experiments for Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratories

Engineering & Computer Science
Azizkhan Pathan, Cal State L.A. (Undergraduate)
Experimental Sounding Supersonic Rocket Design

Jamie Adkins, Yuriy Bazylev, Jessica Lopez, and Henry Kwong, Cal Poly Pomona (Undergraduate)
Mechanical Properties of Spider Silk

Shad Kish, San Francisco State (Graduate)
Miniaturizing RFID for Biomedical Implants

Health, Nutrition & Clinical Sciences

Du Cheng, Humboldt State (Undergraduate)
Using a stem cell-based approach to restore bone-healing capacity to aged individuals

Joseph Henriquez, Cal Poly Pomona (Graduate)
Long term protection in Swiss Webster (SW) mice using a liposomal M2e Influenza A (L-M2e) vaccine

Humanities and Letters

Anna Marie Storti, Cal Poly Pomona (Undergraduate)
But You Don’t Look Like a Lesbian: The Portrayal of Queer Life Through a Feminine Experience

Alexandra Katherine Vicknair, CSU Stanislaus (Graduate)
Mountains and Mindsets: The Ideologies and Politics behind the Mineral King Controversy, 1965-1978

Physical & Mathematical Sciences

Christopher Patillo, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Undergraduate)
Controlling Surface Energy and Wettability with a Light Responsive Linker System

Michelle Gevedon, CSU Fullerton (Graduate)
Zircon Hafnium and Oxygen Isotopic Evidence for Major Compositional Variation in the Mesozoic Mantgle Source Region of the Sierra  Nevada Volcanic Arc

Students participating in lab and field research during the CSU Marine Biology Semester

The Southern California Marine Institute (SCMI) —a consortium of 11 Southern California universities, including eight CSU campuses—has been providing marine research and education support to the CSU for over 15 years. Committed to offering marine expertise and hands-on field experience to students, the SCMI develops science education programs, facilitates research in marine science, and works with university and community members to execute environment monitoring projects.

“We are here to support marine biology programs,” said Tom Chavez, assistant director of the SCMI. “We have the ability to take university students interested in doing research out into the ocean and introduce them to the marine environment.”

SCMI engages students of all ages from K-12, community colleges and universities to participate in ocean education programs where they can interact with marine life through experiments and demonstrations. For example, SCMI administers the CSU Marine Biology Semester where students live on Catalina Island for 16 weeks, and participate in lectures, lab research, and field work in nearby marine habitats for school credit. Students from the CSU campuses who are part of the consortium which includes Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge, Pomona, San Bernardino and San Marcos collaborate with each other to work toward solving marine and coastal issues. Also, the Institute manages a diver certification program that trains and certifies graduate students and professors in scuba diving, which can be vital in achieving the highest level of research.

Furthermore, SCMI supports student and faculty development by providing scientific equipment, vessels, facilities and personnel necessary to carry out research projects. In addition to providing small motor boats for faculty and graduate student research excursions, SCMI maintains research vessel Yellowfin which can be used for demonstration cruises to give students the opportunity to collect, analyze and identify fish. SCMI also houses classrooms and laboratories where researchers can test the water samples and examine the specimens found during their research excursion.

In 2017, the Institute is slated to move its facilities to be included in City Dock No. 1, a 28-acre campus that will house state-of-the-art research and education facilities at the Port of Los Angeles. The planned site will include a circulating seawater and marine life support system, an interpretive center for school field trips and community education, a 4,100-foot waterfront dock/wharf space, and research and teaching laboratories located directly on the harbor.

In 2011, the CSU’s Water Resources and Policy Initiatives (WRPI) launched a four-year internship program intended to harness the research capacity of CSU faculty and students in order to address the critical water issues facing California.

The USDA-funded Watershed Management Internships are already giving CSU students valuable hands-on experience. The interns delve into various aspects of natural resource protection carried out by three USDA agencies: the Natural Resource Conservation Service, the Agricultural Research Service and the Forest Service.

The first year saw a variety of projects on a wide range of topics, incorporating many aspects of environmental issues in California. Below are just a few examples of the work these students and faculty are doing:

CSU San Bernardino, Aerial Photography Project:

Digitizing photos sounds more “archivist” than “scientist.” However, this project’s goal—to digitize a collection of over 4,500 aerial photos of the San Bernardino and Santa Ana watersheds—will provide many benefits for research.

“The documents will be more accessible to people who need them for research and knowledge. City planners, lawmakers, developers, and historians are already tapping into the library of photos,” said project leader Suzie Earp, who works at CSUSB’s Water Resources Institute.

One of the interns, Carlos Almaguer, is majoring in computer science and engineering. Continuing on in the second year of the project, Almaguer is now creating a way to organize the photographs more efficiently and making an interactive map.

“It’s a great way to see the effects commercialization and population growth have on our water sources,” Almaguer said. “It makes it easier to comprehend the immense human impact on our environment over several decades.”

CSU Bakersfield, Water Forecasts Based on Tulare Lake Level Constructions:

The Geological Sciences department at CSU Bakersfield was awarded a $5M National Science Foundation grant last year. The CSU WRI/USDA internships provide the perfect synergy with one of the NSF projects, which is aimed at forecasting water supplies based on lake levels, said CSUB Geophysics professor Robert Negrini.

Negrini said that the project’s ultimate goal is to record the 10,000 year history of water supply into the Central Valley of California by measuring Tulare lake levels. As one of the world’s most important agricultural centers, the Central Valley will benefit from the information, which can be utilized to create forecasts for future water supplies.

As far as the internships go, Negrini says the most exciting aspect is that CSUB undergraduates—ones that would not likely have thought to go to graduate school—are now doing much of the research.

“They’re able to afford to do so thanks to the internships and corresponding NSF fellowships, said Negrini. “They’re really catching the research ‘bug’ and most will likely now go on to graduate school and/or employment at the USDA and related industry.”

CSU Stanislaus, Geospatial Analysis in the Tuolumne Watershed:

The first cohort of student interns at CSU Stanislaus used geographic information systems (GIS) software to create elevation, slope and aspect maps of the Merced, Stanislaus and Tuolumne River watersheds.

Advised by CSU Stanislaus geography professors Peggy Hauselt and Austin Avwunudiogba, the team collected soil samples during field visits to the local Tuolumne River watershed, where tributaries created by snowmelt runoff from the High Sierra join to form the river.

Back in the lab, the students combined their findings with data from state governmental agencies and configured it all into a standard format for easier use.

“I was able to conduct field work, use geospatial technology and learn about various National Forest projects,” said intern and geography major Aldo Garcia. “It was exciting, because the maps they use looked similar to various projects I have done at CSU Stanislaus. I consider this internship with the USDA as my gateway to the National Forest.”

CSU faculty has received four of the six California Sea Grant Focus Awards for new investigators from the California Sea Grant. Humboldt State’s Dr. Christine Cass, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Dr. Kristin Hardy, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories’ Dr. Scott Hamilton, and San Diego State’s Jeremy Long are among the early-career investigators who have been commended for their extraordinary scientific merit.

California Sea Grant—a state program that sponsors marine research and education activities to support the conservation of California’s coastal resources—awarded the one-year grant to individuals who started their first faculty-level position after mid-2009. The funding will be used to conduct marine research that will help manage, conserve, and enhance California’s coast.

The CSU lead investigators and their topics are:

• Christine Cass, assistant professor of oceanography at Humboldt State University, studying seasonal changes in the fat and protein content of zooplankton in northern California and southern Oregon.
• Kristin Hardy, assistant professor of biology at Cal Poly, examining the consequences of a common industrial compound in household products on Pacific oysters’ immune function.
• Scott Hamilton, an assistant professor at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, exploring ocean acidification and its potential to disrupt olfactory sensory perception in young rockfishes.
• Jeremy Long, assistant professor of biology at San Diego State, helping restore cordgrasses at the Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in Chula Vista.

Every February, 100,000 visitors from more than 70 countries flock to a small town in California’s Central Valley for the largest farm equipment and technology show in the world. Though its location may seem remote, the World Ag Expo takes place in one of our nation’s most important agricultural regions.

The CSU students and researchers that headed to the International Agri-Center in Tulare for this year’s expo Feb. 12-14 showcased some of what they do to help California maintain its status as an agricultural powerhouse.

Ambassadors
CSU campuses use the expo as an avenue to connect to the ag community. This year, representatives from CSU Bakersfield, Fresno State, Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo informed prospective students and the ag community about their programs.

“Schools from all over will come for a field trip,” said Des Molyneux, a Fresno State university outreach counselor that worked the expo booth with student ambassadors. “It is a great opportunity to present our programs and to visit with alumni and supporters from the community.”

CSU Bakersfield was there to spread the word about their recently-launched business program. The CSUB School of Business and Public Administration now offers a concentration in the agricultural industry, aimed to provide local ag companies with qualified graduates for their management teams.

“It’s a need that wasn’t being met in our local area,” said Madeline Moorhead, who was there to help represent CSUB’s business school.

Warriors
A keynote address from combat-decorated marine and bestselling author Colonel Oliver North was one of the highlights of this year’s expo. North spoke at a benefit gala to support Ag Warriors, a program the International Agri-Center created in collaboration with Fresno State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and the College of the Sequoias.

Ag Warriors was launched last year to help meet the education and employment needs of returning veterans. The program will focus on classwork, fieldwork, exam preparation and testing, mentorship, and internships—all designed to help ease the transition of veterans to higher education and expose them to a wide variety of career opportunities in agriculture.

Colonel North delivered the benefit’s keynote address, attesting to the importance of educating today’s veterans and getting them to work—not only in the ag industry, but in all of the private sector.

Educators
Fresno State’s Center for Irrigation Technology (CIT) coordinated educational seminars for farmers attending the expo. The CIT recruited nine irrigation industry professionals to give the seminars, which focused on teaching best practices in irrigation.

The most popular seminar was aimed at teaching farmers how to reevaluate their irrigation systems in order to make them more efficient, said Laura Ramos, a project administrator with the CIT, which is dedicated to providing developments and solutions to improve water use and efficiency.

“Many figured that because their irrigation systems did not show outward signs of inefficiencies such as leaking, they did not need to have them evaluated very often,” Ramos said. “But they learned that consistent reevaluation can catch small problems that can end up being big water and money wasters.”

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Colonel Oliver North delivers the keynote address during a benefit supporting the “Ag Warriors” program, launched in collaboration with Fresno State and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

CSU Bakersfield President Horace Mitchell (right) during the 2011 launch of a business degree concentrating in the agriculture industry.

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For more on the World Ag Expo, visit http://www.worldagexpo.com/

In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama called on America to advance clean energy research and technology. Obama said that investment in clean energy innovation holds the most promise for both our environment and economy.

San José State and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo recently made announcements regarding their roles in such innovation: SJSU has launched a program to train students for the fast-emerging energy storage industry, and Cal Poly received a $1.3 million grant to help turn San Luis Obispo’s wastewater into energy.

Reducing our carbon footprint means making more powerful and longer-lasting batteries. Right now, there are roughly 40 battery-related companies in California—working to solve challenges that are critical to the electric vehicle sector, the solar sector, the wind sector, consumer electronics and more.

In an effort to educate the specialty workforce now needed for this rapidly growing industry, SJSU teamed up with energy storage innovation accelerator CalCharge to launch a “battery university.” The program’s courses are expected to be offered this summer through SJSU’s professional education program.

“The fast-emerging energy storage industry is key to the continuing success of the multi-billion dollar global clean energy economy,” said Jeffrey Anderson, interim executive director of CalCharge. “Ceding this important sector to another country would be a tragic and short sighted mistake.”

Cal Poly’s grant from the US Department of Energy will go toward the university’s involvement in the experimental raceway ponds at the City of San Luis Obispo Water Reclamation Facility—a pilot facility that has been invited to join the US DOE National Algae Biofuel Testbed program.

“Ultimately, we would like our research to help commercialize the use of algae in the wastewater recycling process and production of biofuel,” said Cal Poly civil and environmental engineering professor Tryg Lundquist.

Unlike fossil fuel, biofuel is produced by living organisms. Oils, carbohydrates or fats generated by microbes or plants are refined to create the green and renewable energy.

Lundquist and chemistry professor Corinne Lehr lead Cal Poly’s Algae Technology Group, which will coordinate the effort. The group is composed of faculty and students from six departments, including environmental engineering, chemistry, biology, animal science, food science, and electrical engineering.

Congratulations to the crew of the R/V Point Sur for their Jan. 26 arrival at Palmer Station on Anvers Island, Antarctica.  Their journey has already spanned nearly two months since departing from home – Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in the Monterey Bay area. More …

SFSU Student Mark Russell will use his COAST award to investigate weight loss in marine birds affected by oil contamination. Credit: International Bird Rescue

The CSU’s Council on Ocean Affairs, Science and Technology (COAST) recently awarded 32 CSU students a total of $85,500 to provide support for students engaged in marine and coastal research with CSU COAST faculty members. The Student Awards for Marine Science Research will stimulate student interest in marine-related careers and provide scholars with the opportunity to obtain the skills necessary to join a highly skilled, technologically advanced workforce while promoting and supporting CSU faculty research.

“The awards are intended to alleviate some of the financial burden our students face as they pursue their degrees,” said COAST Director Dr. Krista Kamer. “If we can provide them with some relief and allow them to focus more wholly on their research, then that’s a success!”
Seven undergraduate and 25 graduate students were granted the funds based on their dedication to solving coastal issues and their active role in faculty-mentored research. COAST will provide $1,500 awards to CSU undergraduate students and $3,000 awards to CSU graduate students.

For a list of the 2012-13 COAST Student Awards for Marine Science Research recipients, visit http://www.calstate.edu/coast/funding/pastrecipients_student-research_2012-13AY.shtml.

In his role as executive director of ARI, Shelton works closely with systemwide CSU leadership, as well as faculty and staff from each of ARI’s member campuses – Chico, Pomona, San Luis Obispo, and Fresno. He’ll also be leading efforts with the ag industry and agency partners to promote and advance ARI.

Shelton has served as Cal Poly’s campus ARI coordinator since the initiative’s inception in 1999.

“It’s been rewarding to see the program benefit faculty and students,” Shelton said. “Over the past 13 years, I’ve seen this program build ties between CSU campuses, and provide critical funding, research and equipment needed to advance the industry and education.”

“When a research need surfaces, we can now call on literally hundreds of scientists in the CSU and industry to work together to solve pressing problems,” he said.

Even though he has picked up a new role, Shelton will continue to serve as associate dean of graduate programs for Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food & Environmental Sciences.

As ARI director, Shelton reports to a governing board composed of the presidents of each member campus, the UC vice president for agriculture and natural resources, and four agriculture industry leaders. Leaders that are influential in strengthening California’s status as the nation’s biggest crop producer, Shelton says.

“We have a strong network of people from the ag industry,” Shelton said, adding that one of his main goals is to utilize that network to build up relationships with agricultural stakeholders.

“California is number one in agriculture,” Shelton said. “We want to increase the visibility on the importance of the industry’s economic impact to our state and country.”

The 25th Annual CSU Biotechnology Symposium brought together students, faculty, alumni, administrators and partners from across the 23 campus university system to advance an intricate and cutting edge understanding of life.  More than 700 current and future biotechnology researchers and professionals participated in this silver anniversary symposium held in Anaheim from January 3-5, 2013.  The symposium was a showcase for the year-round work incubated by the CSU Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB).

A major focus of the symposium was the impact that faculty-student collaborations have had and will have over the next 25 years.  Cal State L.A. Professor Sandra Sharp introduced her former student Hector Aguilar-Carreno.  Aguilar-Carreno (above), now an Assistant Professor at Washington State University, shared his group’s work to understand and mitigate the risks of Nipah virus – a deadly virus initially transmitted to humans from animals but then spread human-to-human.

Students at the syposium had the opportunity to survey the broad spectrum of cutting-edge biotechnologies, product-focused innovation and career paths available in the life sciences.  A career networking session gave students at the clinical project management table (above) a chance to speak with Annalee Estrellado, a project manager in BioPharma Services at Genoptix, Inc. and San Diego State University graduate.

Symposium participants enjoyed a world premiere performance.  Cal Poly Pomona faculty and students revealed “Exploring Stem Cells Through Dance” (above).  The modern dance, created with a grant from CSUPERB, interprets an informative video produced by faculty leaders of the Cal Poly Pomona/Cal State L.A. California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Bridges to Stem Cell Research Training Program.  Dancers wearing various t-shirt colors interpreted various human stem and differentiated cells, including red for the heart.

Cal State L.A. President James Rosser, who began his presidency in 1979 making him the CSU’s longest serving president, received special recognition for his role in founding the CSUPERB Presidents’ Commission.  Rosser’s connection to CSUPERB’s mission is deeply rooted in his own academic, teaching and research background in microbiology and health care.  In the photo above (left to right) are Humboldt State President and CSUPERB Presidents’ Commission Chair Rollin Richmond, SFSU Professor and CSUPERB Faculty Consensus Group Chair Michael Goldman, Rosser, CSUPERB Executive Director Susan Baxter, and Cal State LA graduate and Grifols Biologicals, Inc. President Willie Zuniga.

During the symposium, CSU students and faculty recognized peers who reflected the best of research, teaching and service in the biological sciences.  CSU Fullerton graduate student Nicole Ratib (above) presented her research into a symbiotic bacterium in alfalfa – she was recognized with the 2013 Don Eden Graduate Student Research Award.  Ratib was joined in recognition by Alexander Burtea (CSU Fullerton, Glenn Nagel Undergraduate Research Award), Gregory Manata (Humboldt State, Crellin Pauling Student Teaching Award), the Howell-CSUPERB Scholars and Presidents’ Commission Scholars.

The faculty awards underscored the critical roles of mentor and teacher in addition to researcher. Chris Kitts (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Faculty Research Award) dedicated his presentation to underscore the rich potential of student-centered research.  He presented a study he and his students conducted into bioremediation of oil spills.  Kitts was joined in recognition by “renaissance man” Jim Ritchey (Sacramento State, Andreoli Faculty Service Award).

Advances in knowledge and technology are team activities.  This is especially true when a novel drug, device or process transitions from discovery to delivery.

Five finalist CSU teams of biological science, business and marketing students revealed their product launch plan to a panel of judges in the CSUPERB Idea to Product (I2P®) Early-Stage Biotechnology Commercialization Challenge.  As all the competitors stood anxiously on the stage, CSU Board of Trustees Chair Bob Linscheid (above) announced Team “Thrombin” from Sacramento State took first place and Team “Abiotic” from Cal Poly Pomona took second.