CSU Student Research Competition

April 25-26, 2025
Hosted at Cal Poly Humboldt, CA

Overview

Each year, in recognition of the important role undergraduate and graduate research plays in the lives of faculty and their students, the California State University system holds a special conference for student researchers called the CSU Student Research Competition. Each of the 23 CSU campuses select students to represent their campus at the event. Those students give an oral presentation on their research, scholarship, or creative activity. Those presentations are judged and students have the potential to earn cash prizes, and everyone has a great time.

Apply now for the CSUF SRC Semi Finalist round

Applications due Feb 14, 2025 at 11:59pm

Who May Participate?

Undergraduate or graduate students currently enrolled at any CSU campus and alumni/alumnae who received their degrees in spring, summer or fall of the competition year are eligible (For example, if the conference is in Spring of 2024, Spring, Summer and Fall 2024 graduates are eligible). The research presented should be appropriate to the student’s discipline and career goals. Proprietary research is excluded.

Presentations from all disciplines are welcome. There will be separate undergraduate and graduate divisions for each category (unless a division has four or fewer entrants, in which case the divisions may be combined). The steering committee reserves the right to combine or subdivide these categories, or to move an entrant from one category to another, as necessitated by submission numbers.

The ten categories are:

Behavioral, Social Sciences, and Public Administration
Biological and Agricultural Sciences
Business, Economics, and Hospitality Management
Creative Arts and Design
Education
Engineering and Computer Science
Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Sciences
Humanities and Letters
Physical and Mathematical Sciences
Interdisciplinary

A campus delegation may include up to 10 entries. A small team of students making a single presentation counts as a single entry. See registration instructions for how to register a single entry or a team.

How to Participate?

CSUF students must submit a CSUF application in early Spring. UROC will then select the 10-top applicants to represent CSUF at the system-wide conference. CSUF applications are submitted through Info Ready

The rules governing the application include:

A written summary must be submitted that includes the name(s) of the student(s) and the title of the presentation.
The written summary may not exceed four doubled-spaced pages and must use fonts and margins that ensure legibility.
Appendices (bibliography, graphs, photographs, and other supplementary materials) may not exceed three pages.
Schedule a ten-minute slot to present your oral presentation to CSUF judges.
It is expected that a student will not make a presentation by simply reading directly from the written summary.
Research that involves human or animal subjects must have appropriate institutional review.

See competition guidelines for details on what the written and oral presentation should include.

Competition Guidelines

Student CSUF applications will be judged based on the same guidelines as the state=wide competition. As per the CSU state-wide competition, each student will have ten minutes for an oral presentation of their work and five minutes to listen and respond to juror and audience questions. All entrants may use audiovisual materials as appropriate, and presenters are encouraged to use delivery techniques that promote interaction with the audience. Entrants in the Creative Arts and Design category may present an audio and/or visual record of a performance they have given or a work they have created; their oral presentation should focus on the rationale and historical context underlying their interpretation of the material.

The names of the students who are selected through the campus portion of the competition to represent CSUF at the system-wide conference will be sent to the institution organizing the state-wide conference, along with their research summaries. UROC will provide funding for travel to attend the system-wide competition. Students representing CSUF must be able to attend the entire CSU Student Research Competition and additional required events as communicated by UROC. Winners of the system-wide competition will also receive monetary awards.

At the system-wide competition, students will present their work orally before a jury and an audience. Students will compete by discipline category and class standing (undergraduate/graduate) as described above in "Who May Participate."

Each entry (oral presentation plus written summary) will be judged on the following:

Clarity of purpose
Appropriateness of methodology
Interpretation of results
Value of the research or creative activity
Ability of the presenter to articulate the research or creative activity
Organization of the material presented
Presenter’s ability to handle questions from the jury and general audience

Tips on how to Prepare for Competition

You will have 10 minutes to present your project. Do not read your written summary. Instead, aim to memorize your presentation (to the best of your ability). You may use a PowerPoint (or a similar software) and note cards to aid in your presentation at the campus-level competition, but you will not be able to use cards at the CSU-wide competition. At the end of 10 minutes, judges will have five minutes to ask questions about your work.
Suggestions for Presentation:

Speak to a general audience
- Avoid discipline-specific jargon. Define key terms that someone outside of your discipline may not know. Judges may not be from your particular discipline, so you need to clearly articulate your ideas.
Presentation Structure
- State your name, class standing (undergraduate/graduate) and field of study (include this information on your first slide, along with your project title).
- State your topic or project focus.
- Provide general background on your topic and describe how your project fits into your field/discipline.
- Explain your objectives or research questions.
- Describe your methods or artistic medium(s).
- Describe key findings or project results. If you have multiple small findings, provide a general summary of the findings.
- Explain why the findings or creation are important and how they can be applied to your field (e.g., can your project results help in the prevention of disease? Do your findings help better educate children? Does your choreography push past disciplinary obstacles? Does your drawing challenge conventional notions?).
Presentations for Creative Activities
- If you are presenting a creative activity (e.g., dance performance, poetry), present an analysis of your work. To do this, you may include a visual representation of the work (via images or videos), and provide a rationale for your topic, historical context, artistic medium(s) and how this piece matters to your particular art discipline.
Make sure your PowerPoint/presentation slides are easy to follow. Do not include too much text or too small text.
Represent ideas with pictures, graphs and/or charts when possible (versus only text).
Avoid reading from your slides. Keep the information on the slides minimal and speak to the audience.
Rehearse your presentation multiple times to stay within the 10-minute limit.
Anticipate possible questions from the judges.
Judges at the campus-level competition will be from a broad range of disciplines. Judges at thestate-wide competition will be from your general academic or professional discipline, but they may not be familiar with your specific area of study. For example, civil engineering students may be judged by mechanical and electrical engineers.

CSU State-side Student Research Competition Host?

Each year a different CSU campus hosts the conference. Find out who is hosting the current year by heading to their website.

Past CSUF/CSU Student Research Competition Winners

2022 Student Research Competition Winners

Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Undergraduate
1st Place: Mauricio Gomez Lopez, Physics
Title: Studying the Material Properties of an Active Suspension of Swimming Bacteria
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Wylie Ahmed

Engineering and Computer Science, Graduate
2nd Place: Mehrshad Mazaheri, Mechanical Engineering
Title: High-speed machining of 2219 Aluminum utilizing Nanoparticle Enhanced MQL lubrication
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sagil James

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
1st Place: Azeem Horani, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Title: Identification and Characterization of Nuclear Export Sequences in Polypyrimidine Tract Binding Protein 1
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Niroshika Keppetipola

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
2nd Place: Julia Teeple, Biological Sciences
Title: Analyzing Flow Using Accurate Manta Anatomy
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Misty Paig-Tran

2021 Student Research Competition Winners

Check out CSUF News: Student Researchers Earn Top Honors at Statewide Competition

Creative Arts and Design, Graduate
1st Place: Sierra Farquhar-Wulff, Music
Title: Gender Discrimination in the Choral Conducting Profession
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rob Istad

Behavioral, Social Sciences, and Public Administration, Undergraduate
1st Place: Alexa Vega Rivas, Psychology
Title: How Do the Effects of Trump’s Immigration Policies Influence White and Latino Support for the American Dream?
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ella Ben Hagai

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
2nd Place: Kathryn Eckholdt, Biological Science - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Title: Talking Trash: Will a Trash Interceptor in Newport Bay, CA Intercept Wrack Subsidies, Too?
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Danielle Zacherl

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
2nd Place: Makar Makarian, Chemistry
Title: Microwave-Assisted Synthesis and Kinetic Studies of Donepezil-Based Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stevan Pecic

2020 Student Research Competition Winners

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
2nd Place: Elizabeth Hitch, Biological Science
Title: Determining the Role of Linker Regions in Polypyrimidine Tract Binding Protein 2 Neuronal Splicing Regulation
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Niroshika Keppetipola

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Graduate
2nd Place: Amber Myers, Biological Science
Title: Characterizing the Source and Function of Lipid Droplet Accumulation in Fly Macrophages
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Catherine Brennan

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Graduate
2nd Place: Larissa Smulders, Biological Science
Title: Boosting Cancer Therapy by Blocking a Protein's Travel to the Cell Surface
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nikolas Nikolaidis

Behavioral and Social Sciences, Graduate
2nd Place: Dylan Serpas, Psychology
Title: Group Cognitive Rehabilitation for Community-Dwelling Survivors of Traumatic Brain Injury
Faculty Mentor: Daniel Ignacio

2019 Student Research Competition Winners

Behavioral and Social Sciences, Undergraduate
2nd place: Jessica Barragan and Kendra Paquette, Psychology
Title: When a Perpetrator Wears a Disguise: Which Lineup is Best to Test Eyewitness Memory
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Iris Blandón-Gitlin

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Graduate
1st place: Evelyn Bond, Biology
Title: The Role of Genital Papillas in the Reproductive Biology of Male Surfperches (Embiotocidae; Teleostei)
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kristy Forsgren

Engineering and Computer Science, Graduate
1st place: Thilakraj Shivakumar, Mechanical Engineering
Title: The Effects of Process Parameters on Mechanical Properties in Liquid Holographic Volumetric Additive Manufacturing Process
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sagil James

2018 Student Research Competition Winners

Finance, Undergraduate
2nd place: Marcel Jacquot, Finance
Title: All Talk or Some Walk: The Relationship Between Stock Movements and Investor Attention on a Social Media Platform
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Arsenio Staer

Mechanical Engineering, Graduate
2nd place: Vivek Anand Menon, Mechanical Engineering
Title: Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study of Liquid-Assisted Laser Beam Machining Process
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sagil James

2017 Student Research Competition Winners

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Graduate
1st place: Raj Divi, Biological Science
Title: Biomimetic Models Reveal Vortical Filtration Mechanics of Filter Feeding Mobulid Rays
Faculty mentor: Dr. Misty Paig-Tran

Humanities and Letters, Graduate
1st place: Nick Gomez, Music
Title: Ornette Coleman in 1959: Redefining the Form and Function of Jazz
Faculty mentor: Dr. John Koegel

Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Undergraduate
1st place: Stacy Guzman, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Title: Small-molecule Inhibitors of Wnt Signaling Pathway: Towards Novel Anticancer Therapeutics
Faculty mentor: Dr. Peter de Lijser

Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Undergraduate
1st place: Trini Nguyen, Mathematics
Title: Mathematical Model to Detect Dry-Eye Diseases
Faculty mentor: Dr. Charles H. Lee

Engineering and Computer Sciences, Graduate
1st place: Mayur Parmar, Mechanical Engineering
Title: Experimental Study on Liquid-assisted Laser Beam Micro-Machining of Smart Materials
Faculty mentor: Dr. Sagil James

2016 Student Research Competition Winners

Humanities and Letters, Graduate
1st place: Joris Hoogsteder, Music
Title: Musical Innovation in Early Videogames: Super Mario Bros.
Faculty Mentor: Dr. John Koegel

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
1st place: Robert Jordan Ontiveros, Biological Science
Title: Identification and Structural Characterization of a Minimal Functional Splicing Regulator, Polypyrimidine Tract Binding Protein 1
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Niroshika Keppetipola

Engineering and Computer Science, Graduate
1st place: Shawn Ricardo, Computer Science
Title: Low Cost, Real-Time, LIDAR Based Obstacle Avoidance for Mobile Robots
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Donna Bein

Engineering and Computer Science, Graduate
2nd place: Hussein Al-barazanchi , Computer Science
Title: Plankton Image Classification using Hybrid-CNN to Monitor Changes in Marine Ecosystems
Faculty Mentor: Abhishek Verma

2015 Student Research Competition Winners

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
1st place: Kyle Hess, Biological Science
Title: Decoding the Human Cellular Stress Response, One Mutation at a Time
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nikolas Nikolaidis

Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Undergraduate
2nd place: Brenna Biggs, Chemistry
Title: An Alternative Energy Device to Convert Carbon Dioxide to Power
Faculty Mentor: Dr. John Haan

Behavioral and Social Sciences, Graduate
2nd place: April Nakagawa, Environmental Studies
Title: Intersexual Conflict: Infanticide and Spontaneous Abortions as Reproductive Strategies Among a Wild Population of Gelada Monkeys at Guassa, Ethiopia
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nga Nguyen

2014 Student Research Competition Winners

Biological and Social Sciences, Graduate
1st place: Daniel Ignacio, M.S. Clinical Psychology
Title: The Effects of Music and Auditory Affective Priming on Cognition
Faculty mentor: Dr. David Gerkens

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Graduate
1st place: Jessica Valadez, M.S. Biology
Title: Analysis of the Transcriptional Activation and Post-Transcriptional Regulation of Transient Receptor Potential Mucolpin-2 (Trpml2) Gene
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Math Cuajungco

Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
2nd place: Jennifer Spencer, B.S. Biological Science
Title: Investigating Defense Responses of Nicotiana Benthamiana involving the 14-3-3 gene family using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS)
Faculty mentor: Dr. Melanie Sacco

Business, Economics, and Public Administration, Combined Undergraduate & Graduate
1st place: Brooke Sullivan, B.S. Business Administration
Title: Community Issues in American Metropolitan Cities: A Data Mining Case Study
Faculty mentor: Dr. Sinjini Mitra

Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Sciences, Graduate
1st place: Kevin Valenzuela, M.S. Kinesiology
Title: Effect of Foot Rotation during Running on Knee Moments and Lateral-medial Shear Force
Faculty mentor: Dr. Scott Lynn

Engineering and Computer Science, Graduate
2nd place: Quang Tran, M.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering
Title: Investigation of Durability of High Performance Concrete by Measuring Electrical Resistivity using two different non-destructive instruments
Faculty mentor: Dr. Pratanu Ghosh