Office of Research and Development

Group 1 – Behavioral and Social Sciences

Wendy Dorenbush
M.A. Anthropology
Lost Settlements: Rediscovering the Maya Settlement and Landscape of Cahal Pech, Belize
Faculty Mentor: James Brady

Group 2 – Behavioral and Social Sciences

Tony Ye
M.A. Psychology
Cognitive Inflexibility After Adolescent Methamphetamine Exposure
Faculty Mentor: Alicia Izquierdo

Group 3 - Engineering and Computer Science

Garth Herman
M.S. Electrical Engineering
Hybrid Routing Algorithms for Navigation Control of a Semi-Autonomous Robotic Platform
Faculty Mentors: Charles Liu and Helen Boussalis

Group 4 - Engineering and Computer Science

Azizkhan Pathan
Joseph David Wells
Benjamin Liu
B.S. Mechanical Engineering
Experimental Sounding Supersonic Rocket Design Faculty Mentor: Darrell Guillaume

Usama  Tohid
M.S. Mechanical Engineering
Parametric Analysis of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell in Single-phase and two-phase Regimes
Faculty Mentor: Arturo Pacheco-Vega

Group 5 - Biological Sciences

Kathy Trang
B.A. Psychology and B.S. Biology
Alternative Splicing: Sexual Differentiation at the Transcriptome
Faculty Mentor: Houng-Wei Tsai

Andrea Herrera
M.S. Biology
Determining the mechanism of inhibition of mitochondrial Ca2+ overload by the cocoa flavanol (-)-epicatechin as a means of conferring cardioprotection during ischemiareperfusion
Faculty Mentor: Katrina Yamazaki

Group 6 – Humanities and Letters

Krystal Messer
M.A. History
Taken for a Ride: How General Motors Drove the Pacific Electric Railway Out of Business
Faculty Mentor: Choi Chatterjee
Robert Brown
M.A. Political Science
The Path to Insurgency: A Comparative Analysis of Afghanistan, Colombia, and Angola
Faculty Mentor: Emily Acevedo

Group 7 – Biological and Chemical Sciences

Michael Martinez
B.S. Chemistry
Identification of Benzo[a]pyrene Diones as Net Sensitizers of Singlet Oxygen
Faculty Mentors: Krishna Foster and Matias Selke

Poster Presentations

Behavioral and Social Sciences

Ana Fonseca
Phoebe Lee
Sibella Salazar
Liana Kostaudyan
M.A. Psychology
Maintenance of Latino Culture among Latino Young Adults and Parents
Faculty Mentor: Jessica Dennis

Guadalupe Gutierrez, B.A. Psychology
Sandy Wang, M.A. Psychology
Parenting Behavior and School-Aged Bullying Experience: Association with Self-Esteem in Young Adults
Faculty Mentors: Munyi Shea and Robert Kennison

Biological and Agricultural Sciences

Oswaldo Escobar
B.S. Microbiology Improvement of Polarization of Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells Grown at Air-Liquid Interface with Retinoic Acid Faculty Mentor: Edith Porter

Natalie Rodriguez
M.S. Biology
Epistatic Analysis of Candida albicans Yck2Δ/Δ Strain: Implications of gene expression profile on mutant morphology and stress response
Faculty Mentor: Hyunsook Park

Jazma Tapia
B.S. Microbiology
The Role of Antimicrobial Lipids: Potential Novel Innate Immune Factors Preventing Intrauterine Infections
Faculty Mentor: Edith Porter

Engineering and Computer Science

Anahis Rincon
B.S. Biochemistry
Optimization of Centrifugal Microfluidic Disc Design for Separations via Monolithic Silica discs
Faculty Mentor: Frank Gomez

Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Sciences

Eileen Gonzalez
B.S. Microbiology
Mitochondrial Dynamics in the Type 2 Diabetic Heart
Faculty Mentor: Katrina Yamazaki

Physical and Mathematical Sciences