News Release| CSU Student Research Competition; Cal State L.A.

March 13, 2012

Note to editors and news directors: For information regarding covering the competition, including arranging access to specific student presentations, please call Cal State L.A.’s Public Affairs office in advance at (323) 343-3050 or email the contacts listed above.

Eleven students to represent Cal State L.A. in statewide research competition

Research to focus on airway secretions, Belize settlement,
estuarine sea slugs, affordable hydrogen, more

Los Angeles, CA – Covering research topics ranging from clinical outbreak to hypersonic flight, 11 Cal State L.A. students will represent the University at the 26th Annual CSU Student Research Competition at Cal State Long Beach May 4-5, 2012.

Sponsored by the California State University (CSU) Office of the Chancellor, the statewide competition will consist of 10 discipline categories in the undergraduate and graduate levels. Each student will have 10 minutes to present an oral presentation to an audience and jury, who will then have five minutes to ask questions.

The following 11 Cal State L.A. students, who were recently selected from the Cal State L.A. Symposium on Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity, are competing in the research competition:

Mark Anthony Aguilar - mentored by David Blekhman, associate professor of technology. Title: “The SHArK Project – Affordable Hydrogen from Sunshine.”

Jessica Alvarenga - mentored by Helen Boussalis, professor of electrical engineering.  Title: “Sensitivity Studies of a Strain-Based Shape Prediction Algorithm.”

Remy Ashe - mentored by Suzanne Regan, professor of communication studies.  Title: “The Traumatized Mouse and the Dissociated Duck: Trauma and Resolution in Disney’s Animated Feature-Length Films.”

Kalind Carpenter and Azizkhan Pathan - mentored by Helen Boussalis, professor of electrical engineering, and Darrell Guillaume, professor of mechanical engineering.  Title: “Supersonic Combustion Leads to Hypersonic Flight.”

Wendy Dorenbush - mentored by James Brady, professor of anthropology. Title: “Settlement Patterns of Cahal Pech, Belize: A Preliminary Report on the Settlement Survey of 2011 B.V.A.R. Field Season.”

*Angela Guerrero - mentored by Matthias Selke, professor of chemistry.  Title: “Photooxidation of the antioxidant trans-resveratrol.” (CSULA’s Honorable Mention)

Hanna Koch - mentored by Patrick Krug, associate professor of biology.  Title: “Local adaptation and range limits for the estuarine sea slugs, Alderia willowi and Alderia modesta.”

Daniel Ma - mentored by Edith Porter, associate professor of biology. Title: “Reduced Antimicrobial Cholesteryl Content in Airway Secretions in Cystic Fibrosis.”

*Dominic Quagliozzi - mentored by Mika Cho, professor of art.  Title: “There Is a Yesterday: The Body and Technology in Art.” (CSULA’s 2012 Phi Kappa Phi Travel Award of $1,000)

Wayne A. Warner  - mentored by Howard Xu, professor of microbiology.  Title: “Phenotypic and molecular characterization of clinical outbreak isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii obtained from Los Angeles County, California hospitals.”

The CSU event each year follows the annual Cal State L.A. Symposium on Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. The aim of the campus symposium is to encourage all CSULA students—undergraduate and graduate in every discipline—to showcase their papers, projects and research endeavors. It also provides them an opportunity to network with administrators, faculty and peers. For information about the symposium and its 11 student delegation, call the Office of Research and Development at (323) 343-3798.

For more details on the CSU Student Research Competition, go to http://www.sfsu.edu/~gradstdy/research-competition.htm  

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