CSUSM Symposium 2024

38th Annual CSU Statewide Competition

We are thrilled to celebrate the remarkable achievements of our CSUSM Delegates who excelled at the 38th Annual CSU Statewide Research Competition. Showcasing their expertise across four discipinary categories -- Engineering & Computer Science, Humanities & Letters, Interdisciplinary, and Behavioral, Social Sciences and Public Administration.  

We are delighted to announce Jessica Orea secured 1st place in the category of Behavioral, Social Sciences & Public Administration (graduate) I. 

First Place

Jessica Orea

Dr. Kimberley Pulvers, Faculty Mentor
Psychological Sciences, Graduate
Association Between Distress Tolerance and Cannabis Dependence Stronger for Under-Represented Minorities Among U.S. Young Adults

CSUSM NewsCenter Report 

Join us in applauding the hard work and commitment of all of our delegates!

• 2024 Symposium Finalists & CSUSM Delegates

  Finalist advanced to represent CSUSM at the CSU Statewide Student Research Competition in April 2024.

  Troy Tektonopoulos - Dr. Mathew Stone, Faculty Mentor
  Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Sciences, Undergraduate
  Estimating the Impact of a Menthol Flavor Ban on Cigarette Pack Purchase Behavior 

  Maya Qaddourah - Dr. Jane Kim, Faculty Mentor
  Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
  Investigating the Role of Mismatch Repair on CCTG DNA Repeat Instability

  Adriana Cacho - Dr. Dennis Kolosov, Faculty Mentor
  Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
  Shake It till You Make It: Voltage-gated Ion Channels in Larval Lepidopterans

  Brendan Boyd - Dr. Dennis Kolosov, Faculty Mentor
  Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
  Savvy Sodium Seekers Stunningly Secure Sparse Salts: Detection and Quantification of Na⁺ Channels Within the Excretory System of Trichoplusia ni.

  Camila Valderrama-Martinez & Marisa Mendoza - Dr. Elinne Becket, Faculty Mentor
  Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
  Comparing Nearshore Microbial Community Compositions across Water, Plastic, and Non-Plastic Marine Substrates

  William Cassel - Dr. Nahid Ebrahimi Majd, Faculty Mentor
  Engineering and Computer Science, Undergraduate
  A Lightweight Obfuscated Malware Multi-class Classifier for IoT Using Machine Learning

  Ariana Almaraz - Dr. Yasmine Sherafat, Faculty Mentor
  Interdisciplinary, Undergraduate
  NACHO Protein Expression in the Aversive Circuit in Nicotine Dependent Mice

  Milly Lopez - Dr. Kimberley Pulvers, Faculty Mentor
  Behavioral, Social Sciences, and Public Administration, Undergraduate
  Anxiety and Cannabis Dependence Among Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic White, and Hispanic U.S. Young Adults

  Marcelo Munoz Jr. - Dr.Yuan Yuan, Faculty Mentor
  Humanities & Letters, Undergraduate 
  ¡Bailando cumbia, bailando cumbia! El México Kolombiano Que Nuestro Cuerpo Ha Llamado
  

  Jessica Orea - Dr. Kimberley Pulvers, Faculty Mentor
  Behavioral, Social Sciences, and Public Administration, Graduate
  Association Between Distress Tolerance and Cannabis Dependence Stronger for Under-Represented Minorities Among U.S. Young Adults

• 2024 Symposium Runner-Ups

  Madison Mower - Dr. Todd Astorino, Faculty Mentor
  Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Sciences, Undergraduate 
  Cardiometabolic Response to High Intensity Functional Training versus Rowing-Based High Intensity Interval Training

  Valeria Castellanos Rodriguez - Dr. Carlos Luna Lopez, Faculty Mentor
  Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
  Brown and White Adipocytes Promotes the Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition to MDA-MB-231 Cells

  Shyane Masters - Dr. George Brusch, Faculty Mentor
  Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
  Understanding the impact of elevated water temperatures on shark migration patterns in the Central-East Gulf of Mexico

  Yutzil Zavala - Dr. Betsy Read, Faculty Mentor
  Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
  HEBP and IP6 uniformly inhibited biomineralization at concentrations as low as 0.25mM and 0.1mM respectively, however, cell growth is also affected.

  Siaje Gideon - Dr. Dennis Kolosov, Faculty Mentor
  Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
  Voltage-gated ion channels in cultured gill epithelia of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, alter in abundance following salt and water imbalance

  Mireya Gonzales-Rivera - Dr. Betsy Read, Faculty Mentor
  Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Undergraduate
  Qubit Readout Techniques for Donor-Based Quantum Architectures in Silicon

  Gustavo Benitez - Dr. Eric Leas, Faculty Mentor
  Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Sciences, Undergraduate 
  Disparities and impact of flavor restrictions on the availability of flavored tobacco products in online vaping retailers.

  Aryanna Alarcon - Dr. Kim Pulvers, Faculty Mentor
  Behavioral, Social Sciences, and Public Administration, Undergraduate
  Cannabis Vaping Days Associated with Impaired Neurological Quality of Life among a Tri-Ethnic Sample of U.S. Young Adult Men and Women

  Kai Orozco - Dr. Kim Pulvers, Faculty Mentor
  Behavioral, Social Sciences, and Public Administration, Undergraduate
  Earlier Age of First Cannabis Use Linked with Greater Current Peer Use of Cannabis among Young Adult Men and Women

  Alex Leon - Dr. Dustin P. Calvillo, Faculty Mentor
  Behavioral, Social Sciences, and Public Administration, Graduate
  Illusory Truth Occurs with Headlines from Reliable Sources but Not from Unreliable Sources