40th CSUSB Student Research Competition
The 40th Annual CSUSB Student Research Competition is scheduled to take place on Friday, February 13th, 2026, inside the College of Education (COE). This competition offers CSUSB students a platform to enhance their presentation and communication skills while highlighting their scholarly and creative accomplishments.
Participants present their research findings to a panel of judges, with the top performers earning the chance to advance to the statewide California State University (CSU) Research Competition hosted at San José State University on April 23-25, 2026. There, they will compete against other exceptional scholars within the CSU system. Successful participants in the CSU Student Research Competition have the opportunity to win accolades, with $500 awarded for first place and $250 for second place within their respective sessions.
What is the CSU Competition?
The California State University Student Research Competition is an annual event that brings together scholars from the 23 campuses of our California State University system. The competition showcases undergraduate and graduate research, scholarship, and creative works by recognizing outstanding student accomplishments. across the 23 campuses.
Current undergraduate students, graduate students, and recent alumni from all academic disciplines can participate. Each year, over 200 students from the 23 CSU campuses submit written papers and make oral presentations before juries of professional experts from major corporations, foundations, public agencies, and universities in California.
Each CSU campus appoints a campus coordinator and develops its own procedures for selecting student delegates to the system-wide competition. Only those students endorsed by the campus coordinator can enter the system-wide competition.
Submit your Abstract Today!
Submission Guidelines:
- Open to undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines.
- Submit a 250-300 word abstract summarizing your research or
project.
Submit here
Abstract Submission Opens: November 4th, 2025
Application Deadline: January 21st, 2026
If you have any questions about the application process, please contact our office at osr@csusb.edu.
40th Annual CSUSB Student Research Competition Session Winners
The Office of Student Research and Innovation is pleased to announce the session winners of the 40th Annual CSUSB Student Research Competition. We would like to extend our gratitude for all those who entered this competition. Deliberations for the session winners and advancing teams were incredibly difficult with all the wonderful and fascinating presentation and captivating research our students are conducting on our campus.
We would also like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the jurors who took time out of their busy schedule and made this competition possible with this unprecedented number of competitors for the Student Research Competition.
Thank you for participating in this year’s competition and championing CSUSB’s excellence and achievements in research and innovation.
Session 1
Winner: Adriana Duran
Major: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nicolas Brunet
Session 2
Winner: Celeste Martinez
Major: History
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kate Lisszka
Session 3
Winner: Veronica Ortega
Major: Sociology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Ethel Mickey
Session 4
Winner: Jeremy Almazan
Major: Biology
Faculty Mentor: Angela Horner
Session 5
Winners: Cassandra Fielding and Katie LaFave
Major: Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Smith
Session 6
Winner: Ashley Camacho
Major: Computer Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Yunfei Hou
Session 7
Winners: Tara O'Neill De Lafosse, Christopher Pooche, Omar Flores, Kevin Evans and Jonathan Aguirre
Major: Various
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Yunfei Hou
Session 8
Winners: Brynn Knowlton, Liz Jimenez, Nathalie Duran, Nicholas Munoz and Yadhira Mejia
Major: Various
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Yunfei Hou
Session 9
Winner: Livia J Padron Briceno
Major: Psychological Science
Faculty Mentor: Maria Santos
Session 10
Winner: Rachel Kanter
Major: Psychological Science
Faculty Mentor: Dean Christina Hassija
Session 11
Winner: Somya Shubhra Pal
Major: Business Administration
Faculty Mentor: None
Session 12
Winner: Greg Austin
Major: Kinesiology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Zhaojing Chen
Session 13
Winners: Yahtziri Martinez and Daniela Torres
Major: Kinesiology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nathaniel Bodell
Session 14
Winner: Denisse Sanchez
Major: Speech-Language Pathology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Maxine Van Doren
Session 15
Winners: Lisandro Esquivel-Solis, Nathanael Hernandez and Daniel Moran
Major: English
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sunny Hyon
Session 16
Winner: Derek Abeln
Major: Geology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Tandis Bigoli
Teams Advancing to the 40th Annual CSU Student Research Competition in San José State University
The Office of Student Research and Innovation is pleased to announce and congratulate the ten teams chosen to represent CSUSB at the statewide competition in San José State University on April 24-26, 2026!
Cassandra Fielding and Katie LaFave
Presentation Title: Increasing Beneficial Insects on Southern California Avocado and Citrus Farms
Major: Biology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Smith
Jeremy Almazan
Presentation Title: The Metabolic Cost of Hopping on solid vs sand surfaces in Dipodomys deserti
Major: Biology
Faculty Mentor: Angela Horner
Livia J Padron Briceno
Presentation Title: Role of Stigma on Engagement in Mental Health Services for Latinxs with First-Episode Psychosis (FEP)
Major: Psychological Science
Faculty Mentor: Maria Santos
Somya Shubhra Pal
Presentation Title: Chronic Disease Burden and COVID-19 Mortality in U.S. Counties A Regression Analysis of Obesity and Diabetes as Predictors of COVID-19 Death Rates
Major: Business Administration
Faculty Mentor: None
Rachel Kanter
Presentation Title: “I Betrayed Myself”: A Mixed-Methods Study of Moral Injury Among Survivors of Intimate Partner Sexual Violence
Major: Psychological Science
Faculty Mentor: Dean Christina Hassija
Kelley Kelley and Emily Wooten
Presentation Title: Variation in Susceptibility to Glyphosate Based Herbicide Exposure Among DGRP Lines of Drosophila
Major: Various
Faculty Mentor: Becky Talyn
Tara O'Neill De Lafosse, Christopher Poche, Omar Flores, Kevin Evans and Jonathan Aguirre
Presentation Title: HAPI (Home Air Purification Interface)
Major: Various
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Yunfei Hou
Lisandro Esquivel-Solis, Nathanael Hernandez and Daniel Moran
Presentation Title: How to Build a Better Writer: A Corpus Linguistics Examination of Undergraduate Writing
Major: English
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sunny Hyon
Yahtziri Martinez and Daniela Torres
Presentation Title: Simulated high-altitude conditions significantly impaired lap performance and reduced oxygen saturation in a virtual racing task.
Major: Kinesiology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nathaniel Bodell
Gabriela Rojas-Norris
Presentation Title: Chronic Roundup® Exposure Drives Multi-Generational Fitness Decline and Larvicide Sensitization in Culex quinquefasciatus
Major: Environmental Health Science
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mahmood Nikbakhtzdeh
