Cal Poly is hosting the 38th Annual California State University Student Research Competition this year, with an expected 200 student participants from across the 23 CSUs, according to the Office of Student Research (OSR). 10 Cal Poly student research projects will be amongst those competing on Friday and Saturday.
According to OSR Director Jane Lehr, the event is open to anyone wishing to watch presentations.
“I am excited about all of the projects that are representing Cal Poly as our delegates!” Lehr wrote in an email to Mustang News. “But it was so hard for the jurors to select given the strength of all of the presentations at the internal competition.”
According to the OSR website, student presenters are expected to deliver a 10-minute presentation before a five-minute question and answer with jurors and audience members.
Student research spans 10 categories: 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 and Interdisciplinary.
This year, Cal Poly’s student delegates tackled projects ranging from urinary tract infection treatment to chronicling the history of the Cal Poly Rose Float team.
Biomedical engineering senior Harrison Oen’s project began in the Tissue Engineering Lab. With his groupmates and aid from lab lead Kristen Cardinal, Oen’s project focused on creating silicone blood vessel models intended to remove stroke-inducing blood clots.
“The silicone blood vessel models are lined with cells and designed to mimic specific bends and turns found in actual blood vessels within the brain,” Oen wrote. “Using our models, we evaluated the amount of injury to the lining of cells on the walls of the vessel caused by device use.”
While there aren’t currently ways to access the research done by Oen and his team, he suggests that people come and watch the competition.
“Fundamentally, biomedical engineers work in this field to make an impact in the healthcare field, and I am fortunate to be able to do so through my research,” Oen wrote.
History and anthropology & geography senior and Rose Float Vice President Collin Marfia centered his project by going through university archives, working with his team to restore historical rose float documents, photos and drawings, according to a university news release.
Simultaneously, Marfia worked with ASI to redesign University Union Rm. 221 into the San Luis Lounge, complete with a wallpapered timeline of Cal Poly’s rose float history and achievements.
Biomedical engineering student Anna Dion’s research group is presenting their findings on an assessment of the SLO Noor Medical Clinic, where the students completed a cost-effectiveness analysis of patients receiving care for chronic disease.
“The Noor clinic is a free and charitable clinic, which means that it offers free medical and dental care to patients without insurance who otherwise wouldn’t have access to it,” Dion wrote in an email to Mustang News. “Additionally, by offering preventative and management care, patients can better cope with and intervene on the progression of their chronic disease into a condition that would otherwise greatly decrease their quality of life.”
Dion said that she is both excited to present her research and learn more about other students’ research.
“I don’t get to hear about projects outside of my field as often as I’d like, and I love that the research competition facilitates a setting for it,” she wrote.
In 2023, four Cal Poly student projects placed across humanities and STEM disciplines; three were awarded prizes and one second place. According to the OSR website, first-place winners earn $500 and second-place wins $250. Over 60 judges from Cal Poly and the greater community were recruited to aid in the upcoming competition, according to Lehr.
For students curious to learn more about research opportunities, email Lehr at jlehr@calpoly.edu. A full event schedule for the CSU Research Competition is listed on the OSR website.