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General Event Schedule for the CSU-wide Student Research Competition

The in-person competition is held to promote excellence in undergraduate and graduate scholarly research and creative activity by recognizing outstanding student accomplishments throughout the 22 campuses of the ²»Á¼Ñо¿Ëù (CSU).

• Undergraduate or graduate students currently enrolled at any CSU campus
• Alumni/alumnae who received their degrees in winter, spring, summer or fall 2025 or winter 2026 are eligible
• Research/creative activity presented should be appropriate to the student’s discipline and
  career goals.
• Proprietary research is excluded.
• Presentations from all disciplines are welcome
  • Behavioral, Social Sciences and Public Administration
  • Biological and Agricultural Sciences
  • Business, Economics and Hospitality Management
  • Creative Arts and Design (creative projects are welcome—see “Competition Guidelines”)
  • Education
  • Engineering and Computer Science
  • Health, Nutrition and Clinical Sciences
  • Humanities and Letters
  • Interdisciplinary
  • Physical and Mathematical Sciences

• Each entry can be individual or a small group making a single presentation.
• Separate undergraduate and graduate divisions for each category (unless a division has four or fewer entrants, in which case the divisions may be combined).
• The San José State University steering committee reserves the right to combine or subdivide these categories, or to move an entrant from one category to another, as necessitated by submission numbers.

Awards

Based on the recommendations of the jurors, monetary awards will be provided to the outstanding presenter and the runner-up in both the undergraduate and graduate divisions of each category. If the undergraduate and graduate divisions of a category have been combined, awards will be provided to the outstanding presenter and the runner-up without regard to class standing. The awards ceremony will be held on Saturday April 25, 2026 at the conclusion of the event; friends and family are welcome to attend. All supporters should complete the CSU Student Research Competition 2025 Registration Form by Friday, March 13, 2026, end-of-day.

Are you interested in participating in the 40th Annual ²»Á¼Ñо¿Ëù Student Research Competition hosted by San José State University? Check out these valuable resources to help you get started and succeed:

Gain insight into the competition’s purpose, eligibility criteria, proposal guidelines, and tips for both written and oral presentations.

Each ²»Á¼Ñо¿Ëù will host their own internal competition in Fall 2024 or Spring 2025 and select up to 10 entries to represent their campus at the system wide competition. Each CSU campus appoints a campus coordinator and develops its own procedures for selecting student delegates to the systemwide competition. Interested students should contact their campus coordinator for more information. Only those students endorsed by the campus coordinator can enter the systemwide competition.

The campus coordinator will submit a list of students who have been selected for the system wide competition along with their written summaries. The rules governing the written summary are as follows:

1. The summary must include the name(s) of the student(s) and the title of the presentation.
2. The written narrative should
   1. Utilize a font size of 10 or above
   2. Have margins of at least 0.75”
   3. Should be a minimum of one page and not exceed two pages in total (1-2 pages)
3. Appendices (bibliography, graphs, photographs or other supplementary materials) are optional, may not exceed three pages total, and should be delivered separately from the written narrative.
4. All research must comply with applicable policies and regulations. Research that involves human or animal subjects must have appropriate institutional review.

On either Friday April 24th or Saturday April 25th students will present their work orally before a jury and an audience. Presenters will have 10 minutes for an oral presentation of their work and five minutes to listen and respond to juror and audience questions (juror questions are asked first). It is expected that a student will not make a presentation by simply reading directly from the written summary. For projects with 2+ students, it is recommend that oral presentations be made by no more than two students, with any additional group members, as relevant, responding to juror and audience questions. 

All entrants may use audiovisual materials as appropriate, and presenters are encouraged to use delivery techniques that promote interaction with the audience. The majority of student presentations will be accompanied by a slideshow/slide deck, but it is not a required element. Presenters wishing to use a slideshow for their presentation are encouraged to use Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint for ease of access during the competition.

Entrants in the Creative Arts and Design category may present an audio and/or visual recording of a performance they have given or a work they have created; their oral presentation should focus on the rationale and historical context underlying their interpretation of the material. Live performances are also acceptable, within the 10 minute time limit. 
 
Each entry (oral presentation plus written summary) will be judged on the following:

1. Clarity of purpose
2. Appropriateness of methodology
3. Interpretation of results
4. Value of the research or creative activity
5. Ability of the presenter to articulate the research or creative activity
6. Organization of the material presented
7. Presenter’s ability to address questions from the jury and general audience

Congratulations to the undergraduate and graduate students and their faculty mentors selected by the Committee on Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity (CRSCA) to represent ²»Á¼Ñо¿Ëù at the 2026 CSU Student Research Competition!

Students will deliver a 10 min. oral presentation in various disciplines on April 23-25 at San Jose State University. 

Students: Phoebe Cheung, Alexander Gibson, and Russell Marasigan

Mentor: Jesús Oliver, Ph.D., Mathematics

Title: Finite Time Blow-Up in the Damped Klein-Gordon Model

Student: Sri Vidya Rani Narala

Mentor: Dr. Fay Zhong, Ph.D., Computer Science

Title: Improving and Piloting the Application of 360° Virtual Reality Technology in Nursing Education: Challenges and Recommendations for Patient Safety Training

Students: Maria Ali, Kylie Qui, and Preeti Sundaramurthi 

Mentor: Divya Sitaraman, Ph.D., Psychology

Title: Decoding the Neural Circuit of Sleep–Wake Regulation in Drosophila: Linking Sleep Homeostasis and Deprivation to Mitochondrial Stress

Student: Daria Vasina 

Mentor: Ash Rao, Ph.D., Management

Title: Using Micro Training to Increase Workplace Inclusion for People with Epilepsy

Student: Sierra Wade, Garrett Collins, Lyn Peelle, Jacob Ruskin, and Avi Taneja

Mentor: Rachel Brunson, Student Center for Academic Achievement

Title: Neurodivergent College Students Raising Critical Consciousness ²»Á¼Ñо¿Ëù Identity, Social Mobility, and Success: A Participatory Action Research Study

Student: Jacob Ativo 

Mentor: Hongmin Li, Ph.D., Computer Science

Title: LLM-guided Semi-Supervised Approaches for Social Media Crisis Data Classification

Student: Joseph Germano

Mentor: Jiyoun Myung, Ph.D., Statistics And Data Science

Title: Predicting Sports MVP Player Value Using Off-Field Factors

Student: Prabhjot Kaur, Bhavnish Kaur, Cindy Choe, Sara Do, and Malini Prakash 

Mentor: Arnab Mukherjea, Ph.D., Public Health & Kavita Atwal, Ph.D., Educational Psychology

Title: Unraveling Mental Health Determinants Among AAPI College Students

Student: Jennifer Mac

Mentor: Jiyoun Myung, Ph.D., Statistics And Data Science

Title: Global Housing Affordability

Student: Jezelle Overstreet

Mentor: Yashas Hariprasad, Ph.D., Computer Science

Title: Prompt-to-Program: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Large Language Models in AI-Driven Software Generation

Join us at the 2026 East Bay Student Showcase on Friday, April 17, from 1:40–2:55 pm in the UU MPR to support these outstanding student groups!

We are excited to have such a great representation of ²»Á¼Ñо¿Ëù and wish all of our students the best of luck.

Thank you to the members of the CRSCA for your thoughtful review and selection of the student projects!!

Join us at the 2026 CSU Student Research Competition from April 23-25 at San Jose State University campus to support these outstanding student groups!

Competition Information: April 23–25, 2026. .

Where: San Jose State University campus. 

If you'd like to attend as a juror, event and registration volunteer, or other supporter, please complete the RSVP form by end of day ​Monday, March 1​6, 2026.

All volunteers will be provided with parking passes for the event days.

Missed the information Session and Student Panel??

Select to watch the video from our Fall 2024 information session and STUDENT scholar panel!!

Deadline to submit your 1-2 pg. proposal: Jan. 31, 2026

Submit via e-mail to: oscar@csueastbay.edu

Missed the information Session and Student Panel??

Select to watch the video from our Fall 2024 information session and STUDENT scholar panel!!

✔️ Insider tips to stand out
✔️ Proposal writing advice
✔️ Inspiring experiences from last year’s top presenters