San Jose State University’s Celebration of Research was the capstone event to the institution’s research week, taking place on Thursday at the Student Union, highlighting student work, start-up innovation showcases, research competitions and more.
The event held an awards ceremony including student researchers from the RSCA Opportunities for Graduate Students, Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, SJSU Student RSCA Competition and the McNair Scholars Program.
Mohamed Abousalem, vice president for Research and Innovation, introduced the event.
“Through the great research work that our faculty and students do, we are able to contribute to solving today’s problems and mitigate tomorrow's challenges alongside our industry and community partners,” Abousalem said. “This celebration today is our way of demonstrating our unique ability to perform critical research work on important topics and develop creative scholarships in areas that touch our lives.”
Afterward, Abousalem introduced Vincent Del Casino Jr., provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.
Casino said it was not only growth in student research that he’s seen over the past four years, but the integration of that growth feeding into the teaching and learning enterprise.
“This valley is incredible and it is also marked by incredible amounts of inequity,” Casino said. “The faculty, the staff and the students are committed to thinking about that, and the Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity enterprise can drive that change and transformation, not just on this campus, but in this valley and in the world.”
Environmental studies Lily Law is a master’s student in the RSCA program and showcased her master’s thesis on soil microbial communities in the grasslands of Montara, Calif.
A microbe, or microorganism, is a very small life form that cannot be seen without the help of a microscope, and can be classified as fungi, bacteria, archaea, protozoa or virus, according to an eOrganic webpage.
“Once we receive the fellowship, we have a meeting once a month to talk about our project, but also how to conduct research,” Law said. “It’s a really good support system.”
Alongside assistant professor Metha Klock, Law’s research delved into the effects of how invasive trees are encroaching into the grasslands, in turn changing the soil microbes of the grassland community.
“When I first started looking for different projects to study as a master’s student, I was initially thinking of doing invasive species, but not in the microbial sense,” Law said. “Once I visited this site in Montara, I saw how trees are encroaching onto this grassland and I thought, ‘Yes, I see what’s happening on the ground, but what’s happening beneath?’”
She said the importance of what lies beneath grasslands is more important than what can be seen above the soil.
“We are opening doors for new researchers and as a result, we are producing research that is actually applicable in real world knowledge,” President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said. “The research and innovation that we are producing here – Mohamed said it – its public impact.”
Richard Mocarski, associate vice president of the SJSU Division of Research and Innovation, started the awards ceremony by introducing the Student Research Competition winners.
The Student Research Competition is an annual event that allows graduate and undergraduate students to present their original research and creative activity.
Those selected will represent SJSU at the annual CSUStudent Research Competition.
The grant for the Student RSCA Fellowship Awards allocates student researchers a fund of $2,000 per semester.
Afterward, three students would be awarded for their research presentations during the Grad Slam that took place on Tuesday.
The Grad Slam is a research communication competition where graduate students present a three-minute thesis about their findings.
Competing in front of a live audience and a panel of judges, students were scored on their ability to communicate their work and its impact effectively in a short amount of time.
Biological sciences graduate student Jaedyn Rollins won first place in the Slam.
Her research included mentorship from biology professor Jennifer Johnston.
“I am basically looking for DNA location that can be safe for gene insertion as a way to correct or cure monogenic disorders,” Rollins said.
A monogenic disorder is an inherited disease controlled by a single pair of genes, according to the Webster-Dictionary webpage.
Rollins said she began working on the project in continuation with Johnston after the research was presented in lab.
“This project basically entails how with monogenic disorders, they are disorders in which a single gene is not functional,” Rollins said. “For example, hemophilia A is a bleeding disorder in a gene is dysfunctional . . . if we were to insert a healthy version of that gene into the DNA of this individual, they could be cured, but you cannot insert a gene anywhere in the DNA – you need a safe location.”
She said, if a gene were to be inserted in an unsafe location, the results could affect genes that have important functions or even lead to cancer.
“It’s just so interesting hearing what other research is being done here on campus, especially outside of the Department of Biological Sciences,” Rollins said. “I only ever hear about bio-research, and so it’s cool to hear about business and linguistics.”
Social work freshman Lesley Cortes worked with assistant professor Vicky Gomez to understand the role of digital storytelling as a community health promotion tool in Latinx communities to address cancer health disparities.
“What inspired me to work on this research is because as a first generation Latina, I wanted to work with my community and find ways I can help them through stories,” she said.
Cortes said she connected with Gomez through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, and was encouraged to work with her because of their shared experiences.
“Because we have similar backgrounds, it made it easier to work with each other, understand and connect,” She said. “We have bonded over that and have been able to work on the research together.”
