Faculty presented their research in the penultimate event of San Jose State’s Research Week in the Student Union last Friday.
The RSCA in Five event had seven participants showcase their research only using five powerpoint slides within five minutes.
Lauren Lee, project and communications coordinator of the office of research, said the event involved a long planning process.
“I would say the difficulty is just the fact that since this was something that hadn’t been done before,” Lee said. “We had to do a lot of things like create the banners, design the artwork, make sure that all of the different facilities on campus were aware of this happening.”
She said she found it interesting to see the events different colleges held and hopes to continue sharing their analysis.
“Research Week was this cool thing where we could go and we could talk to the different colleges and departments and figure out who was doing what, what time where and when, and we could coordinate and create a whole week of events,” Lee said.
She said one of the cool things about SJSU is their focus on undergraduate research.
“I always had this impression that you have to be in a master's program or you have to be a PhD student to be able to conduct your research,” Lee said.
Lee said SJSU is very welcoming and gives minority students an opportunity to have their research showcased.
Mojtaba Sharifi, assistant engineering professor, presented his research on the design and fabrication of wearable robotic tech as well as the safety hazards that may come from these devices.
Sharifi said there are multiple phases to test these wearable devices.
“So there are a lot of regulations, but I think at the end of the day, we want to make these devices to be very comfortable and easy to use,” Sharifi said. “And [we want] people to use them in their home, rather than working with them in a clinic.”
Sharifi said that his goal would be to make the devices cost effective.
“So these are the challenges in our field and we are trying to resolve these issues,” Sharifi said.
He said this was his second time taking part in the RSCA in Five event.
“The first time it was a little challenging. I had to shorten my note a couple of times,” Sharifi. “But finally I got the idea to make it short.”
Supreet Kaur, lead systems engineer for the data & reasoning fabric team at NASA Ames Research Center and San Jose State alumni, said it was important to have her research presented.
“I think people need to know that the research that is done here does have an impact,” Kaur said.
She said she credits her former professor, Dan Robert, for letting her volunteer on graduate students' projects that helped kick start her career.
“I found that to be an incredibly rewarding experience,” Kaur said. “It was volunteer work but it taught me a lot about human factors as well as system engineering and that’s what helped land me my first internship at NASA.”
Kaur said it was important for her to return and showcase her findings at her alma mater because she remembers being a student and listening to other presenters while gauging her career path.
She said it was her first time speaking at RSCA in five but she will come back again in the future.
“I’ll stay in the loop, I’ll come back,” Kaur said. “I’m currently interviewing students from San Jose State for summer internships, so the connection to the university will always remain.”
Faculty presented their research in the penultimate event of San Jose State’s research week in the as a part of RSCA in five events last Friday afternoon.
The event had participants showcase their studies in five slides in five minutes.
Lauren Lee, project and communications coordinator of the office of research said the planning process for the event was long.
“I would say the difficulty is just the fact that since this was something that hadn’t been done before,” Lee said. “We had to do a lot of things like create the banners, design the artwork, make sure that all of the different faculties on campus were aware of this happening.”
She said seeing the events different colleges held was interesting and hopes to continue sharing their analyses.
“Research Week was this cool thing where we could go and we could talk to the different colleges and departments and figure out who was doing what, what time where and when, and we could coordinate and create a whole week of events,” Lee said.
She said one of the cool things about SJSU is their focus on undergraduate research.
“I always had this impression that you have to be in a master's program or you have to be a PhD student to be able to conduct your research,” Lee said.
“But I think with SJSU it’s really cool because it’s very eye opening and very welcoming, which I think SJSU does a really good job at doing that and making sure underrepresented or minority students who haven’t ever thought about doing research have had a chance to be exposed and to think about those steps and feel important.”
SJSU assistant engineering professor Mojtaba Sharifi presented his research on the design and fabrication of wearable robotic tech that can help those who are rehabilitating an injury.
Shafiri said he wanted to share his research with faculty members from different departments.
“So there are a lot of regulations, but I think at the end of the day, we want to make these devices very comfortable and easy to use,” Sharifi said. “And [we want] people to use them in their home, rather than working in a clinic.”
He said he previously presented his research during last semester's RSCA event and had an easier time preparing his presentation this time around.
“I like that people come from different fields and they can look at it from different lenses,” Sharifi said.
Supreet Kaur, Lead Systems Engineer for the Data & Reasoning Fabric team at NASA Ames Research Center and San Jose State Alumni, said it was important to have her research presented.
“I think people need to know that the research that is done here does have an impact,” Kaur said.
She said she credits her former professor, Dan Robert, for letting her volunteer on graduate students' projects that helped kick start her career.
“I found that to be an incredibly rewarding experience,” Kaur said. “It was volunteer work but it taught me a lot about human factors as well as system engineering and that’s what helped land me my first internship at NASA.”
Kaur said it was important for her to return and showcase her findings at her alma mater because she remembers being a student and listening to other presenters gauge her career path.
“But it’s really important for me to come back and show that the work that we’ve done here at San Jose State does translate to the real world outside and it does have an impact on my life as a graduate,” Kaur said. “I just want to be able to share with other students that you never know where you’re going to end up.”
