At the 24th annual California State University Student Research Competition, Cal Poly students showed a knack for emerging victorious from scholastic battles. Four out of the 10 Cal Poly participants received an award for their research and creative work. Three first-prize winners and one second-prize winner were among approximately 205 students from 21 campuses who took part in the competition, held April 30 and May 1 at San Jose State University.
Entries covered a wide range of topics, from researching the efficiency of gallium nitride light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to developing a marketing program for women’s outdoor equipment to studying gender roles in online gaming. The students’ research and creative work was judged by panels of experts. Each session was organized by disciplines, having both an undergraduate and graduate division and offering first or second place prizes.
Simeon Trieu, an electrical engineering graduate student, received first place in the engineering and computer science graduate division for his research study on methods to maximize the efficiency of LEDs. He said he has worked with electrical engineering assistant professor Xiaomin Jin toward improving the light output of LEDs since spring 2008, while also partnering with Peking University in China to fabricate optimized designs.
Trieu, who is a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society, received $500 even though he said was skeptical about his chances of winning, especially because some presenters were Ph.D. candidates.
“I thought I had a good shot at second, maybe first, if I’m lucky,” Trieu said. “My thesis advisor, Professor Jin, imparted her advice to me, as she does from time to time: ‘You always think you’re pretty, but others may not think you’re pretty,’ So, when they announced the second-place winner, I thought my chances were slim to get an award.”
The feeling of accomplishment outweighs any monetary award, he added.
Trieu’s diligence shows beyond first-place accolades. Jin, who has been Trieu’s master’s program thesis adviser since 2007, said he has authored four papers and co-authored another five, while maintaining a 3.4 GPA in electrical engineering and business administration master’s programs.
“Simeon bears a high degree of curiosity and innovative approaches to problem solving and has greatly contributed in (Gallium nitride) LED research,” Jin said. “He is an excellent example of Cal Poly graduate students.”
They were first nominated by their respective colleges and then selected in a preliminary competition at Cal Poly. Final competitors submitted written papers and made oral presentations to juries of experts.
For Susan Opava, dean of Cal Poly Research and Graduate Programs, this year’s event marked the 17th time she has watched Cal Poly students compete.
“I’m always very proud. It really reflects the quality of students that we have on campus,” Opava said.”I think even if they didn’t place, they represented Cal Poly very well, in terms of quality of presentations, kinds, and also the way they handled themselves during the question period.”
Another top finisher, art and design student Elise Bartley, was awarded first place in the creative arts and design category for her development of an identity, branding and marketing program for a womens’ outdoor equipment company in Colorado.
Bartley competed against other master’s students and said she felt it was an even playing field because “art is a somewhat subjective discipline, and every project had its own merits and strengths.”
“It was exciting — my project was so different than the others, so it was a bit hard to tell if it would be successful against the competition,” Bartley said. “It was exciting to see that it does stand out against the competition and that it has been a worthwhile project.”
Bartley’s project, “Lilypond Identity, Branding, and Marketing,” was a six-month effort, which included a number of different components, such as developing a new visual identity for the company, market research in competitor companies and identifying what is successful about their products.
“It is essential for good designers to not only be able to create visual solutions, but be able to explain their reasoning clearly and pitch their ideas effectively,” Bartley said. “This competition gave me the opportunity to focus on presenting.”
In addition, Opava said Bartley’s presentation stood out among the rest of the competition.
“It was magnificent, something that you would expect a very experienced graphic design firm to do and she did all the work herself, as a senior project,” Opava said.
Bartley, who is hearing impaired, overcame challenges other students didn’t.
“She’s just a remarkable person, just terrific, you know. It’s really wonderful to have her win,” Opava said.
In addition, Kimberly Paterson, an English junior, received a second-place award in the humanities and letters undergraduate category for her critical discourse analysis on the gender issues that discourage participation of females in massive multi-player online role-playing games.
Paterson said her own experiences with video gaming led to a 26-page report. She perused examples of online discourse, through forums and blogs, about a particular group and then analyzed how the language illustrates certain stereotypes about that group. Specifically, she looked at the negative stereotypes associated with interpretations of the term “female gamer.”
“Because video games have traditionally been a masculine past time, and since video game companies are starting to recognize women as a legitimate market, it’s so important that people, especially gamers, become aware that female gamers are not all ‘noobs’ and that being female has nothing to do with your ability to play a game exceptionally,” Paterson said. “The harsh treatment of female gamers and the sexism that gets propagated in games is not acceptable; yet, most of it flies under the radar.”
Also recognized was biological sciences graduate student Sarah Johnson. She took first place in the biological and agricultural sciences graduate division for her research study using proteomics to characterize the physiological response of fish exposed to the emerging environmental contaminant nonylphenol.
Students who didn’t place first or second but represented Cal Poly were: computer science undergraduate students Jason Anderson, Dominic Camargo, Ben Davini and Brian Oppenheim; mathematics undergraduates Dana Duke, Joseph “JP” Horton and Paul Sinz; chemistry undergraduate Kelli Farber; soil science graduate student D. Cameron Ripley; history graduate student Daniel Slusser; and mechanical engineering undergraduate Andrew Sommer.
Cal Poly tied in total number of awards with four other campuses. It also tied with Fresno State for three first-place finishes.