May 2, 2025
Reception & Presentations 2pm to 5pm
Cal Poly Humboldt Library
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Presenters & Abstracts: Search
Kenosha Mural Project
Jessica Janecek
Geography
Undergraduate Student
Keith Staats
Geography
Undergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
Working with photographer Ron Larson from the Kenosha Creative Space, a nonprofit organization in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Following the BLM protests, artists took to the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin to express their feelings and emotions. Ron Larson began photographing the art around the city. We are here to share an interactive story map created to showcase the art around the city.
How Shoelace Conditions Impact Foot Ergonomics
Eon
Ebuna
School of Applied Health
Undergraduate Student
College of Professional Studies
Various lacing methods have been employed to enhance running performance and mitigate the risk of injuries. Runners have experimented with these patterns to identify the optimal configuration for their running form, anatomy, and sport. This research emphasizes the pivotal role of shoelace techniques in the broader context of ergonomics and injury prevention, highlighting the relationship between how the foot is laced within the shoe and its implications for the overall well-being of the runner. Tight laces with additional contact points adhere the foot to the shoe best but must also leave enough room in the shoe for the runner’s anatomy to perform natural anatomical mechanisms such as receiv
Fortuna Firefighting
Robert Johnson
Environmental Studies
Undergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
For my research project, I engaged in volunteer work for the Fortuna Firefighting Department. To fully engage myself into the lens of a firefighter, I signed up for the full academy and will earn fire fighter I status. This entails firefighter ethics and expectations, safety, communications, tools and equipment, water supply and hose lays, fire behavior, building construction, ventilation, loss control, rescue and extrication, and wildland fires. The firefighter code is to save lives, protect the environment, and protect property. With doing so, firefighters continuously adjust to diversity, personal characteristics, personal responsibility, and resistance to change.
Should Democracy be Constrained to Address Climate Change?
Jake Engel
Political Science
Undergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
My research analyzes the implications that climate change has for democracy. Recognizing that climate change presents unique challenges to our political system, I search for a healthy balance between democratic means and necessary, urgent ends. To do so, I compare the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of democracy, i.e., representative versus deliberative, ultimately concluding with the need for more research and collaboration.
Effects of a Dual-Task Paradigm on Tandem Gait Performance After Concussion
Courtney Perry
Department of Kinesiology and Recreation Administration
Graduate Student
College of Professional Studies
Sport-related concussions are defined as the somatic and cognitive instabilities caused by direct, biomechanical forces colliding with an individual’s head or body. Health professionals utilize a series of tests to identify these instabilities at the time of injury and throughout recovery; however, each test measures the deficits individually. Alternatively, by combining two tests into a dual-task assessment, subtle impairments are better detected after a concussion. The purpose of this study is to determine if the Tandem Gait with a secondary cognitive task is a valid and reliable tool to distinguish prolonged gait deficits after a concussion in collegiate athletes.
Synthesis and Evaluation of a Lead Binding Peptoid
Tara Alizadeh
Chemistry department
Undergraduate Student
Parisa Ghaffari
Chemistry department
Undergraduate Student
Dr. Jenny Cappuccio
Chemistry Department
Faculty
Dr. Frank Cappuccio
Chemistry Department
Faculty
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
Lead is a particularly problematic environmental contaminant. The peptide sequence GGGTNTLSNNGGG has an affinity for binding lead particles. Utilizing solid phase reaction chemistry the peptoid analog was synthesized. The resin bound peptoid has been evaluated for lead binding affinity using Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry. Initial results show a 27:1 lead to peptoid binding with an average 14% lead decrease in the presence of 1.31× 10-5 per mole of the peptoid. Treatment of peptoid bound lead with hydrochloric acid resulted in release of lead indicating the recyclability of this peptoid modified resin.
Drop the Ramp
Michele Janelli
Film
Undergraduate Student
Adrian Terccero
Film
Undergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
‘Drop The Ramp’ explores creating a landscape of the invasion on Omaha beach on D-day through immersive and intimate screenings.
Sitting in the middle of the larger projection will be a smaller screen showing a war veteran, Frank Devita as he recounts a story never told about storming the beaches of Omaha. Inverting the interview footage to make it a color negative….viewers will need to view through their phones inverting their screens to view Frank as a color positive. This plays on newer generations' relation to war and how we’ve only ever experienced it through screens. It also plays on our relationships with older generations and how their stories might go unappreciated in a modern age
Pacific Purple Sea Urchin Movement Trends
Holly
Elbert
Wildlife
Undergraduate Student
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
Pacific purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) have seemingly slow movement. I asked if it was possible for them to travel to uninhabited pools that neighbor their inhabited sites within a 6-week period occurring February through March of 2024. I used manual counting methods to determine sea urchin abundance in each pool. I utilized a divided quadrat to assess the percent of red algae cover of targeted sites to analyze whether adult urchin movement was correlated with food abundance. Overall, there was no evidence that sea urchin movement correlates with the algae cover percentage. Although, there was evidence that occasional colonization of pools occurred.
Graphene Batteries: A Step Toward More Efficient Energy Storage
Mustafa Khan
Politics
Undergraduate Student
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
The basis of this research consists of the use of graphene and supercapacitor energy storage as a more energy efficient and environmentally conscious alternative to traditional lithium ion batteries. This will also cover the government policies that could potentially fund the research, development, and integration of graphene based supercapacitors in the energy market. This energy market currently includes standard fossil fuel based energy as well as renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. Although renewable energy options have grown in popularity and commercial availability, the main issue with these sources is storage, and graphene based batteries could remedy this problem.
Early Cretaceous Cupressaceae in the Budden Canyon Formation of northern California
Ashley Ortiz
Botany
Undergraduate Student
College of Natural Resources & Sciences
The Early Cretaceous Budden Canyon Formation of North America contains a few anatomically preserved plant fossils ca. 125 Ma old (Barremian-early Aptian). Recent investigations of the Budden Canyon Formation have revealed a preserved seed cone assignable to the Cupressaceae. Based on serial sections and a 3-D reconstruction, the fossil cone was compared with living Cupressaceae and revealed significant differences from most genera and closest similarity, but not identity, with Sequoia. The age and morphology of the cone also suggests that it may represent an extinct member of the sequoioid, a lineage which gave rise to modern redwoods (Sequoia) and giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron).