Funded and Focused Research Students

Donya Behroozi

Statistics

Research:
Creating AI software to better understand, diagnose and treat chronic lower back pain. As a member of Cal Poly’s Bioinformatics Research Group, Bittner is analyzing data and shaping the design of algorithms to find novel and biologically significant connections between pain management, behavioral health, physical therapy, complementary medicine and surgery.

Faculty Mentors:
Jean Davidson and Paul Anderson

Support from the William and Linda Frost Fund

Madeline Bittner

Biological Bittner

Research:
Investigating sexual abuse, misconduct and exploitation of students by teachers and K-12 school employees in the U.S. through comparative analysis between data of reports received directly from school districts. Behroozi and her colleagues published an article on their research.

Faculty Mentor:
Billie-Jo Grant

Support from the National Institutes of Health

Nika Bondar

Physics / Chemistry

Research:
Building detector efficiency simulations for ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics) in Switzerland. The Fast Interaction Trigger detector enables ALICE to select the most pertinent collisions for studying quark gluon plasma, a state of matter whose properties pose many of the key issues in the theory of quantum chromodynamics.

Faculty Mentor:
Jennifer Klay and Shanju Zhang

Support from The National Science Foundation and the William and Linda Frost Fund

Salvatore Deguara

Chemistry

Research:
Design and synthesis of novel pharmaceutical candidates using selective optimization of side activities in commercial medications. This project aims to develop novel anti-anthrax and anti-ebola medication derived from an existing antimalarial agent.

Faculty Mentor:
Scott Eagon

Support from the William and Linda Frost Fund

See more about Salvatore’s research

Genesis Glover

Biological Sciences

Research:
Exploring how the entirety of proteins — which regulate energy metabolism, stress responses, structures and signaling cascades in all cells — in marine invertebrates and mammals regulate the response to environmental stress (i.e., climate change), while maintaining growth by applying mass spectrometry.

Faculty Mentor:
Lars Tomanek

Support from the William and Linda Frost Fund

Elijah Guptill

Mathematics

Research:
Investigating a certain subset of k-regular sequences through the application of complex analytic methods to their corresponding power series. Guptill plans to analyze and classify the dynamic behavior of these sequences in analytic terms.

Faculty Mentor:
Ryan Tully-Doyle

Support from the William and Linda Frost Fund

Carolyn Key

Marine Sciences

Research:
Monitoring and studying Pismo clam populations on California’s Central Coast as part of Cal Poly’s Marine Conservation Lab. Key’s senior project focuses on understanding how well the public is informed of the Pismo clam fishery regulations and what factors might influence awareness.

Faculty Mentor:
Ben Ruttenberg

Support from The Santa Rosa Creek Foundation

Cooper Koenig

Biological Sciences

Research:
Improving algorithms for knowledge graph generation using deep learning and data science. As a member of Cal Poly’s Bioinformatics Research Group, Koenig is studying how recent advances in large language models can help clinicians and researchers bridge relevant theories into an operational framework suitable for understanding, diagnosing and treating chronic lower back pain.

Faculty Mentor:
Jean Davidson and Paul Anderson

Support from the National Institutes of Health

Isabella Lamont

Biological Sciences

Research:
Developing point-of-care, accessible, diagnostic tools for a variety of pathogens through capturing target genomic sequence and using nucleotide amplification to detect specific pathogen biomarkers using a variety of bioinformatic and bioengineering tools. This device can quickly and accurately detect specific strains or treatment resistance variations to optimize treatment specificity, in order to improve overall health outcomes.

Faculty Mentor:
Jean Davidson and David Clague

Support from Hewlett-Packard and the William and Linda Frost Fund

Connor Poggemann

Physics

Research:
High energy astroparticle research with the VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) collaboration alongside Jodi Christiansen. They are investigating flaring behavior of blazar jets, one of the universe’s highest energy structure that are found very close to supermassive black holes.

Faculty Mentor:
Jodi Christiansen

Support from The William and Linda Frost Fund

See more about Connor’s research

Tatum Schneider

Marine Sciences

Research:
Creating a Mobile Recirculating Aquaculture System (MRAS) built from scratch by Schneider and recent graduate Mila Bernsten. The MRAS will be used to grow seaweed, conduct experiments, demonstrate the steps and importance of aquaculture, and contribute to the public knowledge of aquaculture systems.

Faculty Mentor:
Kevin Johnson

Support from The Santa Rosa Creek Foundation

Madeleine Yang

Marine Sciences

Research:
Researching and monitoring Pismo clam population along Pismo Beach to understand the fluctuations in population over time. Using the collected data to inform management agencies about the species population and educate the public about the species.

Faculty Mentor:
Ben Ruttenberg

Support from The Santa Rosa Creek Foundation