The California State University closes out the academic year with several systemwide competitions and challenges that allow students to showcase their research, academic work and creative pursuits. Read about the 2025 CSU Student Research Competition and CSU Grad Slam.
CSU Student Research Competition
Cal State Fullerton graduate student Cassandra Yuan receives her first-place award at the 2025 CSU Student Research Competition from Cal Poly Humboldt Interim President Michael Spagna. (Photo courtesy Cal Poly Humboldt)
Hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students from across the CSU system took part in the
39th Annual CSU Student Research Competition, a two-day event hosted by Cal Poly Humboldt on April 25-26. Awards were presented to first- and second-place winners and to those who received honorable mentions for work exemplifying outstanding research, scholarship or creative work across 10 academic disciplines.
Split between graduate and undergraduate, these categories include Behavioral, Social Sciences and Public Administration; Biological and Agricultural Sciences; Business, Economics and Hospitality Management; Creative Arts and Design; Education; Engineering and Computer Science; Health, Nutrition and Clinical Sciences; Humanities and Letters; Physical and Mathematical Sciences; and Interdisciplinary.
The awards represent not only the innovative and often cutting-edge work being achieved by CSU students, but also the promise that much of this work holds for advances in the years ahead, as these students pursue their scholarship beyond their time at CSU.
San Francisco State and CSU Channel Islands took home the most first-place awards with three each. Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo each had two teams win first-place awards.
Among Cal State Fullerton's winners was chemistry graduate student Cassandra Yuan who won first place in the Biological and Agricultural Sciences category for her presentation, "Design, Synthesis, and Evaluation of Novel Non-opioid Therapeutics for Chronic Pain Treatment." Yuan focused her research on dual-enzyme inhibition strategies, which have the potential for leading to non-opioid, and safer, choices for managing chronic pain.
“This recognition is a reminder of how research can make a real difference in people's lives,"
Yuan said. “It motivates me to continue pursuing solutions that can help improve health care outcomes."
See this year's winners.
CSU Grad Slam
The 2025 CSU Grad Slam winners, from left: San José State student Lydia Durunguma, Cal State Fullerton student Sarah De Bruyn and Sonoma State student Aiyana Diya Singh.
Cal State San Bernardino hosted the 5th annual
CSU Grad Slam online on May 9, providing graduate students across the CSU with an opportunity to present their thesis research. President Tomás D. Morales introduced the event, explaining that participating students “take up the challenge of communicating complex research and data to a nonspecialist audience in three minutes or less."
Taking first place in the competition was San José State student Lydia Durunguma, who received her master's degree in applied economics in spring 2025. Her presentation, “Economic Empowerment: A Lifeline Against Femicide," discussed the importance of women's economic independence in reducing the incidents of femicide.
“Femicide—the killing of women
because they are women—is a global epidemic," said Durunguma. She cited domestic-partner violence and honor killings among the reasons, adding that the U.S. is not immune, with three women being murdered in their home every day.
To answer the question, “Can economic empowerment reduce femicide rates?" Durunguma conducted a regression analysis, which found that just a 1% increase in women working would result in a 0.43% decrease in femicide—“no small drop," she said.
Second place went to Sarah De Bruyn (formerly Holman), a graduate student at Cal State Fullerton who received her Master of Public Health in spring 2025. For her research, “Age is But a Number? Exploring Sexual Health Knowledge in Older Adults: A quantitative study in the California Inland Empire," she conducted a survey of 89 individuals ranging in age from 50 to 100 years old, and found that 86% said their provider had not discussed STI testing with them, and only 43% had been tested in the past two years. “Growing older? It shouldn't mean disappearing," she concluded. “Especially when it comes to health—especially sexual health. Because after all, what is age but a number?"
The People's Choice winner was Sonoma State graduate student Aiyana Diya Singh, who is earning her master's degree in environmental physiology. She won with her presentation, "Too Hot to Handle: Marine Heatwave Impacts on Sea Urchins."
See this year's winners.
Learn about another 2025 student challenge: the 3rd Annual AI for Social Good CSU Undergraduate Innovation Symposium.