The 2012 Student Research Challenge at Sacramento State gave students a chance to get their research noticed and to earn a scholarship.

This year was the 26th annual research challenge and 13 undergraduates and nine graduate students from Sac State presented their research to a panel of jurors. The winners of the challenge won a $500 outstanding achievement scholarship.

Students submitted a five-page paper on their research and gave a 15-minute oral presentation to audience members such as friends, mentors and jurors who were faculty from different departments at Sac State.

“It was fun and it was my first oral presentation, I loved that it was on campus and I had people supporting me,” said junior biological sciences major Jasmine Hamilton. “I feel like students should be exposed to these kinds of things more because I am a junior and this was nerve racking.”

Hamilton said although she was nervous, she still felt the support from her friends and mentors.

Jurors were able to give the students feed back and advice on their over all presentations. The winners of this year’s research challenge were two graduates and two undergraduates.

Sac State graduates Jamie Donkin (for her research on static stretching in how it affects time trial performance in cyclists) and Katy Janes (for her research in hydrologic monitoring of salmon habitat restoration sites on the American River in Sacramento) were the two graduate winners.

The undergraduate winners were junior criminal justice major Marisa Smith for her research in web gangsters’ juvenile expression of aggression on social networking sites, and engineering major John Tran for his research in experimental investigation of ground motion effects on collapse.

The next stage for the winners will be to move on to a statewide contest in Long Beach, Calif. to present with 23 other campuses on May 4 and May 5 at CSU Long Beach.

“We want students to come and be apart of this contest,” Adrienne Thompson, research administration coordinator said. “Everyone can compete and it creates good professional development.”

Elisha Angrisani can be reached at [email protected]