2023 Bay Honors Research Symposium Presentations

All papers and presentations that have been submitted to Think You?! are hyperlinked; papers will render a PDF while video presentations are housed on YouTube. Participants are responsible for captioning of their videos; in some cases, YouTube’s auto-generated captions may be employed. The date of publication is indicated in parentheses.

Session 1

Room 30

  • “Optimizing Wing Designs of Bell Lift Distributions” by Geline Manuel, Jairo Reynoso and Matthew Sianarta,
    Victor Valley College (Mentors: Dave Berger & Michael Butros)
  • “Mathematical Modeling of California Condor and Gray Wolf Populations with Restoration Efforts” by Anna Dupree, Irvine Valley College (Mentor: Lan Pham)
  • “Honey, Where Is My Manuka? The Effectiveness of Manuka Honey as a Topical Acne Treatment to Inhibit Staphylococcus aureus” by Nikou Bakhtiari, Masha Goodarzi and Jerry Liu, Saddleback College (Mentor: Abby Sirulnik)

Room 105

Room 107

  • A South Asian young woman wearing a red blouse. It is night and in the background there is a Ferris wheel. “Breastfeeding: A Choice or Predetermined by Race?” by Radhika Trivedi, Irvine Valley College (Mentor: Kristen Skjonsby) (Published 1 November 2023)
  • “High Maternal Mortality Rates in the United States” by Leana Avasepian, Leonie Sarkissian and Kylie Yetenekian, Glendale Community College (Mentor: Michael Harnett)
  • “The Black Maternal Advocacy Project” by Dunhoja LaVerne Bishop, Skyline College (Mentor: Jennifer Merrill)

Room 202

Room 203

  • “The Future of Francafrique: Neocolonialism in Africa and the War on Terror” by Jovan Avila and Brennan Quinn, Mt. San Antonio College (Mentor: Dennis Quinn)
  • “The Vietnam War from the Victor’s Perspective: Reasons Why North Vietnam Won” by Morgan Nguyen, Santa Ana College (Mentor: Julian Camacho)
  • “Why Did 9/11 Happen? An Examination of the American Government’s Failure to Prevent 9/11” by Kidest Zekarias, Cosumnes River College (Mentors: Alexander Peshkoff and Rick Schubert)

Room 205

  • “Seeing the World through Robotic Eyes: Optimal Color Spaces for Object Detection” by Naythan Chan, MiraCosta College (Mentor: Christopher Sleeper)
  • “Attentional Spotlight Under Stress: Helping PTSD Patients and Improving Safety Protocols” by Shaun Harless, Cañada College (Mentor: Julie Luu)
  • “Adaptive 3D Model Generator Using Object Photos” by Nimita Mishra, Foothill College (Mentor: Konstantin Kalaitzidis)

Room 217

  • “Women’s Rights are Human Rights: Forced Sterilization of Native American Women” by Melanie Ho, West Valley College (Mentor: Danielle Shaw)
  • A European-American male with long hair, wearing a collared shirt and a blue bow tie. “Ethics of Triage: COVID-19, Disability, and Posthumanism” by Willow McElderry, Las Positas College (Mentor: Joanna Jen) (Published 1 November 2023)
  • “Racial Discrimination in Healthcare” by Julia Rogers, Skyline College (Mentor: Lindsey Ayotte)

Room 219

  • “Old White Man and Young Asian Woman: Analyzing Asian Fetishization” by Vy Nguyen, Irvine Valley College (Mentor: Kristen Skjonsby)
  • “Rise Above: Straight Edge’s Transcendence of Punk and Nietzsche’s Übermensch” by Lance Quiñones, Los Medanos College (Mentors: Edward Haven and Jennifer Saito)
  • An East-Asian-presenting young woman wearing a blue blouse. In the background is an amusement park on a beach. “Traditions and the Future: Chanoyu in Contemporary Japan” by Keli Fisher, Saddleback College (Mentor: Claire Cesareo) (Published 1 November 2023)

Room 303

  • “The Relationship Between the Fear of Missing Out, Ruminative Thought Process, Campus Involvement, and Life Satisfaction” by Justine Constantino, Justine Dao and Anagha Rao, Mt. San Antonio College (Mentor: Misty Kolchakian)
  • “Narrative Persuasion in the Classroom: Changing the Narrative and Onto-Epistemological Diversity in Teacher Education” by Ray La Point, Cosumnes River College (Mentor: Jessilyn Gale)
  • A Hispanic-presenting young man wearing a blue collared shirt and a black t-shirt. A Hispanic-presenting young woman wearing a blue blouse. An East-Asian-presenting young man wearing glasses and a blue shirt. “Sesame Street: Panacea for School Readiness or Fun Enrichment?” by Anthony León Chumpitazi, Giovanna Mancinelli, Noah Liu and Mark Trujillo, Cañada College (Mentors: Autumn McMahon and Gampi Shankar) (Published 1 November 2023)

Room 305

Session II

Room 30

  • “The Meaning of Words: Word Vectorization and Singular Value Decomposition” by Naythan Chan, MiraCosta College (Mentor: Zika Perovic)
  • “Honest Studying Solutions with ChatGPT and Augmented Reality Technologies” by Dennis Ren and Kevin Shiah, Foothill College (Mentor: Abeer Alameer)
  • “ChatGPT and the Concern with Personal Credentials and Privacy” by Truc Tran, Orange Coast College (Mentor: Justin Jang)

Room 105

  • “The Impact of Interpersonal Relationships on Emotional Stability in Adolescents across Diverse Cultural Contexts: A Comparative Study” by Mehtaab Bath and Nada Ibrahim, Las Positas College (Mentor: Irena Keller)
  • A Filipino-presenting young woman wearing a black coat, black blouse and red skirt. In the background is an urban landscape. “Pakikipagkapwa: Filipinx-American Attitudes towards Mental Health Care” by Tala (Stephanie Klaine) Justo, City College of San Francisco (Mentor: Rebecca Ancheta) (Published 1 November 2023)

Room 107

  • “The Cause and Cures of Urban Sprawl: A Key Contributor to California’s Housing Crisis” by Andrew Hubbell, Cabrillo College (Mentor: Letitia Scott-Curtis)
  • “Rethinking the Traditional Lawn In California” by Phoebe Elliott, Reedley College (Mentor: Anya Connelly-Howland)
  • “White Elephants in Orange County: A Safari into Lackluster Public Transit Habitat” by Diego García López, Irvine Valley College (Mentor: Kristen Skjonsby)

Room 202

Room 203

  • A European-American-presenting man with a beard, wearing a blue collared shirt. “The Trickster Archetype in North American Folklore” by Samuel Trumble, Cañada College (Mentor: Michael Stanford) (Published 1 November 2023)
  • “Analysis of Loki and the Trickster Archetype” by Julio Lau, Skyline College (Mentors: Michael Cross and Janice Sapigao)
  • “From the Four Humors to the Two Femurs: How the Medical Renaissance Shaped Modern Medicine” by Zohal Noori, Saddleback College (Mentor: Bill Billingsley)

Room 205

  • “Sanctions: The Failure of Economic Weapons, with Special Reference to the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict” by Peter Eremeev, College of San Mateo (Mentor: Steven Lehigh)
  • A Hispanic-presenting man wearing a white collared shirt and a tie. “Technological and Social Factors Facilitating Financial Inclusion in Latin America” by Sebastian Galarza, Orange Coast College (Mentors: Gocken Coskuner-Balli and Erin Gratz) (Published 1 November 2023)
  • “Aggregate Transactional Value: Economic Metrics in the Modern World” by Ishaan S. Prasad, West Valley College (Mentor: Sam Liu)

Room 217

  • “How Fast Can Opinion Change? The Effects of Police Imagery in American Media” by Yadeal Asfaw, Los Angeles Valley College (Mentors: Erin Hayes and Mesfin Taye)
  • A South Asian-presenting young man wearing a blue collared shirt. In the background is a presentation slide. “Nudging Towards Inclusivity: The Ethicality of Policies Promoting Inclusion” by Manuj Kant, Las Positas College (Mentor: Jeremiah Bodnar) (Published 1 November 2023)
  • “Beyond the Storm: The Freedom Caucus and its Connection to QAnon’s Rhetoric” by Neil Pérez, Los Medanos College (Mentors: Ryan Hiscocks and Alexander Sterling)

Room 219

  • “Paralyzed by the Silver Screen: An Examination of Neoliberal Thought in Film” by Alinur Isakov Irvine Valley College (Mentor: Kristen Skjonsby)
  • A European-American-presenting young woman wearing a grey blouse. “Get Out of the Cabinet: The Evolution of Horror Films and their Widespread Popularity” by Olivia Miller, MiraCosta College (Mentor: William Gunn) (Published 1 November 2023)
  • “Scripted Love: How Romance in Film Inhibits Authenticity in Adolescent Relationships” by Rosalyn Bejrsuwana, Pasadena City College (Mentor: Shane Underwood)

Room 303

  • “Coliform Microbial Diversity in Treated Regional Wastewater” by Esther Nguyen, Cosumnes River College (Mentor: Eric Neff)
  • “Subcellular Localization of Insulin-Stimulated pAKt in Gonadotropes Revealed by an Optimized Fractionation Protocol” by Alexis García, San Diego City College (Mentor: Heather McGray)

Room 305

Session III

Room 30

  • “Visually Corrected Protocol for hiPSC-CMs Differentiation” by Bernardo Moreno, Orange Coast College (Mentor: Michael Bialecki)
  • “Sorting Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Using Dielectrophoresis” by Victoria Devejyan, Mt. San Antonio College (Mentor: Tayloria Adams)

Room 105

Room 107

Room 202

  • “Path to Character: The Creative Process of Stage-Based Performers” by Sara Safari, Cabrillo College (Mentors: Cheryl Chaffin and Steve Schessler)
  • “The Metamorphosis of Grete: An Evaluation of Facticity Illustrated in Dance” by Valeria Navarro, Los Medanos College (Mentors: Edward Haven and Jennifer Saito)
  • “Ballet and the Aesthetics of Beauty: The Foundation of an Esteemed Art Form” by Camryn Burke, Las Positas College (Mentor: Jeremiah Bodnar)

Room 203

  • “Breaking the Cycle” by Alexandra Szabo, College of San Mateo (Mentor: Timothy Maxwell)
  • “American Imperialism and White Supremacy: The Reverberations of Oppressing Native Americans” by Diego Victoria, Irvine Valley College (Mentor: Emily Liu)
  • “Confronting Anthropology’s Dark Past: Native American Osteo-Reparation in Bay Area Higher Education Institutions” by Alekos Kapur and Saintra Thai, Foothill College (Mentor: Samuel Connell)

Room 205

Room 217

Room 219

  • “Beyond Nihilistic Bagels: A Redirection of Cynical Thoughts Towards Finding Authentic Purpose” by Lorenzo Navales, Los Medanos College (Mentors: Edward Haven and Jennifer Saito)
  • “Tackling Intergenerational Trauma within the Asian American Immigrant Experience: Everything Everywhere All at Once” by Omar Au, Las Positas College (Mentor: Amy Moellering)
  • “An Inevitable Damage: Slavery’s Legacy” by Anvita Chinthada, Sacramento City College (Mentor: Kathleen O’Brien)

Room 303

  • “Mathematical Modeling of Precipitation to Study Climate Change in Southern California” by Tien Tran, Irvine Valley College (Mentor: Lan Pham)
  • “Devastating Changes: Coastal Acidification in California” by Leah Corbett, College of San Mateo (Mentors: Jimmy Li and Elisha Polomski)
  • “Exploring Connections Between Air Quality and Water Quality Along the Coast of San Diego” by Leiv Berg, Silas Black and Isaac Hernández, MiraCosta College (Mentor: Kristine Arquero)

Room 305

  • “Shedding Light on the Silent Killer: Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Donepezil-based Analogs as Possible Alzheimer’s Disease Therapeutics” by Sebastian Pintea, Santiago Canyon College (Mentors: Amanda Henry and Stevan Pecic)
  • “The Effect of Vitamin D on the Behavior of Mice in a Light-Dark Box” by Lia Harvey, Saddleback College (Mentor: Tony Huntley)
  • “Winning a Losing Game: Using Machine Learning to Beat the Sports Betting Market” by Jason Au and Ethan Lee, Irvine Valley College (Mentor: Kristen Skjonsby)