STEM Student Success Stories
THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 2023
Citrus College student Arai Leyva was recently featured in a California State University, Fullerton article about the college's Project RAISE Undergraduate Research Experience.
Thirty-nine students — many Latinx and from underrepresented backgrounds — participated in the eight-week summer research program.
Leyva conducted research in the lab of Rakesh Mahto, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. He is building a miniature excavator and using sensors to automate construction machinery.
"We're upgrading the excavator by adding a small computer, sensors and smart vision technology to improve its functionality," Leyva said. "We also hope to lay the foundation for future advancements in real excavators with these features."
FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 2021
Matt McCarthy, a Citrus College Summer Research Experience alumnus, recently co-authored an academic paper about the evolutionary patterns of flower color in monkeyflowers.
Matt participated in this research at the California Botanic Garden.
Congrats, Matt!
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2020
Check it out! Citrus College student Matthew Serna was recently featured by the Cal Poly Pomona Office of Undergraduate Research!
Matthew was one of 15 community college students to participate in the eight-week Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program this past summer.
Way to go, Matthew!
View Matthew's profile on the CPP SURE site.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2020
Recent Citrus College alumna Rebecca Gio presented a summer research poster at a virtual symposium in early August.
Her project, titled "Synthetic Data Generation for Deep Learning-Based Object Detection," investigated the use of synthetic data to lower the cost of preparing labeled data for training deep learning models. In particular, her team designed an automated pipeline to generate a large dataset of labeled images using realistic 3D models of real-world objects and trained deep-learning models for object detection tasks.
Rebecca is transferring to Cal Poly Pomona this fall.
Way to go, Rebecca – you make Citrus College proud!
[NOTE: Review Rebecca Gio's undergraduate project on the Cal State University ScholarWorks website.]
MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020
This summer, Citrus College student Jocelyn Sanchez will be participating in a research experience for undergraduates (REU) at The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL).
Ms. Sanchez noted, "It is because of the programs at Citrus College that I feel at ease taking part in such interesting research here at RMBL. The knowledge, exposure and experiences I have gained have helped me further my education in ways that I had not thought possible."
Ms. Sanchez has been active at Citrus College, participating in programs such as STEM TRiO, Bridge to the Geosciences and the Summer Research Experience. She appreciates the support she has received at the college, especially from the Institute for Completion and its director, Dr. Marianne Smith, who helps facilitate STEM opportunities for people of color.
FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2020
Last summer, the Citrus College Foundation supported student Cristian Pinales in a summer research experience at Oak Crest Institute of Science in Monrovia. He has continued to work there these past few months, funded by a grant from the Dickman Lab at the University of Southern California, completing work for their project on an electron microscope — a skill he learned in summer research.
A paper that he contributed to, titled "Developmental arrest of Drosophila larvae elicits presynaptic homeostatic depression and enables prolonged studies of neurodegeneration," will be officially published soon (additional authors: Dion Dickman, Nancy L. Tran, Barry Ganetzky, Daniel Miller, Christopher Buser, Sarah Perry and Pragya Goel).
Way to go, Cristian!
[NOTE: The published scientific study is available on the National Library of Medicine PubMed website.]
FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2019
Citrus College students are doing wonderful things – even during the summer!
Gabby McBride is conducting research alongside Chapman University faculty in the Keck Center for Science and Engineering. The program has given her the experience of what it would be like working full time in a lab-based setting.
Way to go, Gabby!
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2019
Wow! Inspiring story about alumnus Jose Martinez-Camacho and his time as a Citrus College student; specifically, his involvement with EOPS, the Summer Research Experience and Dr. Marianne Smith, director of the Institute for Completion.
Now a physics major at Cal Poly Pomona and an intern at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this article details how Jose's community college experience prepared him for his unique science and career journey!
Way to go, Jose!
TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019
Ivette Ayala, a member of the Citrus College Rocket Owls team, was selected to participate in the highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored summer internship program at Cal Poly Pomona that focuses on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The program, designed to increase students' interest in UAV technologies, gives undergraduates from all over the country the opportunity to conduct research for 10 weeks during the summer on state-of-the-art technologies and advanced research projects in UAV flight dynamics and control, computer vision, artificial intelligence, embedded systems and robotics. In addition to their research, students will participate in weekly research seminars, research meetings and professional development seminars.
The selected students will receive a stipend of $500/week for the 10-week period and a subsistence allowance including boarding and meals. The students also receive funds for travel and research supplies.
Way to go, Ivette!
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2019
Former Citrus College Summer Research Experience (SRE) student Efren Gonzalez is currently working as a research assistant at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University in the Department of Plant Biology (Carnegie Plant Biology). Efren cites his experiences at Citrus College as instrumental in helping prepare him for this opportunity.
Efren joins several other former SRE students who are doing amazing work – alumnae Stacy Guzman has a full scholarship to complete a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and Mabel Bush is a Ph.D. candidate in cellular and molecular biology at Dartmouth College. The list goes on ....
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2018
Citrus College student Nicholas Garcia was recently featured in a recent California State University, Fullerton news release. The article highlights Project RAISE and the Summer Research Experience.
Selected participants receive a $5,000 stipend, which allows students to dedicate their time toward a STEM experience, instead of working in an unrelated job.
Kudos to Nicholas and his fellow Citrus STEM student colleagues!
WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2018
Congrats to Citrus College student Ronald Kennedy, who was just accepted to participate in the very prestigious Summer Research Experience at the National Weather Center in Oklahoma.
Ronald will spend 10 weeks in Oklahoma working with a research mentor. He will have an opportunity to conduct research in meteorology, climate, radar engineering or an interdisciplinary topic. Additionally, Ronald will later attend a conference to present his research.
Way to go, Ronald!
TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 2018
Congrats to Citrus College alumna Stacy Guzman for winning the 2018 Glenn Nagel Undergraduate Research Award for Education and Research in biotechnology!
What's not mentioned in the article: Stacy's also been offered postgraduate spots at UCLA, Duke and others – all 100% paid. And her research this summer will be at MIT!
Not bad. Not bad at all.
[Read the entire article — CSUF student Stacy Guzman receives award for cancer research — on Cal State Fullerton's Daily Titan website.]
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