The 39th Annual CSUSB Student Research Competition is scheduled to take place on Friday, February 14th, 2025, inside the James R. Watson & Judy Rodriguez Watson College of Education. This competition offers CSUSB students a platform to enhance their presentation and communication skills while highlighting their scholarly and creative accomplishments.
Participants present their research findings to a panel of judges, with the top performers earning the chance to advance to the statewide California State University (CSU) Research Competition hosted at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo. There, they will compete against other exceptional scholars within the CSU system. Successful participants in the CSU Student Research Competition have the opportunity to win accolades, with $500 awarded for first place and $250 for second place within their respective sessions.
What is the CSU Competition?
The California State University Student Research Competition is an annual event that brings together scholars from the 23 campuses of our California State University system. The competition showcases undergraduate and graduate research, scholarship, and creative works by recognizing outstanding student accomplishments. across the 23 campuses.
Current undergraduate students, graduate students, and recent alumni from all academic disciplines can participate. Each year, over 200 students from the 23 CSU campuses submit written papers and make oral presentations before juries of professional experts from major corporations, foundations, public agencies, and universities in California. Students who compete in the CSU Student Research Competition can win $500 for first place and $250 for second place recognition in their session.
Each CSU campus appoints a campus coordinator and develops its own procedures for selecting student delegates to the system-wide competition. Only those students endorsed by the campus coordinator can enter the system-wide competition.
Who May Apply
Undergraduate or graduate students currently enrolled at CSUSB, as well as alumni/alumnae who received their degrees in Spring, Summer, or Fall 2024, are eligible. The research presented should be appropriate to the student’s discipline and career goals. Proprietary research is excluded. Presentations from all disciplines are invited. There will be separate undergraduate and graduate divisions for each of the five colleges (unless a division has fewer than three entrants, in which case undergraduate and graduate divisions will be combined). Groups are eligible to participate (all group members must present).
- College of Arts and Letters
- College of Business and Public Administration
- College of Education
- College of Natural Sciences
- College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
Competition Guidelines & Rubric
Students will present their work orally before a jury. Students will compete by class standing (undergraduate/graduate). Each student will have ten minutes for an oral presentation of their work and three minutes to listen and respond to juror questions. All entrants may use audiovisual material as appropriate, and presenters are encouraged to use delivery techniques that promote interaction with the audience. Entrants in the Creative Arts and Design category may present an audio and/or visual record of a performance they have given or a work they have created; their oral presentation should focus on the rationale and historical context underlying their interpretation of the material.
Rubric
Each entry (oral presentation and written summary) will be judged on the following criteria:
- Clarity of purpose
- Appropriateness of methodology
- Interpretation of results
- The ability of the presenter to articulate the research and creative activity
- Organization of the material presented
- The presenter’s ability to handle questions from the jury
How to Apply
Students who wish to participate in the CSUSB Student Research Competition are required to submit the following:
- Online registration form
- Summary (no more than 5 double-spaced pages and each page must include the Students Name, Coyote ID, and Title of the presentation)
- Appendices: Bibliography, Graphs, Photos (no more than 3 Pages)
*Please save an electronic version of your application and summary research. Those chosen to move forward to the state competition will need to submit electronic versions.
Apply to Present at the CSUSB Student Research Competition
Application Opens: The application is now open!
Application Deadline: January 13th, 2025 at 11:59pm via InfoReady.
Download Application Guidelines