More Than Thirty Students To Conduct Research This Summer
Research students working with Todd Hagobian are
studying the effects of bisphenols on the endocrine system.
From studying the effects of bisphenols on the endocrine system to exploring interactions between caregivers and infants during feeding, STRIDE students will be busy this summer conducting obesity prevention research. Kinesiology and STRIDE are housing 20 student researchers during July and August, with even more students working for affiliates throughout campus, including faculty members in biomechanics. The sections below highlight these different projects.
Frost Research Fellows Work with Family Health Research
The Bill and Linda Frost Fund in the College of Science and Mathematics supports undergraduate research. During the summer, students who are Frost Research Fellows receive stipends to engage in full-time research with faculty mentors. The fund was established by Cal Poly biochemistry alumnus Bill Frost and his wife, Linda.
Four Frost Research Fellows are working with kinesiology Professor Todd Hagobian to determine whether an accurate oral ingestion of BPA impacts insulin and glucose concentrations. Kinesiology Professor Sarah Keadle is supervising four students on two projects: validating two different activity monitors and exploring incentives to increase physical activity. Students working with kinesiology professors Suzanne Phelan and Christine Hackman and art and design Professor James Werner are studying virtual reality interventions for managing health behaviors.
Alison Ventura and two student researchers are beginning a new project called the Family Feeding Study. “The purpose of this study is to explore how caregiver-child feeding interactions differ across caregiving partners, for example mothers and fathers, as well as across modes of feeding, that is, feeding from a breast versus from a bottle,” Ventura said.
Two fellows are also working with Family Health Research and STRIDE through the Bridges to Baccalaureate program in partnership with Alan Hancock College.
Human Biomechanics Lab
Nearly 20 students are working with STRIDE Executive Committee member and mechanical engineering Professor Steve Klisch in his Human Biomechanics Lab. The students have the opportunity to partner with two visiting scholars from Italy.
The research group will take on two projects. The first aims to improve approaches for preventing knee arthritis by developing evidence-based guidelines for weight control exercises.
“The research plan is designed to test the hypothesis that obese knee biomechanics are most similar to baseline values for bicycling due to its status as a non-weight bearing exercise,” Klisch said.
Klisch’s second project will test the hypothesis that select maximum elbow and shoulder joint torques during baseball pitching are correlated with body composition measures (BMI; height; pitching arm lengths, masses, and fat percentage; and total body fat percentage) for two experimental groups: youth and adult baseball pitchers.
“The second aim of this project will be to develop several elbow joint finite element models to obtain direct measures of ulnar collateral ligament strains during baseball pitching,” Klisch said. “Results from this study may identify and/or reinforce select body composition measures as risk factors for baseball pitchers in these groups.”