Discovery Scholars

Faculty Mentor:Dr. Michael Wakefield, Professor
United Way ALICE Project, and the Rotary International Membership Strategic Planning 

Project Details: Students will be involved with one of the following three projects.  

UNITED WAY OF PUEBLO COUNTY 

As a UWPC (United Way of Pueblo County) Board of Trustees member, we have a wide range of projects we can include students in applied research. One specific example is developing a local response to ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) data. A family of 4 earning less than $40,000 is considered to be living below the ALICE threshold. This describes a disproportionate segment of the Pueblo population compared to other larger Colorado communities, and includes employees working in retail, daycare, social services, food services and education. UWPC is eager to develop strategies to improve opportunities for individuals living under the ALICE threshold. Students would research opportunity options to engage these individuals and deliver a presentation of their work to the UWPC Board of Trustees. 

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL #43 

I am also 2026-27 president elect of Rotary International #43. Like other service organizations, we have suffered a significant decline in membership since 2010, exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. Students would research ways to demonstrate membership value, and develop strategies to increase membership. Students will present findings to the members of Rotary #43 at a Monday luncheon. 

LEONARDO DA VINCI MUSEUM 

We have strong relationship with the founders of the Leonardo da Vinci Science Museum, set to launch in Fall 2025. This organization has need for a promotional campaign, strong social media presence, and development of a tracking system to determine which approaches to publicity are most effective. There may also be an opportunity to help plan and development additional phases, such as an interactive science exploration center. Presentation of research and recommendations will be made to the Leonardo da Vinci Board of Directors and leadership team. 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Bethany Kies-Bolkema, Associate Professor Health Sciences 
Campus and Community Health Projects

Project Details: Students will have the opportunity to engage in one of two public health projects.  The first project focuses on food insecurity among students living on campus.  The second project, co-led by staff at the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment, will assess the tobacco and nicotine environment within Pueblo County retailers.   Both projects will involve completing a literature review, data collection, organization and analysis, and a final presentation in April 2026.  The campus food insecurity project will additionally include a research protocol for submission to IRB, and a written manuscript for submission to a health promotion journal.  

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Fran Sandmeier Associate Professor of Biology 
Box Turtles and Tortoise 

Project Details: I have two ongoing projects: 

1) Mapping ornate box turtle populations in Southern Colorado. The purpose of this project is to define habitat quality and identify sources of potential mortality (especially roads). 

2) Immune functions of tortoise white blood cells. The purpose of this project is to identify mechanisms of killing of pathogens by tortoise immune cells. 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Claire Ramos, Associate Professor Biology   
Migratory Songbirds 

Project Details: Conservation of migratory songbirds can be particularly challenging as these animals require three distinct habitats for successful completion of their life cycle: breeding habitat, wintering habitat, and migratory habitat. The migratory phase of the life cycle of these animals may be the most critical as migratory behavior is physiologically stressful and dangerous. This was clearly demonstrated by a mass migratory songbird die-off that occurred in early Sept. 2020 in the southwestern United States. Thousands of dead migratory birds were found over the span of just a few days. It is thought that this die-off was a result of a lethal combination of drought conditions reducing food availability, poor air quality caused by wildfires, and a freak snowstorm. Migratory banding stations can provide valuable information to better understand the threats that migratory birds face enroute to and from their breeding grounds. Migratory songbirds will be captured from local field sites in areas heavily used by migrating birds. We will use mist-nets to capture the birds and take various measurements to determine overall physiological condition of the birds. Birds will then be released to continue their migration. Students will be trained in mist-netting, including how to handle the netted birds with care for the concern of the health and well-being of the animals. There are also opportunities to learn laboratory techniques to measure physiological stress. Information about migration will be provided through lab meetings and readings from primary literature. 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Amaya Garcia Costas, Associate Professor Biology  
Phage Hunters  

Project Details: Bacteriophage (phage) are a type of viruses that infect only bacteria. Although invisible to the eye, they are thought to be the most abundant biological entities on Earth, with some estimates indicating that there are 10^31 phage in the planet. Incredibly, phage are estimated to kill as much as 40% of the ocean's bacteria every day. CSU-Pueblo students will sample local habitats and isolate bacteriophage using microbiology techniques such as the plaque assay. Once these novel phage are isolated, CSU-Pueblo students will characterize their phage using electron microscopy and molecular biology approaches such as DNA isolation and restriction enzymes. Lastly, the genomes of selected phage will be sequenced and CSU-Pueblo students will manually curate every gene in the genome using bioinformatic tools such as BLAST and HHPred, and gene annotating programs such as Glimmer. Students will be able to explore structure-function relationships of selected gene products and probe the evolutionary relationships of their isolated phage to known phage. HHMI will sponsor the attendance to their annual symposium of one faculty member and one student participating in the program. In addition, students will be able to write a Genome Annotation paper to submit for publication, and to design future experiments on their phage (eg. targeting specific genes, or specific phage processes) that they can carry out as research students after this program has ended.   

Students are taught standard molecular and microbiology lab techniques such as pipetting and aseptic technique as well as how to keep a lab notebook. The bioinformatics component includes introductions to common search engines and genetic databases. Students get to name their own phage. 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mario Izaquirre Sierra, Assistant Professor Biology  
Architecture of the Eukaryotic Nucleus: Significance of Cajal Bodies  

Project Details: The focus of my laboratory centers on elucidating the structural and functional significance of the Cajal body (CB) and the nuclear architecture in the cell. For this, we are using Arabidopsis   
 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Leonardo Bedoya-Valencia, Associate Professor MSISE   
Digital Twins & AI for OR Applications  

Project Details:  I have been working on two topics: Digital Twins and AI, optimization, and simulation for scheduling of operating rooms in a local hospital. 
 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Trung Duong, Associate Professor Engineering  
Artificial Intelligence in Daily Life  

Project Details: The AI system started to be part of human life and is affecting our lives in different ways. Smart applications like visual, text, interactive, functional and, analytic AI systems will shape the future of the current and future generations. To be an effective part of this AI revolution, virtually everyone will need a basic understanding of the technologies that underpin machine learning and artificial intelligence. Therefore, this project will be suitable for all degree majors. The proposed project aims to create an active learning environment for a group of discovery scholars (students) to understand the basics of AI technologies, systems, and ethics. 

The students will learn to use free web-based tools to develop AI systems to solve daily life problems like time management budget optimization, image text, and sound recognition. The final products will be a group of small AI-based projects that were suggested and developed by the students and can be presented in the science and technology symposiums or conferences inside and outside the university. 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Hassan Faisal Assistant Professor Engineering  
Plastics in Asphalt and Distracted Driving Identification 

Project Details: Prepare to embark on an intriguing and captivating civil engineering research project that delves into the captivating realms of transportation engineering, construction materials, and the environmental components of sustainable construction. This comprehensive project encompasses a wide array of topics, including plastics in asphalt, pavement materials, railway systems, intelligent transport, and AI-driven electric smart vehicles. The primary objective is to explore innovative solutions aimed at enhancing the efficiency, safety, and sustainability of transportation infrastructure. Thorough investigations will be conducted to examine the integration of plastic waste into asphalt mixtures, analyze the performance characteristics of pavement materials, optimize railway infrastructure, and develop intelligent transport systems by harnessing advanced technologies while examining their impact on user experience and safety. 

Anticipate an extraordinary educational journey within civil engineering. This project offers exceptional learning experiences and opportunities to cultivate invaluable skills. Students will: 

1. Immerse themselves in plastics in asphalt, revolutionizing sustainable pavement materials.
2. Explore intricate railway system intricacies for efficient and reliable transportation networks.
3. Venture into the fascinating realm of intelligent transport and AI-driven electric smart vehicles, shaping the future with cutting-edge technologies.

Investigate the impact of these technologies on everyday life, delving into the language of STEM and fostering appreciation for scientific wonders. Additionally, students will present their findings at prestigious symposiums, fostering professional growth and unlocking exciting career prospects in transportation, materials, and sustainable engineering. 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Maxwell Wallace, Assistant Professor Chemistry 

Materials Chemistry Development and Characterization of Luminescent Materials 

Project Details: I work in Materials Chemistry, focusing on the development and characterization of luminescent materials for various applications. My current research explores the structure-property relationships of newly synthesized luminescent compounds, aiming to optimize their performance for advanced technologies. To gain deeper insights into their fundamental properties, we utilize beamline time at Argonne National Laboratory for high-resolution structural analysis and spectroscopy. Through this work, we strive to advance the understanding and application of luminescent materials in fields such as energy, sensing, and display technologies.  

Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Volk, Professor of Music  
Composition Performance  

Project Details: Compose and perform your own music  

Student will work within this group to help each other compose, produce, and record their own music in a live performance. Students will have a unique opportunity to be a part of the full creative activity of music making on a personal level and at a high level of personal achievement. 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Heidi Reynolds-Stenson, Associate Professor Sociology  
Police Reform  

Project Details: We will be able to test whether police departments in communities that have seen higher levels of BLM mobilization are more likely to subsequently adopt reforms, after controlling for other local factors which are likely correlated with BLM mobilization and police reform (e.g. city population, racial makeup, political climate, etc.). Creating this first nationally-representative dataset of police reform, and merging this with available data on police-caused deaths (from the Fatal Encounters dataset), will also allow us to test the effect of various police reforms on subsequent changes in the number of police-caused deaths in these localities in a way that is more systematic and rigorous than previous attempts at determining such effects (like those undertaken by the ""8 Can't Wait"" campaign). Finally, qualitative case studies will be conducted on select representative and anomalous cities identified through the quantitative analysis. 

 
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Aaron Johnson, Lecturer Sociology  
Cannabis Ethnography  

Project Details: The Southern Colorado Cannabis Industry Ethnography will explore the everyday lives of the folks who work in the legal cannabis industry in Southern Colorado using a combination of participant observation, in-depth interviews, and the analysis of discourse found in marketing and social media. As an inductive project, themes in the shared culture, conventions, and social dynamics of cannabis industry employees and business owners will emerge over time. However, the project begins with a particular concern for those engaged in the "dirty work" (Douglas 1966) of the industry and the ways in which they manage the potential stigma associated with such. 

Student scholars will learn of the sociological approach to qualitative / interpretive research, as well as engage in age-appropriate fieldwork, conduct qualitative interviews, and content analysis techniques. Student scholars will participate in the analysis of data and present findings in academic venues. More so, they will gain an in-depth insight into what it means to work in the legal cannabis industry. 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Yunhan Zhao, Associate Professor Sociology  
Corruption Sentencing in China  

Project Details: In the past years, I have concentrated on spatial analysis on policing issues in the US. This year, I would like to do something different, adopting an international comparative criminology perspective. I would like to conduct research on corruption sentencing in China. Specifically, this study investigates sentencing practices in corruption cases within China’s judicial system, focusing on how offenders are sentenced, the factors influencing judicial outcomes, and potential disparities. While China’s anti-corruption campaign has led to numerous prosecutions, the sentencing process remains understudied, raising questions about judicial consistency, fairness, and the role of political influence in legal decision-making. This research aims to fill this gap by systematically analyzing how legal factors, such as offense type and severity, interact with extralegal variables, including political affiliation, socioeconomic status, and geographic location, in shaping judicial outcomes. Students will be exposed to international literature on corruption and sentencing, various criminological theories originated from the Western societies as well as those that have been localized or invented in China and the larger Asian culture. Students will also be exposed to advanced analytical methods. 

 
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michael Brisco, Assistant Professor Sociology  
One Welfare  

Project Details: This project will use the One Welfare framework to look at how social, environmental, and animal well-being are all interconnected. This includes looking at the relationships between economic growth and well-being, and how governments and communities balance the interests of different groups when making decisions and adapting to rapid social and environmental changes. 

Students will learn how to use research databases, write literature reviews, and collect and analyze data.  Students will help design and implement research tools (e.g. administrative data analysis, surveys, interviews). 

 
 
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Eddie Lucero, Professor Political Science  
Citizen Participation SOCO Center for Politics and Public Affairs Project  

Project Details: Consistent citizen participation in elections is vital to the health of American democracy. Yet, participation in electoral contests is not equitable across demographic groups (gender, race, neighborhood, etc.). Causes of unequal participation rates can range from institutional (access to drop boxes) to individual (low resources) level factors. This group will work under the SOCO Center for Politics and Public Affairs and provide students with the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of working with election data (voter file, voting district boundaries, etc.) to answer key questions about citizen participation in Colorado's statewide and local elections. 

 
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lindsay “Elby” Beddes, Assistant Professor Psychology  
SOAR & and Play for College Students  

Project Details: There are two avenues of research this fall.

The first is a community based participatory project that is beginning to unfold over the summer. In collaboration with SOAR, we are hosting playback theater sessions as a means to begin community conversations and identify the research question. These sessions will continue in early Fall and will guide the direction of the research. 

The second project is a more traditional research approach, likely mixed methods, investigating the importance of play for college students. 

Discovery Scholars that I work with will be able to choose which project they will work on. First year students will primarily work on the literature review component, and students with more research experience will collaborate with data collection and analysis. 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Walter “Rich” Walker, Professor Psychology   
Anti-Fragility & Growth through Adversity 

Project Details: I am working on a new project assessing the construct of anti-fragility, or growth through adversity. Some negative experiences give people the opportunity to become stronger and more resilient. The proposed project will examine events that are initially perceived as negative, but can later be recalled as positive. This emotional transformation is something that I call 'flexible affect' and occurs for about 6-10% of life events.