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Meet the HLP Scholars
Spring 2024 Scholars
Dina Almahmodi, BS in Biochemistry
California State University, Sacramento, with its diverse student body and rigorous academic programs, presents an environment where stress and mental fatigue arecommon. To address these challenges, my proposal introduces a Healing Garden—an innovative sanctuary that integrates therapeutic landscape design with educational opportunities. This garden is not just an antidote to academic stressors but also a vibrant living classroom that promotes mental health, fosters learning, and nurtures environmental stewardship.
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Ricardo Hernandez, BS in Mechanical Engineering
The project's objective is to assess the benefits of volunteering,
including cost and staff time savings, as well as to boost student
participation in volunteering at Sac State Sustainability. The project aims to facilitate student access to volunteer opportunities and support Sac State Sustainability's initiatives.
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Sri Charan Kondragunta, BS in Computer Science
The core focus of this project centers on developing The
Emergency Housing Application for CSUS students, addressing
the critical need for temporary shelter among those facing urgent accommodation challenges. This digital platform streamlines the process with user-friendly features, including easy registration, an intuitive housing search interface, and effective communication channels connecting students with housing providers and university staff.
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Christian Leyva Mendez, BS in Computer Science
School is hard, why make it harder with a rommate you don't like? Exclusive Student only matching platform. Sacramento State students have limited options when it comes to
truly affordable housing. This housing insecurity can cause
stress which can bleed into academic performance.
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Nishan Maharjan, BS in Computer Science
Enrich the student learning journey by providing portable power banks accessible from the library, catering to the
prevalent need for convenient power sources during students' campus presence.
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Estrella Mara, BS in Biological Sciences
This nonprofit wants to provide a safe place where students can pick up and drop off old textbooks that they no longer use
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Brandon Martin, BS in Geology
“Geo Junior” is an initiative in collaboration with the geology department and club to inspire the next generation of geologists in the local community. By coordinating visits to local elementary schools and organizing immersive activities, this project aims to foster a passion for geology and establish meaningful connections between Sacramento State and the community. Additionally, participating in group activities will help develop student’s confidence and experience.
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Herman Melnyk, BS in Computer Engineering
AI Implementation's goal is to make the life of everyone who is using the Sac State website easier. The project is built around data brought from the University that will help to create an AI Chat that will be able to answer any questions
asked about Sacramento State, including solving different problems like Class Schedules, Finances, Academic Rules, Education, and others.
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Christian Vela Pasillas, BS in Computer Science
The Campus Safety App project will boost safety for Sacramento State students by offering a complete safety app. This app provides fast access to emergency services, real time security alerts, and tools for personal safety and crime preventions.
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Summer 2023 Scholars
ECS Student Organization for Career Networking
One of the biggest challenges Engineering and Computer Science (ECS) students face comes after graduation. Finding a job in industry can be difficult and applicants need to find ways to make themselves stand out from the crowd. The best way to do this is to obtain an internship in the field you hope to work in after graduation. For a lot of students, however, they don’t know what to expect from the process or even where to look to find an internship that will further their career goals. This is where our club, Resources for Engineering and Computer Science Students, RECSS for short, comes in.
While the ECS Career Center offers plenty of resources, they cannot offer personal experiences with seeking and obtaining an Engineering internship. RECSS would connect students that have already found internships with those who are starting the search. By sharing their experiences with drafting a resume, the places to search for internships, and the interview process, students can help each other gain the skills and confidence to find internships for themselves. The other benefit of RECSS is that it is interdisciplinary which gives students the chance to interact and network with students in other majors that they might not have had the chance to meet otherwise.
Hornet Bites Express: Delivering Culinary Excellence Through Robotics
The central objective of our robot centers on streamlining food delivery
to Sac State students, achieved through an automated system seamlessly integrated with a user-friendly mobile app for on-campus restaurant orders. This project seeks to prototype the feasibility of implementing such a food delivery system within Sacramento State's context, dispelling the misconception that only Ivy League institutions like UC Berkeley and Stanford University can realize the concept of a food delivery robot. Our endeavor underscores the potential for technological innovation to thrive within universities like ours, promising efficient and advanced solutions for our student community.
Put Safety First, Prevent the Worst
The central objective of our robot centers on streamlining food delivery
to Sac State students, achieved through an automated system seamlessly integrated with a user-friendly mobile app for on-campus restaurant orders. This project seeks to prototype the feasibility of implementing such a food delivery system within Sacramento State's context, dispelling the misconception that only Ivy League institutions like UC Berkeley and Stanford University can realize the concept of a food delivery robot. Our endeavor underscores the potential for technological innovation to thrive within universities like ours, promising efficient and advanced solutions for our student community.
Summer 2022 Scholars
Developing Parking Sensors for the Sac State Campus
In order to save people both time and frustration when parking on campus, we are outfitting a parking structure with a sensor-based counter system that will automatically track the number of available parking spaces, and relay that information to drivers via an LED display at the entrance of the structure. In the interest of reducing strain on the campus's electrical supply, we will also be powering this system with solar power to implement green energy for a cleaner campus environment.
Team:
Improving Awareness & Accessibility of Student Resources
The purpose of our project is to make Sac State resources more available for students who have any questions or concerns about their future in STEM whether it be during their undergrad or for future grad school or jobs. Originally we wanted to create a portfolio including things such as: information on career websites, internship leads, and different career options. After talking to our mentors, we realized that these resources already exist. Since we, as Sac State students, were not aware these existed our question was: How do we get this out to students? We then came up with the idea for a canvas page that we could share with STEM majors and students with an expressed interest in STEM. We decided to include information on major advising, job opportunities, internships, tutoring, STEM groups and clubs, and emergency contacts.
Team:
Improving Access to Health Information & First Aid
Our intention is to create more accessible first aid throughout the campus for the student body and the Sacramento community. We understand how busy students are throughout the day, which means accidents can happen at any moment going from class to class, not allowing time to find aid indoors or in the closest location. This is going to be presented in the form of 5 community medicine cabinets, called Hornet Health Helpers scattered throughout campus in the most convenient locations to help with quick fixes along with helpful information regarding health. We are currently surveying students to receive information on how best to bring accessibility to the student body and the community.
Team:
Improving STEM Student Advising at Sac State
As STEM majors, we’ve noticed navigating our schedules and what classes to take can be difficult and it is hard to find help. Our team focused on revamping advertising for the "Center for Science and Math Success". This resource center is not well known among students and we believe that increasing awareness would help students find resources they need that already exist. We had a focus on the addition of a peer advising resource where our trained students will answer questions and guide students along the path to getting advising through their department since this is an area which is surrounded by a lot of confusion and frustration.
Team:
Creation of Mobile Laptop-Charging Station
In order to better serve the CSUS community, we have decided to implement a laptop charging cart in high-traffic areas. This is to ensure student and staffs’ laptop devices are charged so they won’t have to worry about finishing projects or attendance for remote classes. We plan on collaborating with companies who would like to sponsor this service, in addition to fundraising for additional costs.
Team:
Increasing Awareness and Support of the ASI Food Pantry
Our group project is primarily focused on supporting the ASI Food Pantry by utilizing a series of advertisements around campus and on social media platforms to target Sacramento State students. This includes the following specific advertising outlets: the school wide email, the school newspaper, radio, magazine, President’s weekly updates, and the ASI social media platforms. The internal portion of the project will also include the following: (1) partnering with food pantry associates to advertise the food pantry (QR stickers to incoming transfer and 1st year students at orientation that directly links them to a digital flyer), (2) Posting flyers to advertise the food pantry on-campus and throughout on-campus student living, and (3) Communication with campus administration asking them to encourage professors to include the food pantry as a resource in their syllabi each semester.
Team:
Summer 2021 Scholars
Peer Space for Undergraduates to Learn about Research Opportunities
Retention of undergraduate students in STEM is remarkably low, particularly in underrepresented groups. We believe this is, in part, due to a lack of understanding of career paths after obtaining a STEM degree, and how to be a competitive applicant once a career path is determined. Our project aims to address this by informing incoming undergraduate freshmen enrolled in gatekeeping classes about the benefits of research as a career path or possible resume builder. At California State University Sacramento, many of these classes fall under the SIRIUS program (Sustainable Interdisciplinary Research to Inspire Undergraduate Success), where students are given research experience in their classes. However, students often don’t understand the extent of how beneficial these classes are to their learning, and how impressive they look to future employers or graduate programs. Through a series of workshops, we aim to teach these at-risk students about what research is, the benefits of research, where to find research opportunities, and how to reach out to faculty or research organizations to pursue research—all in the context of the research they are already conducting through their course, and specifically targeted towards under-represented groups. To determine if these workshops have had a significant effect on STEM retention, a qualitative survey is being given to participating courses, and we will compare the answers of students who attended our workshops with those who did not.
Team:
Creating a Wellness/Health Fair on Campus for the Community
Our project aim is to host a wellness resource fair focusing on the seven dimensions of wellness (intellectual, emotional, spiritual, career/financial, physical, sociocultural, and environmental). This resource fair will promote on campus resources related to the seven dimensions of wellness, including Student Health and Counseling Services, The Library and the CARES Office. This event is scheduled to occur in March 2022 in the Library Quad on campus if COVID-19 limitations allow. If circumstances change, we intend to host the event virtually. The purpose of this event is to raise student awareness of the resources and organizations available on campus at Sac State. We hope to meet students where they are at and support them as much as possible, especially after such a tumultuous past year.
Team:
Reducing Sac State Carbon Footprint
Our project focuses on reducing Sac State's Carbon footprint. To do this, we designed a program consisting of a sustainability pre-survey which would gage student's attitudes, knowledge and awareness about reducing carbon emissions on campus, followed by a PSA-style video which would discuss the effects of climate change, what Sac State's current efforts to reduce it are, and ways students can get involved. Afterwards, a short post survey concerning the effectiveness of our video would be taken. The goal is to spread student awareness and encourage student involvement in helping Sac State reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2040.
Team:
Creating an Open Market for Sac State Students
Our project is to create a place both online and in person for Sac State students to sell various unneeded materials. The app will serve as an online marketplace for students to sell their stuff all year round. The in person event will allow students to sell in bulk while also socialize and network with clubs and possible fraternities/sororities.
Read more about how this project evolved into the Buzly App:
February 2022 The State Hornet Article
June 2022 Sac State Newsroom Article
Team:
Create Murphy Bed/Desk for Dorm Rooms
Our project will be a desk for students at the dorms in sac state to provide more options and flexible on how they the use their space. The Desk can be folded up to create more space for students or be height adjustable for a variety of necessities including the option to have a standing desk. The desk is also completely collapsible allowing the housing management to easily store the desk which is space is of the essence of for them.
Team:
