Faculty Legacy Fund

Understanding severe drought events using tree rings in Taylor Creek Watershed, Lake Tahoe Basin, California

Why are there more of some types of species than others?: Linking population processes to broad-scale patterns.

Whether walking through urban neighborhoods or going on nature hikes, the diversity of the natural world surrounds us. Our lab researches the origin and maintenance of this species diversity.. One pattern that particularly fascinates us is that diversity is imbalanced across types of organisms and geographic regions. For example, when we think of mammals, we first think of bears, lions, and elephants. But, fifty percent of mammals are either rodents or bats. The proposed research aims to understand the possible evolutionary causes for this disparity, and in doing so, provide undergraduate students with firsthand research experiences.

Building Racial Literacy into First-Year Composition: Evaluating A Faculty Development Program toward Equitable Writing Instruction

Alexis McCurn, Assistant Professor, Sociology Department - Untenured

Exploring Street-Based Sexual Harassment Among Poor African American Women

This project examines how black women living in distressed urban neighborhoods negotiate sexual harassment in public space. For numerous inner-city residents walking along local streets is customary and includes street-based encounters and interactions with others. For many this means routine experiences with a range of negative public interactions. Impoverished communities in Los Angeles’ South Bay will be the primary site of participant observation and interviews. I will explore how women experience, understand, and manage street harassment while negotiating poor urban space and paying special attention to how intersectionality complicates hostile, gender-specific encounters. (Phase 2; Phase 1 completed 2016-2017)

Nancy Deng, Associate Professor, Info Systems & Op Management Dept. - Untenured

Understanding First-Year Experience and Digital Skills of Generation Z at CSUDH

Generation Z is the population segment born between 1995 and 2010. Living in a world of smartphones and free Wi-Fi, this generation is assumed to be digital technology savvy. However, this assumption of universal digital equality may not hold, given members’ diverse social and economic status. Digital equality is essential for Generation Z to succeed in today’s digitalized, networked society. So digital equality or inequality? Collaborating with University Advisement Center at CSU Dominguez Hills, I intend to study the digital skills and competence of our first-year students and propose digital competence-enhancing strategies to help them thrive in college and beyond. (Initial survey data analysis on data sample collected as well as a paper submitted based on the analysis completed prior to this application)

Kathryn Theiss – Biology

How will plants evolve in a changing climate?

Predicting how plant species will evolve in the face of global climate change is one of the most important and challenging fields in current botanical research. Climate change affects the timing of plant flowering as well as activity of pollinators, which could lead to increased rates of self-fertilization, decreasing genetic diversity and therefore adaptive potential. The overarching question that drives my research is How do genetically-controlled breeding systems affect a species' ability to evolve in a changing climate? I combine field and molecular research to answer this question using evening primroses (Oenothera; Onagraceae).

Bin Tang – Computer Science

Energy-Efficient File replication in Data-Intensive Cloud Data Centers

Cloud data centers are the backbone of the Internet economy, providing numerous services such as search engines(Google), social networks(Facebook), and video streaming(Netflix). Many cloud applications are data intensive, processing large amount of data. Data replication, which brings data files closer to the applications, is an effective strategy to reduce data access latencies and bandwidth consumption, thus saving energy in data centers. I am working with both graduate and undergraduate students in my lab to design energy-efficient data replication algorithms. With algorithmic and mathematical rigor as well as real-world applicability, this project will provide an invaluable research experience for our students.

Andrea Johnson – History  

Dominguez and the 1910 Air Meet

To complete research on a documentary on the 1910 Los Angeles International Aviation Meet, Prof. Andrea Johnson proposes to bring to light one of the seminal events in Los Angeles aviation history. The goal of "Dominguez and the 1910 Air Meet" is to complete a factual and focused film on an event central to the history of aviation in the nation, Los Angeles and the South Bay. The project will fund Prof. Andrea Johnson's research, travel, editing, filming assistance to the Airmeet committee and interviews to bring the production home not only to CSUDH, but also to Los Angeles and Aviation historians. In addition Prof. Johnson will work to bring the Air Meet home to CSUDH students and generally challenges them to visualize the connections between local, national and their own history.

Ana Pitchon – Sociology