Award-Winning Student Research
Orfalea College of Business students Jack Keefer and Nathaniel Andre recognized at the CSU Research Competition.
Seven Cal Poly students and recent alumni — including master’s in quantitative economics alumnus Jack Keefer (top left), and quantitative analysis alumnus Nathaniel Andre (top right) — were awarded prizes at the 2021 California State University (CSU) Student Research Competition this spring. Cal Poly was the most recognized university in the competition, with Mustangs taking home 15% of the total prizes awarded. Students from across the CSU competed in 10 divisions, which covered a broad field of research including projects in STEM, political science and business.
Keefer’s research — which focused on social media use, body image and mood disorders in high school students — won second place in the graduate division of the Behavioral, Social Sciences and Public Administration Category.
“Each project represented what is best about the opportunity to Learn by Doing in research at Cal Poly: the opportunity to work closely with amazing faculty mentors to create new knowledge that makes a difference in the world.”
Andre’s research took first place in the graduate and undergraduate division of the Physical and Mathematical Sciences and Interdisciplinary Category for work that studied corn futures trading through the lenses of deep learning and satellite imagery.
Keefer and Andre were mentored during the competition by Orfalea College of Business professors Jacqueline Doremus (economics) and Ziemowit Bednarek (finance), respectively.
“All of our student and recent alumni delegates were phenomenal representatives of Cal Poly at the competition,” says Jane Lehr, director of the Office of Student Research. “Each project represented what is best about the opportunity to Learn by Doing in research at Cal Poly: the opportunity to work closely with amazing faculty mentors to create new knowledge that makes a difference in the world.”