College of Science and Engineering

Alum designs FDA-authorized app to treat fibromyalgia symptoms

Nelson Mitchell developed his design mind as a graduate student at SF State 

Learning to design furniture at San Francisco State University can lead to more careers than one may expect. For Nelson Mitchell, his master’s degree was the pathway to creating an innovative mobile app to treat fibromyalgia. 

Mitchell, a user-experience designer, is head of design and co-founder of Swing Therapeutics. Earlier this year the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) authorized its app, Stanza, to be marketed to treat symptoms of fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition that affects 10 million Americans. It is the first fibromyalgia digital therapeutic approved by the FDA. Available only by prescription, Stanza employs a form of cognitive behavioral therapy called acceptance and commitment therapy. It has proven effective in extensive randomized controlled trials and real-world studies, with 73% of patients demonstrating improvement in symptoms. 

Stanza provides patients with a customized schedule of treatment, incorporating practices such as mindfulness and self-reflection throughout their daily routine. “It’s the therapist in your pocket,” Mitchell said.  

Nelson Mitchell smiles while standing in front of a brick wall on a foggy day

Mitchell (M.A., ’10) entered San Francisco State as smartphones started to become a near necessity for daily life. Faculty and students already knew that enduring product design concepts would be key to success in the mobile software space. 

“I was designing chairs and lamps and stuff like that, but SF State’s program was really great at teaching me the design process and how to think like a designer — how to come up with a hypothesis, test, iterate and refine the idea,” Mitchell said. “I took that and applied it to software and interface design.” 

School of Design faculty such as Ricardo Gomes, Shirl Buss, Hsiao-Yun Chu and Nancy Noble gave Mitchell the tools and the freedom to explore his interests in depth. 

“I felt like I had a new kernel, a new framework,” he said. “SF State gave me the chance to build it — and really build it in a way that I understood it. It’s like the difference between owning a bike and having someone else fix it versus being able to take it apart and put it back together.” 

At his company, Mitchell is spreading the word about the Gator work ethic: “Nobody is going to work as hard for you as graduates from SF State,” he told his team. “These are people that we need to create opportunities for.” 

One of Swing Therapeutics’ first in-house software engineers, Mantasha Khan, joined the company after completing her Computer Science degree from SF State. Khan (B.S., ’21) has a passion for creating technology solutions for health. She notes that Lecturer Jose Ortiz-Costa’s “Introduction to Database Systems” course provided her with an invaluable foundation of skills. 

“I’ve been meaning to reach out to [Ortiz-Costa], just throw it out there, [to say that] you have helped me so much,’” said Khan, who attended SF State as an international student from India. “Everything you have taught has been helping me every single day in my work, so I’m very grateful.”  

Learn more about the SF State School of Design and Computer Science Department. 

Speakers share stories of personal transformation at Commencement

SF State ‘can be your rock,’ said Jayshree Ullal, president and CEO of cloud networking company Arista Networks, at the May 26 event

San Francisco State University celebrated the Class of 2023 at its annual Commencement ceremony Friday, May 26, at Oracle Park. More than 4,000 graduates and more than 31,000 people attended the event, which featured technology business leader Jayshree Ullal as keynote speaker. Ullal talked about the challenges she faced coming to the U.S. from her native India to attend San Francisco State in 1977. 

“While I was pursuing electrical engineering, I was only one or two of 100 female students in a class of 100,” said Ullal (B.S., ’81), who studied electrical engineering at SF State and went on to become president and CEO of cloud networking company Arista Networks. “This made cutting class difficult, as we were conspicuous by our absence!” 

Despite being a trailblazer in a then mostly male field — and a “very shy, quiet introvert” to boot — Ullal said her Engineering professors and fellow students were supportive.   

“This great San Francisco State institution shaped me and guided my future,” she said. “And it can be your rock just like it’s my foundational rock.” 

Two honorary California State University degrees were also conferred at Commencement: legendary Rolling Stone writer and editor, author, DJ and TV host Ben Fong-Torres (B.A., ’66) was honored with a Doctor of Fine Arts, while activist, filmmaker, author and psychotherapist Satsuki Ina received a Doctor of Humane Letters.  

“Actually I didn’t attend my Commencement. Hey, it was the Sixties. We forgot, man,” Fong-Torres joked to the crowd. “But I have never forgotten this university’s impact on me. … I got that [Rolling Stone] gig, I think, because of the freedom that we had to experiment with journalism here at SF State, and the lessons learned from that freedom.” 

During Ina’s speech, she encouraged the Class of 2023 to make the world a better place through empathy and action. 

“I urge you to bring with you something that has always been inside of you, even before college, and that is your compassion,” she said. “We need all that you bring, and more than ever in this world of conflict, violence, injustice and suffering, we need your compassion. We need you to care and love family and friends, of course, but also the stranger, the other, the foreigner. Reach out beyond your comfort zone, welcome the outsider. It is compassion that can mend the fractures, heal the wounds and bring us together.” 

Other speakers included SF State President Lynn Mahoney, Associated Students President Karina Zamora and Associated Students Chief of Staff Iese Esera. Two student hood recipients, among 12 graduates honored for their academic and personal achievements, also shared their stories. 

“I began my journey in higher education as a homeless first-generation college student with a baby on my hip and another in my belly. I did not have support, money, guidance or a place to call my own. But what I did have was a dream,” said undergraduate speaker Nicole Bañuelos. “I had a dream that I would earn my degree in Biology and go on to study medicine and save human lives. This dream carried me through my most trying times. I learned how to study through morning sickness and nausea, how to hold a textbook in one hand and a baby in another, how to hold my head up high when I felt like the world was looking down on me. But most of all I learned how to never give up in the face of adversity and that after every dark night there is a brighter day.” 

Graduate student speaker Hasti Jafari, who was born in Iran, reflected on the Iranian women’s movement and the important lessons the Class of 2023 can learn from the brave activists there. 

“As someone honored to have called both countries home, I encourage you to see their fight as your fight, as the basic rights of women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ and disabled communities are under threat in this country as well,” Jafari said. “And in this deeply interconnected world, none of us are free until all of us are free.” 

Learn more information about SF State’s 2023 Commencement. 

‘The Last of Us’ for amphibians: University researchers trace emergence of fungus threatening African amphibians

SF State professor, students describe how a deadly fungus began spreading among amphibians in Africa over the last 165 years

For the past few years, how a virus triggered a global pandemic has dominated conversations. Now, thanks to the TV show “The Last of Us” (about an apocalypse triggered by brain-eating ’shrooms), fungi have infected popular culture. The focus has been on pathogens that cause human disease, but what about those affecting nonhuman species? San Francisco State University scientists are among the many concerned about a fungus that has been detrimental for amphibians worldwide and is contributing to a loss of biodiversity.

In a new Frontiers in Conservation Science paper, San Francisco State researchers detail the relatively recent emergence and spread of a deadly fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or Bd) among amphibians in Africa. Eight of the co-authors are former SF State students who were in a seminar class led by senior investigator Vance Vredenburg, a University Biology professor.

“When [amphibian] skin starts to change thickness, it basically creates a condition where they can’t maintain their internal processes and they die,” said co-author Eliseo Parra (B.S., ’14; M.S., ’17) about how the fungus attacks. “If infecting a mammal, it might affect your fingernails or something you wouldn’t even notice, but amphibians (frogs, salamanders) use their skin to breathe. It’s a very critical part of their body.”

The fungus is lethal for many amphibian populations but not others, Vredenburg says. His lab wanted to understand where the fungus is, how it got there and why it’s deadly for some amphibians, particularly in Africa where it has been under-studied.

In 2016, Vredenburg’s class, eager to get involved in conservation research, read papers about Bd and evaluated previously published data. In parallel, Vredenburg’s lab, in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences, assessed the infection status of amphibian specimens from Africa. These two approaches gave the project nearly 17,000 records for analysis and a 165-year view of how this fungus interacts with amphibians across the continent.

The team reports low Bd prevalence and limited spread of the disease in Africa until 2000, when the prevalence increased from 3.2% to 18.7% and Bd became more widespread geographically. Vredenburg notes that not only is the fungus infecting amphibians but it is causing negative (often deadly) consequences versus being dormant.

The researchers also found two lineages of the fungus in Africa. One was a global lineage — considered the most dangerous version of the fungus — while the second was previously believed to be more benign, though the SF State team found evidence that it may also be destructive. Using their data, the team created a model that predicts that eastern, central and western Africa are the most vulnerable to Bd.

“We’re trying to extend our findings and make predictions about what could happen in the future. It’s the best way to make our study worth the work,” Vredenburg said.  “There are nearly 1,200 amphibian species in Africa. We wanted to say where are the riskiest places for outbreaks. Those will probably be the places where you have the most hosts in one place.”

“It’s very important to note that Bd didn’t spread worldwide without humans helping in one way or another,” added co-author Hasan Sulaeman (B.S., ’16; M.S., ’19). “It’s not the first pathogen that affects hundreds of species worldwide and it’s not going to be the last.”

The team points out that this project does not fit the traditional molds for science research papers or literature reviews. The fact that a scientific paper resulted from research done in a class is rare too, Vredenburg explains, attributing the feat to students’ talent and motivation.

Both Parra and Sulaeman participated in the project as students in the seminar class and as researchers in Vredenburg’s lab. They are among the students who continued to be involved for some part of the five years after the initial semester-long project. Through this experience, they gained valuable insight into the scientific publication process — something that is not trivial or quick — early in their careers.

Sulaeman is currently working on CDC-funded national SARS-CoV-2 studies, while Parra studies animal behavior in rainforests as a Ph.D. student at UCLA. Both alums recall the research environment that Vredenburg fostered that brought together undergraduate and graduate students with a variety of cultural and scientific backgrounds and levels of expertise. They both note the power in diversity and how it improves science.

“When you have a lot of really smart people in a room sitting at a table regularly, it is possible to do a lot. Maybe we didn’t understand that at the time or maybe this was a big lesson for us [students],” Parra said. “But Vance definitely knew that you could actually walk away from a class with an important piece of published research.”

Visit the Biology Department’s website to learn more about classes, research and more.

Gators Give Day raises more than $109K for students, programs and clubs

More than 640 SFSU supporters made donations during the University’s first-ever giving day 

Thanks to the generous support of the University’s alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends, SFSU’s inaugural Gators Give Day was a resounding success. More than 640 SFSU supporters united on April 2 and raised over $109,000 in just 24 hours. These gifts will immediately impact scholarships, academic programs, student organizations and essential University initiatives.

More than 60 groups consisting of colleges, schools, departments, student organizations and clubs participated in the event through their own online fundraising pages, in addition to the main University giving page. Every donation made on April 2 counted toward the Giving Day totals. 

Alumni made up the majority of those giving on Gators Give Day (26%), followed closely by SFSU staff and faculty (24%) and students (20%).

“This extraordinary day truly highlights the community spirit that defines SFSU,” said Jeff Jackanicz, vice president of University Advancement. “We are grateful to everyone who participated and helped us meet our goal of empowering student success. With so many alumni, faculty and staff, and student donors, it’s clear we are continuing to build a broad culture of community-driven philanthropy at SFSU.”

The College of Science & Engineering (CoSE) raised more than $10,000 from 59 donors, the most money raised by any individual college. CoSE plans to use the money to support its Student Project Showcase, an event that culminates in a year’s worth of faculty-guided research. Students present their research findings from at the spring event. 

“I am so grateful to the donors that provided support for our Student Project Showcase on Gators Give Day. This annual event highlights more than 200 research and senior projects across our entire college,” said College of Science & Engineering Dean Carmen Domingo. “Having the opportunity to put into practice what they have learned over the years at SFSU gives students a deep sense of pride and confidence that they have developed the skills and knowledge to launch a successful career in STEM.”

Ninety-six people donated to SFSU’s Men’s Rugby Club, the most for any campus organization raising more than $3,500.

Kiril Gupta, secretary and head of social media for the 45-member SFSU Men’s Rugby Club team, says he was especially pleased to see that the team received the highest number of student donors of any group. “When we brought the team back during the fall ’22 semester, our old officers always emphasized campus engagement and being a part of the school community,” he said. “Having a high number of donors shows to our team that we have done a great job of being a part of the school community, and we are grateful for students at SF State supporting us.” 

The team plans to spend the windfall on field rentals, new equipment, travel, medical supplies, new uniforms and more. 

If you missed Gators Give Day or still want to help, there’s always time to make a difference. Ongoing support ensures that SFSU will continue to deliver excellence and access to transformative education rooted in innovation and equity. Learn more about giving to support SFSU.  And look forward to next year’s Gators Give Day, when we’ll achieve even greater success for our campus community. 

Hackers designed ‘tech for good’ at this year’s SF Hacks

Projects tackled memory loss, data protection, mental health and more

After successfully reinstating San Francisco State University’s in-person hackathon last year, SF Hacks kept the momentum rolling by jumping into planning their 2025 event and making it bigger and better. 

On April 4 – 6, 300 hackers convened at SFSU’s Annex 1 for the annual SF Hacks hackathon. Participants came from all over the country, with over 80% coming from all over California and 30% returning from SF Hacks 2024. The attendee number jumps to 430 when considering volunteers, judges, mentors and more. The event almost hit the venue limit on the first day.

At its core, SF Hacks is a 48-hour hardware and software building competition, but that description doesn’t fairly encapsulate the event. It is really a community affair with mini events, panels, workshops, professional and social networking, fun activities like Bob Ross painting and tennis, complimentary food … and it’s a totally free event to boot.

“Of course, we have the innovation aspect that is with all hackathons. But something we feel is important and strongly about here at SFSU is our social activism,” said SF Hacks president Marco Garcia, a Computer Science sophomore, of this year’s “tech for good” theme. 

“With so many different ways to harness technology, it’s so important we have a guiding principle and that is to build for good,” said SF Hacks Director Ria Thakker during the opening ceremony, encouraging hackers to think more deeply about what it means to build for good. “What are your preferred use cases, whose perspectives you’re considering and how to utilize your knowledge to give back to your community."

One project that placed in several categories was a robot called Remi that helps people with memory loss. When Remi sees a familiar face, it recalls and shares details about that person to the user. An SFSU team won the Best AI Emerging Technology prize with their project Secure Sense. This project helps prevent information leaks by detecting and blocking or masking sensitive data when people use generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini. 

Although it can be daunting, it’s rewarding to push yourself on your own terms to see what you can do, explained SF Hacks Sponsorship Chair Keith Curry, a senior double majoring in Computer Science and Biology. “We take all these courses and learn all these skills. But a lot of times, the curriculum doesn’t test the extent of our ability. It just tests our ability to adhere to a curriculum."

However, students don’t need to be experienced coders, or even computer scientists, to participate. There are tools and mentors available to help beginners learn technical skills. This year, SF Hacks also highlighted the cross-disciplinary collaboration needed to build projects, said SF Hacks Vice President Ashley Ching, a Computer Science senior.

“We tried to get many people outside of technical roles, like product managers, researchers, UX designers and other roles more geared towards user experience or full vision,” she explained. “We aimed to get those people involved so people can learn from them.” 

More than 17 industry and academic sponsors supported this year’s event. SF Hacks 2025 was the first SF Hacks to secure a title sponsor and co-host OpenMind through the single largest contribution in SF Hacks history, the team explains. Some sponsors supported specific tracks: SFSU’s Lam Family College of Business sponsored the “best start-up pitch” track, rewarding the top team a $1,000 seed fund. In total, 32 judges awarded over $7,000 in prizes (monitors, air fryers, cash and more) across different challenge tracks and overall competition.

All of this — event logistics, finances, marketing, sponsorship and all other details — was organized by students. The core SF Hacks leadership includes over 40 students who collaborate with another 11 SFSU student organizations. 

“I’ve been here for two years. I was roped into it by my friend. Now I’m too deep into it and can’t quit,” laughed Thakker, a third-year Computer Science major. 

 “When you plan it, it’s very satisfying to see everything that you worked for and seeing the impact,” added SF Hacks Treasurer Kurt Balais, a Computer Science senior.

Learn more about SF Hacks events, this year's projects and the Department of Computer Science. 

Students tackle drug resistance by teaching machine learning

SFSU researchers have published a step-by-step tutorial for applying machine learning to drug resistance

Antimicrobial resistance is a growing health crisis that could lead to millions of deaths by 2050, according to the World Health Organization. Antibiotics are critical for human health, but many microbes are evolving resistance to one or more drugs. San Francisco State University researchers are among those using machine learning to predict drug resistance in patients. And they’re trying to remedy a related problem, too: the lack of resources that teach how to use machine learning to detect antibiotic resistance. 

In a new paper in PLOS Computational Biology, the SFSU team published a step-by-step machine learning tutorial for beginners. Other than Biology Professor Pleuni Pennings, the remaining seven researchers on the paper were undergraduate, graduate students and post-baccalaureate students; many were first-time researchers, and nearly all were new to machine learning. 

“We wanted to do a tutorial paper instead [of a research paper] because we thought it was more important to put out a teachable resource. We struggled to find one, so we wanted to make our own,” said co-first author Faye Orcales (B.S., ’21), who worked on the project as a post-bac.

As beginners from a variety of backgrounds, the team made sure the paper would be accessible to their student peers and educators in biology and chemistry as well as anyone in health sciences. Though the lesson is beginner friendly, the authors recommend having introductory coding knowledge, something that is beyond the scope of this paper. 

“Because it’s in a peer-reviewed journal, it makes it feel real because other scientists — not just your professor or friends — reviewed the article. The peer review process was crucial because it gives other perspectives,” said co-first author Lucy Moctezuma, a Statistics graduate student at CSU East Bay who has a background in psychology. She joined Pennings’ SFSU lab through a friend and was part of the lab for nearly three years. She and Orcales led the effort to write the manuscript and address any feedback. “We were a bunch of students trying to figure it out and we were able to! I think that we should all be proud of that,” Moctezuma said.

Using a previously published data set — comprised of 1,936 E. coli strains from patients that were tested against 12 antibiotics — the students developed a step-by-step tutorial for four different popular machine-learning models to predict drug resistance to E. coli. To improve accessibility, they used Google Colab, a free, cloud-based platform to write and run Python codes — which means users don’t have to install software to follow the tutorial. The SFSU team provided six free Google Colab “notebooks” with tutorials: one for each of the four models (logistic regression, random forests, extreme gradient-boosted trees and neural networks) plus two for data preparation and result visualization. 

Eight SFSU students and Professor Pleuni Pennings wearing CODE lab sweatshirts

Left to right: Students MaryGracy Antony, Faye Orcales, Lucy Moctezuma, John Matthew Suntay, Florentine van Nouhuijs, Meris Johnson-Hagler, Jameel Ali, Kristiene Recto and Professor Pleuni Pennings (sitting). Photo courtesy of Faye Orcales.

“The students may not realize that it’s sort of bold [to submit this paper to PLOS]. It just shows that we do very high-quality work,” said Pennings, adding that the students really took ownership over the writing and pushing the manuscript forward.

Collaborating with faculty in Biology, Computer Science and Chemistry & Biochemistry, Pennings is the director or co-director for the undergraduate Promoting Inclusivity in Computing (PINC) program, graduate complement Graduate Opportunities to Learn Data Science (GOLD) and Science Coding Immersion Program (SCIP), an all-virtual, self-paced coding program for students, staff and faculty. All the student researchers initially learned coding and/or machine learning from one of these programs and then continued to develop their skills via longer-term research experiences. 

“One of my motivations to making all of these materials is because I’m teaching these classes and I wish there was a book about machine learning for health or biology. Something that is doable, fun and relevant. Something that’s intuitive, practical and discusses the ethical side,” said Pennings, noting that she’s already using this published tutorial in her classes.

“When I joined the PINC program, I could see that the instructors were motivated to teach coding in a very accessible way to Biology students. I felt really comfortable in the program because my peers were fellow biologists eager to learn,” said Orcales, now a computational scientist at UCSF applying to Ph.D. programs. She hopes this new tutorial will help introduce more of her peers into the machine-learning space. “I hope our readers take away that machine learning isn’t this daunting difficult thing to learn when you have the right resources.”

Visit SFSU’s Department of Biology to learn more about student opportunities like Promoting Inclusivity in Computing (PINC), Graduate Opportunities to Learn Data Science (GOLD) and Science Coding Immersion Program (SCIP).

SFSU builds new pipeline for renewable energy microbiologists

The University will collaborate with other universities and two national labs to train students for the renewable energy workforce

Viruses have a bad reputation and for good reason. Despite their connection to disease, some viruses can be used for good. San Francisco State University Assistant Professor Archana Anand wants to address the knowledge gap about phages — viruses that infect bacteria — and their potential renewable energy applications, such as helping develop biofuels and mitigating methane emissions.

To achieve this goal, the Department of Energy (DOE) awarded Anand a $2.2 million grant for a new Phage Pathways program. By collaborating with national labs and other universities, the three-year program is poised to strengthen the pipeline for renewable energy microbiologists.

“The aim of this grant is to cultivate a new generation of microbiologists. But they will not be focused entirely on traditional microbiology but will focus on the intersection of microbial ecology and renewable energy,” said Anand. “I don’t think the academic needs have met the job needs in the renewable energy-microbiology ecology space.”

At the core of this program is SFSU’s partnership with Lawerence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) — two major DOE-funded institutions — and San Diego State University (SDSU), UC Davis and Skyline Community College. Together, they will update curricula in microbiology courses at the different universities, create new student research opportunities at each institution and provide students with cross-institutional mentorship for research, leadership and career development. Students will receive financial support for their participation. 

“This program could be impactful for students’ careers going forward,” said Anand of this DOE grant and the importance of collaborating with the national labs. She notes that there’s been an increase in these labs collaborating with institutions like SFSU. “Hopefully, the students will be really into this program and will come back to find a job in a similar setting.” 

A major part of Phages Pathways is to introduce more students into renewable energy and microbiology workforces. Each year, the Phage Pathways will recruit 20 undergraduate and graduate students from SFSU, SDSU, UC Davis and Skyline College. This annual cohort will include 10 SF State students (five third- and fourth-year undergraduates and five graduate students). Skyline students will participate in SFSU offerings. SFSU’s program will also complement Skyline’s SEA-PHAGES, a similar program restricted to first- and second-year undergrads. Anand explains that many of these students drop out of this workforce pipeline because they lack relevant training opportunities during their latter undergraduate years. 

“If they drop that continued exposure to this topic, then students do not have an interest in this and they do not develop the necessary skillsets,” Anand explained. “What we’re saying is that the [Skyline] students can feed into SFSU’s program.” 

During the school year, students will attend the updated microbiology courses at their home university and participate in research at SFSU, SDSU or UC Davis. They will also attend a three-day symposium at UC Davis with student presentations, workshops and keynote lectures.

In the summer, all participants will attend two multi-day research workshops created by SFSU and LBNL researchers. One weeklong bootcamp will teach students fundamental phage research techniques for phage discovery, such as phage isolation and characterization. The second workshop will teach students how to analyze and annotate phage genomics data. Each year, two students will be selected to attend an additional 10-week intensive research internship at SNL that focuses on wet lab and computational skills crucial for bioenergy applications. Throughout the year, the program will also offer various professional development activities that will be open to the Phage Pathways cohorts and students outside of the program. 

“To drive these breakthrough discoveries and move science forward, we should enable undergraduate and graduate students at all universities — not just at R1 institutions — but for everyone to engage in high impact research,” Anand said. “You never know who the next Einstein is going to be.” 

Learn more about SF State’s Department of Biology and apply for Phage Pathways online. 

SFSU celebrates new Science and Engineering Innovation Center with dedication ceremony

The new science building creates a dynamic, inclusive learning environment by ‘putting science on display’

SAN FRANCISCO – January 24, 2025 – San Francisco State University (SFSU) held a dedication ceremony today for its new Science and Engineering Innovation Center (SEIC), an all-electric science building filled with innovative student-centric teaching spaces. Located prominently on 19th Avenue, the building was constructed with the future in mind, specifically designed to prepare students for various STEM workforces while emphasizing student academic support and sustainability.  

“In some ways more important from the local perspective, 80% of our science and engineering alumni live in the Bay Area, 83% stay in California and 8% of the employees in the largest Bay Area biopharma companies are [from] San Francisco State. This new center will grow the already significant number of alumni working in the Bay Area STEM industries by preparing our graduates to better compete in these fields. An investment in San Francisco State is an investment in the health and future of California,” said San Francisco State University President Lynn Mahoney during the ceremony.

At the ceremony, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, District 19 Assemblymember Catherine Stefani and CEO of Gilead Daniel O’Day shared SF State’s role in the biotech and engineering pipelines and how SEIC will prepare SFSU’s diverse students for the industry workforce. 

The ceremony marked the completion of the new 125,000-square-foot SEIC building and renovation of the existing adjacent Science Building. SEIC is home to the College of Science & Engineering’s (CoSE) Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and School of Engineering (SOE), as well as the CoSE dean’s office and the College of Professional & Global Education (CPaGE) campus operations on the fifth floor.  

The college anticipates SEIC will serve all 7,000 CoSE students and thousands of general education students each year. The building is also open to the University community for seminars, workshops, student activities and more. CoSE Dean Carmen Domingo hopes that the building will be an inclusive space where students can see themselves as future engineers, chemists and scientists. By “putting science on display,” SEIC can help demystify what it means to be a scientist — and who can be in these fields.  

“The SEIC is more than a science building; it’s an inclusive space for students to explore, innovate and learn with cutting-edge technology and talented faculty,” said Domingo. “This major achievement, made possible by our generous partners and donors, will help thousands of diverse graduates make a profound impact on our regional workforce.”

A few of SEIC’s highlights include: 

  • A configurable large learning space for over 100 students on the first floor that can be rearranged to facilitate group work, with an interactive AV system that allows students and instructors to dynamically share work and learn from each other. 
  • Three studio-style integrated lecture/lab chemistry classrooms  
  • Chemistry research labs with industry-standard equipment, introducing new experimental capabilities for protein crystallography, enzyme kinetics and drug development 
  • A robotics and mechatronics lab with a multi-robotic-arm-automatized assembly line 
  • Power systems (a collaboration with PG&E) and energy systems labs (supporting a Department of Energy-funded Center of Excellence in energy efficiency) to study power distribution and HVAC/energy research, respectively 
  • A structural and seismic engineering lab with strong wall and floor and a robotic motion platform to test structural dynamics, hazard mitigation and more 
  • A makerspace and two garages with large and small machining equipment for student projects, like concrete canoes, Formula 1 SAE racecars, steel bridges and other senior projects 
Three engineering students looking up at a robotic arm
Two chemists working in the lab
Two chemists working in a lab

New equipment and programs in the building were funded by the Catalyze the Future campaign, which raised over $25 million from private sources. Individual donors — alumni and non-alumni alike — made generous gifts to support SFSU’s continued leadership in fueling the region’s biotech and tech workforce pipelines. Industry partners such as the Genentech Foundation, Gilead Foundation, Agilent and Keysight were among the generous corporate donors helping outfit SEIC with the cutting-edge research equipment and support for student success initiatives and programming. Additionally, a $5 million challenge grant from the Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation was crucial to the campaign’s success. 

Based on student feedback, SEIC includes comfortable study spaces with ample natural light throughout the building. The design also incorporated spacious workspaces for group work, such as tutoring and senior projects. Many of the rooms and labs have large windows so visitors can see research happening in real time.  

“It’s really cool. We have a building we can be proud of and say, ‘Come, check out this work,’” said Senior Computer Engineer Emely Villa, who has been looking forward to working in SEIC since coming to SFSU in 2021. “There are a lot of display areas, too, where our old projects are going to be able to be displayed. … It’s very nice to be proud of showcasing the work at the new [SEIC].” 

SEIC is on track for LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Gold certification. In November, at the CSU Facilities Management conference, SEIC won two awards for the architecture and engineering and the energy efficiency categories. The building is SFSU’s first all-electric building with a micro-grid; it has roof-top solar panels and a battery back-up power system. The landscaping incorporated adaptive and native plants, no-mow grass and bioswale to improve its resistance to climate change.   

Learn more about SFSU’s College of Science & Engineering.  

SFSU receives cutting-edge Agilent technology for new Science and Engineering Innovation Center

The gift provides world-class instrumentation to foster the next generation of STEM innovators 

SAN FRANCISCO – January 21, 2025 – San Francisco State University (SFSU) has announced that Agilent Technologies, a global leader in analytical and clinical laboratory technologies, has donated $1.7 million worth of analytical instrumentation for its new Science and Engineering Innovation Center (SEIC).

“Agilent’s generosity is not only an investment in our students and their success but also the greater workforce. By providing state-of-the-art equipment, students now have access to the next generation of tools for scientific discovery in the fields of chemistry, materials science, biochemistry and the life sciences,” said SFSU Dean of the College of Science & Engineering Carmen Domingo. “Agilent’s new equipment allows students to greatly expand and sharpen their skills ensuring that they are well-prepared to enter the workforce or pursue higher degrees with confidence. We are grateful for Agilent’s support in this endeavor.” 

The donation will equip SEIC chemistry and biochemistry labs with Agilent technologies, enabling students to learn with world-class instrumentation and excel in our global society. In recognition of the donation, SEIC suite 201 has been named the ‘Agilent Technologies Teaching Laboratory.’ The suite is equipped with the highest number of Agilent instruments in the SEIC and is primarily used for upper-division chemistry and biochemistry courses. 

The new equipment is already making a tremendous impact on students like Marcello Garbo, a senior majoring in Chemistry. Garbo says before the donation, there was a limited amount of equipment that had to be shared among students and faculty. The equipment was also spread across different rooms. With more equipment that is placed in a centralized area, it speeds up the process for various tasks. 

“Every five to 10 minutes, I’d have four samples that I’d have to run at the same time. And then I’d also have to go all the way down the hall in order to run them,” Garbo said while describing his experience before the new Agilent equipment. 

Garbo also says the technology has been able to capture higher quality data, which has led to better scientific conclusions and more presentable information. 

"Agilent is committed to fostering innovation and excellence in STEM education, and our donation to SFSU is an example of that,” said Padraig McDonnell, Agilent president and CEO.  “By equipping the chemistry and biochemistry labs, we aim to empower students from all backgrounds to excel in their studies and future careers.” 

The new equipment will also strengthen the way faculty teach and conduct research. 

“This technology will significantly enhance faculty’s ability to deliver hands-on, real-world learning experiences that’ll prepare our students for fulfilling careers in STEM,” said Bruce Manning, SFSU Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “It will also open new doors for faculty research, enabling us to pursue more advanced projects and collaborations.”  
The College of Science & Engineering has steadily grown, and this new 125,000-square-foot science building will help sustain this expansion and support the University’s role as a leader in fueling the workforce of the Bay Area. It will be prominently visible on 19th Avenue and is anticipated to benefit more than 7,000 CoSE students annually. 

Learn more about the Science and Engineering Innovation Center. 

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About San Francisco State University  

San Francisco State University is a public university serving students from the San Francisco Bay Area, across California and around the world, with nationally acclaimed programs that span a broad range of disciplines. More than 22,000 students enroll at the University each year, and its approximately 294,000 graduates have contributed to the economic, cultural and civic fabric of San Francisco and beyond. Through them — and more than 1,800 world-class faculty members — SF State proudly embraces its legacy of academic excellence, community engagement and commitment to social justice. For more information, visit sfsu.edu. 
 
About Agilent Technologies  
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is a global leader in analytical and clinical laboratory technologies, delivering insights and innovation that help our customers bring great science to life. Agilent’s full range of solutions includes instruments, software, services, and expertise that provide trusted answers to our customers' most challenging questions. The company generated revenue of $6.51 billion in fiscal year 2024 and employs approximately 18,000 people worldwide. Information about Agilent is available at www.agilent.com. 

Student researchers investigate possible connection between fungal pathogen and frog mating

Student research at SFSU leads to a new article on frog calls and deadly infections in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 

What noise does a frog make? Many of us would say “ribbit, ribbit.” Funnily enough, the Pacific tree frog (aka Pacific chorus frog) is the only species that really ribbits. (Listen to the variety of “peep,” “waaaaaaa,” “pa-tank,” and more sounds from other species on AmphibiaWeb.) Given how widespread Pacific tree frogs are in California, there’s a chance you’ve seen or heard their ribbits yourself. 

During mating season, female frogs in this species choose males based on variations in their call — something scientists find intriguing from an evolutionary standpoint. “If all females have the same preference for type of call, then why haven’t all males evolved to have the exact call and be uniform?” said Julia Messersmith (M.S., ’21). “One theory is the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis.”

The hypothesis connects male frog calls to their possible resistance to parasitism, a serious global problem facing amphibians. Messersmith studied this hypothesis for her master’s thesis at San Francisco State University and published her findings in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. She and two other SFSU students co-authored the paper with their faculty advisers, SFSU Biology Professor and Department Chair Vance Vredenburg and Associate Professor Alejandro Vélez (now at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville).

The 40-year-old Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis posits that male frogs’ mating call traits (or plumage traits in birds) are related to their health, specifically their resistance to parasitism. Like other amphibians, Pacific tree frogs are in danger of contracting Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a fungal pathogen killing amphibians worldwide. If the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis is right, it’s possible that female frogs are preferentially choosing the calls of “healthier” males. Although Bd infection is normally lethal, Pacific tree frogs sometimes fare better than other species — but this makes them effective carriers for disease who can spread the pathogen to other amphibians via water or direct contact.

The team’s research showed that the level of infection did affect the male frog calls. Males with higher levels of infection had calls with faster pulse rates and therefore shorter duration; animals with lower levels of infection had slower pulse rates. However, female frogs did not necessarily show a preference for male frogs with lower levels of infection. 

“I think the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis holds up in some systems but not in others. I think it’s important to test it in every system you can because it’s not an end-all-be-all theory you can use for everything even though it’s still taught in disease ecology classes,” said co-author Kurt Lutz (B.S., ’17; M.S., ’20), now a Ph.D. student at Purdue University. The knowledge from this recent paper informed how he taught this hypothesis in a Purdue class. 

“This is one of several hypotheses for female choice,” Messersmith explained. “It is something still discussed a lot. There are still a lot of questions to be answered, so any little piece of evidence we get is useful.”

For this project, Messersmith collaborated with Lutz and Esther Clemence Azar, both SFSU undergrads at the start of the project. Messersmith and Azar, both in Vélez’s lab, did field work while Lutz helped with the molecular work to detect and measure Bd infection. While Azar is still working on the project as a master’s student, Lutz moved on to study amphibians as a Ph.D. student. 

Back in 2017, Azar was a City College of San Francisco student interested in veterinary school and college-level research. She applied to SFSU’s Bridges to Baccalaureate program after her brother and sister both had positive experiences doing research there. This was when she first met Vredenburg and began learning about Bd and amphibians. She eventually met Vélez and was excited to work in his lab. 

“I decided that I didn’t want to be a veterinarian anymore. I really liked this science and asking a question and developing [a research project]. I found out that the [Student Enrichment Opportunities] Office scholarships continued throughout undergrad and grad school,” Azar explained, adding that these programs helped her along her SFSU journey and help give her flexibility to manage both personal and science life. 

For Lutz, Messersmith’s project was one of several collaborations he worked on while at SFSU. But he says he wouldn’t have even been in the position to help if it wasn’t for Vredenburg giving him the chance to learn and become proficient in particular lab techniques. Lutz joined Vredenburg’s lab as an undergrad who was struggling and moving away from his goal of pursing a Ph.D. He joined the lab — and did his master’s degree — hoping to help course correct and develop the extensive research experience he needed to achieve his goals. 

Pacific tree frog holding a swab

Researchers used swabs to collect skin samples to test for disease. Photo credit: Kurt Lutz

Left to right: Julia Messersmith, Esther Clemence Azar and Kurt Lutz

Photo credits: Julia Messersmith, Esther Clemence Azar and Kurt Lutz (pictured left to right).

“[Vredenburg] had a lot of trust in me and a lot of the undergrads in his lab. He let us do things that maybe wouldn’t be done in other labs, but I think totally could be done by a lot of undergrads,” Lutz said. As he’s progressed in his own career, he says that level of trust in undergrads is not always the case elsewhere. As an SFSU graduate student, his research experience even led him to collaborate with H.T. Harvey & Associates — a consulting firm providing ecological support to public agencies, private entities and nonprofits — and get a job with Applied Technology and Science, another consulting firm in the area.

“SF State is such a beautiful place for a growing scientist. They really allow you to reach your maximum potential,” Azar said. “They are there for you and want you to succeed.” 

Learn more about the SFSU Department of Biology.

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