The competition is held to promote excellence in undergraduate and graduate scholarly research and creative activity by recognizing outstanding student accomplishments throughout the 23 campuses of the California State University.

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(Note: If you apply for this competition, you MUST apply through Fresno State)

 Undergraduate or graduate students currently enrolled at any CSU campus and alumni who received their degrees in spring, summer or fall 2018 are eligible. The research presented should be appropriate to the student’s discipline and career goals. Proprietary research is excluded. Presentations from all disciplines are welcome. There will be separate undergraduate and graduate divisions for each category (unless a division has four or fewer entrants, in which case the divisions may be combined). The Sacramento State steering committee reserves the right to combine or subdivide these categories or move an entrant from one category to another, as necessitated by submission numbers.

The ten categories are:

• Behavioral and Social Sciences
• Biological and Agricultural Sciences
• Business, Economics, and Public Administration
• Creative Arts and Design (creative projects are welcome—see "Competition Guidelines")
• Education
• Engineering and Computer Science
• Health, Nutrition, and Clinical Sciences
• Humanities and Letters
• Physical and Mathematical Sciences
• Interdisciplinary 

 Each CSU campus appoints a campus coordinator and develops its own procedures for selecting student delegates to the systemwide competition. Interested students should contact their campus coordinator for more information. Only those students endorsed by the campus coordinator can enter the systemwide competition.

Students will present their work orally before a jury and an audience. Students will compete by discipline category and, where feasible, by division (undergraduate/graduate), as described above in “Who May Apply.” Each student will have 10 minutes for an oral presentation of his or her work and five minutes to listen and respond to juror and audience questions. All entrants may use audiovisual materials as appropriate, and presenters are encouraged to use delivery techniques that promote interaction with the audience. Entrants in the Creative Arts and Design category may present an audio and/or visual record of a performance they have given or a work they have created; their oral presentation should focus on the rationale and historical context underlying their interpretation of the material.

Each entry (oral presentation plus written summary) will be judged on the following:
• Clarity of purpose
• Appropriateness of methodology
• Interpretation of results
• Value of the research or creative activity
• Ability of the presenter to articulate the research or creative activity
• Organization of the material presented
• Presenter’s ability to handle questions from the jury and general audience