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Since six blocks of State Street closed in spring 2020, e‑bike usage has risen steadily, and the resulting increase in accidents has alarmed residents and local politicians. The ������Ƶ Center for Dialogue and Deliberation decided to tackle this thorny issue at a community roundtable event with more than 50 people Oct. 23 at the Community Environmental Center's Environmental Hub downtown.

Students in Helen Rhee’s Embodiment and Suffering class received an unusual assignment this fall. The religious studies professor and church historian directed them to leave Adams 217, where they meet, go to the library, pretend to return a book and then head to their supposed next class in the Global Leadership Center — only using paths accessible to someone in a wheelchair. Anyone who knows the campus recognizes the potential difficulties awaiting these students.

How can we best engage ethically with artificial intelligence (AI) and its accelerating influence? We seek to establish a framework for critically evaluating its impact on human lives — as both a tool of empowerment for extraordinary achievements and a force that risks undermining human dignity through its underlying biases and resulting harms. Exploring AI’s deep roots in the 75-year history of computing will help demystify the mechanisms behind its seemingly incomprehensible abilities as we examine key breakthroughs that have fueled the explosion of generative AI innovations.

More than 30 student researchers presented 20 different projects at the annual Celebration of Summer Research on Oct. 16 in Winter Hall. Many of the students worked as paid, full-time research assistants, collaborating with professors on cutting-edge projects that sometimes extend into the school year.

Nearly 50 students participated in the 29th annual Student Research Symposium presenting their scholarly research in April. The 34 projects spanned the humanities, social sciences and natural and behavioral sciences. Topics included sports anxiety and athlete burnout, stress in spiny lizards, analysis of a reusable launch vehicle, and the ortho-arylation of aryl carbonates.

������Ƶ scientists join thousands of researchers worldwide honored with the , awarded to the at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, a particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as several related experiments.

Female nurses who believe God intervenes to cure ill people are less likely to experience depressive symptoms, according to .

A ������Ƶ student and professor have won the , which will allow them to conduct research this semester through interviewing churches, nonprofits and government agencies who are preventing and addressing homelessness in Santa Barbara.

A ������Ƶ biology class is celebrating the growing success of an oak woodland restoration project in the barranca along the westside of ������Ƶ’s campus. Nearly all of the 60 coast live oaks that were planted along the dry ������Ƶ Creek in November 2023 are surviving and many have grown more than three feet tall.

������Ƶ’s 12 junior engineering students battled in a three-part competition for their Machine Design course that included racing and jumping the 500-piece remote-control (RC) car they made in front of Kerrwood Hall on Dec. 5.

������Ƶ students Josef Bingener ’25 and Ethan Camp ’27 have participated in a novel nuclear physics experiment with Professor Robert Haring-Kaye. They traveled to (FSU) to study the structural properties of an exotic isotope of gallium (72Ga) that survives for only a few hours before decaying to a different isotope.

Regular weekend attendance to a religious service creates an immediate increase in positive emotions as well as a decrease in negative ones, according to a new study of U.S. adults. Researchers found there was no change in the emotional well-being of non-regular attendees.

For two decades, Siegwart 'Zig' Reichwald, Adams professor of music and worship at ������Ƶ, immersed himself in the sacred music of German composer and performer Felix Mendelssohn. But when he studied the works the composer wrote for the Berlin Cathedral in 1843- 44, he was struck by how much they differed from the rest of Mendelssohn’s musical creations. 

“Dropping in three, two, one.”

Then a drone, flying 150 feet high, released a plastic, hexagonal safety pod housing a blinking computer chip, amusing dozens of people gathered to watch one of two final presentations by the engineering design team on Lovik Field at ������Ƶ.

Students presented their findings from research projects that spanned topics from running on slanted surfaces, the effects of music on heart rate, subliminal advertising, and racial identity in study-abroad programs at the Spring Student Research Symposium on April 18 in the Winter Hall Atrium.

“I was surprised at the sheer size of the math world,” said first-year student Isaiah Conway, reflecting on his trip with fellow students and faculty to the world’s largest mathematics conference Jan. 3-6 in San Francisco. Ten students and three faculty members were among nearly 6,000 other mathematicians at annual (JMM), hosted by the American Mathematical Society.

Two ������Ƶ students presented their research at a joint meeting of the Nuclear Physics Divisions of the American and Japanese Physics Societies Nov. 26-Dec. 1 on the Big Island of Hawaii. Natalie Fogg '24 and Reese Toepfer '26 joined Robert Haring-Kaye, ������Ƶ professor of physics and department chair of physics and engineering, at the event that featured more than 100 undergraduates from both nations.

Overcoming obstacles was the challenge of the day as the ������Ƶ Engineering Department hosted its third annual remote control car competition Dec. 7 in front of Kerrwood Hall.

New this year, students competed in a bowling pin knockout following the traditional figure eight race. The competition was tight and a final race with all three cars was needed to determine a winner.

A study of older U.S. South Asians examines relationships between religious service attendance (temple, mosque, etc.), anxiety and feelings of emotional neglect by fellow congregation members. The research finds that among U.S. South Asians, those who attend religious services more often are also more likely to experience higher levels of anxiety. Further, much of this relationship can be attributed to feelings of being ignored or neglected by other members of the congregation.

������Ƶ’s science professors have obtained a new tool for their teaching and research. The biology, chemistry, engineering and physics departments will all use the Hitachi scanning electron microscope (SEM), housed in Winter Hall. Its focused beam of electrons interacts with atoms in the sample to produce an image.

������Ƶ senior Katie Knapp presents a paper about the thoughts and practices of the at the on Nov. 2-3 in Holland, Michigan.

For the first time in more than a decade, undergraduate students assisted with research at the , a set of three telescopes in the in Chile at an elevation of about 17,000 feet.

������Ƶ engineering students returned to Quito, Ecuador, in May to share their love of science, technology, engineering and math with children in an after-school program. The seven engineering students, Jonny Reitinger, Jonah Swanson, Jacob Bailey, Maria Judy, Elijah Cicileo, Becca Hudson and Tasha Loh, designed and built STEM educational materials to share with the children. They were joined by Dan Jensen, director of ������Ƶ engineering, and a Compassion International representative.

������Ƶ biologist Amanda Sparkman ’03 and her research collaborators have won a $2 million, four-year grant from the National Science Foundation to continue investigating the evolution of dwarfism in Channel Islands National Park reptiles.

A record three ������Ƶ graduates have earned prestigious Fulbright Scholarships this year to teach and conduct research around the world. Ebun Kalejaiye ’23 will teach English in Spain, Cody LeFebre ’22 will teach English in Colombia and Valerie Swisher ’22 will study personal experiences and perceptions of mental health care in Hungary.

During his post-doctoral work at the University of Pittsburgh, physics professor Ben Carlson mentored both under-graduate and graduate students. When they asked to work with him in the summer, he looked for suitable projects. “After two summers, I learned what was appropriate and helpful for students,” he says. “Two of my students at Pitt were offered ATLAS papers, which is significant because people in the collaboration — especially undergraduates — don’t necessarily get credit. My students did enough, so their names appear with the collaborators.

by Kelly Vivanco '24

Two ������Ƶ alums have received prestigious Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation. Braden Chaffin ’23 and Chisondi Warioba ’21 have been chosen for the program whose purpose “is to ensure the quality, vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States.” The five-year fellowship provides three years of financial support that includes an annual stipend of $37,000.

By the time Nicklas runs into Westmont’s Human Performance Lab, he’s already exhausted. The middle-aged man is breathing heavily and sweating profusely as Timothy Van Haitsma, associate professor of kinesiology, and senior Damien Ureste place electrodes on his body and insert a plastic tube into his mouth.

������Ƶ’s junior engineering students were revved up for the annual remote control car competition on Dec. 8 in front of Kerrwood Hall. The students spent the last 10 weeks working in teams to assemble hundreds of parts to create their race cars, which count for 5 percent of their overall grade in the Machine Design course.

In the end the team of Tasha Loh, Becca Hudson and driver Caleb Wilcox won the Championship Race, each receiving a trophy from President Gayle D. Beebe.

David Hunter’s 2017 research on umpire consistency continues to garner national attention. Hunter, ������Ƶ professor of mathematics, that others have relied on to grade Major League Baseball umpires.

A ������Ƶ professor has received a prestigious fellowship to serve at the (HUJI). selected Ronald See, professor of psychology and neuroscience, as the Marie and Matthew Heller visiting professor in medicine at the Institute of Medical Research.

A ������Ƶ professor and recent graduate won the from the , the world’s largest community of mathematicians, students, and enthusiasts. David J.

A ������Ƶ researcher has won a grant to further his search for evidence of the presence of mysterious dark matter. The (NSF) has awarded a $200,000 grant to Ben Carlson, ������Ƶ assistant professor of , to continue his work on the , a particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.

������Ƶ’s engineering program welcomed more than a dozen impressive professional engineers to campus for two days of meetings and feedback on the young program. The ������Ƶ Engineering Advisory Board explored ideas about the department’s curriculum, design projects, accreditation and funding.

“We talked quite a bit about creating a culture in the engineering program that helps students grow not only technically, but in every aspect — including their spiritual lives,” says Dan Jensen, director of the engineering program.

John’s account of Jesus and the woman at the well has long inspired Caryn Reeder, professor of New Testament and co-coordinator of gender studies at ������Ƶ. “Because of her words and testimony, people in her village believed

in Jesus,” Caryn says. “She is a model for women’s voices being heard. I’ve always treasured this story of a woman engaging in theological debate and becoming the first missionary. This nameless woman, who lacks wealth and power, engages in the longest conversation Jesus has with anyone in the Bible. It teaches us about who gets to be God’s people.”

“My experience with summer research changed my life,” says John Corbett ’22. “I discovered that I love chemical re- search and want to pursue it in graduate school.” He worked with chemistry professor Brandon Haines and spent hours coding on a supercomputer that uses an equation to measure the energy of organic products. He has developed a passion for using chemical research to build more durable and cheaper medical diagnostic tools, like MRI machines, for low-income communities. As an intern at the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission, he regularly witnesses this need.

Lexy Gillette ’22 had planned to attend a large research university after graduating from high school in Bend, Oregon. But she discovered an old, dusty ������Ƶ piggy bank in her room that her uncle, Marcus Gillette ’05, had given her and decided to visit the college. “I got out of the car and something felt right, and I absolutely loved it,” she says.

������Ƶ’s two new faculty members bring international expertise to the engineering department. Tenure-track professors Douglas Hector Fontes, a Brazilian national, and Johan Jair Estrada López, a Mexican national, joined the faculty in the spring.

BY CYNTHIA TOMS, PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL STUDIES AND KINESIOLOGY BASED ON HER TALK AT WESTMONT’S 2019 LEAD WHERE YOU STAND CONFERENCE

I approach development through the lens of global health. It’s personal for me. Twelve years ago, I was living in Uganda when I became pregnant with my first son. About six months into the pregnancy, I woke up with a swollen body, stabbing pains in my abdomen and a searing headache.

Six ������Ƶ students completed major honors projects before graduating in 2022: Ethan Walker (chemistry), Abi Bradshaw (communication studies), Chapman Canlis (philosophy), Loren Schneider (communication studies), John Corbett (chemistry) and Wesley Brown (mathematics).

Kya Mangrum, assistant professor of English, has won a $9,900 Graves Award in Humanities research grant. A 2021 ������Ƶ Teacher of the Year, Mangrum is conducting research for a new book exploring how Americans remembered and wrote about slavery and the Civil War in the first five decades (1865-1915) following Emancipation and the end of the war.

After a 10-year process, the (ACS) Committee on Professional Training voted in January 2022 to include ������Ƶ on the list of institutions approved by ACS. Effective immediately, the society will certify the degrees of ������Ƶ graduates who complete the requirements of the college’s Professional Track for Chemistry.

Religious believers who embrace accountability to God (or another transcendent guide for life) experience higher levels of three of the four variables of psychological well-being – mattering to others, dignity and meaning in their lives, though not happiness – according to a study from researchers with Baylor University, ������Ƶ and Hope College.

Sandra Richter, Robert H. Gundry professor of biblical studies, serves on the (NIV) Committee for Bible Translation (CBT). Few women have joined the prestigious team translating the top-selling English- language Bible.

A national study examines the link between perceived relationship with God and mental health from a sample of more than 1,600 Americans. The research suggests that religious believers who relate to God in an uncertain or anxious manner are more likely to experience symptoms of psychological distress, including anxiety, paranoia, obsession and compulsion.

Elizabeth Gardner, ������Ƶ assistant professor of communication studies, won a Top Paper award in the Public Address Division at the National Communication Association Conference in November at Seattle. The paper, “Child Workers Redefining a Bolivian Childhood in the Código Niña, Niño y Adolescente,” describes strategies the young speakers used to campaign for their rights.

A steady string of awards continues to paint an impressive career for Scott Anderson, ������Ƶ professor of art. A jury has chosen his illustration commissioned by the ������Ƶ Festival Theatre, for the 64th annual exhibition of the New York Society of Illustrators, one of the most prestigious and competitive shows in the field of professional illustration.