By Carla De Lira and Cynthia Hollenbeck

If you’ve ever hiked in the wilderness and seen a large object nearby, you may have asked yourself, “Was that a bear or a bush?” To master’s student in natural resource sciences at Washington State University, Cullen Anderson, the question is an important component of his research. Cullen studies how the black bear population data from North Cascades National Park in Washington state can provide important information for park management decision making.Cullen Anderson carrying one of his bear decoys for his
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By Elle Ciaciuch O’Neill and Cynthia Hollenbeck

Jose Riera, Ph.D. candidate in Washington State University’s College of Education, focuses his research on developing computer applications to help foreign language learners, immigrants, and individuals with communicative disabilities to improve their pronunciation skills. According to Jose, there are 1 billion foreign language learners, 275 million immigrants, and 550 million individuals with communicative disabilities worldwide. With these numbers, Jose hopes this research will make a notable impact on the language-learning world.

One of the main challenges for second language learners is understanding and articulating unfamiliar new sounds in their target language. Jose believes that by providing these learners … » More …

By Cynthia Hollenbeck and Elle Ciaciuch O’Neill

Sarah Kostick, Ph.D., is making great strides in the world of apple breeding at Washington State University. By investigating resistance/susceptibility to fire blight in apples to enable more efficient development of apple varieties with resistance to fire blight, she has found that specific genomic regions (also called genetic loci) are associated with resistance, and much more.

Fire blight is a devastating bacterial disease that affects a range of apple cultivars (varieties). This disease has the potential to cause tree death and, depending on the year, can destroy entire orchards. Fire blight, caused by the bacterium Erwinia amylovora, can infect … » More …