Caldwell University offers students the opportunity to participate in scientific research across a multitude of research areas, including Psychology, Applied Behavior Analysis, Nursing and Public Health, Neuroscience, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Exercise Science, Finance, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Simulations, and Human-Computer Interaction.

Our students have a successful track record, often receiving grants, publishing their work, and presenting it at major conferences, as well as winning national awards.

1. Research in the School of Arts & Sciences

NatSci Laboratories

Student-driven research in physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy, material sciences, and related disciplines. Interested students should contact any professor listed in the Department of Natural Sciences faculty directory and book a meeting to discuss their research interests. 

Our faculty have research expertise in areas that include, but are not limited to: 

• Dr. Agapito’s and Dr. Pratt’s research in Biological systems.
• Dr. Squires’ and Dr. Gao’s research in Chemistry, on topics including drug discovery and natural product synthesis, material science, nanochemistry, food and dye chemistry.
• Dr. Yang’s research on complex systems at the intersection of physics, biology, and materials science (see Yang Lab for more details).
• Dr. Aucoin’s research is in biochemistry, cell culture, and biology. (Some prior projects have included investigating antibiotic properties of natural products, investigating the use of natural product extracts in killing cancer cells, protein folding experiments investigating Alzheimer’s Disease, computational models of protein folding, and drug docking.)

Faculty in the Department of Natural Sciences include: Dr. Maria Agapito, Dr. Darryl Aucoin, Dr. Valerie Di Martino, Dr. Xiaolei Gao, Dr. Marguerite Kenney, Dr. Lorelei Pratt, Dr. Marjorie Squires, and Dr. Yanxing Yang.

Exercise Science Lab

Research in the area of Exercise Science, including nutrition, exercise physiology, biomechanics, and sports psychology.

Faculty: Dr. Valerie Di Martino ([email protected])

Yang Lab

The Yang Lab investigates complex systems at the intersection of physics, biology, and materials science using both computational and experimental methods. 

Faculty: Dr. Yanxing Yang ([email protected])

Social Minds Lab

The Social Minds Laboratory, directed by Dr. Lily Tsoi, employs methods in psychology, neuroscience, and computer science to study how humans engage in effective and successful social interactions.

Faculty: Dr. Lily Tsoi ([email protected])

NeuroBioImpact Research Lab

The NeuroBioImpact Lab focuses on advancing integrated STEM research uniting neuroscience, developmental biology, alcohol studies, environmental science, and cancer biology, with a special emphasis on health disparities, to foster discoveries that improve human health and strengthen community resilience.

Faculty: Dr. Maria Agapito

2. Research in the School of Business & Computer Sciences

C-STEM Laboratories

C-STEM is an interdisciplinary center supporting Computational STEM programs, including research programs in AI, HCI, computational physics, computational biology and neuroscience, computational psychology, cognitive science, software development, robotics/engineering work, and related student clubs, workshops, competitions, and other events.

Faculty: Dr. Vlad Veksler, Dr. Lily Tsoi, Dr. Yanxing Yang, Dr. Maria Agapito

Bloomberg Financial Markets Lab

The Bloomberg Financial Markets Lab features Bloomberg Terminals, the same software and technology used globally by leading business and financial professionals, providing real-time and historical data, market news, and analytics to help business and financial professionals and government officials worldwide make better-informed business and investment decisions.

Faculty: Dr. Cagla Yildirim ([email protected])

CyGraph Lab

CyGraph Lab is a multidisciplinary research lab dedicated to advancing the frontiers of cybersecurity through cutting-edge research in EV ecosystem security, graph-based machine learning, threat intelligence, and transformer-based malware analysis. Our core focus is on developing robust, explainable models to protect complex systems—such as the Electric Vehicle (EV) ecosystem, including EV infrastructure and charging networks. We also place significant emphasis on transformer-based techniques for malware detection and classification. At the intersection of graph mining and cyber defense, we explore patterns and structures hidden in diverse datasets. CyGraph Lab actively collaborates with academic, industry, and government partners to build scalable, intelligent systems that are resilient against evolving cyber threats.

Research Areas:

• Cybersecurity in EV and EVSE networks
• Transformer-based malware behavior modeling and classification
• Graph neural networks (GNNs) and explainable AI
• Graph-based anomaly and fraud detection
• Secure IoT and edge computing environments
• Geospatial data analysis

Faculty: Dr. Sushil Poudel ([email protected])

CogAI Research Lab

Research & development in the areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), robotics, educational technology, software development, and simulation-based predictions of human behavior.

Faculty: Dr. Vlad Veksler ([email protected])

3. Research in the School of Nursing & Health Services

Applied Behavior Analysis Research

Graduate students engage in a wide range of applied, basic, and translation research in Applied Behavior Analysis, including individuals with autism and related disorders to neurotypical development with topics ranging from equivalence-based instruction, stimulus control, generalization, staff training, verbal behavior, functional behavior assessments, preference assessments, and safety skills. 

Faculty: Dr. Ruth DeBar, Dr. Kenneth Reeve, Dr. Sharon Reeve, Dr. Tina Sidener

Public Health Education Research

Students participate in research opportunities through quality improvement and evidence-based practice addressing health-related issues, trends, and social determinants of health.

Faculty: Dr. Donna Naturale ([email protected])