Posters - 2026

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  Chasing the Enslaved, Not Justice: Rangers of Oppression

  MacKenzie Arendall

  01. Introduction: Rangers Policed & Profited in Slavery The Underground Railroad did not lead only north. It also led south into Mexico, where slavery had been abolished since 1829. Enslaved Texans risked the perilous journey, hundreds of miles, across unforgiving terrain. Even more dangerous than the harsh elements were the slavecatchers. Enslavers offered generous bounties, advertised in newspapers, for the recapture of their human “property.” Among the slavecatchers profiting from and policing slavery were many members of the infamous Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers have been commemorated for heroism on the western frontier and honored for upholding the law and protecting growing settlements. However, this narrative obscures the reality of the Rangers. They also participated in, and profited from, slavery in Texas. Their largest role was capturing (and sometimes killing) runaways. Beyond slavecatching, they served several other roles: as slave jailors and sellers, and as illegal raiders into Mexico to recapture Blacks granted sanctuary. A few Rangers even enslaved Black Texans themselves. This research challenges the portrayal of the Texas Rangers as valiant heroes by examining their major commitment to policing slavery and profiting personally from it. This analysis of documented cases of Texas Rangers pursuing runaway slaves has uncovered the dual nature of these frontier legends and argues for a more complete and critical understanding of their legacy.

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  From Ideas to Impact: Evaluating How Financial Technology Expands Financial Inclusion Across Countries

  Shravani Atakari

  Financial inclusion refers to access and use of financial services (World Bank, 2022). Traditional finance excludes users due to:

  • High costs • Geographic distance • Limited credit History . Fintech expands access through digital tools Purpose: Analyze how fintech improves inclusion and what drives adoption
  
  
  

  Research Questions How does financial technology reduce barriers to financial inclusion, and what factors influence its adoption among underserved populations? Objectives Identify key barriers to financial inclusion Analyze how fintech reduces these barriers Examine adoption factors (TAM + UTAUT) Propose solutions to improve adoption

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  Contrast Therapy is Associated with Higher Thermal Comfort for a Similar Acute Inflammatory Response Compared with Sauna Therapy

  Rene Barbier, Benjamin Enslow, Jace Nicolet, Louis Hein, Kelvin Wu, and Sven Hoekstra

  Passive heat therapy, through sauna or hot water immersion, can improve cardiometabolic health outcomes. An increasingly popular thermal modality is contrast therapy, during which sauna therapy is interspersed with cold exposure. However, the acute physiological and perceptual responses to contras therapy in comparison with traditional sauna remains unknown. This study compared the acute inflammatory, physiological, and perceptual responses to contras against heat therapy in predominantly young, healthy individuals

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  Healthcare Systems & Policy Implications for Tele-Dentistry Policies on access to Dental Care for underserved populations in the United States

  Deeya Bhadresa

  Access to dental care remains a significant public health challenge for people in rural and low-income communities. Tele dentistry has shown the ability to expand preventive services, improve care coordination, and reduce geographic barriers. However, inconsistent Medicaid coverage, limited infrastructure, and low provider participation restrict its impact. The main recommendation is standardizing Medicaid tele dentistry coverage and reimbursement across states to improve access and equity. Action is needed now to preserve post–COVID-19 telehealth gains and address persistent oral health disparities.

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  The relationship between environmental cues and emotional responses

  Isbella Cantrell, Ashley Frost, and Mark Sanchez

  The purpose of this study was to better understand if the environment influenced an individual’s emotions by observing horror and non-horror video games and coding the frequency of observed reactions. Former research illustrates that emotional arousal during video games may activate defensive behaviors similar to real-life threats. Three different YouTube streamers were observed playing one horror and two non-horror video games. All three streamers played the same three games. It was expected that all three players would have more frequent reactions to horror games as opposed to non-horror games (H1), that anger reactions would occur more frequently than sympathetic reactions among the non-horror group (H2), and that isolated vocalizations would occur more frequently across all conditions (H3). Participants were observed playing each game, their emotional reactions were recorded and categorized into three different classifications: isolated vocalizations, isolated physical reactions, and a combination of both. An independent samples t-test was utilized to analyze H1, a one-sample t-test for H2, and a one-way ANOVA with Post hoc LSD was utilized to analyze H3. Results indicated no statistically significant difference in the frequency of horror games compared to non-horror games. It was statistically significant that anger was the most common emotional response, and that vocalizations were the predominant reaction type across all games. Findings suggest that emotional arousal is likely less dependent on game genre and more dependent on neural network pathways. Future studies should look at the intensity of emotional reactions, utilize biometric data alongside observations, and measure different emotions across different video game genres.

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  Comparing Head Shape of Polymorphic Subterranean E. latitans and Subterranean E. sp. 4

  Brandon Chapa, Jordan Cosgrove, and Lizzeth Holguin

  Eurycea latitans (E. latitans) from Honey Creek Cave and unnamed Eurycea species from New Braunfels, Texas (E. sp. 4) are two paedomorphic subterranean species. E. latitans is polymorphic, meaning it also exists as a surface species. Similarities in morphology of subterranean salamander species may be due to convergent evolution as a result of living in similar environments. These similarities include having flatter, wider heads, and wider mouths than surface species (Tovar et al. 2025). Variation may also exist among different subterranean salamander species. Texas Eurycea salamanders display “complex patterns of morphological divergence”, suggesting that isolation and local environmental pressures can drive morphological change (Devvitt et al, 2013). E. latitans may also show some variance from E. sp. 4 due to a more recent surface species ancestor or due to more phenotypic variability. Polymorphic species may exhibit greater variability in phenotype than monomorphic species (Takahashi and Noriyuki 2019). We expect there to be morphological differences in the head shapes of E. latitans and E. sp. 4.

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  The Impact of Stress on Dream Content

  Tessa Duncan and Mason Trevino

  • This research investigated how daily stress levels influence the intensity of dreams. The study aimed to clarify the relationship between stress and dream intensity, enhancing understanding of stress’s broader effects on mental health. • Building on Rush’s concept of a “goldilocks zone” in the stress scale, where moderate stress benefits well-being while too little or too much stress can cause harm (2024). The current study used the hallucination model of dreaming from Gillespie and Trakas (2024), which views dreams as vivid, perception-like experiences that can amplify emotions. Drawing on Gessert’s methods for measuring stress and nightmare frequency, stress is defined as the psychological and physiological reactions to uncontrollable events, and dreams as hallucination-like reflections of waking emotions (2023).

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  The Effects of Low Stimulating Music vs. High Stimulating Music on Visual and Auditory Reflexes in Young Adults

  Monabelle Elbayeh, Vania Galindo, Ria Modi, and Gianna Montelongo

  This study investigates the effects of high-stimulating versus low-stimulating music exposure on human reflexes, specifically examining how different levels of auditory stimulation influence reaction time. Music is known to impact cognitive and motor performance, but its direct effect on reflex responses remains less understood. In this experiment, participants are exposed to high-stimulating music and low-stimulating music in separate trials, with reflexes measured before and after each condition using visual and auditory tests in the LabScribe program. It is hypothesized that after listening to high-stimulating music for five minutes, individuals will demonstrate shorter reaction times compared to after listening to low-stimulating music. This is because high-stimulating music is expected to increase attentiveness to stimuli, whereas low-stimulating music may promote relaxation and slower responsiveness. By comparing these conditions under controlled laboratory settings, this study aims to provide insight into how auditory stimulation affects reflexes and overall cognitive and motor performance.

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  Bound by brotherhood: Social networks predict job satisfaction and trust among frefighters

  Ashley Frost

  The primary purpose of this study was to better understand the correlation between the social support networks among firefighters, also known as “brotherhood”, and their job satisfaction. The secondary goal was to explore potential indicators of what traditions entailed within the fire department and their significance in fostering brotherhood. Former research has articulated the bonds within the fire service and how team comradery and job satisfaction influence brotherhood, however; limited research has investigated how traditions within the fire service influence brotherhood. It was expected that brotherhood would have a positive correlation with job satisfaction (H1), that there would be a positive correlation between traditions within the fire service and brotherhood (H2), and that the more time that firefighters spent with their team training the higher their trust levels (H3). The survey consisted of thirty-one questions developed by the researcher, in which twelve questions were adapted from the Social Support Inventory and the Inventory of Socially Supported Behaviors. Questions explored firefighters’ perceptions of their support networks and identified the qualification and demographics of the participants. Results showed a positive correlation between brotherhood and job satisfaction (H1), a positive correlation between brotherhood and traditions within the fire service (H2), and a positive correlation between the time teams spent training together and trust levels. Findings suggest that when engaging in team building exercises to strengthen their brotherhood, firefighters become more satisfied with their work. Future research should assess the best methods to facilitate teamwork cohesion exercises as it was positively correlated with brotherhood.

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  Exploring Base excision Repair Using Gene Knockout

  Gregory Guantos, Cailyn Brock, Kamiily Visser, and Dylan Vargas

  • Base Excision Repair (BER) fixes damaged 3DNA bases throughout the cell cycle by removing damaged bases and replacing either one nucleotide in short-patch BER or a short stretch of nucleotides in long-patch BER. (Hindi, 2021, Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences:CMLS)

  • 4G-quadruplexes (G4s) are 4 stranded secondary DNA structures formed in guanine rich areas of DNA and RNA. (Rhodes, 2015, Nucleic Acids Research)

  The URA3 plasmid was used as a PCR template to make a gene deletion construct, then yeast were transformed so APN1 was replaced by URA3. 2APN1 encodes a major DNA repair enzyme in yeast, and strains lacking APN1 are hypersensitive to oxidative and alkylating DNA-damaging agents. (Ramotar, 1991, Molecular and Cellular Biology)

  • Ampicillin, an antibacterial, and uracil absent plates were used to select for transformed E. coli and yeast cells respectively.

  • Previous experiments involving 1single knockout lines have shown it is possible to transform yeast using centromeric plasmids.(Persson, 2022, Genes|Genomes|Genetics),

  Hypothesis: The DNA repair pathway Base Excision Repair, will remove G4s from DNA efficiently.

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  Libertatis Cunabula: Slavery in San Antonio

  Makayla Hernandez

  This research on the taxes collected by our city and county exposes the pervasiveness of slavery in San Antonio. This truth is shockingly new for San Antonio. No marker nor plaque nor historical commemoration exists to honor the memory and contributions of enslaved San Antonians, nor to force a reckoning with the legacy of prominent enslavers among San Antonio’s leading families and Alamo heroes. This research project recovers every person listed as enslaved in the Bexar County Tax Assessment Records from 1837 to 1862 and names their enslavers. It immediately counters the assumption and assertion that slavery was insignificant in the history of our community. The tax records prove our city’s dependence on slavery and our debt to our enslaved ancestors. Among the many findings gleaned from these records, we see that not only were men enslaving people, but women were also enslavers in their own names, exercising their own property rights in humans, independent of husbands, fathers, and sons. Among the enslavers, we also see Hispanic surnames, both male and female. Hispanic surnames are a small fraction of Anglo surnames, but they appear throughout this 25-year period. Although this research topic is sensitive, it is very important to face this raw-yet-real history.

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  SmartStock

  Enzo Jaques

  SmartStock is a mobile application designed to help small business owners efficiently manage inventory and track sales in real time. Many small businesses rely on manual tracking methods or spreadsheets, which can lead to errors, lost data, and inefficient operations. SmartStock addresses this problem by providing a simple, mobile-first solution that allows users to manage products, monitor stock levels, and calculate profits instantly.

  Purpose:

  • Simplify inventory management • Track sales and profit automatically • Provide real-time low stock alerts • Improve decision-making for small businesses

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  Detecting Cancer Genes Using Graph Neural Networks

  Marvin Masabo Nkaka

  • Cancer survival prediction is challenging due to the complexity of genomic data and limited samples especially for rarer cancer types. • To address this challenge, we developed an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model for survival analysis using RNA-sequencing gene expression data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). • Moreover, a key concept we investigate was how transfer learning enhanced our model’s performance especially for rarer cancer types difficult to perform accurate survival analysis due to their limited samples.

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  ChopChop: The Digital Cookbook

  Dominc McDevitt, Shane Misley, Adolfo Duran, Katie Cerda, and Kobie Henson

  Many of today's home chefs still use the same limited methods of saving recipes that have been used for decades, i.e. handwritten notes, disorganized pdfs, screenshots, saved text messages, etc. Not only are these formats hard to keep track of and easily lost, but they also suffer the risk of becoming irrevocably damaged or stained in the cooking process. They are also notoriously hard to edit, which limits a chef's ability to tailor recipes to their taste, their available ingredients, or even just a different serving size. Another major issue with these approaches is the lack of easy sharing. Giving a friend a family favorite often requires photocopying, file sharing, or even manually re-writing the recipe, all of which are tedious and time-consuming. Worse yet, this assumes the recipe-sharer even has access to their recipes, which may not be the case when traveling or at a social gathering. All of these problems are our inspiration for developing ChopChop, a digital recipe management application.

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  Visible and Invisible Empires: The Revival of the Ku Klux Klan 100 years ago

  Christian Molina

  Hatred and violence breed division, and that division breeds more hatred and violence. 1920s American politics was characterized by name-calling, finger-pointing, scapegoating, whataboutisms, and violence. The nation entered a self-perpetuating cycle. Groups keen for growth, power, and profit captured the angry, stressed, and less-informed with lies and misleading numbers. In particular, the Ku Klux Klan captured nearly 4 million Americans, roughly 1 in 12 men at the time. But the Klan, large as it was on a local level, was led and masked by a handful of national leaders. The Klan was not just bands of rogue vigilantes cruising the streets and brutalizing people. Actually, the Klan's real power came from their formal organization and movement, led by smooth talkers and sophists who were protected by law. They published advertisements, hosted speeches, conducted outreach, rallied around key figures, and did all they can to capitalize on hate. When the hate they planted became violence, it was covered up and masked behind the organization's legal posturing. By focusing on just the local violent-doers, we risk missing their enablers; those elites who built the mask under which the violent-doers could act.

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  Japan's 5-year Plan with India: Rethinking Cultural Homogeneity in the Workplace

  Sydeny Nieto

  In 2025, Japan and India had finalized the Japan-India 5-year Action Plan, where Japan will open their workplaces to over 500,000 Indian citizens over the next 5 years. While studies show how the plan would help fix labor shortage and population problems, it lacks public analysis and the data supporting Japan's readiness to take on this demographic change. This research addresses this gap by analyzing both economic benefit and public perspective toward migration. Highlighting broader impacts the plan would have on Japan's society, along with cultural challenges it may pose for Japan.

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  Why Democratic Backsliding is Legal: Judicial Legitimacy and Institutional Decay in the United States

  Sherlyn Ochoa

  “In the United States, democratic backsliding is not a violation of the law—it is increasingly a product of it.” Democratic change often occurs through judicial interpretation Courts shape rights, participation, and equality Focus: how judicial legitimacy allows major democratic shifts—both expansion and restriction of rights

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  Comparative Analysis of MLP and CNN Models for Cardiac Arrhythmia Classification

  Veltman Okey-Ejowhor and Vahid Emamian

  Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a record of the electric activity of the heart over time. ECG analysis plays a pivotal role in diagnosing critical heart conditions. Significant developments have been made in the realm of deep learning and applied artificial intelligence. These deep learning models have been utilized heavily because of their ability to analyze deep morphological features of each signal. The model architecture used in this study is a convolutional neural network (CNN) combined with a multi-layered perceptron (MLP). The MLP acts as an input filter that classifies normal heartbeat signals from abnormal. The CNN is the second filter in the architecture that classifies any signals marked abnormal by the MLP into one of five different arrhythmias: Normal, Supraventricular ectopic beat, Ventricular ectopic beat, Fusion beat, and Unknown beat. The CNN model had a validation accuracy of 98.214% after 10 epochs (iterations) of training and testing. The MLP model yielded similar results during testing with a validation accuracy of 92.305%. These models were trained on Google Colab’s A100 High-RAM GPU environment to ensure the models are robust and industry-applicable. The data used to train these models were made publicly available via resources such as PhysioBank and Kaggle.

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  Turn out, Having Latinx Faculty Doesn't Mean the School Sucks: The Faux Relationship Between Latinx Saturation Rate and Institutional Prestige

  Julianne Pena

  • 25% or more full time students that are of Latinx decent (U.S. Department of Education) • Since 1992, enrollment and attendance of students increased (Vela & Gutierrez, 2017) • Latinx students more likely to enroll in HSIs over non HSIs (Vargas et al., 2019) • Latinx faculty to Latinx students 146:1, White faculty to White students 10:1 (Vargas et al., 2019) • Overrepresentation of White faculty and Underrepresentation of Latinx faculty (Robertson, 2023) • Diverse faculty is impactful (Contreras, 2017; Dayton et al., 2004; Turner & Gonzales, 2014) Purpose: The purpose of this topic is to bring awareness to Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), the misconceptions that come with prestige, and illustrating how students learn better through having a diverse faculty (Contreras, 2017; Dayton et al., 2004). Hypothesis: If university administrators are correct in their assessment of Latinx faculty as less valued, we would expect to see a negative statistical relationship between Latinx saturation rate and institutional prestige.

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  MaddenLite

  Sergio Pena

  Sports simulations often rely on opaque, proprietary algorithms (like EA's Madden NFL). MaddenLite bridges the gap between sports analytics and interactive gaming by utilizing historical NFL Play-by-Play (PBP) data to drive a transparent, mathematically accurate simulation engine. The goal was to create a lightweight, UI-driven desktop application where users can simulate cross-era matchups (e.g., 2007 Patriots vs. 2025 Chiefs), manipulate rosters, and simulate entire seasons complete with official NFL tiebreaker protocols.

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  Research Proposal: Enhancing or Replacing? A Qualitative Study of AI's Impact on Coaching Strategy and Team Dynamics

  Mariana Perez Romero

  Since early 2020’s, artificial intelligence has become widely accessible and increasingly adapt in everyday life. In sports, AI now plays a major role in performance analysis, training strategies, and real time decision-making. While these tools offer significant advantages, they also reshape how athletes and coaches communicate, interpret information, and build relationships. Sport is a space for relationships: communication between coaches and athletes, trust within the team, shared decision-making, and bonds that are built through experience. It is important to understand how AI is influencing these human dynamics. This study will explore how AI influences communication and interpersonal dynamics in sports, focusing on how athletes and coaches interpret and adapt to these tools in their daily practice

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  FishEasy

  Jake Ryan Rankin

  The purpose of FishEasy is to create an all-in-one fishing application that supports both beginner and experienced anglers through education, recommendations, and data tracking. Many new anglers struggle with understanding gear, knots, bait, and locations, while existing tools often limit access through paid features. FishEasy addresses these gaps by providing:

  • Educational Tutorials for knots, rigs, and beginner guidance • Smart Recommendations based on location, species, and conditions • Catch Logging & Analytics to track performance • Regulation Awareness for legal fishing practices
  
  
  Overall, FishEasy aims to make fishing more accessible, efficient, and easy to learn for all users.

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  Effects of Thermal Decomposition on the Chemical and Crystal Structure of Teeth

  Aislinn Reyes, Chris Rightsell, Gabriela Azcárate, Ivet Gil-Chavarria, and Arturo Ponce

  • This research arose from a need to obtain information from dental organs to aid identification processes of burned bodies found in the Mexican desert. • Teeth are mainly comprised of hydroxyapatite (HAp) [1], an inorganic crystalline mineral. • Studies have been done focused on certain parts of the process of thermal decomposition [2,3,4], but none have outlined a comprehensive timeline. • The purpose of this study is to investigate the crystal structure and chemical composition of the byproducts of thermal decomposition.

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  Evaluation of prosthetic and orthotic technologies using AI technology

  Iris Reyna, Samerial Brown, Gary Guerra, and Ed Khu

  Individuals with lower limb prosthetics have amputations and abnormal limb motions, which poses a high risk of injury when doing everyday activities. In this field, evaluation of individuals' prosthetics are done through biomechanical analysis and gait analysis. This analysis is used to study human movement and evaluate the mobility and quality of life of amputee patients as well as determining the modifications, positioning, and alignment needed to ensure stability with prosthetic and orthotic technologies (Kumar & Bhowmik, 2024). Trunk flexion has importance to the study because of its impact on lower limb kinetics, kinematics, the increase of ground reaction forces, stride parameters and joint movements. Trunk acceleration shows the functional mobility of an individual during assessment, the higher the acceleration the faster the trunk (Warrener, et al., 2021).

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  UltraGPS: A Low-Cost, Open-Source Ultrasonic Positioning System

  Scott Roelker Murillo and Nnamdi Jesse Onwuzurike

  We want to raise the bar in high school robotics. In Texas, and likely in many other states as well, high school robotics has reached a roadblock when it comes to autonomous navigation. In many competitions, the autonomous portion sees few, teams successfully completing tasks that require positioning and guidance. In modern robotics, it is no longer sufficient for a robot merely be “remote controlled.” They need to be able to navigate independently and adapt to the environment around them. To achieve this goal a positioning system is needed to develop the foundational algorithms for autonomous controls. However, these systems are often prohibitively expensive or proprietary, preventing their use at the high school level. To address this challenge, we continued the work done from senior design project to developed a simple, open-source, low-cost positioning system designed for use in high school environments to advance the state of educational robotics.