Posters - 2026

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  Analyzing the Effect of Melatonin on B Cells' Expression of CD36

  Caitlyn Pinaga, Gabriella Galdeano, Nayi Gonzalez, and Emma Welsch

  • B cells specifically target pathogens and proliferate to make a plasma cell and secrete antibodies when stimulated. They use glucose as a main energy source but can also use fatty acids. • CD36 is a glycoprotein involved in the transportation and metabolism of fatty acids. • B cells express CD36 in unusually high levels in autoimmune patients. It is unknown as to how this occurs. • Melatonin is a hormone produced in the pineal gland, commonly known for its function in regulating the circadian rhythm. • Melatonin is also known as a master cell regulator and is believed to regulate almost all cell functions including the movement of energy to and from storage and its role in activating the immune system. The effects of melatonin on CD36 expression in B cells is still untested.

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  Does shape matter?: How salamander head morphology shifts based on environment

  Caitlyn Pinaga, Naomi Ramirez, and Sonia Cerrillo

  Groundwater salamanders of the genus Eurycea represent a diverse group of amphibians inhabiting the aquifer systems of central Texas, where both surface-dwelling and fully subterranean species coexist. Subterranean habitats impose extreme selective pressures, including complete darkness, limited nutrient availability, and stable environmental conditions, which drive convergent morphological traits such as eye reduction or loss, decreased pigmentation, and elongation of appendages. A key evolutionary pattern seen in these systems is sensory compensation, in which the reduction of one sensory modality, in this case vision, is accompanied by the enhancement of others. In aquatic salamanders, this often involves expansion of the lateral line system, a mechanosensory network that detects water movement through specialized structures known as neuromasts, allowing organisms to better navigate and interact with their environment in the absence of light. In this study, four species: Eurycea latitans, Eurycea sosorum, Eurycea sp. 4, and Eurycea wallacei, were selected to represent variation along the surface-to-subterranean spectrum. E. sosorum, a primarily surface-associated species, retains well-developed eyes, whereas E. latitans exhibits intermediate characteristics. In contrast, E. sp. 4 and E. wallacei display more extreme cave-adapted traits, including reduced or vestigial visual systems.

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  Obesity in the Rio Grande Valley: Applying an Evidence-Based Public Health Approach

  Erika Pineda-Horta

  What structural and social determinants drive elevated adult obesity rates in the Rio Grande Valley, and what evidence-based interventions can reduce adult obesity prevalence in Hidalgo County by 5% by 2030?

  Objective: This study applies an EBPH framework to (1) characterize the burden and structural determinants of adult obesity in the RGV, and (2) propose a culturally responsive, evidence-based intervention targeting adults aged 18+ in Hidalgo County.

  Adult obesity is clinically defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m² in adults aged 18 and older (CDC, 2022). It is a chronic, multifactorial non-communicable disease shaped by structural, social, and behavioral determinants.

  Population: Adults 18+ in Hidalgo County, TX. Future research will extend to family- and childhood-focused interventions to interrupt the intergenerational cycle of obesity (see Conclusions).

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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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  "Leaf it to the Trees": Assessing the Cooling Effects of Tree Canopy on Campus Microclimates

  Andrea Sophia Realyvasquez

  Urban heat island (UHI) effects are becoming increasingly common worldwide, with lived experiences and media coverage highlighting the negative consequences of urban development for humans and the environment. Urbanization, like many other aspects of society, should not remain stagnant and outside the scope of innovation. Understanding the interplay between urban morphology and temperature distributions is crucial in informing effective policy development (AbbegCoproski et al. 2024). tion to a political approach to reducing surface temperatures, there is the social aspect of difficulty in evading UHI in microclimates. University campuses are among the many areas that struggle to overcome old infrastructure and move towards more sustainable built environments (Veblen 2024 Feb 6). There are equally difficult but plausible solutions that college and university campuses can implement to improve UHI mitigation, given their access to a microclimate status. Incorporating real-world benefits from scientific findings is important when presenting to not only groups like a university board, but also to those that have a broader reach, like government officials. To investigate how the St. Mary’s University campus is influenced by UHI effects, a temperature survey was conducted to observe the changes in the microclimates across campus by observing ground and air temperatures. It is believed that places across campus with a higher tree density would have a more noticeable difference in cooler air temperatures due to the shade they provide on nearby walkways. It is hypothesized that surface temperatures would be significantly higher in areas with partial shade and little to no shade.

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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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  Thomas Frost: Slave Catcher?

  Charles Ryan Ricketts

  Thomas C Frost, founder of Frost Bank, has long been regarded as a well-spoken individual whose legacy has caused exponential growth in the San Antonio Area. However, Frost’s legacy has deep roots within the Texas branch of the Confederacy and even less known a key enforcer of slavery. He was a Ranger thru and thru but the type of ranger he was is terrifying.

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  A.I.R.E. - AI-Assisted Reverse Engineering

  Laurene Robinson

  Reverse engineering plays a vital role in cybersecurity by helping analysts examine unknown binaries, investigate malware, identify vulnerabilities, and better protect sensitive systems. However, once a program is compiled and stripped, the meaningful names that describe its behavior are lost, leaving behind generic function labels like FUN_00401a30. Analysts must then manually interpret decompiled code, trace call chains, and infer program behavior function by function, which is slow and mentally demanding on large binaries. To address this challenge, this project introduces A.I.R.E., a local Ghidra extension that extracts contextual evidence from stripped functions and uses a locally hosted language model to generate confidence-aware naming suggestions while keeping the analyst in control

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  Unique Undergraduate Experiences and their Impact on Postgraduate Plans for St. Mary's University Psychology Majors

  Angelina Robledo, Zoe Lozano, and Jose Ignacio Guerrero Donoso

  • The amount of research opportunities a student has available is linked to higher post graduate student success rate (Stoloff et al., 2015).

  • The quality of different research experiences also matter (Love et al., 2007). Positive undergraduate experiences lead to higher levels of self-efficacy in undergraduate students.

  • Students' soft skills are improved throughout various classroom activities, preparing them for post graduate opportunities (Marsh et al., 2016).

  • Wayment and Dickinson (2008) found that students who participated in undergraduate research were more likely to get accepted to graduate school.
  • Hypotheses
    • Attending sophomore retreat can reassure areas of interest for psychology undergraduates, which may be related to higher graduate school acceptance rate.
    • More soft skills in the classroom will help undergraduate students get into graduate school.
    • Students who participated more in research during their undergraduate degree may be related to graduate school acceptance.

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  Rewilding the Coral Reefs

  Magali Rodriguez and Luciana Alvillar

  Coral reefs are among the most valuable ecosystems globally, contributing an estimated $10 trillion annually and supporting hundreds of millions of people through food, livelihoods, and coastal protection. (NOAA 2026) They also provide critical habitat for diverse marine species. However, reefs are rapidly declining due to rising ocean temperatures, acidification, pollution, invasive species, and physical disturbances. Globally, 30–50% of coral reefs have already been lost(NOAA 2026), and without intervention, many may face extinction by the end of the century. Rewilding and restoration efforts have become essential strategies to address this crisis. Initiatives such as NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program highlight restoration as a key approach to improving reef resilience. This project evaluates the effectiveness of coral reef rewilding by comparing pre- and post-restoration conditions using scientific literature and government data to assess changes in biodiversity and overall ecosystem health.

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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.

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  Synthesis and Characterization of Metal Complexes of Oxindole-Based β-lactams

  Kenya Rosas, Erick Morales Orrante, Carlos Sifuentes, and Alexsei Nazarov

  • β-lactams are essential structural components of many antibiotics and widely studied due to their biological importance and synthetic versatility.
  • The Ugi reaction is a multicomponent reaction, involving a primary amine, carboxylic acid, isocyanide, and an aldehyde or a ketone, that rapidly generates α-acetamido carboxamide derivatives (Ugi adducts).
  • The synthesis and characterization of four oxindole-based β-lactam derivatives:
    • 1-Benzyl-N-(tert-butyl)-2-oxo-3-(2-oxoazetidin-1-yl)indoline-3-carboxamide (4a).
    • N-(tert-butyl)-2-oxo-3-(2-oxoazetidin-1-yl)-1-phenylindol-3-carboxamide (4ab).
    • N-(tert-Butyl)-2-oxo-3-(2-oxoazetidin-1-yl)indoline-3-carboxamide (4d).
    • N-(tert-butyl)-1-methyl-2-oxo-3-(2-oxoazetidin-1-yl)indol-3-carboxamide (4e).
  • The coordination of the four Ugi adducts with Cu (II) and Ni (II) at different pH points to enhance their stability and improve biological activity.

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  Design, Synthesis, and Characterization of Phosphonate-Functionalized Diimide Ligands for Metal-Organic Framework Construction

  Kenya Rosas and Jonathan Uribe

  • Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are solid, porous materials composed of metalions reacted with organic linkers

  • MOFs are customizable through variations in their metal ions, organic linkers, and the functional groups of the organic linker all yielding a structure with different properties

  • MOFs have a variety of applications, ranging from storage and catalysis to drug delivery

  • The synthesis and characterization of four phosphonate-based diimide ligands:
    • N,N´-bis(phosphonomethyl)-pyromellitimide (PPMI).
    • N,N´-bis(phosphonobenzyl)-pyromellitimide (PPMI-Ph).
    • N,N´-bis(phosphonomethyl)-3,3′,4,4′-biphenylenediimide (PBDI).
    • N,N´-bis(phosphonobenzyl)-3,3′,4,4′-biphenylenediimide (PBDI-Ph).

  • These ligands were then coordinated with zinc or copper metal ions to make MOFs.

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  How Do People Sit in Cars? Reproducibility of Vehicle Seat and Body Positions for Individual Occupants

  Nathan Sadler and Kobie Henson

  Some crash investigators have assumed that different people having the same stature and gender will reliably choose the same (or a similar) seat adjustments each time they sit in a specific make and model of automobile [Lee]. Knowledge of how a person sits in an automobile is important, because position and seat adjustment can have a significant influence on the way force is distributed throughout a human body during a collision, as they move relative to the vehicle and then contact various components within the interior [West]. However, conclusions reached from such exemplar studies depend on whether assuming that similar-sized people sit and adjust their seat in the same way in the same vehicle is correct. To further assess the variability in how people sit in vehicles, a technique called photogrammetry was used to measure chosen seat adjustment (seatback angle, cushion height and horizontal position) and corresponding seated position using a variety of volunteers recruited to sit multiple times in the passenger and driver seat of two different vehicles. Photogrammetry, a method of obtaining accurate three-dimensional measurements of objects using multiple photographs containing fixed reference points, was chosen as an efficient and non-obtrusive method to document both seat position as well as occupant position within their seat. Photogrammetry has been used for decades in multiple fields to obtain non-contact 3D measurements of object shape.

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  AI Dependence and its Impact on Human Decision-Making Quality and Supply Chain Efficiency

  Jesus Salazar, Leonardo Fabbri, and Axel Villegas

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming supply chain management by enabling:
    • Data-driven decision-making
    • Improved forecasting accuracy
    • Enhanced operational efficiency (Choudhary et al., 2023; Ivanov & Dolgui, 2021)
  • AI applications such as predictive analytics support:
    • Inventory optimization, Logistics planning
    • Procurement decisions in real time
  • However, increasing reliance on AI introduces risks:
    • Automation bias (over-trusting AI outputs)
    • Reduced human critical thinking
    • Overdependence on algorithmic recommendations (Raisch & Krakowski, 2021)
  • This study examines the dual impact of AI dependence on:
    • Decision-making quality
    • Supply chain efficiency
  • Objective:
    • Identify whether AI improves performance or reduces human effectiveness
    • Determine the optimal balance between AI support and human judgment

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  Do young belugas play more or less than adult belugas?

  Winter Saldana

  ★ The presence of play is used as an indicator of well-being in many species including belugas (Hill et al., 2017; Hill & Ramirez, 2014). ★ Adult and young belugas engage in similar types of play, but the frequency with which belugas play with objects, the actions used during those object play bouts, and the type of materials the objects consist of have not been examined in detail (Hill & Ramirez, 2014). ★ The purpose of this study was to explore if object play exhibited by belugas varied in frequency of play bouts, actions, and materials used by young and adult animals.

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  Life Experiences to Lyrics: What Mental Health Looks Like in Music

  Ashley Salinas and Ashley de la Fuente

  ● Music conveys human emotion and mental states, often reflecting societal struggles such as depression and anxiety. Lyrics often shape how listeners experience these emotions, influencing mood, identity formation, and emotional processing in young adults (Gustavson, 2021; Chen, 2023). ● Depression, characterized by persistent sadness, loss of interest, and withdrawal is frequently expressed in music through explicit descriptions or metaphorical language (Shriram, 2015). Whereas, anxiety involves excessive worry, restlessness, and hypervigilance, is less studied yet similarly present in music (Kim, 2023). ● Previous studies have highlighted that pop lyrics often emphasize relational uncertainty, country songs depict fear of loss, and rap lyrics highlight stress from systemic pressures (Kresovich, 2020). ● This study analyzed lyrical content in three music genres (breakup-pop, rap, and country) to examine how depression and anxiety symptoms are portrayed.

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  "P" is for Protest: How San Antonio Students are Showing the Rise in Young Justice Advocates

  Eliana Salinas

  - Recent 2025-2026 legislation under the Trump administration specifically targets immigration and militarize Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

  - Such actions have instilled fear in the general population, and encourage anti-immigration and biased rhetoric towards many, no matter their citizenship status.

  - Specifically, adolescents have responded by taking matters into their own hands by walking out of school as a form of protest; a demonstration unique to their age group demographic.

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  American Death Penalty Opinion's are Affected by Religion, Right?

  Addysen Schniederjan

  How does religion affect Death Penalty Public Opinion?

  • align with doctrine?
  • religious beliefs affect political beliefs?
  • political ideology?

  If public opinion is not affected by religion, what does this say about religious beliefs?

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  Increasing Affordability and Safety in our Surrounding Community: Subsection 6 of the St. Mary's Gateway

  Addysen Schniederjan

  Unaffordability is a widespread problem not only across San Antonio and the sub a rea of the St. Mary’s Gateway district. Affordable housing is defined as no more than 30% of a resident's income spent on housing (Bhasin, 2024). Subsection 6 faces a layered set of challenges:

  - aging housing stock - proximity to industrial uses - limited neighborhood amenities - safety threats-decreasing property value

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  Measuring the Flux of Cosmic Ray Muons with a Coincidence Telescope

  Carlos C. Sifuentes

  ❖ Cosmic Ray Muons are short-lived fundamental particles formed in the upper atmosphere, and have a half-life of 2.2 microseconds.[3] They travel down to surface level due to relativistic effects.

  ❖ Cosmic Watch Muon detectors were placed in coincidence. [1]

  ❖ Varied the angle from zenith using a 3D printed telescope designed in AutoCad.

  ❖ Varied the distance of the detectors and viewed changes in flux

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  TopShelf

  Ayden Jay Soliz

  With so many great video games releasing each year, it becomes challenging to keep up with the latest. Players find it difficult to maintain an updated list of future games to play, and many existing online trackers have become too complicated to use. TopShelf is designed to be a simple video game backlogging website that will track games for the player. By connecting to an online video game database API, users can add/drop games from their personal list and enable tracking and receive emails for platform releasing. Gamers can leave all the tracking and updates responsibilities to TopShelf

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  AI vs. Human Imagery in Advertising: Do Consumers Care?

  Belyn Thompson

  Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming digital marketing, with AI-generated images increasingly used in advertising and brand communication. While these visuals allow companies to reduce costs and experiment with creative ideas, it remains unclear how consumers perceive AI-generated content compared to human-created visuals. Advances in platforms such as DALL-E and Midjourney have made AI images more realistic and difficult to distinguish, raising questions about transparency and ethical disclosure in advertising. This study examines how AI-generated images and disclosure strategies influence consumer perceptions, including purchase intent, aesthetic appeal, and perceived realism across different product categories.

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  Peace without Security: Intersectional Feminism and the Reintegration of Colombian Female Ex-Combatants

  Savannah Torres

  This projects speaks to those engaged in gender studies, human security, and post-conflict reintegration by examining why reintegration efforts continue to fall short for female ex-combatants. Focusing on Colombia’s 2016 Peace Agreement and its aftermath, the study analyzes how reintegration frameworks inadequately address the human security needs of former guerrilleras. It asks how reintegration processes fail to account for the intersecting identities of women as gendered, racial, and economic subjects and former combatants, and how these oversights generate persistent vulnerabilities. While existing literature acknowledges entrenched patriarchy in Colombian society, reintegration is frequently framed through victim-oriented lenses that obscure women’s agency. The paper first outlines the theoretical foundations of intersectionality and feminist human security, then examines women’s participation in the FARC-EP, followed by an analysis of gendered shortcomings in reintegration policy. It concludes that long-lasting peace depends on recognizing female ex-combatants as political actors and addressing their personal security in tandem. Without such an approach, post-conflict reintegration risks reproducing inequality rather than achieving sustainable peace.