Undergraduate Poster Session
The Research and Innovation Week Undergraduate Poster Session will take place Tuesday, April 1, 2-5 p.m. in the Moody Hall Atrium. Prizes are awarded for the Top 3 posters overall.
2025 Winners:
1st place: Regina Moreno Vera, “Neuropsychiatric Abnormalities in Kcna1 Mouse Models of Epilepsy and Ataxia.” Faculty mentor: Edward Glasscock, Biological Sciences
2nd place: Julian Cabrera, “From Prompts to Patterns: Exploring AI Responses with Text Analytics.” Faculty mentor: Monnie McGee, Statistics and Data Science
3rd place: Veda Ramakrishnan, “Disrupting Mental Health Stigma: Communication Strategies Used by Mental Health Professionals in South India.” Faculty mentors: Christopher Salinas, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, and Dr. Amy Brewster, Biological Sciences
Honorable mention: Alison Kellom, “Reversing Chemotherapy Resistance in Aggressive Forms of Cancer.” Faculty mentor: Pia Vogel, Biological Sciences
Honorable mention: Sahar Khan, “Exploring the Protein Levels of Astrocytes, Pericytes, and Blood Brain Barrier in WT and C3 Knockout Mice Following Seizure-Induced Brain Injury.” Faculty mentor: Amy Brewster, Biological Sciences
Honorable mention: Vivian Thai, “Paths to Parenthood: In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Narratives from Quy Nhon, Vietnam.” Faculty mentor: Elizabeth Berk, Anthropology
2025 Presenters:
Haneen Amarneh, “Breaking Barriers: Opening Doors to the World for Aspiring Scholars.” Faculty mentor: Alicia Schortgen, Sociology
Aguer Atem, “From South Sudan to Kenya: How International Aid Shapes Education Migration.” Faculty mentor: Jill Kelly, History
Ellen Aughenbaugh, “Blood Oxygen Instability due to loss of Epilepsy-Associated Kv1.1 Channels in the Brainstem.” Faculty mentor: Edward Glasscock, Biological Sciences
Krithi Bolledula, “Examining Heart-Brain Connections: The link between HRV and Frontal Lobe Function in Older Adults.” Faculty mentor: Holly Bowen, Psychology
Julian Cabrera, “From Prompts to Patterns: Exploring AI Responses with Text Analytics.” Faculty mentor: Monnie McGee, Statistics and Data Science
Na’Ni Caliste, “Undergraduate Student Acceptance Rate of Bisexuality in Their Own and Romantic Relationships.” Faculty mentor: Dustin Grabsch, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
Feaven Fasil, “Understanding Mental Health Experiences of Ethiopian American Young Adults in the DFW Metroplex.” Faculty mentor: Elizabeth Berk, Anthropology
William Flinchbaugh, “Effects of Redundant LiDAR Sensors on Object Hiding Attacks in Autonomous Driving Systems.” Faculty mentors: Eric Larson and Mitchell Thornton, Darwin Deason Institute for Cybersecurity
Andrew Farhat, "Mental Health Stigma in Students of Immigrant Families at 正品蓝导航." Faculty mentor: Andrea Laurent-Simpson, Sociology
Anna Foweather, “Classroom Learning, Autonomy, and Structural Spacing.” Faculty mentor: Sarah Kucker, Psychology
Gabriel Mongaras, “Why is Softmax Attention So Good? Exploration of the Activation Space for Attention.” Faculty mentor: Eric Larson, Computer Science
Sreshta Ghosh, “Backhaul Profit Maximization Problem.” Faculty mentor: Eli Olinick, Operations Research and Engineering Management
Meredith Hughes, “Undergraduate Perspective, Awareness, and Ethics on the Use and Prescription of Anti-Obesity Medications.” Faculty mentor: Austin Baldwin, Psychology
Palmer Hurd, “Cost-Effective Domestic Potable Water Filtration in Tanzania.” Faculty mentor: Jessie Zarazaga, Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Ainsley Johnson, “The SMC5/6 complex is essential for stress induced p53 activity in Drosophila germline stem cells.” Faculty mentor: Annika Wylie, Biological Sciences.
Alison Kellom, “Reversing Chemotherapy Resistance in Aggressive Forms of Cancer.” Faculty mentor: Pia Vogel, Biological Sciences
Sahar Khan, “Exploring the Protein Levels of Astrocytes, Pericytes, and Blood Brain Barrier in WT and C3 Knockout Mice Following Seizure-Induced Brain Injury.” Faculty mentor: Amy Brewster, Biological Sciences
Simran Khoja, “Protein Crystalography.” Faculty mentor: Kenneth Westover, UTSW
Shivani Kosuri, “Relationship between metrics of health in older adults: HRV, Grip Strength, and Gait Speed.” Faculty mentor: Holly Bowen, Psychology
Viktoriya Kuchina, “Development of a Student Measure: Fraction Face-Off! Social Validity.” Faculty mentor: Kimia Akhavein, Research in Mathematics Education
Vigna Lavu, “Characterization of Soil Microbes Isolated from an Experimental Natural Gas Pipeline Leak.” Faculty mentor: Alexander Chase, Earth Sciences
Anna Leo, “Predicting Hurricane Evacuation Decisions: A Survey-Based Model for Government Shelter Use.” Faculty mentor: Halit Uster, Operations Research and Engineering Management
Michelle Ma, “Voices of 正品蓝导航: The Role Campuses play in Shaping and Building Asian American Identities.” Faculty mentor: Jill Kelly, History
Ben McBride, “A Next-Generation Wireless Passive Sensor for HPHT Wellbore Monitoring and Integrity Assessment.” Faculty mentor: Saeed Salehi, Mechanical Engineering
Katherine Merchant, “Examining early childhood media exposure: Content and temperament across diverse family structures.” Faculty mentor: Sarah Kucker, Psychology
Regina Moreno Vera, “Neuropsychiatric Abnormalities in Kcna1 Mouse Models of Epilepsy and Ataxia.” Faculty mentor: Edward Glasscock, Biological Sciences
Nadia Mustafa, “Investigating a Chimera of Pigeon Cryptochrome 4 and Mouse Cryptochrome 1.” Faculty. Mentor: Brian Zoltowski, Chemistry
Kyra Oladeji, “The Impact of Transfer Deficit and Peri-hand Space on Children’s Memory.” Faculty mentor: Sarah Kucker, Psychology
Sohom Patel and Carter Godinez, “A Simulation Game for Electric Vehicle Charging Station Placement in DFW.” Faculty mentor: Janille Smith-Colin, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Mahima Quazi, “Urban Heat Dynamics: A Dallas Case Study on Land Cover, Population Growth, and Surface Temperature Trends Over Time.” Faculty mentor: Xiao Yang, Earth Sciences
Veda Ramakrishnan, “Disrupting Mental Health Stigma: Communication Strategies Used by Mental Health Professionals in South India.” Faculty mentors: Christopher Salinas, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, and Dr. Amy Brewster, Biological Sciences
Adyn Schachtel, “Picuris Pueblo Ceramics.” Faculty mentor: Michael Adler, Anthropology
Vivian Thai, “Paths to Parenthood: In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Narratives from Quy Nhon, Vietnam.” Faculty mentor: Elizabeth Berk, Anthropology
Eric Vu and Austin Carnline, “Analyzing and Visualizing Infrastructure Deserts.” Faculty mentor: Barbara Minsker, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Simran Waraich and Sana Omar, “Comparison of DFT Functionals and Basis Sets for Geometry Optimizations of Cobalt Complexes with Ammonia, Chloride, and Water Ligands.” Faculty mentor: Peng Tao, Chemistry
Maddie Wathanacharoen, “How Dance Classes Influence Confidence in 2nd Graders’ Academic Achievement.” Faculty mentor: Sarah Kucker, Psychology
Information for presenters
All 正品蓝导航 undergraduate students are eligible to present posters of their work.
The deadline to sign up is Monday, March 24.
How do I design a poster?
Most people create academic posters with templates made in Powerpoint. There are numerous templates available online, including our . For this poster session, the poster must be smaller than 46x46 inches.
Check out 2023's winning posters for inspiration:
Posters will go on boards like these:
Where do I print a poster?
You can have your poster printed through Copy Central or any local print shop. Posters generally run $50-75. Ask your professor if your department has any funds for printing.
What do I do during the session?
You are not required to be present the entire session, but do try to stand by your poster for the majority of the time. When people come by, you can give them an "elevator pitch" (3-4 sentences) so they get a general idea. Some may have questions for you! Any time it is slow, we encourage you to check out other posters.
Can you help me?
Yes! The Office of Engaged Learning is hosting several coaching essions to help participants prepare for the session:
Coaching session: Research Poster Design Tips (on Zoom)
- How do you communicate research effectively on a poster? This workshop will show you templates, best practices, and provide feedback on posters-in-progress.
- Two sessions to choose from. Click the buttons to register.
Coaching session: The Elevator Pitch - for Research (on Zoom)
- Can you explain your research in 3 sentences? Learn how to explain what you do in a succinct and engaging way. Recommended for everyone presenting on Research and Innovation Week.
- Two sessions to choose from. Click the buttons to register: