Environmental Engineering
Third Award
This project explores the possibilities of pairing an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with a deep-learning computer vision model for marine debris mapping. A cost effective, 3D-printed A…
Chemistry
Raising livestock causes environmental challenges due to production of greenhouse gasses, need of space, and high cost. Insects, on the other hand, hardly produce greenhouse gasses, need lit…
Materials Science
The high occurrence of fires and explosions worldwide makes fire prevention a top priority to protect people and property. Common fire-fighting materials include water, CO2 gas, fire fightin…
Environmental Engineering
Second Award
Produced water (PW) generated during oil and gas production is primarily disposed of through deep-well injection, which is costly and induces seismicity. PW treatment and reuse can enhance e…
Biochemistry
The purpose of this research was to test the effect of the Tsaile Lake Water (Lake outside Tsaile) on the Mitotic Index of Allium cepa root tip. The hypothesis is if the Tsaile Lake water an…
Environmental Engineering
Plastic waste is an ongoing environmental pollution and contamination hazard across the world. Our experimental compost has been shown to accelerate the degradation process of low-crystallin…
Plant Sciences
Fourth Award
Currently available chemical insecticides are causing soil contamination. Exploring the potential of utilizing crop starches combined with capsaicinoids and glucosinolates extracted from Cap…
Biomedical Engineering
Insulin pumps on the market today are expensive and are computationally limited in calculating and providing accurate dose regimens for type 1 diabetics. In this work, four academic discipli…
Environmental Engineering
The purpose of this project is to produce methane from waste using a student made Bio-digestion system. Bio-digesters are closed systems decompose organic waste and produce natural gas. Ther…
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
My study applies the emerging technology of Bioinformatics, which makes use of biology, computer science, mathematics, and statistics to analyze and interpret biological data, including of D…
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are closed long non-coding RNAs with excellent prognostic and diagnostic biomarker properties for many diseases including cancer. By using liver tissues of Hepatocel…
Environmental Engineering
Third Award
Hydrogen (H2) is identified as a clean energy source and can be produced from fossil fuels and biomass gasification, and water splitting using electrolysis. However, the current H2 productio…
Biomedical and Health Sciences
Oxygen is critical to sustain aerobic life. Scientists are developing methods to deliver oxygen to stagnant water and human bodies when perfusion, or the movement of gasses across a membrane…
Chemistry
Downshifting, the process of absorbing high energy photons and emitting them at lower energies, is a promising approach towards improving the performance and lifespan of solar panels, especi…
Mathematics
First Award
The abc-conjecture (Masser and Oesterlé) is an active problem that has remained open for several decades. The conjecture would imply a direct proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem and also shine ne…
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Abstract – In contrast to the rigid and skeletal design of traditional robots, soft robots are bionic prototypes that emulate soft and flexible creatures in nature (such as caterpillars and…
Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design
Chemical-based batteries such as lithium or any conventional battery fall under the label of a chemical battery. Biomorphic batteries are a new prospecting alternative battery that utilizes…
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Fourth Award
As a member of the Nanticoke Tribe, I am acutely aware that my tribe, along with many other tribes throughout the continent, face a continuous problem due to contamination of their natural w…
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Third Award
In the troposphere, ozone is a harmful secondary pollutant formed by chemical reactions between nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In 2020, COVID-19 lockdowns broug…
Systems Software
My project is about modeling professional basketball with data science and machine learning. Data science and analytics currently have significant impacts on the NBA’s best teams. NBA teams…
Embedded Systems
In this project we use machine learning (ML) to dynamically filter long reads of data to remove noise and apply our method to nanopore DNA sequencing. Although nanopore sequencing presents m…
Plant Sciences
The NMMI stem team engaged in a project that utilized and incorporated naturally occurring materials to produce a viable alcohol-free and eco-friendly hand sanitizer that could rival competi…
Environmental Engineering
The excessive production of cow manure in New Mexico is an environmental concern. Simultaneously, cement, the main ingredient in concrete, leads the world as one of the biggest producers of…
Microbiology
Many questions have arisen about the effectiveness of masks, especially during the pandemic. In this project, the young scientist will attempt to answer some of these questions by observing…
Materials Science
The purpose of this project is to develop a new and more efficient method for purifying magnetite nanoparticles. Magnetite nanoparticles are typically synthesized with the surfactant oleic a…
Embedded Systems
Third Award
Many critical systems, including financial, banking, telecom and nuclear weapons, rely on the Global Positioning System (GPS) for synchronization of clocks that is essential for their operat…
Animal Sciences
Fourth Award
Climate change is causing precipitation and temperature patterns to change, and in response species are undergoing phenological shifts, changes in reproduction timing. To explore the effects…
Engineering Mechanics
The goal of this project was to determine and develop a reliable, long-term replacement to the job of being a combat pilot by developing a small sized UAV. Last year, we concluded that the i…
Microbiology
The purpose of this project is to determine if black walnuts, the walnut or exocarp have antibacterial properties. Black walnuts have been reported to have many health benefits which is why…
Systems Software
Genetic algorithms (GAs) are an optimization technique inspired by natural selection. GAs have yielded good results in certain practical problems, yet there is still more to be understood ab…