Plant Sciences
Before plants can be used as a food source for interplanetary missions, research must be conducted to determine the effects of microgravity on the growth of plants. This experiment was condu…
Physics and Astronomy
Standard rulers are astronomical objects with known intrinsic sizes whose apparent angular sizes can be used to determine their distance. Black holes (BHs) represent a potential standard rul…
Engineering Technology: Statics & Dynamics
Current methods of metal additive manufacturing (AM) typically require high-power laser or arc technology to melt metal into desired forms (powder bed fusion and wire arc AM, respectively).…
Microbiology
Bacterial biofilms in dairy processing equipment are difficult to sterilize and contribute to spoilage and significant economic losses. Cold plasma, which generates ions and free radicals ca…
Environmental Engineering
Traditional water pumps rely on expensive infrastructure and maintenance, substantial electrical power, specialized lifting equipment, with costs prohibitive for rural/remote communities. Th…
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Hypoxia is common in solid tumors, and Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1 Alpha (HIF-1a) plays a key role in adaptation to low-oxygen environments. This year’s research focused primarily on the intr…
Physics and Astronomy
Dark matter constitutes approximately 85% of the matter in the universe and is inferred through gravitational lensing, in which both baryonic and dark matter bend light from distant galaxies…
Engineering Technology: Statics & Dynamics
The bell nozzle is the most common rocket nozzle design, but it is optimized for a single altitude and therefore operates below peak efficiency during most of flight. The aerospike is an alt…
Physics and Astronomy
When light travels from one medium into another, it bends. This phenomenon is called light refraction. The angle at which the light bends is determined by the density of the medium it travel…
Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design
With renewed interest in green fuel technology as an alternative to fossil fuels, interest has returned to hydrogen production and improving the electrolysis process. The key issue is how to…
Software Design
This project developed and evaluated NLC (Natural Language Compression), a language-agnostic lexical text encoder optimized for natural language (NL). Efficient NL encoding is most applicabl…
Microbiology
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of bleach-based sanitation by measuring how contact time in a 50 ppm sodium hypochlorite solution affects the Log10 Reduction Fa…
Behavioral and Social Sciences
Morality is innately human: it requires weighing competing values, using judgment, and accepting responsibility. However, moral decisions are increasingly shaped by AI systems advising in cr…
Physics and Astronomy
Aerodynamics is heavily dependent on the four main forces of flight, weight, lift, thrust, and drag. Drag heavily impacts the aerospace industry's ability to create faster and more effective…
Biomedical and Health Sciences
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) is a life-saving cardiopulmonary support system for patients with severe cardiac and/or respiratory failure. Its use has increased substantially si…
Engineering Technology: Statics & Dynamics
Flash flooding is one of the deadliest weather events, taking over 5,000 lives each year. Traditional flash flood detection systems are often inadequate: they are expensive, require frequent…
Materials Science
Moon colonization would benefit from manufacturing using local materials such as moon dust, a basaltic volcanic ash (BVA). We investigate the feasibility of additive 3D printing (FDM) with a…
Translational Medical Science
In the spring of 2025, my aunt tragically passed away from a long and hard-fought battle with breast cancer. My grief inspired me to develop a way to help diagnose breast cancer more efficie…
Engineering Technology: Statics & Dynamics
Most energy sources are non-renewable, like fossil fuels. One way to get around this is to have more renewable energy sources. One idea is to harness the steps and physical movement that ind…
Behavioral and Social Sciences
This project investigated which type of prompt would generate the most educationally effective response from Gemini as perceived by ninth grade students. Three ninth grade classes completed…
Chemistry
Humic acid supplements are marketed as natural detoxifiers that claim to bind harmful metals while leaving essential metals unaffected. This study evaluated the selective binding of copper a…
Materials Science
Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (TERS) is a chemical imaging technique that enhances weak near-field Raman signals to map the composition, structure, and physical properties of materials bet…
Microbiology
Dinoflagellates are one of the many marine organisms that perform bioluminescent processes. There are many factors that could affect the light that they produce, including temperature, salin…
Behavioral and Social Sciences
Color plays a significant role in how people interpret emotions and meanings, but these interpretations may change over time. The purpose of this experiment was to examine how associations w…
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Increased use of personal care products has raised concerns about their environmental impact due to the release of chemical residues into natural ecosystems. Sunscreen compounds enter aquati…
Translational Medical Science
Atypical Chemokine Receptor 1 (ACKR1/DARC) is a non-signaling chemokine receptor expressed on erythrocytes and endothelial cells. In tumors, ACKR1 modulates inflammation, chemokine gradients…
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Alphafold, a protein-folding prediction tool created by Google DeepMind, has shown unprecedented ability to accurately simulate the 3D structure of proteins given an amino acid sequence. Bas…
Physics and Astronomy
Stellar spectroscopy is vital in astronomy, enabling star classification, chemical analysis, and more. The Harvard Classification System, classifies stars into temperature (O, B, A, F, G, K,…
Engineering Technology: Statics & Dynamics
The goal of this project was to create a better alternative to permanent magnet synchronous motors, by enhancing specific characteristics of the synchronous reluctance motor. Specifically, i…
Microbiology
The oligodynamic effect is the ability of metals to kill microbes, including bacteria. This effect is vital to modern methods of sterilization, as biocidal metals are commonly incorporated i…