Winners of the 2025 TXST STEM Conference Student Poster Presentations

We are excited to announce the winners of the 2025 TXST STEM Conference Student Poster Presentations, held under the theme "Bridging Minds and Building Futures – Paths to Sustainability." This year’s conference saw a record number of 133 student presentations, showcasing the innovative and impactful research being conducted by our students alongside dedicated faculty and staff mentors.

We are deeply grateful to our event sponsors – College of Science and Engineering, Generación STEM, The IDEA Center, and Quanta Services – for their generous support. We also thank the post-doctoral researchers, faculty, and staff who served as poster presentations judges and contributed to the success of this event.

Below are the 2025 TXST STEM Conference Student Poster Presentation Award Winners:

Graduate Student Poster Presentations:

1st Place: Fereshteh Rahmani and Wilson Espinoza – Characterization of Shale Anisotropy for Optimized Hydrocarbon Extraction (Department of Engineering Technology, Texas State University)

2nd Place: Md Shah Mominul Islam Momin, Eunsang Cho, Eunsaem Cho, Subasish Das – High-Resolution Hydrodynamic Modeling for Coastal Flood Hazard Mapping for Galveston Island (Ingram School of Engineering, Texas State University; Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland)

3rd Place: Prabeshika Khanal and Wilson Espinoza – Sustainable Mortar with Biochar Addition (Department of Engineering Technology, Texas State University; Materials Science, Engineering, and Commercialization Program, Texas State University)

Undergraduate Student Poster Presentations:

• 1st Place: Mikayla Forge, Andrea Iturbe, Jessica Peterson, Robert J.C. McLean, Tania Betancourt – Hydrogels vs. Bacteria: Potential Applications in Chronic Wound Treatments (Department of Biology, Texas State University; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas State University)
• 2nd Place: Dillon Gee (pictured left), Jessica Peterson, Tania Betancourt – Creating a Degradable Hydrogel System that Activates Under Oxidative Stress (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas State University; Materials Science, Engineering, and Commercialization Program, Texas State University)
• 3rd Place: Aleah White, Jesus A. Jimenez, Francis A. Mendez Mediavilla, Abhimanyu Sharotry – Automation of Time Studies (Ingram School of Engineering; McCoy College of Business, Texas State University)

People’s Choice Poster Presentations:

• 1st Place: Kathryn Giordano (pictured right), Patricia Garza, Skyler Ramdeen (pictured right), Ndoese Usoro (pictured right), Adeyemi A. Olanrewaju, PhD – Discovery of Novel Vaccines/Therapeutics Against Dengue Virus (Medical Laboratory Science Program, College of Health Professionals, Texas State University)
• 2nd Place: Yazmin Montes and Merritt Drewery – Calf Grimace Scores and Their Relationship to Pain - Improving Livestock Welfare (Department of Agricultural Sciences, Texas State University)