2025 Submissions

The Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce the winners of the 10th annual Texas Student Research Showdown

Students participating in this research communication competition created 2-minute videos to explain their research and creative activity to a general audience. A panel of faculty and staff judges scored the videos on their ability to capture an audience’s attention, tell a narrative, convey rigorous scholarship, and target a general (rather than expert) audience. Current undergraduates also voted for an audience award winner.

This year’s event featured 41 videos from students competing in two categories (science, technology, and engineering; arts, humanities, and social sciences). The submitters of the winning videos received awards generously funded by a gift from Kimberly and Scott Martin.

STEM category

Honorable mention
Sarayu Parthasarathy
Bridging the Diagnostic Gap: A New Approach to Malaria Testing

Cecilia Dotson
Genetic and Epigenetic Contributions to Athleticism

Phoebe Boespflug
Fishy Business: Exploring Anti-Predator Responses in Gambusia affinis

Ashot Tumaghyan
Printing My Own Body Parts in 3D!

Susannah Lynn-Macrae
What THESE two proteins have to do with neurodevelopmental disorders

2nd place, $500
Rinka Ko
Targeting Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

1st place, $1500
Rhea Lazar, Holsen Moore, Yuni Lee
Convergent evolution of troglomorphic traits in cave-dwelling Eurycea salamanders

Audience award, $1000
Rinka Ko
Targeting Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Arts, humanities, and social sciences category

Honorable mention:
Aashna Mangal
Mental Health Is Everyone’s Story

Gia Nguyen
Human-AI Interactions in Virtual Reality

Jennifer Smith
Texas Talks: Voices of The Lone Star State

Jane Goldberg
Plants Can Save Your Life: A Comparative Study of the Support and Impacts of Urban Agriculture

Abhinav Ganesh
Ancient Wisdom: Uncovering the Psychology of Past Societies through Text

2nd place, $500
Sarah Tarrance, Avery Cooney
Empowerment Through Horses @ REDArena

1st place, $1500
Kevin Bobby, Andrew Alan, Suraj Chaturvedi, Sara Hashim, Ananya Tirumala, Shubhranshu (Rishi) Mishra, Aleeza Virani, Srishanti Chanal, Nethra Middela, Keshv Srinivasan
NCHA Research | Texas Mental Health Initiative for South Asians

See below for the complete listing of 2025 videos.

Science, Technology, and Engineering

Arshia Verma
Impact of Maternal Immune Activation on Ultrasonic Vocalizations in Mice

Ashot Tumaghyan
Printing My Own Body Parts in 3D!

Cecilia Dotson
Genetic and Epigenetic Contributions to Athleticism

Chinonso Obiefule
What I Did Last Summer

Devon Voyles
ABLE

Francesca Abraham
How is CRISPR Cas9 Used to Genetically Engineer C. elegans?

Geena Kaown
New uses for previously used cooking oil

Nicole Wu 
Saponification: The Process that Connects Dead Bodies and Soap 

Nathalie Scott
Uncovering Novel Deep-sea Archaeal Genomes - Baker Lab 

Phoebe Boespflug
Fishy Business: Exploring Anti-Predator Responses in Gambusia affinis

Po Chun Hsu
Isotretinoin and CO2 Laser Resurfacing, Balancing Risks and Re-evaluating Dermatologic guidelines

Rahul Raja Durai Murugan
Predicting Tumor Response to Paclitaxel + Carboplatin

Raquel Paz Bergia
Episodic Memory Decline in Parkinson's Disease | Raquel Paz Bergia

Rhea Lazar
From Light to Darkness: How Salamanders Adapted to Life Underground

Rinka Ko
Targeting Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Sarayu Parthasarathy
Bridging the Diagnostic Gap: A New Approach to Malaria Testing

Shruthi Ananth
How Hearing Loss Starts Earlier Than You Think

Sohmee Kim
Why white matter matters

Susannah Lynn-Macrae
What THESE two proteins have to do with neurodevelopmental disorders

Syedah Shah
Neuron Traffic Control: How a Single Hydrogen Bond Battles Epilepsy

Titus Loftin
A Benchmark Dataset for Machine Learning and Data-Driven (Inverse) Approaches in Mechanics

Tony Chae
Brain Pong: Play Pong with your Mind!

Victor Moran
Harnessing Supercritical CO2 for Efficient Energy


Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

Aaryana Sharma
Spontaneous Language Planning in Sign Language

Aashna Mangal
Mental Health Is Everyone’s Story

Abhinav Ganesh
Ancient Wisdom: Uncovering the Psychology of Past Societies through Text

Gia Nguyen
Human-AI Interactions in Virtual Reality

Harsha Ketavarapu
Bheem: Investigating the Power of Belief in Children’s Perceptions of Strength and Self-Efficacy

Isabella Sanchez
Christianity in Texas Public Education Policy

Jane Goldberg
Plants Can Save Your Life: A Comparative Study of the Support and Impacts of Urban Agriculture

Jennifer Smith
Texas Talks: Voices of The Lone Star State

Kethana Uppalapati
Time-Driven Activity Based Costing for Value-Based Care

Krishna Hariprasad
Emergency Contraception at UT Austin: 73* Questions With EC4EC

Leah Tharakan
Media Bias in BLM Policy Outcomes

Lucy Metheny
Ethical dilemmas in migraine treatment and access to care

Magali Osowski
1976 Presidential Election

Nethra Middela
NCHA Research | Texas Mental Health Initiative for South Asians

Olivia Beskid
Exploring How to Define the Domain to Avoid Set-Theoretic Paradoxes While Still Permitting Unrestricted Quantification

Riya Thakkar
Research Showdown

Sarah Tarrance
Empowerment Through Horses @ REDArena

Ty Gribble
The Wacky President