**In accordance with updated guidelines from our university’s youth programs office, we will no longer display the name, school or district information of TXSEF finalists on our website. This change aims to limit the amount of identifiable information available online, thereby enhancing the protection of student finalists’ identities and personal information. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Animal Sciences
Senior Division
- First Place: ANTatomy: Utilizing Ants to Mitigate MSW Landfill-Generated Methane Production through Novel Aerobic Digester System for Anthropogenic Food Waste Decomposition
- Second Place: Nutraceutical Effects on Functional Recovery After Oxygen-Deprivation Brain Injury in a Drosophila Stroke-Relevant Model
- Third Place: Assessing Lipid Raft–Enriched Planarian Extracellular Vesicles as a Regenerative Therapy to Target Neuronal Plasma Membrane Instability in an Alzheimer’s-Type Model in Drosophila melanogaster
Junior Division
- First Place: Shedding Light On Galveston’s Missing Nests: How Light Pollution And Sand Characteristics Affect Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Nesting Locations
- Second Place: Planarian Regeneration and Cannibalism: A novel study on the cannibalistic tendencies of terrestrial planarians and how it affects the organism in terms of growth and neurotoxins
- Third Place: Light Response of Tardigrades
Behavioral and Social Sciences
Senior Division
- First Place: MINDFUL: Multi-modal Integrated Neuro-diagnostic Detection of Five-factor-inventory Using Layered Attention
- Second Place: A Novel Approach To Programming Suggested Dietary Alterations For Optimal Mental Health: Year II
- Third Place: A gamified go/no-go paradigm replicates behavioral and neural signatures of inhibitory control in neurosurgical patients
Junior Division
- First Place: Making Sense Of Altruism
- Second Place: Neuro-AI Method to Identify the Goldilocks Window for Optimal Emotional Regulation
- Third Place: Modeling professional and youth sports with markov chains: expected value of decisions
Biochemistry
Senior Division
- First Place: Targeting Pathological Neurotransmission Dynamics through De Novo Regulatory Modulation to Suppress Glioma Progression
- Second Place: Harnessing RNA Nanotechnology: In Silico Design and Structural Modeling of RNA Aptamers Targeting BRCA1 for Early Detection of Breast and Ovarian Cancer
- Third Place: Decoding Plastic Waste: Novel AI-Guided Engineering of PETase Mutants for Enhanced PET Plastic Bioremediation
Junior Division
- First Place: Pencil & Paper: Developing a Novel Low-Cost, Sensitive, Rapid, Graphite-Based Paper Biosensor to Detect D-Lactate, a Possible Early Marker of Pathogen-Contaminated Water
- Second Place: Millions to Molecules: Dual-Mechanism Small-Molecule Discovery via HTVS and Machine Learning-Guided Molecular Dynamics for Frontotemporal Dementia
- Third Place: Slowing Glucose Spikes in Diabetic Patients
Biomedical and Health Sciences
Senior Division
- First Place: Glia-Neuron GPCR Signaling as a Therapeutic Route to Axon Regeneration: cAMP-PKA Activation Elevates Excitability and Regrowth in Neurons
- Second Place: Multimodal Deep Learning Pipeline for Echocardiographic Biomarker Extraction and Automated Cardiovascular Diagnosis
- Third Place: Gene Expression & Survival in Cisplatin Treated Cancers: Novel Biomarkers & Therapeutic Combinations
Junior Division
- First Place: Bright Snacks, Hidden Chemicals: Measuring Food Dyes to Make Informed Choices
- Second Place: NanoHeal-Burn: A Fully Biodegradable Pickering Patch with Dual pH- and Temperature-Triggered Release for Smart Burn Care
- Third Place: Effect of Near-Infrared Light on Heart Rate in Daphnia magna Under Sugar Stress
Biomedical Engineering
Senior Division
- First Place: NeuroPatch: A Wearable, Minimally Invasive Photoacoustic Neural Interface Enabling Ultra-Low-Latency Brain-Computer Interaction
- Second Place: Miniature Magnetic Rotating Swimmers (MMRS): A Novel, Cost-Effective Technology for Efficient Biofilm Removal to Prevent Catheter-Associated UTIs
- Third Place: POCKET: A Multiplexing Point-of-care Kinetic Electrochemical Test using Aptamers for Accessible, Rapid Diagnostics
Junior Division
- First Place: Enhancing Electronic Nose Specificity for Non-Invasive Disease Screening: A VOC Classification Approach via Dynamic UV-Thermal Modulation
- Second Place: Project Parasight: Seeing Malaria Through the Lens of AI
- Third Place: Visualizing Neuron Network in Mice Intestine with Optical Clearing
Cellular and Molecular Biology
Senior Division
- First Place: Inhibition of Mitochondrial Chaperone GRP75/mtHsp70 Potentiates Cisplatin Sensitivity in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Multiscale Validation Using Engineered HepG2 Cancer Cell Lines, Population-Level Genomic Prevalence Analysis of HCC in South Texas and Discussing the Effect of Nanotechnology Based Drug Delivery System for Mitochondrial Biogenesis
- Second Place: Inhibition of the Pathological PrP-Sho Complex: A Novel Therapeutic Intervention for Preventing Progression of Environmental Lead (Pb)-Induced Parkinsonism
- Third Place: An Analysis Evaluating MIN-6, INS-1, and NIT-1 Insulinoma Cell Cultures on their Ability to Serve as an Alternative to Islet Cells in Transplantation and Mitigate Blood Glucose Levels in the Animal Model C57BL-6 Mouse Strain: to Become a Potential Treatment for Diabetes Mellitus: Year 3
Junior Division
- First Place: Biodegradable Quantum Dots from Food Waste
- Second Place: Investigating the Effects of Mentha piperita on the Cognitive Retention of the Lymnaea Stagnalis
- Third Place: The effects of magnetic fields on living organisms
Chemistry
Senior Division
- First Place: Evaluating CD44–Aptamer Binding Energetics Using Membrane-Embedded Molecular Dynamics
- Second Place: Improving Hydrogen Production: Surfactants in Alkaline Electrolyzers
- Third Place: The Development of Novel Lanthanide Metal–Organic Frameworks via Solvothermal Routes Using a Triazacyclononane-Based Ligand
Junior Division
- First Place: Oxygen from Electricity: Bioelectric Hydrogels for Healing
- Second Place: The Effects of Viscosity-Influencing Agents on the Emulsion in Sunscreen
- Third Place: Baked to Perfection: Making Everyday Bread Healthier, More Natural, and More Delicious
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Senior Division
- First Place: A Second Beat for the Broken Heart: AI-Driven Inverse Design of Bio-Instructive Hydrogels for Myocardial Regeneration
- Second Place: Frankenstein-Synuclein: Rapid, Structure-Informed In-Silico Generation of De Novo Replacement Protein Variants Using Benign Homologs for Parkinson’s Disease Prevention
- Third Place: From MRI to Implant: Development of an Open-Source Computational Pipeline for Patient-Specific 3D Voronoi Meniscus Scaffold Generation with Anisotropic Voxel Correction and Regional Tribological Gradients
Junior Division
- First Place: Delta Protein Atlas
- Second Place: AI-Driven Preclinical Parkinson’s Forecasting via Novel Gut Microbial Biomarker Profiling
- Third Place: Detecting Autism with a Blood Test
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Senior Division
- First Place: Project Purify: A Hybrid Electro-Photocatalytic System for Targeted Degradation of Microplastics
- Second Place: Triple Threat: Leveraging Functionalized Hydrogels, Magnetic Amplification, and Electrostatic Filtration in a Multimodal System for Optimized Water Purification
- Third Place: Autonomous Soil Monitoring System for Predicting Post-Wildfire Ecosystem Recovery Using Natural Citrus-Based Amendments
Junior Division
- First Place: Designing A Hybrid Separation System for Microplastic Removal in Aquatic Environments
- Second Place: An Novel, Alternative, Natural, and Sustainable Method to Decontaminate Lead From Edible Plants Utilizing the Bacterial Species Bacillus amyloliquefaciens: A Pilot Study
- Third Place: Banana Bioplastics
Embedded Systems
Senior Division
- First Place: EcoHawk: YOLOv11 Low-Altitude Drone System for Simultaneous Detection, Geospatial Quantification, and Risk Mapping of Invasive Species with Real-Time Authority Notification
- Second Place: A Novel Unmanned Surface Recharge and Data Transfer Station for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
- Third Place: StressShift: A Real-Time Embedded Control System Utilizing Inverse Dynamics for Adaptive Knee Torque Redistribution
Junior Division
- First Place: HydroSentinel: A Distributed IoT Safety Net for Aging Public Water Systems Using Multi-Modal Sensors for Pipeline Leak, Contamination Detection, and Pump Health Monitoring
- Second Place: Wearable Biometrics–Integrated Model for Early Detection of Nighttime Arrhythmia Risk
- Third Place: Dynamic Brail System
Energy: Sustainable Materials & Design
Senior Division
- First Place: Design and Optimization of a Hybrid Piezoelectric–Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting System for Mechanical Energy Conversion
- Second Place: Ancient Innovation, Modern Application: Testing Architectural Design for Passive Thermal Efficiency
- Third Place: Microbial Power and Purification: Cost-Effective Membrane Efficiency in Microbial Desalination Cells
Junior Division
- First Place: Can Piezoelectric Materials Harvest Enough Energy From a Simulated Heartbeat to Power Small Electronics Such as Pacemakers?
- Second Place: Influence of Dielectric Material, Electrode, and Water Properties on the Efficiency of Solid-Liquid Triboelectric Nanogenerators
- Third Place: VAWTs the Journey Continues
Engineering Technology: Statics and Dynamics
Senior Division
- First Place: HandTalk: A Translation System for American Sign Language
- Second Place: AeroHive: A Novel Honeycomb Electrohydrodynamic Thruster Array with Vectorized Propulsion
- Third Place: Unlocking Ground Effect Flight: A Novel Variable-Geometry Wing Design to Expand Operating Envelope
Junior Division
- First Place: PediaFlex: A Bioinspired, Expandable Pediatric Prosthetic employing a Pneumatic system to enhance K levels and Long-Term use for Transfemoral Leg Amputation Patients
- Second Place: Tuning Out Tremors: A Comparative Study of Tuned Mass Dampers Efficiency on Various Structures
- Third Place: Harvesting Kinetic Energy From Everyday Door Movement
Environmental Engineering
Senior Division
- First Place: Moo-ving Towards Cleaner Water
- Second Place: TitaniumFlow: Developing a Cost-Friendly, Industry-Ready Filtration System Using Photocatalytic Degradation & Microporous Adsorptive Capture for Oil Spill Cleanup
- Third Place: Agrabhi
Junior Division
- First Place: Engineering Sustainable Biofabrics for Enhanced Ultraviolet Protection and Antimicrobial Performance
- Second Place: Stabilizing Soil to Reduce Structural Foundation Movement by Using Novel, Sustainable Additives- Year 3
- Third Place: Eutrophication
Materials Science
Senior Division
- First Place: Complex Coacervate: Novel Methodology to Crystallize Hydrophobic Drugs
- Second Place: Multi Layer Radiation Shield
- Third Place: Low-Cost Nanocrystalline Nickel Reinforcement of Additively Manufactured Polymers for Extreme Industrial Environments
Junior Division
- First Place: From Garbage to Growth: Using Organic Waste to Create Hydrophilic Biopolymers for Water Conservation and Agricultural Purposes
- Second Place: Synthesis of Nano Heat-Shielding Materials
- Third Place: Exploring the Integration of Nitinol in Modern Bridge Engineering to Enhance Resilience Against Natural Disasters and Stress
Mathematics
Senior Division
- First Place: Dynamic Mathematical PDE Modeling of TANGO2 Progression and Episode Prediction
- Second Place: Irreducible Polynomials over Finite Fields as Cryptographic Frameworks for Cybersecurity
- Third Place: Mathematical analysis of a new real-domain Collatz map preserving parity dynamics with applications to momentum-based optimization
Junior Division
- First Place: The Power of the Magnetic Pulse: A Novel Mathematical Formula for Stabilizing Ferrofluids in Targeted Drug Delivery for Cancer Therapy
- Second Place: Game Theory of Most Successful Payoff Matrices to the Prisoner’s Dilemma
- Third Place: Twisting Braids with Group Theory: Cryptography Future beyond Primes
Microbiology
Senior Division
- First Place: Targeting the GraRS Two-Component System in Staphylococcus epidermidis: Computational Identification and In Vitro Validation of a Novel Adjunctive Cocktail Therapy for Antibiotic-Resistant Infections
- Second Place: Characterizing Chlamydial Cytotoxins as Inflammatory Modulators: C. muridarum and C. trachomatis Putative Glycosyltransferase Activity and NF-kappa B Regulation
- Third Place: Quorum Interdiction: a novel approach to prevent Antimicrobial resistance in the Staphlococcus Aureus and Candida Albicans complex, using secondary plant compounds as Quorum-Sensing Inhibitors
Junior Division
- First Place: Detection of Plasmodium-Infected Red Blood Cells Using Convolutional Neural Networks
- Second Place: Solving Rifaximin Resistance in Escherichia coli K-12
- Third Place: Can certain enzymes biodegrade PET better than direct sunlight or water exposure?
Physics and Astronomy
Senior Division
- First Place: Investigating Quantum Error Correction Efficiency using Hypergraph-Linked Qubit States
- Second Place: Releasing O2 by Plasma Reduction of Lunar Regolith Simulant
- Third Place: OptiSkew: A Biophysical Approach for Self-Assessment of Eye Refractive Disorders (Year 2)
Junior Division
- First Place: PCM Power : Storing Heat Smarter
- Second Place: Unraveling the Science of Spin – A Detailed Exploration on the Magnus Effect
- Third Place: The Effects Of Voltage On The Performance Of A Motor
Plant Sciences
Senior Division
- First Place: Effects of Indole-3-Acetic Acid Loaded Polyvinyl Alcohol Microneedles on Drought Resistance in Solanum Lycopersicum
- Second Place: Red Planet Green Future: Defining Durability of Coconut Coir for Plant Growth in Simulated Perchlorate Stressed Martian Regolith
- Third Place: Evaluation of Organic Soil Amendments on Drought-Stressed Cynodon dactylon Sod Establishment
Junior Division
- First Place: Greening the Red Planet: New Strategies to Enhance Seed Germination and Plant Growth in Mars Regolith Simulant
- Second Place: Can a Plant Eat Plastic?: Assessing the Efficiency of Nepenthes Digestive Fluid in Decomposing Synthetic Polymers
- Third Place: Exploring the Potential of Cacti-Derived Hydrogels for Sustainable Water Retention
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
Senior Division
- First Place: SmartCane – An AI Companion for Independent Living
- Second Place: Autonomous UAV System for AI Driven Detection and Precision Treatment of Northern Corn Leaf Blight
- Third Place: Converting Vision to Haptic Feedback for the Blind
Junior Division
- First Place: PillDetect: A Convolutional Neural Network to Detect and Classify Pills Accurately
- Second Place: H.E.L.I.O.S
- Third Place: Implementing a Hybrid CNN-Transformer Model for ASL Fingerspelling Translation
Software Design
Senior Division
- First Place: Object Centric Reinforcement Learning for Sim-to-Real Dexterous Manipulation
- Second Place: MobilePipe: iPhones as Parallel Compute Accelerators for Local Machine Learning
- Third Place: FT-Discover: A Novel S^2-DDPM Architecture For Modeling And Discovering Protein Conformational States
Junior Division
- First Place: AI-Assisted Traffic Alert System
- Second Place: Exercise Vision: Real-Time Computer-Vision Coaching for Community-Dwelling Older Adults
- Third Place: Multimodal AI Combining Chest X-rays and Clinical Data to Diagnose Tuberculosis
Technology Enhances the Arts
Senior Division
- First Place: SAMA: a Self-evolving Ai Multi-modal Assistant for dementia care
- Second Place: Neuro-Hertz Interface: Converting EEG Signals into Cymatic Frequencies to Enhance Emotional Expression for the Nonverbal
- Third Place: Generative Topological Symphonies: AI-Composed Music Through Higher-Dimensional Geometry
Junior Division
- First Place: DanceBuddy – A Machine Learning based visual tool to detect Bharatanatyam mudras (hand gestures) and mechanics using Google Teachable Machine and MediaPipe AI system
- Second Place: The Art of Using Schlieren Images and Shadowgraphs to Visualize Invisible Phenomena
- Third Place: Does practicing dance barefoot improve balance compared to dancing with shoes?
Translational Medical Sciences
Senior Division
- First Place: MALAT1 Silencing Reduces EDB-Fibronectin Expression and Invasive Morphology in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
- Second Place: Targeting Dysfunctional Proteins in the Brain: A Promising Therapeutic Strategy for Clearance and Prevention of Toxic Proteins in Alzheimer’s Disease
- Third Place: Development of an At-Home, Mutation-Specific Lateral Flow Test for ctDNA Detection
Junior Division
- First Place: Diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease using Machine Learning Models trained on EEG Data
- Second Place: Artificial Intelligence Meets Immunotherapy: Designing Smarter Cancer-Fighting Immune Cells
- Third Place: The Price of Pain: The Difference in Bioaccessibility of Branded vs Generic Non-Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs
