2026 Special Awards

**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.

2026 Special Award Winners

Broadcom Foundation Coding with Commitment

Flood Sends: A Low Cost Early Warning System For Rapid Water Rise

Citadel Securities Innovation Prize (6-8)

NanoHeal-Burn: A Fully Biodegradable Pickering Patch with Dual pH- and Temperature-Triggered Release for Smart Burn Care

Citadel Securities Innovation Prize (9-12)

Autonomous Trocar Insertion Robot to Aid in Minimally Invasive Surgery

Deere Family Special Award

Cellular Reaggregation Dynamics in Poriferan Dissociated Cell Populations
Design and Validation of a Low-Cost Sensor Platform for Measuring Hydration Retention and Barrier Function in a Biomimetic Melanin-Gradient Membrane

ExxonMobil

Behavioral and Social Sciences
- Junior
  - Making Sense Of Altruism
Biochemistry
- Junior
  - 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
Biomedical Engineering
- Junior
  - Enhancing Electronic Nose Specificity for Non-Invasive Disease Screening: A VOC Classification Approach via Dynamic UV-Thermal Modulation
- Senior
  - NeuroPatch: A Wearable, Minimally Invasive Photoacoustic Neural Interface Enabling Ultra-Low-Latency Brain-Computer Interaction
Cellular and Molecular Biology
- Junior
  - Biodegradable Quantum Dots from Food Waste
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
- Junior
  - Delta Protein Atlas
Chemistry
- Junior
  - Oxygen from Electricity: Bioelectric Hydrogels for Healing
- Senior
  - Evaluating CD44–Aptamer Binding Energetics Using Membrane-Embedded Molecular Dynamics
Earth & Environmental Sciences
- Junior
  - Designing A Hybrid Separation System for Microplastic Removal in Aquatic Environments
- Senior
  - Project Purify: A Hybrid Electro-Photocatalytic System for Targeted Degradation of Microplastics
Embedded Systems
- Junior
  - HydroSentinel: A Distributed IoT Safety Net for Aging Public Water Systems Using Multi-Modal Sensors for Pipeline Leak, Contamination Detection, and Pump Health Monitoring
- Senior
  - EcoHawk: YOLOv11 Low-Altitude Drone System for Simultaneous Detection, Geospatial Quantification, and Risk Mapping of Invasive Species with Real-Time Authority Notification
Energy: Sustainable Materials & Design
- Junior
  - Can Piezoelectric Materials Harvest Enough Energy From a Simulated Heartbeat to Power Small Electronics Such as Pacemakers?”
- Senior
  - Design and Optimization of a Hybrid Piezoelectric–Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting System for Mechanical Energy Conversion
Engineering Technology: Statics & Dynamics
- Junior
  - PediaFlex: A Bioinspired, Expandable Pediatric Prosthetic employing a Pneumatic system to enhance K levels and Long-Term use for Transfemoral Leg Amputation Patients
- Senior
  - HandTalk: A Translation System for American Sign Language
Environmental Engineering
- Junior
  - Engineering Sustainable Biofabrics for Enhanced Ultraviolet Protection and Antimicrobial Performance.
Materials Science
- Junior
  - From Garbage to Growth: Using Organic Waste to Create Hydrophilic Biopolymers for Water Conservation and Agricultural Purposes
- Senior
  - Complex Coacervate: Novel Methodology to Crystallize Hydrophobic Drugs
Mathematics
- Junior
  - The Power of the Magnetic Pulse: A Novel Mathematical Formula for Stabilizing Ferrofluids in Targeted Drug Delivery for Cancer Therapy
- Senior
  - Dynamic Mathematical PDE Modeling of TANGO2 Progression and Episode Prediction
Microbiology
- Junior
  - Detection of Plasmodium-Infected Red Blood Cells Using Convolutional Neural Networks
Physics and Astronomy
- Junior
  - PCM Power : Storing Heat Smarter
Plant Sciences
- Junior
  - Greening the Red Planet: New Strategies to Enhance Seed Germination and Plant Growth in Mars Regolith Simulant
Robotics and Intelligent Machines
- Junior
  - PillDetect: A Convolutional Neural Network to Detect and Classify Pills Accurately
- Senior
  - SmartCane – An AI Companion for Independent Living
Software Design
- Junior
  - AI-Assisted Traffic Alert System
Technology Enhances the Arts
- Junior
  - DanceBuddy – A Machine Learning based visual tool to detect Bharatanatyam mudras (hand gestures) and mechanics using Google Teachable Machine and MediaPipe AI system
Translational Medical Sciences
- Junior
  - Diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease using Machine Learning Models trained on EEG Data

Garver Engineers of Tomorrow Award

Biohacking Microplastics
Developing Software for Agricultural Soil Monitorization & Nitrogen Management

Hughs Family

ANTatomy: Utilizing Ants to Mitigate MSW Landfill-Generated Methane Production through Novel Aerobic Digester System for Anthropogenic Food Waste Decomposition
Glia-Neuron GPCR Signaling as a Therapeutic Route to Axon Regeneration: cAMP-PKA Activation Elevates Excitability and Regrowth in Neurons

The Lemelson Early Inventor Prize – Society for Science

PediaFlex: A Bioinspired, Expandable Pediatric Prosthetic employing a Pneumatic system to enhance K levels and Long-Term use for Transfemoral Leg Amputation Patients

Naval Science Awards Program

AXIS: A Closed-Loop, Non-Invasive Neuromuscular Decoding and Biomechanical Actuation Framework for Universal Low-Cost Transhumeral Motor Function Restoration
Gene Expression & Survival in Cisplatin Treated Cancers: Novel Biomarkers & Therapeutic Combinations
Multimodal Deep Learning Pipeline for Echocardiographic Biomarker Extraction and Automated Cardiovascular Diagnosis
The Lego Mixer
From Garbage to Growth: Using Organic Waste to Create Hydrophilic Biopolymers for Water Conservation and Agricultural Purposes
Designing a Robotic Model for Debris Retrieval
Buffering Ocean Acidification: Evaluating Natural Minerals and Controlled Release Systems
The Sixth Sense: Obstacle Detecting Glasses For the Visually Impaired
Engineering Sustainable Biofabrics for Enhanced Ultraviolet Protection and Antimicrobial Performance.
Stabilizing Soil to Reduce Structural Foundation Movement by Using Novel, Sustainable Additives- Year 3

Regeneron Biomedical Science Award

Computational Manipulation of TNF Inhibitor SPD304 to Enhance Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment

Science Toy Magic Award

Animal Science:
- ANTatomy: Utilizing Ants to Mitigate MSW Landfill-Generated Methane Production through Novel Aerobic Digester System for Anthropogenic Food Waste Decomposition
- The Impact of Additives on Freshwater Protist Stress to Model Aquatic Ecosystem Recovery from Contamination
Biochemistry: Documenting the Growth of Algae for Its Use In Biofuel
Chemistry: Improving Hydrogen Production: Surfactants in Alkaline Electrolyzers
Computational Biology and Informatics: Novel In-Silico Rational Design of a Hyper-Thermostable Chimeric PETase via Rigid Alpha-Helical Linker Fusion for Enhanced Industrial Plastic Depolymerization
Earth and Environmental Sciences: Buffering Ocean Acidification: Evaluating Natural Minerals and Controlled Release Systems.
Embedded Systems: Optimizing and Comparing Portable Solar Charging Systems.
Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design: Algae Biofuel: Future Fossil Fuel Replacement
Environmental Engineering:
- A Physical Approach to a Chemistry Problem: A Novel Mechanochemistry Treatment for Plastic Degradation and Upcycling (Year II)
- Carbon Sequestration Champions: Macrophyte Farms for CO₂ Capture and Biomass Production for Biochar as a Pathway to a Carbon-Negative System
Material Science: Bioplastics: A Sustainable Future for Plastics
Mathematics: Nash-Equilibrium Adaptive Training (NEAT): Game-Theoretic Optimization for Robust Multi-Agent AI
Plant Sciences: A Breath of Fresh Air: Do houseplants reduce carbon dioxide in homes?
Robotics and Intelligent Machines: H.E.L.I.O.S
Earth and Environmental Science: Can Purified Biogas Generate Energy

Science Toy Magic Grand Prize

Integrated Experimental Validation and Quantitative Spatial Modeling of Native Desert Plants as a Novel Framework for Arid-Land Carbon Sequestration

SpaceX

Engineering and Flying a Thrust Vector Controlled Model Rocket Part 2
AeroHive: A Novel Honeycomb Electrohydrodynamic Thruster Array with Vectorized Propulsion

Squires Family

Targeting Pathological Neurotransmission Dynamics through De Novo Regulatory Modulation to Suppress Glioma Progression
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
A Second Beat for the Broken Heart: AI-Driven Inverse Design of Bio-Instructive Hydrogels for Myocardial Regeneration
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
Investigating Quantum Error Correction Efficiency using Hypergraph-Linked Qubit States

Summus Industries

Effects of Indole-3-Acetic Acid Loaded Polyvinyl Alcohol Microneedles on Drought Resistance in Solanum Lycopersicum
Object Centric Reinforcement Learning for Sim-to-Real Dexterous Manipulation
SAMA: a Self-evolving Ai Multi-modal Assistant for dementia care
MALAT1 Silencing Reduces EDB-Fibronectin Expression and Invasive Morphology in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Texas Master Naturalist

Sunflowers Impact on Soil Recovery and Native Grass Growth
Shellfish Contribution to Ecosystem and Human Health

Jon White Family

Shedding Light On Galveston’s Missing Nests: How Light Pollution And Sand Characteristics Affect Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle Nesting Locations
Bright Snacks, Hidden Chemicals: Measuring Food Dyes to Make Informed Choices