As San Antonio’s multicultural discovery enterprise, UTSA recently held its largest show-and-tell event of the year. Organized by the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), the Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry Showcase highlights undergraduate student research and creative endeavors from all disciplines.

The Showcase gives many undergraduate students their first opportunity to share their research in an academic setting and explain their methodology and findings to peers and faculty. Students have the opportunity to jump-start their academic curriculum vitae (CV), and network and learn from one another.

“The undergraduate research award winners exemplify the best in experiential learning, with guidance from their faculty mentors. We applaud the commitment and persistence of these students and their mentors in creating new knowledge, advancing the UTSA research enterprise and pursuing excellence in undergraduate scholarly achievement,” said Thomas Coyle, director of the UTSA Office of Undergraduate Research.

Mentorship is a key element in developing a research mindset and ensuring student success. This year, Mark T. Leung from the UTSA College of Business and Pranav A. Bhounsule of the UTSA College of Engineering were honored for the Faculty Mentor Award for Undergraduate Research.

STEM-focused participants are encouraged to submit their research posters to the upcoming SACNAS conferencetaking place in San Antonio October 11-13, 2018. All participating students should consider submitting their research as a journal article to UTSA Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Works (JURSW).

Award winners will be recognized at the OUR Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry Showcase Best-in-Show Awards ceremony at 3 p .m. on Friday, May 4.

The Best-in-Show awardees are:

College of Architecture, Construction and Planning (CACP)

Omar Aguirre

Multireligious Center

Faculty Mentor:  Neda Norouzi

Desiree Igho-Orere

Stephanie Jalomo

Designing A Modern Mental Health Facility in Texas

Faculty Mentor: Neda Norouzi

Andrea Poore

Christie Thompson-Pellicier

Architecturally Re-Designed healthcare

Faculty Mentor: Neda Norouzi

College of Business (COB)

Luis Atkinson

Carlos Cruzportillo

Nancy Hernandez

Jacontance Williams

Designing Effective Distribution Network for a New Product Line

Faculty Mentor:  Mark Leung

Ivan Arreola

Improvements and Analysis for Gene Set Enrichment Analysis

Faculty Mentor:  David Han

Erica Perez

Justin Pons

Managing Predictable Variability and Planned Promotion of Nintendo Switch Supply Chain

Faculty Mentor:  Mark Leung

Morgan Butler

Gabrielle Cortez

Joaquinita Johnson

Children Transitioning from Oral to Written Argumentation:  Signaling Meaning through Punctuation in Writing:  PART II

Faculty Mentor:  Rosalind Horowitz

Christopher Terrazas

An Investigation of Middle School English Language Arts Classroom Libraries


Faculty Mentor:   Janis Harmon



Ana Trevino

UTSA DACA Students and the Resources Provided to Them

Faculty Mentor: Cassandra Allen

College of Engineering (COE)

Drishya Dahal

Tic Tac Toe Playing Robotic Arm

Faculty Mentor:  Pranav Bhounsule

Joseph Galloway

Gerardo Aaron Rios

Mechanics and Control of Pumping a Playground Swing and Robotic Implementation

Faculty Mentor:  Pranav Bhounsule

Joel Gomez

Understanding the Uncertainty in Nature's Design of Trabecular Bone

Faculty Mentor: Xiaodu Wang

College of Liberal and Fine Arts (COLFA)

Emily Corley

Engagement-based single stimulus preference assessment

Faculty Mentor:  Bryant Silbaugh

Mollianne Flood

Math and Music: A Study of Intonation

Faculty Mentor: Kasandra Keeling

Sydnee Garcia

Equal, Not Equitable: Bexar County Education

Faculty Mentor: Sofia Bahena

College of Public Policy (COPP)

Joshua Barrera

Sanctuary Cities in the United States

Faculty Mentor:  Megan Augustyn

Ayesha Meghani

Amanda Mosley

Sexual Assault on College Campuses - A Comparative Case Study

Faculty Mentor: Patricia Jaramillo

College of Sciences (COS)

Joshua Anderson

Functional Analysis of Homologs of Intermediate Metabolism and DNA uptake in Borrelia burgdorferi

Faculty Mentor:  Janakiram Seshu



Arturo Galindo

Study of Self Ordered Nanoporous Anodic Aluminum Oxide Membranes by Annealing

Faculty Mentor: Carlos Monton

Javier Valencia

The Role of the Vacuolar type ATPase in the Pathophysiology of Borrelia Burgdorferi

Faculty Mentor:  Janakiram Seshu

Honors College: College of Liberal and Fine Arts (COLFA)

Emma Copisarowʉ۬

Effects of HEXECO & VARK on College Student Metacognition & Success Practices 

Faculty Mentor:  Fred Previc 

Honors College: College of Liberal and Fine Arts (COLFA)

Raven Douglas

Before and After the "Texas Voter ID Law": How Did SB 14 (82 R Impact Voter Turnout Among Communities of Color During the 2014 Midterm Election?

Faculty Mentor: Walter Wilson

Honors College: College of Sciences (COS)

Stephen Hernandezm

TOR promotes BBB breakdown and regulates tight junction proteins in an Alzheimer's disease mouse model

Faculty Mentor: Veronica Galvan, UT Health SA

COEHD and COEHD-affiliated students are highlighted in yellow

View the original story on UTSA Today: http://www.utsa.edu/today/2018/05/story/_article.html

Photo courtesy of Dr. Rosalind Horowitz