Undergraduate Showcase and SLULaunch Demo Day : SLU

Airport Wildlife Management and Bird Strike Mitigation at St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL)

Johanna Kim, Vincent Mutasa, Avalyn Robbins, Kennedy Rowland

This study examines wildlife management and bird strike mitigation strategies at St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL), with a focus on seasonal risks associated with migratory patterns along the Mississippi Flyway. Birds account for more than 90% of all reported wildlife strikes, and the risk is higher in temperate regions. STL is situated along the Mississippi Flyway and is particularly vulnerable due to its high migratory bird traffic. The purpose of this research is to provide practical recommendations to enhance seasonal wildlife hazard management, reduce strike frequency, and improve the safety of pilots and passengers. Using a correlation study design, the research analyzes the quantitative bird strike data obtained from the FAA. Findings aim to identify trends between seasonal migration and strike occurrence, supporting data-driven improvements in airport wildlife management. Reducing bird strikes is essential for improving overall safety, minimizing damage and maintenance costs, and protecting wildlife.

Flight Instructors' Fatigue and Student Learning Outcomes

Owen Davis, Owen Oei, Jack Adamitis, Victor Thomas

Fatigue has long posed a significant threat to flight safety; however, training environments have primarily emphasized student fatigue rather than instructor fatigue. Flight instructors often work extended hours at the airport and conduct multiple lessons per day, which can produce cumulative fatigue that exceeds what students experience during a single flight. This study examines how accumulated instructor fatigue influences student learning outcomes. Surveys will be implemented to collect data on flight instructors about their hours worked and perceived fatigue levels and correlate these data with student stage check pass–fail rates by time of day and academic semester. The findings will inform institutional decisions regarding the expansion of flight block hours and the optimization of instructional efficiency at SLU.

How Aviation Experience impacts Personal Weather Minimums?

Finn Ceyssens, Quentin Chung, Ryan Cronin, Ian Schmidt

This study examines how experience influences go/no-go decision-making in aviation. Because pilots in both the training and post-certificate environment possess different levels of experience, each will weigh different factors when assessing weather-related risk. The purpose of this study is to examine how general aviation pilots develop and use personal weather minimums, and if these minimums are effective in helping make the correct and/or safest go/no-go decision.
To answer this, a survey will be sent to current and past flight students, asking about experience levels and presenting scenarios with varying weather and human factor conditions. Respondents will rate their comfort of completing each flight with a sliding scale. Understanding this relationship carries meaningful implications for how weather-related decision making is taught in flight training.

Impact of Sleep Deprivation and Caffeine Consumption on Pilot Reaction Time

Teddy Thornberry, Anthony Laurenceau

Many of us wake up for early flight blocks beginning around 7:30 am after bad nights of sleep due to academic or other commitments. Many pilots combat fatigue with caffeine. The purpose of this study is to assess the relation between sleep patterns, caffeine consumption, and subjective reaction time and task performance related to Private Pilot-level flight tasks.

This will be a survey-based study in which certified pilots self-report their typical sleep pattern, caffeine consumption, and subjective performance while executing tasks such as straight-and-level flight correction, unusual attitude recovery, stall recognition and recovery, altitude/heading response, and simulated engine failure. They will report how fatigue and caffeine affect their ability to enter controls in a timely fashion, staying within FAA Private Pilot Airman Certification Standards, re-stabilizing the aircraft after deviation, and the completion of emergency procedures. Results may be relevant to fatigue management in pilot training and general aviation.

Impact of Time of Day on Flight Performance of Student Pilots in a Part 141 Training Enviornment

Ryan Huacuz, Gabriel Morales, Ethan Orthlund, Jacob Shotton

Student Pilot enrolled in a collegiate Part 141 flight training program must balance rigorous academic coursework with demanding flight schedules. These competing responsibilities often lead to variations in sleep quality, mental workload, and physical fatigue, all of which are known contributors to changes in human performance., So we are going to examine whether time of day is associated with measurable differences in student pilot flight performance within a Part 141 training environment.

Improving CAS Student Preparedness and Retention in Flight Training

Nolan Kopeck, Nolan Plum, Brendan Stoll, Tyler Swoboda

Project Title: Improving CAS Student Preparedness and Retention in Flight Training

Background: The program potentially lacks clear information for incoming aviation freshmen. Collegiate flight training requires understanding of training progression, financial commitments, and career pathways. Students enter the flight program with limited awareness of these realities, leading to confusion, financial stress, and lower retention.

Purpose: This study aims to examine how effectively CAS prepares flight science students for flight training and to identify gaps in students’ understanding of training progression, financial obligations, and career pathways.

Research Question: How can CAS better define, communicate, and present flight training and career pathways to improve student preparedness, satisfaction, and retention?

Methodology: This study uses survey data and Likert-scale items to assess student understanding, preparedness, financial clarity, and satisfaction. Analysis includes descriptive statistics and comparisons across student cohorts.

Significance: Findings will inform the development of structured aviation-specific resources, potentially improving student preparedness, reducing financial strain, and enhancing retention.

Nutrition In The Sky: Eating Habits of Collegiate Pt. 141 Flight Students

Peter Belmonte, Timothy Convery, Jacobo Garcia, Samuel Kean

University students have unique schedules and dining hall hours that may not accommodate the flight blocks that students may be enrolled in. This may cause a hazardous environment in which student pilots do not have adequate nutrition before their flights.
The purpose is to determine the obstacles that flight students face in being well nourished and to inform and educate students on the hazards of not being well nourished and how to mitigate that risk.
The purpose statement is "To gain understanding on the barriers collegiate aviation students' face when developing healthy eating habits and its effects on their flight training."
The planned methodology is a program wide anonymous survey where our research group can further study the nutritional impacts on students. The significance is that if we have better nourished pilots, it will allow for better decision making in the cockpit which in turn makes a safer training environment.

Pre-Solo Flight Training Curriculum: Advantages and Disadvantages

Sydney Nimerick, Jenna Garella, Lili Kramer

This project, Pre-Solo Flight Training Curriculum: Advantages and Disadvantages, examines how curriculum structure affects the time, cost, and training required for student pilots to reach their first solo flight, which is a major milestone in flight training. Students often invest widely varying amounts of resources before soloing, and reaching this milestone efficiently can strongly influence their decision to continue training. As the outcome of this study, the researchers will develop a streamlined curriculum designed to benefit students training at less structured 14 CFR Part 61 flight schools, one that better prepares students for their first solo flight. The study includes surveys of flight students across regional schools and positive and negative variables influencing training progress were analyzed. By identifying which factors should be minimized or maximized, this study aims to help students reach their first solo with greater confidence, improved skill, and reduced time and cost.

Predictors of IFR Approach Proficiency

Cole Mongey, Jorge Villazana, Matthew Harley, Shiki Tanaka

Instrument proficiency is critical for safe IFR operations. While total flight time reflects overall aeronautical experience, recent instrument practice may more directly affect approach precision. The purpose of this study is to examine whether total flight time or recent experience is more strongly associated with IFR currency and instrument approach proficiency. Fifteen to twenty instrument-rated pilots will fly a standardized ILS approach in a computer based simulator. Performance metrics will include maximum localizer, glideslope, and airspeed deviation after establishment on the final approach segment. A survey of participants will collect the total flight time and number of instrument approaches within the preceding six calendar months. The study will use correlation analysis to compare the strength of each relationship. To investigate is instrument approach proficiency more strongly associated with total flight time or with recent instrument experience?

Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

Aerial Docking System

Team Golf: Kabeer Ahuja, Stohnii George, Mugomba Aaron Lwasa

The Aerial Docking System (ADS) is a proof-of-concept platform designed to enable reliable autonomous docking between a quadcopter UAV and a carrier-style aircraft, combining electromagnetic capture mechanisms with mechanical locking features to achieve secure, repeatable docking operations. This project aims to minimize the integration gap of safe and reliable docking mechanisms between multiple UAVs for long range, high detail reconnaissance systems without sacrificing mission effectiveness. ADS achieves this through a ground-based docking station that replicates the functional elements of a carrier aircraft, allowing for controlled evaluation and iteration without the complexity and risk of a fully airborne system. The test platform consists of a quadcopter equipped with onboard sensors, cameras, GPS navigation, and a docking interface, which autonomously performs approach, alignment, capture, and release procedures with no human intervention across a range of environmental conditions.

EUROPA

Adrian Acevedo; Nathan Brubaker; Benjamin Forbes; Melanie Reym; Brandon Velarde

The Enceladus Underwater Robotic Observation and Property Analysis (EUROPA) is a conceptual mission designed to explore the interior of Enceladus. Observations strongly suggest the existence of a global ocean beneath its icy crust, and the presence of liquid water, organic compounds, and a source of energy make the interior of Enceladus a prime candidate in the search for extraterrestrial life. The EUROPA concept proposes an architecture that integrates orbital, surface, and subsurface operations that enable in-situ investigation through the primary scientific payload, the Subsurface Probe for Investigating Cryogenic Environments (SPICE). Evaluation of the operation and design of SPICE for the EUROPA mission demonstrates a promising preliminary concept that merits continued evaluation and development.

FA-31 Trident

Benjamin Groth
Panagiotis Kekos
Dominick Krahnstoever
Cavan Mank
Tyler Schweizer

The F/A-31 Trident concept is a proposed replacement for the U.S. Navy’s aging F/A-18 Super Hornet fleet. The design aims to improve upon the Super Hornets performance while maintaining a comparable unit acquisition cost.

Haptic Feedback for Teleoperator

Mecharithm Lab: Dr. Madi Babaiasl, Guangping Liu, and Billy Madden

The haptic feedback device gives haptic feedback to a teleoperator when a robotic hand detects force. Right now there is a problem with the teleoperator not detecting when an objected is being grabbed and the only feedback the teleoperator has to detect the movement of the robot is a camera feed. The device will be on the teleoperator's hand and 5 vibration motors will give feedback to all 5 fingers. This is useful when controlling a robot remotely and knowing when an object is being grabbed. The transfer of data is wireless over a local network. The vibrations also have less latency than the camera feeds.

Hunter Kollider sUAS

Team Charlie: Nicholas Gamboa, Dimitriy Kholostov, Hyojun Lee, Kenan Mustafic, Edward Ramos, Nermin Sabaredzovic

The Hunter Kollider sUAS (HKS) is a compact, hand-launched drone designed for rapid interception and payload delivery against military targets. Deployable within three minutes by a single operator, the HKS is portable and suitable for combat environments. Before launch, the operator selects a target using an onboard computer and installs the payload. During flight, the drone transmits a live video feed while an onboard camera system processes frames using machine learning to detect the designated target. When the system identifies the target with high confidence, it highlights it on the operator’s screen to aid accurate payload delivery.

First-person view (FPV) drones have proven effective in conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, demonstrating the tactical potential of low-cost systems. The HKS aims to support research in FPV flight and machine-learning-based targeting while providing a cheaper alternative to existing designs. Its technology could also improve object-detection safety systems in aircraft and vehicles operating at high speeds.

Maneuverable Autonomous Aerial Vehicle - enabling Research in Intelligent Collaborative Control

MAAV-eRIC²: Lydia Backer, Carlos Escobar, Aidan Gillen, Thomas McNamara, Maximilian Ostrowski

MAAV-eRIC² (Maneuverable Autonomous Aerial Vehicle enabling Research in Intelligent Collaborative Control) is a senior design project at Saint Louis University focused on developing a high-speed, turbine-powered uncrewed aerial system capable of autonomous aerobatic flight. The project restores and modernizes a sub-scale F-22 Raptor testbed to serve as a research platform for the AirCRAFT Lab. Structural reinforcements using carbon fiber and fiberglass address aging airframe deficiencies, while legacy avionics were replaced with a Pixhawk-based flight control ecosystem. A KingTech K210 G4+ turbine engine was integrated following thrust-stand characterization, fuel-system refinement, and braking validation to meet FAA and customer requirements.
Aerodynamic and stability analyses using 3D scanning, CAD reconstruction, XFLR5, and Advanced Aircraft Analysis (AAA) were performed to estimate stability derivatives and static margin. These results support the development of an autonomous controller capable of executing a fully autonomous aileron roll. Validation progresses from MATLAB/Simulink simulation to hardware-in-the-loop testing before flight demonstration.

Power Puller

Power Posers: Yaseen Bedair, Kody Cool, Austin Long, Phillip Maisells, Adam Nagy, Joe Oberbeck

We are designing a portable and affordable automatic clay pigeon launcher. Our design involves using a launching arm that pivots from a central support that is connected to a spring. The launching arm’s pivot point is connected to gears that lead back to the motor. As the motor rotates, it tensions the spring and then causes it to snap back. As the spring is being tensioned, the arm moves to launch position and when the spring snaps back the arm launches the clays and rotates back to reload. We also include two servo motors to change the angle and distance of the launch. We will control the servos and motor through a microcontroller while powering the system with a portable battery.

PowerPedal

Los Merengues: Jose Alejandro Crespo Cuellar, Nicolas Lanzagorta Calvillo
Billy Madden, Jose Montoya, Danielle Rogers, Leo Schrader

Access to reliable electrical power is often limited during outdoor activities such as camping or long-distance biking. This project focuses on the design and development of a pedal-powered generator bike system, PowerPedal, capable of converting human mechanical energy from pedal rotation into usable electrical power. This energy is stored in a removable battery pack and used in two ways: to provide power for pedaling and for charging small electronic devices such as cellphones, lamps, stoves, or other camping equipment. This dual use approach allows the rider to generate, and allocated energy based on immediate needs. The system aims to be modular and able to fit the majority of 52-54 road bike frames and equivalent mountain bike frame size in order to encompass both touring and mountain bike frames. By integrating energy generation, storage, and utilization into a single modular platform, PowerPedal aims to improve energy independence during outdoor travel.

Project HEART

HEART: Ahron Bloom, Abdelrahman Ibrahim, Peter Mwaura, Ryan Santiago

This project will cover the development of an autonomous aerial system to be used in organ transportation. Every year 48,000 organ transplant operations were performed in the United States, and that number continues to rise. A key challenge is the delivery of organs to target hospitals in an appropriate timeframe, to promote organ life and quality after transplantation. Studies have shown that even an hour reduction in cold ischemic time can greatly improve the chances of successful transplant and long-term viability of organs. The focus of this project is to conceptualize and assess a method of improving the efficiency of organ transport while maintaining the cost of current operations. Organ transportation will be analyzed in the Midwest region, particularly around St. Louis, where existing transportation methods such as ground transportation, commercial and private flight are subject to delays, uncertainties and high costs.

Rewind

Six Goblins, No Impact: Jacob Burke
AJ Ciaramitaro
Welkin Huelsman
Naveena Mutharasan
Davis Twenter
Matt Windler

Rewind is a prototype force plate designed to prevent lower extremity non-contact injuries and monitor recovery for youth athletes. The device uses strain gauges, which are configured in Wheatstone bridges circuits, to monitor the voltage changes caused by the deflection of aluminum beams that occur as a user jumps off and lands onto the plate. These voltage changes are transmitted to a laptop that converts the data into measurable forces allowing for the analysis of the distribution of force across the user's feet. By analyzing the magnitude and distribution of these forces, the system can monitor the asymmetries and risky forms that could lead to injuries such as ACL tears, ankle sprains, and more, as well as allowing trainers to monitor rehabilitation progress. This portable and unique design is suitable across youth sports programs, training facilities, and more, and will serve to improve the physical wellbeing of youth athletes.

Sardonyx Mission: Deployable Objectives for Release

Fantastic Six: Lucy Billadeau, Ethan Bryant, Jesse Guereca, Jillian Jackson, Sameera Sankar, Sahra Shah

This project focuses on the design of a stowage and release mechanism for deployable target objects used in the Sardonyx nanosatellite mission at Saint Louis University. The system will securely store multiple small passive targets during ground handling, launch, and spaceflight, while fitting within strict spacecraft constraints of 20 × 30 × 10 cm and a total mass under 10 kg. Each target must be individually released on command with minimal separation velocity and rotational motion to ensure safe deployment and accurate tracking. After release, the spacecraft will detect the targets using LiDAR and maneuver toward them for attachment using an electric adhesive system (eTAP). The mechanism must also support different surface materials on the targets for testing adhesion performance. Overall, the design prioritizes reliability, compact packaging, and controlled deployment to enable multiple experiments throughout the mission.

The Crash Course Project

Lama Albalawi, Bao Doan, and Divine Nwaokorie

The rapid growth of UAV operations has brought real safety concerns with it, especially for small Class II platforms that are increasingly used in civilian, commercial, and academic missions. Recent FAA reports show thousands of near-misses and injuries involving drones, underscoring the need for systems that can protect people, property, and the UAV itself when something goes wrong. In response, the Crash Course Project aims to design and demonstrate a lightweight, modular crash-safety system for fixed-wing UAVs. It will detect emergencies in flight and trigger a controlled descent via parachute, reducing impact forces in scenarios such as engine failure, loss of control, etc. Our target class is fixed-wing UAVs under 15 lb, aligning with the DoD Class II definition.

Vertiponics

Hydroponic Homies:

Aedan Bird
Danny Bui
Carson Enge
Derian Ryker
Jason Wong

Hydroponics is a farming technique that sustains plants from germination to flowering utilizing nutrient dense water instead of soil. This system provides enhanced control over plant growth conditions. Hydroponics reduces water usage by 90% compared to conventional farming methods. Additionally, it provides a soil-less environment, reducing the risk of soil-borne pests and diseases. Lastly, due to the controlled and local environment, chemical pesticide usage is mitigated and fuel used in produce transportation is decreased.
Vertiponics is a minimal effort at-home system that provides fresh grown herbs and leafy greens to consumers. This system will improve on the current market for growing these plants by decreasing growth time, decreasing user workload, and increasing plant yield. Built with apartment owners in mind, this system maximizes space utilization by being mounted onto the wall. This system is easy to start up, assemble, and is automated to save the trouble for the consumers.

Biomedical, Computer and Electrical Engineering

Achilles Tensiometer Redesign

Lindsay Rehme

Tendon health is essential for effective movement and long-term musculoskeletal function, yet tendon injuries remain common and challenging to monitor in real time. Shear wave tensiometry is a recently developed noninvasive technique to directly measure in-vivo muscle-tendon loading. This technique tracks the vibrations of propagating shear waves in tendons to quantify muscle-tendon loading [1]. The effectiveness of the current wearable tendon monitoring device, tensiometer, is limited by a poor signal to noise ratio, high attenuation, and inconsistencies across data collections. The current design is specific to human Achilles tendon experimentation which restricts its clinical and research uses. This project aims to redesign the device to improve precision, accuracy, and versatility. The proposed modifications include using a smaller voice coil as well as relocating the first accelerometer to align with the voice coil. The second accelerometer can then be further reposited closer to the tapper. Furthermore the structure of the tensiometer strap will be altered to minimize tension fluctuation on the device with changing ankle joint angle and radius. These modifications will reduce fluctuations in wave speed measurements as well as reduce the overall footprint of the device. The recommended course of action is to refine the complete tensiometer design, miniaturize the design for improved data collections and broadened use, and validate performance through comparative testing against the existing prototype. This redesign is expected to yield a more reliable, versatile, and clinically relevant tool for tendon monitoring across diverse activities and populations.

Assessing the Effects of Compressive Loading on MC3T3-E1 Cells Cultured in Chitosan–Gelatin Scaffolds

Regan Gibson

My capstone project investigates the viability and mechanobiological behavior of bone cells in non-biological scaffold environments. The goal of this research is to evaluate whether osteogenic cells can maintain metabolic activity, structural integrity, and functional signaling when cultured within synthetic polymer-based materials designed for regenerative applications. By integrating principles of mechanotransduction and biomaterials engineering, this study examines how scaffold properties such as stiffness, porosity, and surface chemistry influence cellular survival and adaptation. Experimental methods include controlled cell culture, microscopy-based viability assays, and quantitative analysis of cellular responses under defined mechanical conditions. Understanding how bone cells respond to non-native environments is critical for improving the design of implantable biomaterials and tissue-engineered constructs. The findings from this project aim to inform the development of more effective orthopedic implants and regenerative therapies that better mimic physiological conditions and promote long-term tissue integration.

Bidirectional Speech-Haptic Communication System for Deafblind Individuals

TactiTalk: Alex Blickhan, Irmak Gokcen, Esha Pattan, Kirill Permiakov

Our project proposes a wearable communication device for deafblind and hard-of-hearing individuals that translates spoken language into real-time haptic feedback. While assistive communication technologies exist, many are unaffordable, awkward, or inaccessible. Our device offers a portable, cost-conscious alternative that converts speech into vibration patterns structured to mimic Braille, delivered along the forearm. In addition to receiving speech, users can respond using a custom-designed Braille keyboard integrated into the system, enabling seamless two-way communication. By prioritizing affordability, discretion, and real-time responsiveness, this device expands equitable access to everyday conversation.

Characterization of Super-Lubricious Copolymer Coated Hydrogel Microspheres for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis

Hannah Johnson

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) affects over 32 million individuals in the United States alone, causing pain and reduced joint mobility due to cartilage degradation and inadequate joint lubrication. This project developed injectable polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel microspheres coated with a super-lubricious copolymer, designed to reduce friction and enhance the natural lubrication of the knee for up to 30 days. The copolymer coating was custom-synthesized, consisting of mussel glue-like dopamine methacrylate (DMA) for adhesion to PEG and zwitterionic sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA) to enhance lubrication. Different copolymer formulations were compared, where it was expected that DMA-rich variants would adhere more efficiently to the hydrogel microspheres, while SBMA-rich variants would provide better lubricity. This study aimed to identify an optimized copolymer formulation regarding adsorption to the microspheres and lubrication performance of the coated microspheres. By reducing friction within the knee, this approach aims to alleviate pain for patients and slow the progression of OA.

Compression-Analog Leg with Cardinal Health

Addie Grogan, Ava Robertson, Tyler Sonntag

Cardinal Health is looking to further develop its compression-analog leg to better understand how sequential compression devices (SCDs) prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT) by promoting blood flow in the legs. The team's role is to complete and optimize the setup, establish processes for evaluating SCD performance, and develop a dashboard with data visualizations and meaningful metrics. This project will involve consolidating existing research to establish comparative metrics and interpret data outputs. Ultimately, we wish to provide Cardinal Health with a reliable product-testing platform that aids in understanding how SDC treatment affects the inside of the body.

Flow-Induced Shear Stress Response of Macrophages on Electrospun Silk Scaffolds in a Microfluidic System

Gweneth Hogan

Macrophages play a critical role in both inflammation and tissue remodeling during wound healing. Many chemical signals that regulate macrophage phenotype are well understood, while the influence of mechanical cues on phenotypic changes, such as fluid shear stress remains less studied. This study investigates macrophage responses to shear stress using electrospun silk scaffolds mounted on removable inserts within reusable, 3D-printed microfluidic devices. This system provides physiologically relevant shear forces while using silk scaffolds to mimic natural ECM. This approach provides a cost-effective, scalable, and user-friendly method to study macrophage mechanotransduction and shear stress role in tissue repair.

On Combining an FDM Printing System with Near Field Electrospinning and Utilizing a Coaxial Needle; to Create Scaffolds that more closely resemble Cellular ECM.

Ben Winter

The idea of the project is to combine a FDM 3D printing system with near field electrospinning as well as a coaxial needle setup to create a scaffold that can be integrated with biological components such as hydrogels and cells. The electrospinning will imitate cellular ECM on the microscale, while the 3D printer will be used to imitate tissue on a more macroscale. Combining these technologies will enable the construction of tissue that captures fine cellular level scaffold details as well as larger tissue details. The goal of creating this technology is to ultimately be able to better heal wounds created on the body, or tissue gaps. A longer-term idea would be to develop the ability to print needed tissues or organs for transplantation.

Parkinson's Tremor Tracking

Sage Gatewood, Sam Ghaddar, Eric Mans, and Hamza Takrouri

Our tremor tracking project integrates three coordinated components designed to support independence for people living with Parkinson’s disease: a tremor-detecting armband, a companion app for patients, clinicians, and researchers, and a portable, accessible pill dispenser that enables safe self-administration of medication. The armband identifies abnormal, unintentional arm movements and records the frequency and severity of tremors. Together, these tools aim to help patients manage their medication more effectively by supporting self dosing based on tremor severity, thus reducing unnecessary use and extending the long term effectiveness of the medication. The system also collects longitudinal data on each patient’s symptom progression, which can be shared with clinicians to inform care decisions and may contribute to research efforts focused on understanding how Parkinson’s evolves over time.

Posture Coach

Ayah Nijmeh, Brietta Coen, Joseph Do

Posture Coach is a wearable system designed to enhance safety and performance in weightlifting through real time form correction. While compound movements like the squat are essential for building strength, improper posture significantly increases the risk of musculoskeletal injury.
Our solution utilizes Inertial Measurement Units embedded in a chest strap to track 3D orientation and movement. When the system detects joint angles or body alignment falling outside of safe, pre-defined thresholds, it triggers a vibration actuator to provide immediate haptic feedback, allowing users to correct their posture mid-exercise. Data is seamlessly transmitted via Bluetooth Low Energy to a smartphone application for calibration, real-time metric display, and session logging. By merging biomechanical sensing with intuitive feedback, Posture Coach empowers athletes to maximize their strength potential while training more safely.

Prosthetic Hand with Pressure Sensor Feedback

Tyler Hill

Most available upper limb prosthetics contain open-loop systems, having the user utilize
visual cues to guide motions like grasping. The lack of sensory feedback makes the prosthetics
feel unnatural and limits their functionality, leading to high rates of abandonment. This project
aims to design a prosthetic hand with pressure sensors integrated into the fingertips, that
provides a closed-loop system. For control, the user will use a noninvasive brain-computer
interface (BCI), whereby, their EEG signals will decide how the prosthetic hand moves. The
code will be processed in MATLAB. For the pressure feedback, the system will have Force
Sensing Resistors (FSRs) integrated into the fingertips of the prosthetic hand. The goal of the
feedback system is to provide a continuous, real-time graph showing the current pressure being
applied by the hand. A second graph, plotting pressure over time, will allow the user to analyze
the force applied during a grasp and infer object hardness. The final device will be controlled by
an Arduino Mega board programmed on Arduino. The device will display a complete pathway
from the EEG control, to the hand moving from the Arduino, to the FSR pressure sensing, and to
a visual data display

Prosthetic Leg Socket

Phoenix: Kathryn Gurski, Maromi Sakurai-Kearns, Liam Thomson, Maria Traboulsi

This project aims to improve Phoenix’s current two-layer prosthetic socket to enhance fit, comfort, and accessibility for lower-limb amputees. The outer socket layer functions as the primary load-bearing structure and will be manufactured using 3D printing to remain inexpensive, strong, and lightweight. A key innovation is the development of an algorithm that automatically resizes a patient’s socket model by a specified number of sock layers. Patients will indicate how many socks they plan to wear and receive a resized socket that maintains the original shape while adjusting overall volume. The inner layer will be fabricated from a heat-moldable thermoplastic and foam that conforms to the limb when warmed with a household device such as a hairdryer. Material testing will evaluate glass transition temperature, moldability, flexibility, and resistance to delamination. Ultimately, these improvements aim to produce an affordable, customizable prosthetic socket capable of being adjusted by the user at home.

Rapid Photonic Innovation Device (RAPID)

RAPID: Chancellor Besancenez, Matthew Bracker, Laurel Leuwerke, Jackson Parrack

The Rapid Photonic Innovation Device (RAPID) is a cost effective and accessible alternative to traditional photolithography for circuit prototyping. The device is derived from a Blu-Ray DVD player utilizing the 405 nm (blue) laser to write circuit patterns. Through the reverse engineering of a Blu-ray DVD player, the characteristics of each motor as well as the laser were found. Utilizing the properties found software was written to send control signals to write a desired pattern on a disc. The original motor and laser setups remain intact and are controlled through an external FPGA system containing the software written. The online dashboard allows for circuit patterning and is sent to the device for writing. The device is able to produce micron scale circuits with nanometer sized traces. Once a disc containing photoresist is etched, it is developed and then ready to be used as the desired circuit.

Synthesis of PEG Hydrogel with Nanosilicate Crosslinker for Drug Delivery

Renee Peppers

Hydrogels are excellent candidates for drug delivery because they are biocompatible, biodegradable, and tunable. The goal of my capstone is to create a customizable platform technology for drug delivery: a polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel with a nanosilicate crosslinker. 4-arm PEG-Acrylate is used as the polymer backbone for the matrix. The PEG arms are functionalized with 3-mercaptoisobutyric acid, which decorates it with negatively charged ends to interact with the positive edges of the nanosilicate disk Laponite. This creates a backbone of PEG crosslinked by Laponite, where Laponite and PEG are joined together by the decorating 3-mercaptoisobutyric acid. This creates a polymer matrix whose stability is based on electrostatic bonding, so that the gel's degradation depends on its solution’s ionic strength.

Chemistry

Activation of Thioglycosides with Ferric Chloride: Scope and Mechanism

Glycoworld: Rachel Turecki

Thioglycosides are widely used carbohydrate building blocks for regioselective monosaccharide modification and complex glycan assembly. Their stability and commerical availability make them attractive substrates. Ongoing research focuses on developing greener transition metal-catalyzed activation methods of thioglycosides in glycosylation.
As a part of our ongoing efforts toward the development of novel methods for glycosylation, Previously, we disclosed a new method for the activation of armed and superarmed ethylthio glycosides using inexpensive and abundant iron(III) chloride. Reported herein are the next steps towards refining the reaction conditions, broadening the scope of this method to glycosidation of less reactive glycosyl donors, and investigation of the reaction mechanism. This reaction is swift and generally high-yielding. The completion of the reaction can be monitored by eye, and typically the color change (start of the reaction) can be detected right after addition of the glycosyl donor to the premixed mixture of the acceptor and ferric chloride.

Advancing the 4K Glycosylation: Iron(III) Triflate as a Cooperative Promoter of Thioglycoside Activation

Aidan DeSpain

Glycans are abundant in nature, yet forming glycosidic bonds remains a major challenge in organic synthesis due to the intricate interplay of protecting groups, leaving groups, and stereochemical control. Thioglycosides have become valuable glycosyl donors because of their stability and tunable reactivity, but their activation typically requires strongly electrophilic promoters or harsh, toxic conditions. Cooperative catalytic strategies offer a more controlled alternative. Here, we expand the cooperatively catalyzed Koenigs–Knorr glycosylation (“4K reaction”) by exploring new activation conditions. We find that molecular iodine, combined with a metal salt and an acid additive, effectively activates thioglycosides. Prior mechanistic studies indicate that iodine forms a stable intermediate with the anomeric sulfur, which becomes reactive only upon addition of the halophilic metal salt and acid. This cooperative paradigm enables evaluation of otherwise ineffective promoters. In this work, we identify iron(III) triflate as a highly efficient promoter operating within the 4K reaction manifold.

Application of the Hydrogen-bond-mediated Aglycone Delivery (HAD) Reaction to the Synthesis of α- and β-Linked 2-Azido-2-deoxyglucosides

GlycoWorld: Alessandra Damico, Alexei Demchenko, Connor Mathus

Stereoselective glycosylation remains a central challenge in synthetic carbohydrate chemistry. Here, we examine the effect of O-picoloyl (Pico) protecting group positioning on the stereoselectivity of glycosylation involving 2-azido-2-deoxyglucosyl donors. Three donors were prepared, each differing in the position of the Pico group (C-3, C-4, or C-6). Donor reactivity and selectivity were evaluated through H-bond-mediated Aglycone Delivery (HAD) conditions using primary and secondary glycosyl acceptors. All donors delivered the desired products in good to high yields. However, the stereoselectivity was strongly influenced by the position of the Pico group. This data shows the relevance of strategic protecting group positioning in achieving controlled and predictable glycosylation outcomes.

Biophysical studies of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and human cytochrome P540 analogues

Mak Lab: Christopher Beason, Piotr Mak, Richard Matarise, Amy Mitchell, & Douglas Ruhwaya

CYP51 is a cytochrome P450 protein that is crucial for steroidogenesis in organisms across biological kingdoms. In this work, CYP51 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb CYP51) is studied alongside its human counterpart, Hu CYP51, to compare the active site environments to inform future drug design. UV-Vis spectroscopy was used to measure changes in the heme prosthetic group caused by reduction, binding of diatomic ligands, pH, and binding of the substrate analog estriol. Additionally, differences between Mtb CYP51 and Hu CYP51 in their conversion from the active “P450” form to the inactive “P420” form were explored. These data showed interesting pH dependence of the P450-P420 conversion, differences in binding dynamics of estriol, and lower affinity for cyanide ligation in Hu CYP51 compared to Mtb CYP51. These experiments provide the basis for designing resonance Raman experiments, which will further probe the active site structural and functional differences between these two proteins.

Demographics- and Performance-Based Differences in STEM Students’ Entrepreneurial Mindsets

Asmira Alagic
Joseph Dajani

This article details the implementation of the Engineering Student Entrepreneurial Mindset Assessment (ESEMA) survey to assess the baseline entrepreneurial mindsets (EMs) of students enrolled in first-year General Chemistry II, pooling data from 2022 to 2023. We aim to clarify how EMs vary between students of different demographic backgrounds and which populations may best benefit from entrepreneurial-minded learning (EML) approaches. Additionally, we assess the efficacy of three EML-based learning modules in fostering changes in student EM. In this work, we identify four student demographic subpopulations with significantly different baseline EMs and demonstrate that course grade is inversely associated with overall EM and three individual ESEMA metrics. Additionally, matched student EM data across semesters suggests that nonwhite and female-identifying students tend to benefit most significantly from EML approaches. This work supports EML as a potential approach to engage minority student populations more significantly.

Enhancing Fe-Catalyzed Alkyne Carboamination using Coordinating Additives

Allison Roggy

Iron catalysis offers a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to precious metal catalysis for forming carbon-nitrogen (C-N) bonds, which are essential in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. This study aimed to improve product yields in the iron-catalyzed carboamination of terminal alkynes with mesityl azide, improving C-N bond formation. The catalytic cycle is limited by a competing deactivation pathway. To address this limitation, coordinating additives were introduced to preferentially bind the iron center and promote continuation of the productive catalytic cycle. This work describes the synthesis of the iron imide complex used to catalyze the reaction as well as examines the coordinating additives used to improve reaction yields.

Exploring the Generality of Carbon-Centered Radical Generation and Reactivity in Electrochemically Initiated Decarboxylation Reactions.

Joshua du Manoir

Utilizing electrochemically‑initiated decarboxylations to produce carbon‑centered radicals holds potential as an alternative to catalysts in synthesis from readily available substrates. The purpose of this research is to experimentally map how aryl electronic effects, alkyl substitution class, solvent/electrolyte systems, temperature, and rapid alternating polarity (rAP) methods influence the efficiency of single‑electron transfer, decarboxylation, and the reactivity of the subsequently produced radical. In particular, this includes trapping of this radical via fluorination, a useful reaction in its own right. A series of carboxylate precursors were evaluated under varied electrolysis conditions to begin a general exploration of how substrate and reaction conditions affect the mechanistic pathways of the radical produced via these decarboxylations.

From Pressure to Perspective: A Pragmatic, Practice-Based Classroom Study of a Brief Metacognitive Workshop in General Chemistry

Paige Geil

Student mental health in high-pressure STEM courses is a persistent concern. This classroom study mapped mental-health patterns in first-year General Chemistry students and piloted a brief, in-class metacognitive workshop addressing perfectionism, social comparison, stigma, and basic regulation/reflection tools. Anonymous pre–post surveys (GAD-7, PHQ-8, SAPS) were analyzed primarily with nonparametric tests due to normality violations, emphasizing severity distributions and directional trends over causal claims. Baseline burdens were substantial: 56.6% screened moderate–severe for anxiety, 50.0% for depression, 99.3% endorsed extremely high personal standards, and 74.1% reported frequent negative self-perceptions. Directional improvements appeared in the intervention section versus comparison: severe anxiety declined 40%→27% (comparison 25%→40%) and severe depression 17%→9% (comparison 10%→15%). Using standard cutoffs (≥10), anxiety positives fell 49%→38% and depression positives 50%→43%, while comparison trends were flat or worsened. Mean scores were largely stable, indicating suggestive—not confirmatory—effects. The low-burden workshop was feasible and showed classroom-relevant directional gains amid high need.

G-Protein Gamma (Gγ) Influences Oncogenesis

Davidson, Zane
Jones, Brendan
Rajarathna, Chathuri
Reisbig, Diarmuid

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) account for one-third of the drug market and signal via heterotrimeric G-proteins composed of Gα and Gβγ subunits. Upon GPCR activation, Gα dissociates from Gβγ, allowing both components to regulate downstream effectors. Membrane anchoring of Gβγ depends on Gγ prenylation, making Gγ a crucial signaling regulator. The C-terminal CaaX motif of Gγ determines whether it is geranylgeranylated or farnesylated, and, together with adjacent pre-CaaX residues, modulates Gβγ's membrane affinity. We investigated cancer-associated pre-CaaX and CaaX point mutations in Gγ1, using a GPCR activation-induced Gβγ translocation assay. Mutant Gγ1 exhibited significantly altered subcellular localization and translocation kinetics, indicating altered signaling. In a non-disease state, Gγ1 is predominantly expressed in the brain and eye, however, mutant Gγ1 is associated with different tissues. This altered tissue localization and signaling may contribute to oncogenesis. Our ongoing studies examine the sensitivity of Gγ1 mutants to statins to explore therapeutic options for malignancies.

Identification and Characterization of RNA Bulges of Two

Kaitlyn Bruhn, Znosko lab

Identifying patterns in secondary structures within solved 3D structures can help predict RNA 3D structure. Current methods for determining RNA tertiary structure are time-consuming, creating a need for faster and accurate sequence-based approaches. One promising strategy is to compare 3D structures of secondary structure motifs to identify structural patterns shared among sequence families. RNA bulges of two are a common motif associated with protein binding, feedback regulation, and tertiary folding. A bulge of two occurs when RNA folds, creating a Watson–Crick base-paired region containing two unpaired nucleotides. Using the RNA Characterization of Secondary Structure Motifs database, bulges of two from RNA 3D structures solved by X-ray crystallography were identified. Protein Data Bank structures were downloaded using Python scripts in Google Colab and analyzed with the Dissecting the Spatial Structure of RNA package. Comparison of 1,590 structures revealed eight distinct families with characteristic features that may improve tertiary structure prediction from sequence.

Investigations into Metabolomic Sample Preparation using Iodoacetamide

Emma Eggar, Jim Edwards

Sample preparation for metabolomics investigations is critical to gaining reliable data sets. Methodologies vary widely across laboratories and may account for lab-to-lab variation. Of particular interest are thiol metabolites which are prone to oxidation and reactivity with other metabolites. Amino acids with thiol groups were analyzed to determine how the dry down step in E. coli cultivation affects the cleavage and formation of disulfide bonds. Iodoacetamide, a thiol protecting group, was introduced to the E. coli samples to reduce the thiol oxidation in solution caused by increased reactivity during the dry down process. Blocking the thiol metabolites from reacting with other metabolites will ensure a more accurate snapshot of the cellular state.

Modeling an Alternative Glycolytic Pathway in Cancer Cells

Kendall Welge

Building on previously constructed cancer cell atomistic models from our group, an alternative glycolytic pathway related to rapidly proliferating cancer cells is being studied. These cells tend to contain an alternative isoform of the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase. The isoform alters the glycolytic pathway by modifying phosphoglycerate mutase, another glycolytic enzyme, causing it to create pyruvate directly. The lack of ATP produced in this alternative pathway decouples ATP production from both glycolysis and pyruvate formation. Decoupling, in turn, inhibits the negative feedback loop caused by excessive ATP. This leads to uninhibited glycolysis and excessive pyruvate production, which can cause cells to proliferate rapidly. We are currently constructing a cancer cell model to simulate enzyme dynamics, enzyme-enzyme interactions, and enzyme-metabolite interactions along this alternative pathway. Our studies can shed light on functionally important enzyme conformers and complexes along this pathway that potentially could be future drug design targets.

Synthesis and SAR Studies of Aminoindole Inhibitors Targeting JC and BK Viruses

Katie Bauman

JC and BK Viruses are both polyomaviruses that typically remain latent in healthy individuals and reactivate for those who are immunocompromised. JCV can lead to progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a severe, sometimes fatal infection of the CNS system, while BKV commonly reactivates in kidney transplant patients, causing BKV-associated nephropathy and potentially transplant loss. There are no current effective antivirals for either virus. Both viruses utilize a large T-Antigen protein in early stages of replication; this protein’s ATPase activity is a potential target for inhibiting viral replication of JCV and BKV. In this study, aminoindole LDN-0015182, identified as an inhibitor of the JCV T-Ag ATPase activity, was used as a lead compound to develop structure-activity relationship studies for increased inhibition of the JCV and BKV T-Ag proteins. Analogues were synthesized varying propanamide, piperidine, and indole nitrogen groups and were evaluated for potency towards the target.

Synthesis of Piperazine Derivatives using HATU Amide Coupling for the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain

Arnatt Lab: Arnatt, Christopher; Bradley, Hannah; Ellis, Angelina; Olayide, Israel; Kalajdzic, Vanja; Salvemini, Daniela

Neuropathic pain is a crippling disorder that is in dire need of new non-opioid therapies. GPR183, or EBI2, has been associated with the mechanism that underlies neuropathic pain and is found to be highly expressed in rodent models of chronic constriction injury. The endogenous ligand, 7α,25-OHC, is a potent agonist, implying that blocking GPR183 might be therapeutically useful. By employing a computational approach, consisting of core-hopping and virtual screening with known antagonists, a potential piperazine derivative has been identified. In this study, three fluorinated heterocyclic piperazine derivatives were synthesized and screened for potential GPR183 antagonists. The ability of the derivatives to inhibit the activity of GPR183, elicited by its endogenous ligand, 7α,25-OHC, was assessed in cell-based Ca²⁺ mobilization assays. The study supports the potential of piperazine derivatives to inhibit GPR183 and suggests that further research into this area will enable the design of more potent and selective GPR183 antagonists.

SYNTHESIS OF SAE-14 DERIVED COMPOUNDS IN THE OPTIMIZATION OF GPR183 ANTAGONISM

Arnatt Lab: Chris Arnatt, Josh Good, Vanja Kalajdzic, Daniela Salvemini

GPR183 is a G-Protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR) whose importance is becoming increasingly apparent due to the discovery of its involvement with various neuroinflammatory and autoimmune conditions. These conditions can lead to the usage of strong analgesics such as opioids to relieve neuropathic pain systems. Due to the immense drawbacks of opioid usage, GPR183 as a target for inhibition could lead to relief of these symptoms. The endogenous ligand of GPR183 is 7α,25- dihydroxycholesterol (7α,25-OHC), a metabolite of cholesterol. The effect of 7α,25-OHC on GPR183 is blocked, however, by the antagonist SAE-14. This poster will center on the synthesis of molecules developed in the optimization of GPR183 antagonists and the characterization of its intermediates. These molecules are the products of various amide coupling reactions with differing acid and amine starting materials. The usage of these different groups allows the observation of the effects of different functional groups on GPR183.

Thermodynamic Characterization of 1x3 Internal Loops in RNA

Isabel Duff

Accurate prediction of RNA secondary structure from sequence is a necessary intermediate step in predicting its tertiary structure. However, current secondary structure prediction models are based on broad datasets in which many frequently occurring structural motifs remain undercharacterized. Collecting thermodynamic data for these motifs is essential to improve the accuracy of these predictive models. One such motif is the 1x3 internal loop, which consists of one unpaired nucleotide across from three unpaired nucleotides in an RNA duplex. In this study, frequently occurring 1x3 internal loops were identified and optical melting experiments were performed to obtain new data. This data will be used to develop a model specific to 1x3 internal loops, ultimately improving the accuracy of current predictive algorithms.

Civil Engineering

Compton Avenue Greenway

Eco-Route Engineering: Jordan Britt, Emma Gorton, Sofia Quintana, Landon Winters

The Compton Avenue Greenway is a 0.45-mile extension of Great Rivers Greenway's Brickline Greenway along Compton Avenue in Midtown St. Louis. A greenway is a shared-use pedestrian path for recreational use that incorporates greenspace in an urban area. Our goal is to design a greenway that connects the communities within Midtown, using sustainable materials and a design that serves the demands of the area. We assessed the current conditions of the roadway and its traffic to come up with a roadway alignment that incorporates the new greenway. From there, ADA requirements, roadway drainage, and greenway amenities were included in our final design to ensure all needs were met through our design.

Oliver Hall North

Grand Civil Design, Inc.: Daniel Butler, Evan Genthon, Midhad Hodzic, Zach Hill

The project is a new two-story academic building adjacent to Oliver Hall on Saint Louis University’s North Campus. The rectangular structure measures 145 by 50 feet and is designed to support modern academic and research needs.

The lower level includes over 5,000 square feet of laboratory and makerspace area with high ceilings to accommodate equipment, fabrication, and flexible research activities. The upper level provides programmable space for academic, collaborative, and instructional use.

Key features include an interior balcony overlooking the makerspace, expansive windows and multiple entrances to support student circulation, and a prominent circular entry with an overhead structure. The design incorporates functional and architectural elements to create an open, flexible environment that enhances learning, collaboration, and hands-on engagement.

Shady Oaks Lodge

Deep Roots Design Engineers: Michael Alvarado, Jahi Dickson, Logan McCrossen, Colin Sisco

Shady Oaks Lodge is a rural recreation development located in Franklin County, Missouri, designed to provide visitors with a comfortable and immersive outdoor experience. The project includes the design of a central lodge facility, access roadway, parking area, ADA-accessible pedestrian routes, primitive campsites, and supporting infrastructure, with future phases planned for modular cabin development. The lodge will serve as the primary hub for guest services and site operations while supporting outdoor recreation within the surrounding natural landscape. Engineering efforts include structural design for the lodge, site grading, stormwater management, roadway and parking design, utility coordination, and geotechnical evaluation. The development strategy prioritizes minimal environmental disturbance by utilizing existing terrain, preserving vegetation, and maintaining natural drainage patterns. Overall, Shady Oaks Lodge aims to create a functional, sustainable retreat that balances modern infrastructure with the preservation of the site’s natural character.

Computer Science

BAIO

Mainuddin
Kevin Yang
Luis Palmejar

Project BAIO is a web application utilizing LLMs to analyze virus for potential new ones.

CivicKit

CivicKit:

Leah Bragg
Briana Huelsman
Erin Kelley

Neighborhoods often have more needs than cities have resources to address, leaving residents unsure how to help move things forward. CivicKit is an open-source civic engagement platform that turns neighborhood frustration into real community action. Residents can flag local issues like cracked sidewalks, dim streetlights, and unshaded bus stops directly on a shared map, where neighbors can upvote ones they have seen or believe need more visibility. When enough people rally behind an issue, the platform helps coordinate community-led responses like cleanups and local improvement events. When the city doesn't respond, CivicKit empowers residents to escalate directly to their alderperson with data-backed requests. By surfacing response-time inequalities across neighborhoods, CivicKit also creates accountability. Built with open-source principles, the platform is designed to be forked and adapted by any city.

CoreDesk

CoreDesk: Jack Crane, Yousuf Muhammud, Bella Ott

CoreDesk is a tool built by a collaboration between the Saint Louis University Center for Additive Manufacturing and SLU Open Source. It is a platform for managing and tracking jobs to be submitted to shops across the SLU community. It is designed to be a simple one-stop-shop for shops to manage their workloads and to serve as a hub for users to submit jobs to these shops.

CV Zebrafish

Madhuritha Alle, Sahana Gujja, Kwabena Gyimah, Bruce Miller

An open-source tool for analysis of zebrafish movements. Users can upload data of zebrafish movements and choose which data to analyze, and the tool will automatically analyze the data and output graphs for whichever analysis type they selected. The ultimate goal of our project is to make it easier for people to get into data analysis for zebrafish and other animals.

DADS

Jon Honeycutt, Joli Muller, Dylan Reyes

DADS is a web application designed for researchers to access information about a vast array of arithmetical dynamical systems that would otherwise take a long time to compute independently. This project was developed by the SLU Capstone Project team under Open Source with SLU in collaboration with Dr. Benjamin Hutz, a professor of mathematics and statistics at Saint Louis University.

Digital Bone Box

Leandru Martin (graduate researcher), Brehana Naidu (undergraduate researcher), Jennifer Oishee (undergraduate researcher)

A project aiming to convert an existing PowerPoint-based educational tool into an interactive, mobile-friendly web application for anatomy students.

Drone World

Drone World Team: Charlie Wells, Ahmed Bektic, Henry Barsanti

Drone World, a key component of DRV, is an advanced simulation platform for testing small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS). It enables users to configure detailed test scenarios by specifying:
-Environmental Conditions: Weather, terrain, and other environmental factors.
-sUAS Capabilities: Sensors, hardware configurations, and other drone specifications.
-Mission Objectives: Specific goals and tasks for each simulation.
The platform generates a realistic 3D simulation environment, monitors data to ensure safety, detects issues, and produces comprehensive test reports with detailed analysis. By automating and streamlining the testing process, Drone World enhances safety, reliability, and efficiency for drone developers. It allows for comprehensive pre-flight testing in ultra-realistic environments, helping developers refine their systems and iterate more rapidly on complex missions. Our team at OSS is dedicated to continuously enhancing Drone World's capabilities, including refining environmental settings, drone configurations, and integrating new features.

GradEval360

Elizabeth Dreste
Darcy Mupenda
Prem Polepalli

GradEval360 is a centralized performance management platform for Saint Louis University's Graduate Assistants.

Homeless Shelter Volunteer Scheduling Application

project_shelter_volunteers: Supraja Chitmilla, Danial Khurshid, Orhan Koylu

Shelter Volunteers is a full-stack web application that helps animal shelters manage volunteer scheduling and shift coordination. The platform allows shelters to create and manage shifts, provide instructions, and track volunteer participation, while volunteers can view available opportunities and sign up easily. The system includes a calendar-based interface for better shift visualization and supports structured role management between shelters and volunteers.

Material Donor Mutual Assist

Cole Patrick,
Mathew Shereni,
Tori Willis

The Material Donor Mutual Assist project, created for the St. Louis BWorks charity, aims to
enhance donor engagement and program transparency through detailed tracking and
management of donated bicycles and computers. This application is for maintaining the donor details, to track the donations, and to send the donors timely emails. This encourages engagement with donors and connects them with the items that they've donated. This project will not only showcase the lifecycle of each donation but also drive potential conversions of material donors to financial contributors by enhancing their connection to the cause.

Mechatronics VR

Anthony Russo, Matthew Murawski, Bryce Hayes

MechatronicsVR provides an interactive VR environment for learning mechanical assembly skills through Unreal Engine 5

Mithridatium

Mithridatium:

Payton Guffey
Gustavo Lucca
Pelumi Oluwategbe
Will Phoenix

Mithridatium helps people check whether AI models downloaded from the internet are safe to use. Many teams rely on ready-made models, but some can be secretly tampered with or trained on bad data so they behave unpredictably. Mithridatium runs practical tests and checks to spot suspicious behavior or hidden “backdoors” before a model is put into use. It’s built to fit into research and safety workflows so organizations can feel more confident about the AI tools they adopt.

MORPH: Robotics Programming Learning Platform

MORPH:

Aedan Bird

Jake Bounds

Kody Cool

Ngan Nguyen

Pascal Sikorski

MORPH is a collaborative project between the Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering students under the Entrepreneurship path of Open Source with SLU. It combines intuitive software applications with modular hardware design to create an accessible, scalable, and impactful educational robotics platform.

Mouser

Jahnavi Darisetti
Ansel Panicker
Mathieu Sze

Mouser is a smart industrial measurement and inspection system designed to streamline quality control processes. The project integrates hardware devices such as RFID readers, digital calipers, and weighing balances with a centralized web-based platform built using Python and MySQL. It enables real-time data capture, automated validation, and secure storage of measurement records to reduce manual errors and improve operational efficiency. The system supports device connectivity, user authentication, report generation, and traceability of components through RFID tracking. Designed with scalability in mind, Mouser aims to bridge the gap between physical inspection tools and digital data management, providing industries with a reliable, efficient, and automated solution for precision measurement and production monitoring.

OSS Automation & CI/CD

CI/CD Automation Team:

Justin Duong,
Thomas Pautler,
Henry Wang

This project focuses on improving the reliability, transparency, and maintainability of open-source software by automating Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) audits and team performance metrics. Our system analyzes GitHub repositories to detect failing workflows, misconfigured pipelines, and missing best-practice checks, while also generating actionable reports on CI health, build stability, and contributor activity.

By automating these audits, the tool reduces manual overhead for developers and project maintainers, enabling faster identification of issues and more informed decision-making. The platform is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing CI/CD pipelines and scale across multiple repositories. This project demonstrates how automation can strengthen software quality, enhance collaboration, and support sustainable open-source development practices.

OSS Cybersecurity

OSS Cybersecurity: Annie Henehan, Samuel Kann, Dennis Sheynkerman

Security @ Open Source w/ SLU is investigating the impact of enabling SAML authentication on GitHub for Open Source w/ SLU. The goal is to balance SLU’s security and access-control requirements with the organization’s need to support external contributors and remain open-source compliant. This includes testing configurations with both internal and external accounts to determine whether such a balance is achievable.
In addition, the team is responsible for maintaining and expanding security documentation. This includes reviewing and updating project threat models, advising Tech Leads on gaps or needed support, and developing documentation that reflects the organization’s security posture. Current efforts also include outlining a potential cybersecurity framework, maintaining a Security Controls Inventory (SCI), and developing an Incident Response Playbook (IRP) to streamline detection, response, and recovery during security incidents.

OSS Developer Analytics

OSS Dev Analytics: Hazel Caballero, Grace Gondela, Kiara Mathews, Dhyana Patel

OSS_Dev_Analytics provides a centralized dashboard for the Open Source with SLU community. We transform raw GitHub activity into actionable metrics, helping maintainers and contributors identify bottlenecks and celebrate progress.

OSS-Infra

Daniel Awodeyi, Joey Heitzler, Hunter Cataldo

We support the deployments and infrastructure of various open source SLU projects.

Pilot Data Syncronization

Jacob Thomas, Nyla Hughes, Vamsi Bramhadevi

The Pilot Data Synchronization Project enables real-time synchronization of flight simulator data to the iMotions human behavior research platform. By leveraging the X-Plane SDK and establishing a TCP connection, the project ensures that key flight parameters such as altitude, airspeed, and heading are transmitted seamlessly for real-time analysis of pilot performance and behavior.

Project BAIO

Fnu Mainuddin
Kevin Yang
Luis Palmejar

Project BAIO is a web application utilizing LLMs to analyze virus for potential new ones.

QUIC in iperf

Undergrad:- Revateesa Dammalapati,
Masters:- Mansi Gidugu, Leandru Martin

This project explores how to extend a widely used network benchmarking tool to support modern transport protocols beyond traditional TCP and UDP. It focuses on adding QUIC, a secure, low-latency protocol built over UDP that supports multiplexed streams and improved connection behavior. The project’s objective is to enable reliable throughput testing and comparative analysis across protocol types using a consistent test workflow. By incorporating QUIC into the benchmark framework, the project creates a platform for studying protocol performance, startup behavior, stream efficiency, and practical deployment tradeoffs in real and local networks. It also provides a foundation for evaluating how newer transport designs affect measurement tooling, observability, and interoperability.

RERUM Playground

Ahmada Kearney, Devayani Konakalla, Nikhil Muthukumar

RERUM Playground is an interactive web-based interface designed to explore and experiment with Web Annotations stored in the RERUM devstore. The project provides a structured Sandbox environment where users can create, read, update, delete, and now search annotations using the official RERUM API.

This semester, the Playground was extended with a fully integrated annotation search feature that supports plain-text and phrase search, pagination, caching, and request protection mechanisms to ensure responsible API usage. The architecture emphasizes modular design, separation of concerns, and scalability.

By combining hands-on experimentation with production-aware design practices, RERUM Playground serves as both a learning tool and a foundation for future community contributions, enabling users to better understand and interact with annotation-based digital scholarship infrastructure.

Rerum Server

1. Aikkarakudiyil Joby, Joel
2. Antony, Mehul
3. Dudekula, Reshma

The RERUM Server is a Node.js–based RESTful API designed to manage, store, and version structured JSON-LD objects in a MongoDB database. It provides a robust backend infrastructure for digital scholarship and cultural heritage applications, supporting object creation, retrieval, update, release, overwrite, and historical version tracking. The system enforces data integrity through optimistic locking, controlled ownership validation, and structured metadata stored in the __rerum field. Built using Express and MongoDB, the server emphasizes scalable API design, clear separation of routing and business logic, and adherence to modern publishing standards. In addition to core CRUD functionality, RERUM supports bulk operations, query filtering, and ID negotiation to maintain consistency across linked data environments. The project also incorporates packaging best practices for npm distribution, making it suitable for collaborative development and deployment. Overall, RERUM serves as a practical backend platform for managing versioned, linked data resources in research-driven environments.

Saltify Speech Transcription

Eric Bruns
Savikhya Kadiyala
Breona Saffouri

Saltify transcribes and annotates interviews into formats useful for speech language pathologists. Children naturally produce speech sound errors, language errors, and language features, such as disfluencies. Language errors and features are diagnostically meaningful to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and need to be maintained in the transcription. The first target format was for SALT software. SALT software is commercially-licensed software that analyzes the speech of children and scores it according to their metrics. Our application can currently transcribe audio samples of a conversation between a child and an adult into text. It also allows users to add grammar checking to the transcription, which looks for possible errors in grammar within the text.

Simulation Surgery

Rawan Alhachami
Sri Ram Duvvuri (Tech Lead)
Sahana Gujja
Zhihui Wu

Simulation Surgery is a 3D visualization of osteotomy surgical simulations. It focuses on creating a 3D visualization tool for CT DICOM files that can be manipulated to simulate different types of osteotomies. The tool allows radiographic measurements to be made after simulating osteotomies. The ultimate vision is to expand capabilities to scan any bone, automatically segment it, simulate osteotomies (or other procedures), and calculate relevant radiographic measures.
By combining advanced 3D medical imaging, segmentation algorithms, and simulation capabilities, this tool aims to support surgeons, researchers, and students in orthopedic planning and education.

The Health App

O’Care - The Health App: Muhammed Hashir, Sameer maayiz Sirajudeen Zukai Sagan,

A multilingual health screening application that allows users to assess heart disease risk, receive personalized wellness guidance, and connect with community healthcare professionals.

Where's Religion?

Where's Religion: Andres Castellanos, Jacob Maynard, Puneet Sontha

Where's Religion? is an open-source application developed by humanities faculty and IT professionals at Saint Louis University that supports in-person research, remote data entry, media sharing, and mapping. The app is designed to facilitate a more robust public understanding of religion through rigorous scholarly methods.

Earth, Environmental and Geospatial Science

Exploring Microplastic Distribution through a Cave System to Inform Remediation Efforts

Cole Weyer

Microplastics are emerging contaminants that are pervasive in the environment due to their common use in consumer products. These microparticles have been shown to pollute drinking water, cause a variety of health issues, and be resistant to degradation. Because of their threat to human and ecological health, the overall goal of my research is to determine the quantities and types of microplastics in various subsurface environmental “compartments” like water, sediment, and mineral deposits. This research will inform the FIRE-BALEEN project (a filtration system for removing microplastics from the environment) on where microplastics are being transported and deposited, what types of microplastics are environmentally prevalent, and any significant chemical interactions these microparticles have in cave water resources. My ongoing research efforts include isolating microplastics from various environmental media (water, sediment, and mineral deposits) from Cliff Cave, Missouri. I will use filtration, density separations, and optimized acid digestions to isolate the microplastics.

This project is also a FIRE Project.

Microplastic Distribution and Characteristics in Belizean Surface Water and Groundwater Systems

Eli Landsman

The global prevalence of microplastic contamination in water systems is a growing concern for human and ecosystem health. The occurrence of microplastics in a diverse range of environmental matrices has given rise to research to understand their movement through different environmental settings. Characterizing microplastic polymer types, sizes, shapes (e.g., fibers, films, and fragments), and colors across natural systems is a crucial aspect of designing remediation strategies, such as the bio-inspired FIRE BALEEN filtration system, because effective microplastic removal requires knowledge of their real-world characteristics. By comparing microplastics data with other water quality parameters (e.g., ion concentrations), I can examine the potential sources of these contaminants and better track their behavior in varied environments, providing foundational data to inform filtration efforts. My preliminary results indicate that microplastics are present in environmental samples from Belize, with fibers being the most common morphology. These findings provide important calibration data for filtration remediation methods.

This project is also a FIRE Project

SLULaunch

CivicKit

CivicKit:

Leah Bragg
Briana Huelsman
Erin Kelley

Neighborhoods often have more needs than cities have resources to address, leaving residents unsure how to help move things forward. CivicKit is an open-source civic engagement platform that turns neighborhood frustration into real community action. Residents can flag local issues like cracked sidewalks, dim streetlights, and unshaded bus stops directly on a shared map, where neighbors can upvote ones they have seen or believe need more visibility. When enough people rally behind an issue, the platform helps coordinate community-led responses like cleanups and local improvement events. When the city doesn't respond, CivicKit empowers residents to escalate directly to their alderperson with data-backed requests. By surfacing response-time inequalities across neighborhoods, CivicKit also creates accountability. Built with open-source principles, the platform is designed to be forked and adapted by any city.

Electrical Stimulation Device for Long Term Wearability

Caiden Gagliano, Carlos Alejandro Formoso Godoy, Isaac Angelo Medrano Layugan, Jace Ra, Vishal Vaheesan

We are developing a therapeutic device that reduces muscle degradation and promotes
healing in patients by delivering neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) during
immobilization. Applied beneath the surgical wrap, it reduces atrophy and swelling while
enabling recovery immediately after surgery. This is worn under the wrap for several days and removed by the patient at home.

Homeless Shelter Volunteer Scheduling Application

project_shelter_volunteers: Supraja Chitmilla, Danial Khurshid, Orhan Koylu

Shelter Volunteers is a full-stack web application that helps animal shelters manage volunteer scheduling and shift coordination. The platform allows shelters to create and manage shifts, provide instructions, and track volunteer participation, while volunteers can view available opportunities and sign up easily. The system includes a calendar-based interface for better shift visualization and supports structured role management between shelters and volunteers.

MORPH: Robotics Programming Learning Platform

MORPH:

Aedan Bird

Jake Bounds

Kody Cool

Ngan Nguyen

Pascal Sikorski

MORPH is a collaborative project between the Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering students under the Entrepreneurship path of Open Source with SLU. It combines intuitive software applications with modular hardware design to create an accessible, scalable, and impactful educational robotics platform.

QBC Project

QBC Project: Joseph Kannala, Tarini Karnati, Rahul Jasthi, Caleb Sun

With the guidance of Dr. Randolph and Lewis Sheats and in partnership with Dr. Reiter's BME team, our group has developed a business plan to distribute a modernized QBC device to developing nations. Currently, many clinics in developing nations, like Haiti, use donated blood test equipment to screen for blood-borne diseases. The underlying issue is that this equipment is not suitable for the infrastructure or weather conditions. For example, a lack of constant electricity to refrigerate reagents and exposure to salty, humid air and high temperatures contribute to the recurrent breakdown of donated equipment. Our updated QBC device uses modern components to simplify the design while allowing for our product to be more durable to the conditions of developing nations, more user-friendly, easier to repair by individuals without an engineering background, and cheaper for clinics long-term.

Simulation Surgery

Rawan Alhachami
Sri Ram Duvvuri (Tech Lead)
Sahana Gujja
Zhihui Wu

Simulation Surgery is a 3D visualization of osteotomy surgical simulations. It focuses on creating a 3D visualization tool for CT DICOM files that can be manipulated to simulate different types of osteotomies. The tool allows radiographic measurements to be made after simulating osteotomies. The ultimate vision is to expand capabilities to scan any bone, automatically segment it, simulate osteotomies (or other procedures), and calculate relevant radiographic measures.
By combining advanced 3D medical imaging, segmentation algorithms, and simulation capabilities, this tool aims to support surgeons, researchers, and students in orthopedic planning and education.

FIRE Program

AI-driven drug discovery and synthesis of antibacterial compounds against multidrug-resistant ESKAPE pathogens

Guadalupe Calixto Pichardo

Antimicrobial resistance in the ESKAPE pathogens—Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter species—represents a critical global health crisis. These organisms, major contributors to hospital-acquired infections, are increasingly resistant to conventional antibiotics, leading to severe clinical and economic consequences. To address this challenge, an integrated workflow was incorporated: artificial intelligence models, trained on antimicrobial screening data, were first used to predict candidate compounds with potential activity against resistant strains. Selected compounds were then synthesized, with an initial focus on amide and oxalamide derivatives. Current laboratory efforts are expanding to amide bond formation using microwave-assisted reactions with T3P to couple benzoic acid derivatives and amines. This multidisciplinary approach blends computational modeling, chemical synthesis, and microbiological testing, offering a streamlined framework for antibiotic discovery with the aim to deliver urgently needed new treatments for resistant bacterial infections.

AutoRNA: Incorporating a Fully Automated AI Agent into Various Advanced RNA Structural Analyses

AutoRNA: Ahmed Bektic, Jie Hou, Rahul Jasthi, Ellen Nguyen, Vivek Shenoy, Dr. Brent Znosko

RNA underlies gene expression and protein synthesis for a plethora of cellular functions, yet experimentally resolving its structure is slow, costly, and difficult. Compared to protein-folding which has advanced significantly with models like AlphaFold, RNA structure prediction still lags because of greater molecular complexity and limited structural data. A deeper grasp of RNA motifs—the recurring elements that dictate folding and function—is critical for next-generation 3D RNA structure prediction, with broad impact on personalized medicine, drug design, and biotechnology. Currently, motif analysis requires intensive programming and computation, placing it out of reach for many students and researchers. To lower that barrier, we are building an AI agent that uses large-language model (LLM) reasoning to automate and streamline diverse RNA motif analysis workflows while incorporating various tools to aid in auxiliary needs like visualization and alignment. In addition to RNA research, the framework can be adapted for broader AI-driven applications in STEM, providing a scalable tool for interdisciplinary research and education.

Biomimetic Microplastic Filtration via Mussel-Inspired Geometry

Jean Potvin and Ayden Wells

Microplastic pollution presents a critical threat to aquatic ecosystems, requiring innovative, low-energy filtration solutions. This research investigates biomimetic mechanisms inspired by the internal anatomy of freshwater mussels. Using SOLIDWORKS, two prototypes were developed to analyze the impact of internal geometry on particle capture: a linear-flow control and a biomimetic S-curve model. The S-curve design mimics bivalve siphons by forcing water to redirect before reaching the filter. Water tunnel testing demonstrated that the curved geometry optimizes particle contact with the filter’s outer edge. Unlike linear models, this configuration prevents rapid pressure build-up by concentrating particles on one side, allowing for more efficient flow. Future applications aim to use these flow patterns to guide particles into a dedicated collection zone to prevent the filter from clogging. This study demonstrates how nature-inspired designs can enhance passive filtration, increase efficiency, and reduce maintenance requirements.

Combined Effects of Scaffold Mechanics and Growth Factor Stimulation on Osteogenic Cell Function

Regan Gibson, Elise Passalacqua, Ariyana Butler, & Trisha Seth

The FIRE project investigates the viability and functional behavior of osteogenic cells cultured within non-biological scaffold environments for regenerative applications. This study examines how synthetic polymer-based materials support cell survival, mechanotransduction, and matrix production under controlled in vitro conditions. In addition to evaluating the influence of scaffold properties such as stiffness and architecture, the project incorporates biochemical stimulation through the addition of transforming growth factor beta-1 (TGF-β1) and bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) to the culture media. These growth factors are used to enhance osteogenic signaling and promote differentiation within the engineered environment. Cellular viability, morphology, and metabolic activity are assessed using microscopy and quantitative assays to determine how combined mechanical and chemical cues regulate bone cell responses. By integrating biomaterials engineering with targeted biochemical stimulation, the FIRE project aims to inform the design of improved tissue-engineered constructs and advance strategies for orthopedic regeneration and long-term implant integration.

Design of a microplastics drone

BALEEN team: Ava Alton, Jenny Seon

As a part of the BALEEN team we create innovative filtration systems to remove microplastics from land-based water systems. The primary objective of this drone is to preserve the safety and health of local waterways by offering a mobile, scalable solution to recover plastic waste. By switching from static filtration to an autonomous mobile platform, this drone will be able to actively travel through high volume accumulation areas to intercept plastics before they reach large open ocean bodies of water. In this project, we focused on optimizing the drone’s shape to navigate through complicated river systems, and ensuring that the modular filtration housing was structurally sound. This project would demonstrate that the use of autonomous robotics can be utilized for environmentally impactful remediation; and provide a critical resource towards the continued efforts of maintaining the cleanliness and safety of our freshwater sources.

Development of Novel Materials for the Determination of Plasma Protein Binding in Drug Discovery

Dana Baum
Emma Eggar
Damon Osbourn
Ali Parvez
Claire Robinson

Human serum albumin (HSA) is the most abundant plasma protein and a major determinant of drug free fraction through reversible binding. In this study, we evaluated whether an approach using alginate-bound HSA could provide a lower-cost, reproducible alternative to rapid equilibrium dialysis (RED), an industry-standard method for measuring HSA binding. Using the RED format, HSA was incubated with 20 commercially available pharmaceuticals representing high and low plasma protein binding affinities, and free and total drug concentrations were quantified by LC–MS. RED-derived binding fractions were consistent with reported literature values. Initial experiments with alginate-bound HSA used a filter cartridge approach and show a strong correlation to the RED assay. Further development of the alginate-bound HSA assay, including stability, reproducibility, and formats to allow automation and high-throughput screening are underway.

Exploring Microplastic Distribution through a Cave System to Inform Remediation Efforts

Cole Weyer

Microplastics are emerging contaminants that are pervasive in the environment due to their common use in consumer products. These microparticles have been shown to pollute drinking water, cause a variety of health issues, and be resistant to degradation. Because of their threat to human and ecological health, the overall goal of my research is to determine the quantities and types of microplastics in various subsurface environmental “compartments” like water, sediment, and mineral deposits. This research will inform the FIRE-BALEEN project (a filtration system for removing microplastics from the environment) on where microplastics are being transported and deposited, what types of microplastics are environmentally prevalent, and any significant chemical interactions these microparticles have in cave water resources. My ongoing research efforts include isolating microplastics from various environmental media (water, sediment, and mineral deposits) from Cliff Cave, Missouri. I will use filtration, density separations, and optimized acid digestions to isolate the microplastics.

Microplastic Distribution and Characteristics in Belizean Surface Water and Groundwater Systems

Eli Landsman

The global prevalence of microplastic contamination in water systems is a growing concern for human and ecosystem health. The occurrence of microplastics in a diverse range of environmental matrices has given rise to research to understand their movement through different environmental settings. Characterizing microplastic polymer types, sizes, shapes (e.g., fibers, films, and fragments), and colors across natural systems is a crucial aspect of designing remediation strategies, such as the bio-inspired FIRE BALEEN filtration system, because effective microplastic removal requires knowledge of their real-world characteristics. By comparing microplastics data with other water quality parameters (e.g., ion concentrations), I can examine the potential sources of these contaminants and better track their behavior in varied environments, providing foundational data to inform filtration efforts. My preliminary results indicate that microplastics are present in environmental samples from Belize, with fibers being the most common morphology. These findings provide important calibration data for filtration remediation methods.

Modification of polyethylene imine (PEI) with a fluorescent tag and an iron-sequestering agent for applications in the imaging of marginal livers for transplantation and prevention of reperfusion-induced ischemia

William Hubbard

Modified P.E.I. (Polyethylenimine) with Fluoresceinamine was synthesized in 74% yield as well as modified P.E.I. with D.F.O (Deferoxamine mesylate) in 48% yield. Both compound’s spectroscopic properties were investigated via HNMR, CNMR, and IR. Modified P.E.I. with Fluoresceinamine will be used as a fluorescent tracking moiety and modified P.E.I. with D.F.O. will be used as iron-sequestration agent. In hopes of using both as organic capping agents to tag lead or calcium salt nanoparticles, which will then be used in assessing and protecting vascular structures in marginal livers for transplants.

Nanocomposite hydrogel microsphere drug delivery device for sustained release of charged molecules

Margaret Dorrington

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel microspheres are an attractive option for drug delivery applications due to their injectability, biocompatibility, and tunable properties. However, small molecule drugs have a high burst release out of the matrix microspheres. We have previously shown that the addition of two-dimensional nanosilicates (NS) with a dual surface charge to the microspheres prolongs the release. We developed a method for the fabrication of microspheres via aqueous two-phase separation (ATPS) using 8-arm PEG-vinyl sulfone and PEG-dithiol to investigate the drug-NS interactions within the injectable delivery device as a function of small molecule drug charge. Representative fluorescent small molecules with a range of charges from -1 to +2 were incorporated into the microspheres. The images for each condition (with and without NS per fluorophore) were analyzed to determine the average diameter and polydispersity. Through imaging and spectroscopy, we confirmed that the NS prevented the burst release of the charged fluorophores.

Project BALEEN hits the road: Laboratory- and field-testing a novel microplastics collector inspired by the oral filter of baleen whales.

David Hammond

Super-Lubricious Poly(Dopamine Methacrylate-co-Sulfobetaine Methacrylate) for Dip-coating Hydrogel Microspheres to be Used in Drug Delivery for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: Dependence of Rheological Properties on Copolymer Composition

Melissa Hong, Dr. Paul Jelliss, Hannah Johnson, Dr. Silviya Petrova Zustiak

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disorder that leads to chronic joint pain and impaired mobility. A central aspect of this debilitating orthopedic condition is chemical alterations in the synovial fluid, which reduces lubrication and compromises the joint’s mechanical properties. Here, we have developed super-lubricious hydrogel microspheres designed to restore mechanical function and offer the potential for drug delivery into the synovial joint. Hydrogel microspheres were fabricated from polyethylene glycol (PEG), which was crosslinked via Michael-type addition, producing tunable, biocompatible, and biodegradable microspheres. To enhance the microspheres’ lubricity, a super-lubricious, custom-synthesized copolymer was dip-coated onto the microspheres. The copolymer consisted of muscle glue-like dopamine methacrylamide (DMA) and super-lubricious sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA) that was demonstrated to effectively adhere to the surface of microspheres. Rhodamine B, a polymerizable fluorophore, was integrated within the poly(DMA-co-SBMA) coating to visualize and characterize the copolymer. To further optimize performance, we investigated variations in polymer composition for the microsphere coating, enabling systematic evaluation of their adhesion to the microspheres while maintaining lubricity and mechanical properties. The resultant coated microspheres were then analyzed using confocal microscopy and rheology to assess the mechanical properties of the spheres.

Undergraduate Showcase and SLULaunch Demo Day

2026 Student Projects

Airport Wildlife Management and Bird Strike Mitigation at St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL)

Flight Instructors' Fatigue and Student Learning Outcomes

How Aviation Experience impacts Personal Weather Minimums?

Impact of Sleep Deprivation and Caffeine Consumption on Pilot Reaction Time

Impact of Time of Day on Flight Performance of Student Pilots in a Part 141 Training Enviornment

Improving CAS Student Preparedness and Retention in Flight Training

Nutrition In The Sky: Eating Habits of Collegiate Pt. 141 Flight Students

Pre-Solo Flight Training Curriculum: Advantages and Disadvantages

Predictors of IFR Approach Proficiency

Aerial Docking System

EUROPA

FA-31 Trident

Haptic Feedback for Teleoperator

Hunter Kollider sUAS

Maneuverable Autonomous Aerial Vehicle - enabling Research in Intelligent Collaborative Control

Power Puller

PowerPedal

Project HEART

Rewind

Sardonyx Mission: Deployable Objectives for Release

The Crash Course Project

Vertiponics

Achilles Tensiometer Redesign

Assessing the Effects of Compressive Loading on MC3T3-E1 Cells Cultured in Chitosan–Gelatin Scaffolds

Bidirectional Speech-Haptic Communication System for Deafblind Individuals

Characterization of Super-Lubricious Copolymer Coated Hydrogel Microspheres for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis

Compression-Analog Leg with Cardinal Health

Flow-Induced Shear Stress Response of Macrophages on Electrospun Silk Scaffolds in a Microfluidic System

On Combining an FDM Printing System with Near Field Electrospinning and Utilizing a Coaxial Needle; to Create Scaffolds that more closely resemble Cellular ECM.

Parkinson's Tremor Tracking

Posture Coach

Prosthetic Hand with Pressure Sensor Feedback

Prosthetic Leg Socket

Rapid Photonic Innovation Device (RAPID)

Synthesis of PEG Hydrogel with Nanosilicate Crosslinker for Drug Delivery

Activation of Thioglycosides with Ferric Chloride: Scope and Mechanism

Advancing the 4K Glycosylation: Iron(III) Triflate as a Cooperative Promoter of Thioglycoside Activation

Application of the Hydrogen-bond-mediated Aglycone Delivery (HAD) Reaction to the Synthesis of α- and β-Linked 2-Azido-2-deoxyglucosides

Biophysical studies of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and human cytochrome P540 analogues

Demographics- and Performance-Based Differences in STEM Students’ Entrepreneurial Mindsets

Enhancing Fe-Catalyzed Alkyne Carboamination using Coordinating Additives

Exploring the Generality of Carbon-Centered Radical Generation and Reactivity in Electrochemically Initiated Decarboxylation Reactions.

From Pressure to Perspective: A Pragmatic, Practice-Based Classroom Study of a Brief Metacognitive Workshop in General Chemistry

G-Protein Gamma (Gγ) Influences Oncogenesis

Identification and Characterization of RNA Bulges of Two

Investigations into Metabolomic Sample Preparation using Iodoacetamide

Modeling an Alternative Glycolytic Pathway in Cancer Cells

Synthesis and SAR Studies of Aminoindole Inhibitors Targeting JC and BK Viruses

Synthesis of Piperazine Derivatives using HATU Amide Coupling for the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain

SYNTHESIS OF SAE-14 DERIVED COMPOUNDS IN THE OPTIMIZATION OF GPR183 ANTAGONISM

Thermodynamic Characterization of 1x3 Internal Loops in RNA

Compton Avenue Greenway

Oliver Hall North

Shady Oaks Lodge

BAIO

CivicKit

CoreDesk

CV Zebrafish

DADS

Digital Bone Box

Drone World

GradEval360

Homeless Shelter Volunteer Scheduling Application

Material Donor Mutual Assist

Mechatronics VR

Mithridatium

MORPH: Robotics Programming Learning Platform

Mouser

OSS Automation & CI/CD

OSS Cybersecurity

OSS Developer Analytics

OSS-Infra

Pilot Data Syncronization

Project BAIO

QUIC in iperf

RERUM Playground

Rerum Server

Saltify Speech Transcription