As an undergraduate in 2002, Dr. Jenessa Shapiro founded RURS to give Rice student researchers an opportunity to share their diverse work. Twenty years later, we honor Dr. Shapiro’s legacy with the Shapiro Showcase, a competition featuring students across the disciplines who have been nominated and selected by faculty in their respective schools. The Shapiro Showcase represents the top undergraduate researchers at Rice. Presenters will deliver 8-minute talks on their intermediate to advanced research, followed by a short Q&A. One winner will be selected through judge evaluations and announced at the closing reception.
Shapiro Showcase nominees come directly from the Deans in each school. Each school has a different process for selecting students. Contact Abby at as60@rice.edu for more information.
2025 Shapiro Showcase Nominees and Abstracts
School of Architecture
After Extraction: Designing New Ecological Futures for a Post-Extractive Landscape
Stuti Mehta, Mark Lichtenberger
Mentor: Zhicheng Xu
Social ReCONSTRUCTion
Prea Davis, Anwuli Chukwumah, Razella Freeman
Mentor: Tania Tovar
School of Business
Shiny, Transparent, and Opaque: Using Narrative and Verifiable Disclosure to Manipulate Perceptions of Environmental Activities
Guangshun Chen
Mentor: Dr. Diana Jue-Rajasingh
School of Engineering
VacuTrac: Novel, Integrated Tissue Retraction and Suction Device for Spinal Surgery
Cameron Erber, Sasha Keck, Yeonju Kim, Sophianne Loh, Luke Yuen, Eleanor Kimbro
Mentor: Dr. Sabia Abidi
Penta Print: 5 Axis 3D Printer
Tony Xu, Emily Yao, Zion Felder, Shifan Liu, Abigail Bo, Yijun Zhou
Mentor: Dr. David Trevas
New Rice Wind Tunnel/Team Anemos
Kenton Roberts, Natalia Perey, Adam Swartz, Raj Anthony, Jason Yang, Brian Seo, Jaden Hernandez-Romious, Giovanni Minatel Melo de Cerqueira
Mentor: Dr. Gary Woods
ClotSpot: Novel, Real-time Coagulation State Monitor for ECMO Patients
Victoria Albanese, Parnika Mandewalkar, Katrina Cao, Mary Mikos, Matan Blitz, Nithit Bunchatheravate
Mentor: Dr. Sabia Abidi
Bridging Resource Gaps in Quantum Computing Education: A Constructivist Approach with QuantumAiEd for Early Learners
Kevin Hernandez
Mentor: Dr. Tirthak Patel
A Statistical Tool to Identify Genetic Interactions from Multiplexed CRISPR Screen Data
Sanjay Soni
Mentor: Sanjana Srinivasan
Polyculture Robotics: Farmers Only
Adrian Steward, Pruitt Urbanczyk, Braedon McCants, Noah Spector, Joshua Williams
Mentor: Dr. David Trevas
School of Humanities
Becoming Yellow: East Asian American Narratives Amidst America's Black-White Binary
Katherine Jeng
Mentor: Margarita Castroman
Writing to Heal: Implementation of Expressive Writing Workshops to Improve Mental Health in the Cancer Community
Maya Harpavat
Mentor: Dr. Melissa Bailar
Fetish Objects
Emelia Gauch
Mentor: Josh Bernstein
"In Mexico You Could Be Free": A Narrative Approach to Texas Slavery and the Southbound Underground Railroad
Daniela Bonscher
Mentor: Dr. Fay Yarbrough
Translating Sharh al-Akhbar: Excerpts on Khadija and Fatima from Qadi al-Nu'man
Eliza Jasani
Mentor: David Cook
School of Music
Echoes of Empowerment: Mary Magdalene's Feminism in Sacred and Secular Melodies
Wenshi Chen
Mentor: Peter Loewen
Clever Elsie: An Inscrutable Tale for Orchestra
Zev Malina
Mentor: Anthony Brandt
School of Natural Sciences
Processes of Mullerian Duct Regression During Male Development
Ariah Richards
Mentor: Rachel D. Mullen
Temporal Expression Dynamics of Tenascin-C during Zebrafish Enteric Nervous System Development
Jorge Luis Arnez Gonzales
Mentor: Rosa Uribe, Hannah Johnson
The Influence of Selection Regimes on Fighting Patterns and Retaliation
Raleigh Bellard
Mentor: Dr. Julia Saltz
Identifying and Targeting Collateral Lethal Vulnerabilities in Cancers
William Wu
Mentor: Ronald DePinho
CRISPR in Color: Gene Editing Veiled Chameleons to Study the Evolution of Developmental Mechanisms
Zoe Griffin
Mentor: Dr. Paul Trainor
Long-Term Tolerance to Leydig Cell Transplantation Through Localized Treg Immunomodulation
Nikita Kotal
Mentor: Corrine Chua
Pathological Condensates Act as Innate Immune Triggers in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Anya Hitesh Patel
Mentor: Steven Boeynaems
School of Social Sciences
Encoding of Grammatical Roles in Hippocampus and Anterior Cingulate Cortex at the Single-Neuron Level
James Belanger
Mentor: Bart Moore
An Archaeological Study of Chipped Stone Materials from August Pine Ridge, Belize
Abby Antinossi
Mentor: Dr. Molly Morgan
Feeding the Future: Community, Horizontal Leadership and Direct Action Through Mutual in Food Not Bombs Houston’s Movement for Change
Matthew Haacke
Mentor: Dr. Jaleh Jalili
The Impact of Organizational Diversity Approaches and Accommodations Policies on Neurodivergent Job Applicants
Tania Garcia-Jasso
Mentor: Dr. Mikki Hebl
Changes in Banking Market Concentration and their Consequences for Local Market Conditions in the US (1994-2022)
Adelia Zytek
Mentor: Dr. Zachary Bethune
2025 Session Schedule
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Session |
Projects |
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Session I Monday, April 21 10:00 - 11:00 AM
Kyle Morrow Room Fondren Library |
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Session II Monday, April 21 1:00 - 2:00 PM
Kyle Morrow Room Fondren Library |
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Session III Tuesday, April 22 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Kyle Morrow Room Fondren Library |
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Session IV Tuesday, April 22 2:30 - 3:30 PM
Kyle Morrow Room |
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Session V Wednesday, April 23 10:00 - 11:00 AM
Kyle Morrow Room Fondren Library |
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2024 Shapiro Showcase Nominees