STEM Research Conference

Event Details

The STEM Research Conference is a collaborative effort between the College of Sciences, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and the Division of Research at UTRGV to provide students with the opportunity to showcase their research in a professional setting.

The event will be held on April 24th, 2026 at the Region One Education Service Center Edinburg, Texas. 

Register before January 31st to enter a giveaway!

 Presentation Guidelines

Please review the following presentation requirements before the conference.

Oral Presentations

Oral presentations are limited to 12 minutes total. Presenters are encouraged to plan for 10 minutes of presentation time followed by 2 minutes for questions. Please remain within the allotted time to help sessions stay on schedule. Oral presentations will be delivered in person in the room assigned in the conference agenda. Presenters are encouraged to consult with their faculty advisor and follow presentation best practices.

Poster Presentations

Poster presentations must be 36" × 48" and set in portrait (vertical) orientation. Poster presenters are expected to remain near their posters during the assigned session to answer questions from attendees and judges.

Poster best recommended practices include:

• Important information should be readable from approximately 10 feet away
• Title should be concise and engaging
• Text should be clear and to the point
• Use of headings, bullets, and numbering should make the poster easy to read
• Graphics, color, and fonts should be used effectively
• Layout should be clean and consistent
• Presenter name, institutional affiliation, and acknowledgements should be included

 Abstract Guidelines

Please review the following abstract requirements carefully before submission. Faculty approval is required prior to abstract submission.

All abstracts must follow the required submission format to be considered for review. Students should consult with the faculty mentor overseeing their project to confirm that the work is appropriate for presentation at an academic conference.

Abstracts must be submitted through the registration form and should meet the following requirements:

• Maximum of 250 words
• Single-spaced
• Times New Roman, 12-point font

Each abstract submission must include:

• Presentation title
• Student name and any co-authors, if applicable
• Name of the faculty supervisor and contact email
• Academic program or major
• Institutional affiliation and contact information
• Type of presentation (poster or oral)

Additional abstract requirements:

• Abstracts should not include formal citations to published literature
• Footnotes should not be included
• A funding acknowledgement may be included at the end of the abstract and will not count toward the word limit
• Technical terms and scientific formulas may be used when appropriate, but abbreviations should be avoided unless clearly defined
• Abstracts should clearly state the research question or hypothesis, methods, and conclusions

 College of Sciences Awards

The College of Sciences recognizes and celebrates outstanding student research through competitive presentation awards. These awards honor excellence in research communication, clarity, and scholarly impact across academic levels. One winner will be selected in each research category, with each awardee receiving a $50 gift card.

Students may compete in the following categories:

• Biochemistry
• Biology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemistry
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Science
• Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences
• Electrical Engineering
• Health Sciences
• Materials Science and Engineering
• Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
• Mechanical Engineering
• Medical Sciences
• Physics & Astronomy
• Robotics & Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Best Oral Presentation For:
High School
Undergraduate
Graduate

Best Poster Presentation For:
High School
Undergraduate
Graduate

 B3 Awards

For the first time this year, the Office for Bilingual Integration is collaborating with the STEM Research Conference to provide four awards. The categories are Best B3 Undergraduate Poster, Best B3 Undergraduate Presentation, Best B3 Graduate Poster, and Best B3 Graduate Presentation. To qualify for this award, your research should include at least one of the following or something similar:

• Showcase bilingualism, biculturalism, or biliteracy (B3)
• Present the work in Spanish or bilingually
• Feature bilingual or Hispanic communities as part of the study population or research focus
• Center regional, cultural, or contextually relevant or place-based perspectives in the project design or findings
• Demonstrate how language or culture intersects with the project

 Keynote Speaker

 Speaker's Abstract

STEM Research in the Age of AI: Challenges and Opportunities

Artificial intelligence is transforming STEM research. While AI promises to accelerate discovery, it also introduces substantial challenges. New AI tools are being rapidly developed which require time to learn, validate, and integrate into existing research workflows. As certain tasks are done faster with AI, new bottlenecks in research and development pipelines arise, slowing knowledge discovery. Perhaps most concerningly, AI models are adept at producing voluminous quantities of unverified output, potentially leading to an erosion of trust in research results. In this talk, I will share how AI has reshaped my work as a biostatistician and data scientist over the past 5 years. I will discuss two recent projects motivated by AI: first, overcoming bottlenecks in the drug development pipeline using external control arms in clinical trials; and second, developing biologically motivated performance metrics for in-silico cellular perturbation models. I will conclude with thoughts on how AI may reshape the next 5 years of STEM research.