At the URCI Festival, seniors Thaddeus Stringer and Bryson Frank presented on how the far left in the European Union parliament views Latin American foreign policy. (Photo by Ashley Henderson)

The annual Undergraduate Research, Creativity and Innovation Festival took place Monday and Tuesday, giving students from all departments the opportunity to share their research findings and creative projects with the community.

The festival was originally called the Undergraduate Research Festival, but it has been expanded to include creativity and innovation. This change was made to broaden the festival beyond just presenting research outcomes.

“So that was kind of the impetus to add a sea of creativity,” said Candice Ortbals, director of URCI. “That way, there can be presentations like theater presentations or presentations in music, where instead of presenting a hypothesis and testing it, they can say, ‘These are my creative influences, and this is how I interpreted music or I interpreted this play.’”

Students had the opportunity to participate in the 17th annual URCI Festival by submitting their papers and presentations from early December to February. Department chairs then vet students’ ideas and presentations and accept participants into the program.

“So we’re looking for things that students can actually finish and have a good analysis of, rather than just like huge topics that would take years to study,” Ortbals said.

Ortbals said the goal of the festival is to bring about more research outcomes and generate new ideas. There is also a mentoring process, in which students meet one-on-one with faculty. Ortbals said this experience can give students more confidence, whether they go on to graduate school or just in their classes at ACU.

Nuclear Reactor Research

Students contributing to the NEXT Lab’s nuclear reactor research presented their findings through the URCI Festival.

Jesse Noland, sophomore biochemistry major from Edmond, Oklahoma, presented “Use of Universal Gas Analyzer to Analyze Gas Headspace of Molten Salt Systems.”

Her research aimed to demonstrate qualitative analysis of the gas headspace for a molten salt system.

“So we wanted to prove we could use analytical instruments to determine composition and changes in that composition over time for the gas headspace of a molten salt system,” Noland said.

Most of her research was done in the summer while working in the NEXT Lab, but she has been preparing for her presentation for the last couple of months.

Her research contributes to the lab’s overall nuclear reactor project by providing information about what is in the gas headspace. This helps determine what’s going on in the salt and the system and helps monitor what they are pumping out in the exhaust.

“Which is really important for us to know as we’re figuring out how to handle that exhaust and what we can do with it and what we can’t do with it,” Noland said.

Emily Hine, sophomore biochemistry major from Austin, also presented in the session and shared her presentation on “Applications of Analytical Instruments for Molten Salt Systems.”

Hine and Noland are a part of the chemical analysis systems team in the NEXT Lab. Hine said her team’s goal is to get qualitative and quantitative analysis of molten salt systems and to analyze the composition of their samples.

Her research began during her freshman year while working at the NEXT Lab. She performed gas analysis and analyzed the composition of the salt.

“So it’s been a pretty long-winded process, but that’s kind of just the pathway to the research,” Hine said. “You don’t have all of the digestible information immediately when you do it. It just builds on each other.”

Matson Camp, senior engineering major from Amarillo, presented his findings on his level sensor project, and Jayden Smith, senior electrical engineering major from Weatherford, presented “Molten Salt Snapshots in Telegram.” Each of these students’ projects is contributing to the overall research in the NEXT Lab.

Reported by Makayla Clayton

Developing Literacy Teachers’ Instructional Adaptiveness Through a Two-Year Professional Learning Community

During a two-year research project, senior Brooklyn Arreola presented at the URCI festival about recent findings from her collaborative study with Dr. Andrew Huddleston and Dr. Stephanie Talley on teachers’ adaptability in the classroom.

Arreola, elementary education major from Lovington, New Mexico, said the opportunity to work as a research assistant on this project “fell into her lap.” Since she is staying for a fifth year to pursue her Master’s degree, Huddleston, professor in the school of education, and Talley, associate professor in the school of education, sought her help.

In partnership with the URCI Festival, Arreola presented information gained from the first year of the study and the goals moving forward. She explained that they have chosen six participants, of mid-career literary teachers to meet monthly in Professional Learning Communities (PLC) to discuss their thoughts about the current educational environment. 

“These teachers have talked about the things that are challenging in the classroom, as well as the things that the students are doing really well,” she said.

Arreola said the meetings were a “safe space” for the teachers who could talk about how they feel as well as share advice about what works in the classroom. After attending the PLC meetings herself, she began to learn more about teachers’ concerns about student engagement and the influence of curriculum changes.

While Arreola said that sometimes tears were shed at meetings and the teachers’ everyday fears were made known, she is still excited to pursue a career in education.

“I feel incredibly equipped to enter into the current classroom climate, entering into conversations that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to engage in if I wasn’t participating in this study,” she said. “I feel honored.”

As the study continues into its second year, Arreola is interested to see how the teachers will adapt to future changes and how it will impact their role as teachers.

Reported by Ashley Henderson

Social Sciences 2:Perspectives on Protest and Violence

The first presentation for the Social Sciences 2 section, Critical Actors in CVE: Exploring the Influence of Mothers, was presented by Ardyn Little, sophomore government major from Abilene and Gabriella Silva, freshman government major from Katy.

Silva and Little dove deep into the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures program and the critical actors, important figures in the environment of known vulnerability and exposure.

Bryson Frank, senior international relations major from Plano, presented the second: Samba Salvation: How Samba Became a Tool for Protest Under Military Dictatorship.

“Music is a tool for fighting against oppressive regimes,” Frank said in his presentation.

Frank spoke about Samba, a dance and music style that African slaves in Brazil used to celebrate and maintain their culture. The style was tossed between partial and full censorship to banned from 1905 to the Cold War.

Even after the government’s thick censorship of Samba, Africans continued to protest through their music as they danced around the metaphorical meanings behind the content of their music.

What brought Frank to the topic was his interest in American, Cuban and Brazilian music.

“I was like: ‘Has Samba stayed important? I don’t know, let’s look into that,” Frank said. “I found that it has still become a movement for both African nationalism inside Brazil but also for political liberation.”

The third presentation of the session was Jihad or Fitnah? An Analysis of Islamist Ideology, Sharī‘ah Law, and State-sponsored Terrorism in the Relationship Between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Hezbollah, presented by Thaddeus Stringer – senior global studies major from Houston.

Stringer presented his research on Islam’s core values of peace and the protection of the innocents. The project brought the question: If Iran has a theocratic government, run by the Islamic religion – dedicated to peace and the protection of the innocent – then how do they justify martyrdom operations?

Offering a new perspective, Stringer introduced the differing frameworks of the American and Iranian societies.

“It’s about understanding the other perspective,” Stringer said.

Reported by Callie Leverett

Comparison of the Impact of Phenazine-1-carboxylic Acid (PCA) and Phenazine-1-carboxamide

Sarah Hudson, senior biology major from Plano, presented research on bacterial communication systems, titled “Indicatory Effects of PCA and PCN on Quorum Sensing and Z-Biostim.” Working in the Hennigan Lab, Sarah explored how naturally occurring compounds might interrupt quorum sensing (QS)—the process by which bacteria communicate and coordinate behaviors such as toxin production, pigment formation, and biofilm development.

“So, form-sensing is used by a variety of different bacteria, but our focus is mainly on whether we can interrupt this for understanding the form-sensing pathway and how it relates to this pathogenic bacteria,” said Sarah.

Sarah’s project centered on isolates collected from Sorcerer’s Cave, the deepest cave in Texas, largely remained untouched for over two decades. The team identified several Pseudomonas species from the cave that produce colorful phenazine compounds, specifically PCA (phenazine-1-carboxylic acid) and PCN (phenazine-1-carboxamide), both of which were tested for their ability to disrupt quorum sensing in Chromobacterium violaceum.

Through a series of pigment production and biofilm assays, Sarah showed that PCA significantly reduced the expression of quorum-sensing-regulated traits such as pigment and biofilm formation, especially in a mutant strain lacking its own signaling synthase. PCN also demonstrated inhibitory effects, though less consistently. The study suggests these phenazines could act as quorum-sensing inhibitors (QSIs), potentially offering new avenues to mitigate bacterial virulence without traditional antibiotics.

Reported by Tyson Williams

Biblical Storytelling: Preparing and Presenting the Bible

The Undergraduate Research, Creativity and Innovation Festival kicked off Monday with various students and groups presenting their work around ACU and beyond. A group led by Jason Campbell researched, practiced and presented its experiences with biblical storytelling. 

Malachi Havens, biblical languages, children’s ministry and theatre major from Carrollton, gave a demonstration of biblical storytelling during the presentation. The practice, also known as Biblical Performance Criticism, is taking biblical context and presenting it how it was intended to be taught: orally and in a storytelling format. 

“Biblical storytelling is based on the idea that the Scripture was originally meant to be heard,” Havens said. “It’s the idea that if we tell The Scripture from a storytelling perspective, that maybe we’ll connect more, or find more interpretations.”

This practice was an opportunity for Havens to combine his multiple fields of study and put them into practice. The biblical languages, children’s ministry and theatre backgrounds have given Havens a unique perspective and skillset to thrive in this study. 

“It is the perfect meld of looking at the Greek text and looking at how I might perform this piece of The Scripture,” Havens said. “It’s great for all ages, including children’s ministry.” 

The opportunity to combine knowledge with practice gave Havens a unique opportunity and insight into how the author might have portrayed different things. Additionally, this practice opens the door for critical thinking, which is often discouraged by certain faith backgrounds. 

“We looked at a section of Acts 8,” Havens said. “It’s immediately after the stoning of Stephen when the apostles were scattered. Phillip goes to Samaria and is preaching the Gospel when we see Simon Magus, Simon the sorcerer, however, you want to refer to him, who has been practicing magic and believes what Philip has been preaching and wants to participate.” 

Within the story, Simon offers to pay Philip to have the power of the Holy Spirit with him so he can spread the word, similar to how Philip was at the time. 

“Simon is traditionally viewed as a terrible person in church tradition,” Havens said. “We looked at Christian art and different texts that also show how terrible a person he was. We looked at the text and were like ‘It’s not that clear.’” 

Havens presented this experience and information, which opens the conversation for creative thinking and application to biblical texts because the Scripture is a living text that often has several meanings that may get overlooked. 

Reported by Roman Raffaeli 

The European Union’s Far-Left and Foreign Policy Space: Perspectives on EU-Latin American Partnerships

At the Undergraduate Research Creativity and Innovation festival on Tuesday, seniors Thaddeus Stringer and Bryson Frank presented on how the far left in the European Union parliament views Latin American foreign policy.

Their research reached conclusions about the EU’s concern regarding human rights advocacy and also concluded that although it is easy for those of differing opinions to criticize one another, it is hard to provide alternative solutions.

One of the challenges they ran into was finding a way to summarize diverse voices from all over the world, said Stringer, senior global studies major from Houston.

“There are so many splintered groups and there are so many regionally distinct motivations for why they are doing what they are doing,” Stringer said, “frequently within our political spectrum, we say ‘the left wants this the right wants this,’ and even if they do want the same things the reason why is completely different. So it was really interesting to dive into those differences.”

In the future, the two students hope to interview people in the EU to learn their thoughts on the issues they researched, said Bryson Frank, a senior political science major from Plano.

“Getting those interviews would be big,” Frank said, “I think directly hearing from people, rather than going through news clippings, I would rather actually talk to the people and hear from them.”

Participating in undergraduate research has helped both students in their future careers as they move on to graduate school.

“Do research,” said Bryson, “It’s a lot of fun and it looks good on a resume.”

Reported by Leslie Carrigan

Switching Teams Too Late: The RFEF’s Crisis Response and Image Restoration After the 2023 Women’s World Cup

As part of the Undergraduate Research, Creativity and Innovation Festival, Natalie Poe presented on how image restoration communication skills played out after the Women’s World Cup in 2023. 

Following Spain’s win in the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, was congratulating the Spanish players and forcefully grabbed Jenni Hermoso, forward for the Spanish national team, by the face and kissed her on the mouth. 

It was very evident that this kiss was not consensual, which sent the sports world into a frenzy. The RFEF was then faced with how it would approach the situation. 

Poe, senior communications major from Lubbock, said the part about her research that surprised her the most was the length of time it took for Rubiales to be fired and the situation to be wrapped up.

“So many people were mad, and social media was on fire, but it was pretty slow-moving on the organization’s side,” she said.

The World Cup ended on August 20, 2023, but Rubiales remained president of the federation for about a month longer, which gave the impression that whatever he believed was what the organization believed. 

“The RFEF’s silence allowed Rubiales to be the voice,” Poe said. “And that’s what the audience perceived to be the voice of the RFEF.”

Eventually, Rubiales gave a “half-apology” to Hermoso and the sports world, saying that he was sorry if people were offended, which did not solve the situation. FIFA suspended him the next day and the RFEF called for his resignation. 

After Rubiales’ resignation, the RFEF used the communication strategy of mortification to profusely apologize to Hermoso and soccer players around the world for Rubiales’ actions. They also took corrective action and called for the resignation of most of the RFEF’s governing body, giving them a fresh face after allowing Rubiales to give them a bad reputation for so long. 

This situation reawoke the “#MeToo” movement that gave people the courage to admit when they had been a victim of sexual harassment, but it also gave people the courage to stand against a public figure who did something wrong. 

“I want people to know that it’s encouraging to know that the world can take action and speak out against people that are mistreating athletes, especially female athletes,” Poe said.

Reported by Lindsey Blasingame

Achilles Tendon Rupture in a Track Athlete

One of the most challenging injuries to come back from for an athlete is an Achilles tendon rupture, with full recovery taking up to a year in some cases, but athletic trainers find unique ways to help athletes recover.

This year at the URCI Festival, Emma Bundy, junior kinesiology major from Aledo, decided to present a study of an Achilles tendon rupture in a track athlete.

Bundy’s experience first began when she started interning with an athletic trainer. Here she met the person she would do her research on a track athlete who had torn their Achilles tendon.

The athlete had suffered the injury the spring before Bundy began her internship. They went home over the summer for recovery and came back to school in the fall. The trainer and Bundy found that the athlete was behind schedule for a typical Achilles surgery recovery at the three-to-four-month mark.

“His calf was smaller than it should have been, his ankle wasn’t where it should have been, his strength wasn’t at the level it should have been at,” Bundy said.

To get the athlete back on track in his recovery, Bundy and the trainer brought him in five times a week. This was different from the normal two to three days a week with physical therapy. Bundy said that this created problems with insurance coverage.

The research Bundy did for the festival was for a kinesiology major class that required her to gain field experience. Part of picking the topic for her was finding an injury that was unique.

The situation piqued Bundy’s interest because of its uniqueness. The changing and speeding up of the athlete’s recovery process was notable to her.

Bundy is planning to enter the athletic training field once she graduates. The experience she gained in this study and her internship is something that she says will help her in her career.

Reported by Hayden DeLand

 Mobile Farmer’s Markets and the Impact They Will Have on Meat Production

Reese Cope, a senior at Abilene High, was one of several students featured in the Human Experience section at ACU’s 17th annual Undergraduate Research, Creativity and Innovation Festival. She showcased her choice of a class research project on sustainable food sources and local solutions for meat overproduction, both in her community and across the nation.

The idea stemmed from Cope’s own life as a vegetarian for more than four years.

“I wished to investigate meat production since I was a vegetarian for a while,” Cope said. “I did not enjoy the idea of continuing to be a vegetarian because it was not realistic, so I started to look into other avenues.”

Her project focuses on the environmental and ethical cost of meat production, specifically how transporting animals hundreds of miles to be processed stresses them, results in lower quality and costs the community in emissions.

“I started considering meat alternatives,” Cope said, “but I thought that was already tapped, and most people were aware of it and either weren’t opting to utilize it or were utilizing it and it simply wasn’t having an effect.”

Instead, she researched mobile farmers’ markets and local food systems as a more suitable option. 

Cope drew inspiration from New York’s Veggie Mobile, which brings freshly sourced produce to underserved populations. She proposed a variation on the same model that supports local farms while also reducing environmental impact.

This method, she added, would not only cut emissions but also improve animal welfare.

She reported that the average American travels 12 miles a week to go grocery shopping, according to CDC statistics. Using the idea of six families, the emissions add up quickly. But part of her argument was that with one vehicle bringing it to the neighborhoods instead, the food truck alone would make the trip and, in turn, save gas.

She also cited Library of Medicine data showing that 20 million animals die each year during transport.

“One person is not going to go vegetarian and make a difference,” Cope said. “We’re all going to have to do it together, and implementing mobile farmers markets and lowering the production of meat will help the overall environmental damage.”

Reported by Zion Webb