Program
Event Program
Meet Revolutionaries who are creating a greater world. The GW InnovationFest program will feature research posters, demonstrations, authors, inventions and art—all under one roof! Explore the 2026 digital program below.
| Time | About the Session |
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
AI, Autonomous Weapons, and the Algorithmic Institutionalization of Militarized Masculinity: Patriarchy Without Body Autonomous weapons systems, AI, and drones have transformed modern warfare by distancing soldiers from direct combat. Using an intersectional feminist framework, this paper argues that emerging AWS in military technologies produce new forms of gendered violence while reinforcing existing masculinist frameworks of war.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Air Pollution as a Proxy for Economic Activity Reliable, high-frequency measures of economic activity are often unavailable at subnational levels in developing economies. Traditional proxies like Nighttime Lights capture aggregate trends but fail to distinguish sectoral activity. This study explores satellite-derived air pollution as an alternative proxy, linking pollutants such as NOx, SOx, CH4, and PM2.5 to specific economic processes, with application to sectoral data from Algeria and Myanmar.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Analysis of Transshipment in Three-Sided Meal Delivery Services via Microhubs This study explores a novel transshipment strategy for meal delivery using centrally located microhubs. By partitioning service areas and batching orders, the strategy aims to optimize delivery efficiency. Comparisons show that transshipment significantly reduces vehicle travel distance and customer wait times during high-demand peak hours or in large service areas. Findings are validated using empirical data from Meituan to provide practical insights for urban logistics.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Attachment and the Social Construction of Regret: Revisiting High School Experiences This study examined how adult attachment relates to regret and satisfaction with high school (HS). Among 81 adults, attachment anxiety, but not avoidance, was linked to greater regret, which predicted lower HS satisfaction. Regret fully mediated this relationship, suggesting that anxious attachment shapes negative retrospective evaluations through increased regret, consistent with attachment-based emotion regulation models.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Augmenting the Reality of Microfabrication Equipment in Classroom Settings using NanoXR Using Augmented Reality (AR), we are focusing on enhancing the training experience for a material deposition sputtering system. In our AR system, students can interact with the physical equipment while also simultaneously receiving digital assistance and educational prompts through AR headsets. By leveraging spoken instructions, segmented views of the tool, and real-time feedback on student performance, this system aims to facilitate a comprehensive and multifaceted educational experience.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
CDK Inhibition Disrupts the CAMKV-CREB Signaling Axis in Neuroblastoma High risk neuroblastoma requires novel therapeutic strategies to combat its aggressive and therapy-resistant nature. This project evaluates the investigational CDK 2/4/6 inhibitor Culmerciclib on neuroblastoma proliferation and signaling. We found promising anti-proliferative effects and downregulation of the CREB signaling pathway. These results show a strong rationale for targeting the CREB axis through CDK regulation.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Computer-Implemented Creativity Assessment for Open-Ended Constraint-Based Mathematical Expression Tasks Objective math creativity assessment in open-ended, constraint-based expression tasks. Creativity = geometric mean of originality and utility: C = sqrt(O √ó U), not addition. Scalable and context-sensitive: supports local norming and both summative and formative use.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
CyBIS: A Low-Cost 3D-Printed Device for Point-Of-Care Infection Detection CyBIS (Cytocapture of Biomarkers In Situ) is a low-cost, portable diagnostic device that rapidly measures immune activation from a small blood sample. Built from off-the-shelf components and 3D-printed hardware, it isolates whole neutrophils and quantifies their elastase activity, an infection biomarker, in ~45 minutes. This approach enables fast, accessible detection of infection at the point of care, with applications in emergency medicine and low-resource settings.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Destigmatizing Dialogue as Violence Prevention: How Bystander Intervention Trainers Incorporate Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Bystander training is nearly-universal in sexual misconduct prevention on US college campuses. This educational strategy, or pedagogy, treats harm as a communal issue, engaging everyone to intervene. Yet research is limited regarding if or how bystander intervention training impacts community members who are not White, cisgender, or US-domestic. This research sought to answer the following question: how do bystander trainers use a framework called culturally relevant pedagogy to create an effective learning environment. Findings focused on practitioner actions, including a new model for the connected implementation of bystander and culturally relevant pedagogies.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Emerging Patterns of Allele-Specific RNA Variant Expression in Single-Cell Transcriptomes Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals allele-specific expression (ASE) by measuring differential transcription from maternal and paternal alleles. We analyzed 28 scRNA-seq datasets across tumor and normal tissues, quantifying SNVs using SCExecute, GATK, Strelka, and SCReadCounts. Multiple loci showed reproducible skewed or monoallelic expression, revealing emerging patterns of allele-biased RNA variant expression across heterogeneous cell populations.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Enhancing Registered Nurse Handoff and Documentation Adherence with an Acute Stroke Care Handoff Tool: A Quality Improvement Project Inconsistent RN stroke handoffs hinder quality metrics and patient care. This QI project implemented a structured handoff tool on a stroke unit using a pre/post design. Documentation adherence improved by 9.21% (not statistically significant), while RN satisfaction increased significantly, with better communication and consistency reported. Findings support the tool's value, with EHR integration recommended to improve efficiency, accuracy, and sustainability.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
GPR84 Signaling Regulates Adipocyte Function During Acute Skin Wound Healing Inflammation is an essential component of the wound healing process, as dysregulation of early inflammation impacts the subsequent healing phases. G protein-coupled receptor 84 (GPR84) has been shown to contribute to myeloid cell function during tissue inflammation. Our data implicates GPR84 as a potential therapeutic target for acute wound healing, capable of modulating inflammation to improve healing outcomes.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
GW Biorepository Core The George Washington University Biorepository is a centralized, CAP-accredited, state-of-the-art biospecimen resource. The Biorepository provides compliant biospecimen processing, long-term storage, and data-integrated inventory management infrastructure to support clinical trials, translational research, and multi-institutional collaborations in the United States and internationally.
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| 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
GW Histopathology Core The Histopathology Core Lab provides researchers with comprehensive high-quality histopathology services and expert guidance, and is committed to excellence in tissue processing, staining, and specialized histochemical and immunological processes that ensure consistent and reliable outcomes to support the scholarly and research mission of the George Washington University community. The Core provides all services at competitive rates with a quick turn-around time.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
GW McCormick Bioinformatics Core The McCormick Bioinformatics Core (MBC), which is supported by the McCormick Endowment Fund, offers bioinformatics services to researchers within the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences. The Core emphasizes the use of cutting-edge bioinformatics tools and methodologies to help unlock the full potential of complex multidimensional genomic data.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
GW Nanofabrication & Imaging Center The George Washington University (GW) Nanofabrication and Imaging Center (GWNIC) features state-of-the-art microscopy instrumentation and a Class 100 cleanroom. GWNIC provides university-wide core infrastructure for research in engineering, chemistry, physics, biology, public health, medicine and biomedical sciences. Located at the heart of GW's Foggy Bottom Campus, the GWNIC is a catalyst for cross-disciplinary collaboration.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
GW SMHS Shared Resources GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences offers free-to-use shared resources for SMHS investigators with easy scheduling and usage tracking. Resources are available in Science and Engineering Hall and Ross Hall on GW's Foggy Bottom Campus.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
GWCC Flow Cytometry Core Facility The GWCC Flow Cytometry Core Facility provides cutting edge instrumentation to both users at GW and the surrounding area. The flow core provides access and training on both flow analyzers and live cell sorters, as well as, consultation on experimental design, data analysis, and access to FlowJo software. In late 2025, the core purchased a BD S8 live cell sorter equipped with high parameter analysis, live cell isolation, and cell imaging. Please reach out to [email protected] to get started!
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
IsoScope: An Interactive Platform for Isoform-Level Expression Analysis Across Cancer Cell Lines IsoScope is an open-source R/Shiny application for exploring transcript-level expression across 668 cancer cell lines and patient tumor biopsies. It integrates RNA-seq quantification (STAR/Salmon), drug sensitivity data (GDSC1/GDSC2), differential expression, and pathway enrichment into interactive modules. Users can investigate isoform switching, tissue-specific expression, and drug response patterns. External datasets can be projected onto the reference landscape for cross-dataset exploration.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Landscape of Allele-Specific Expression of Single-Cell SNVs in Human Tumor and Normal Tissues Single-cell RNA-seq reveals not only gene expression differences but also cell-specific expressed single-nucleotide variants (sceSNVs). We developed an integrated pipeline (SCExecute, SCReadCounts, scSNViz) to identify and analyze sceSNVs across 28datasets (~230,000 cells), uncovering over 7million variants, including 2.5million novel events. Our findings show that RNA-origin variants represent a significant and underappreciated contributor to cellular heterogeneity and transcriptomic diversity.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Lucid Ledger: An Open-Source Platform for Preventing Wage Theft in Global Supply Chains Lucid Ledger is an open-source web app designed to prevent wage theft in global supply chains. Employers fund contracts upfront, and workers verify tasks via NFC or QR scans to trigger payment release. The system creates a tamper-resistant record of work and payment. We will demonstrate the full workflow from contract setup to payment, with applications in agriculture, fisheries, and manufacturing.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Machine-Learning Enabled Computational Materials Investigation for Neuromorphic Device Development The large-scale adoption of neuromorphic devices is currently limited by performance instability and practical nanofabrication challenges. We hope to address these issues through the use of novel materials. In this work, we investigate new complex oxides by leveraging the high-performance computing resources at GW to integrate machine-learning techniques with traditional physics simulation to inform our nanofabrication processes and materials exploration for improved neuromorphic performance.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning for Carbon-Aware Global Logistics Most GPS-based logistics systems optimize for a single objective i.e, speed. This approach overlooks a critical factor in freight transport: fuel consumption varies considerably based on traffic congestion, road grade, and vehicle load, making speed-only routing a significant contributor to unnecessary carbon emissions. This project presents a carbon-centric routing engine that jointly optimizes for delivery time and CO2 emissions. The road network is modeled as a dynamic graph in which each roa
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Nova: Building the Infrastructure for Regenerative Travel Nova is a curated travel platform connecting conscious travelers with independently owned, community-aligned hospitality operators. By verifying local ownership and reinvesting a portion of each booking into host communities, Nova ensures tourism dollars stay local. The platform empowers small operators with visibility and fairer economics while giving travelers meaningful, transparent ways to support the places they visit.
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| 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Unmasking Health Disparities in Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities in Greater Washington DC: A Community-Based Participatory Needs Assessment Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) populations are among the fastest growing racial/ethnic groups in the U.S., yet remain underrepresented in health data due to racial aggregation and the Model Minority Myth. This study aims to identify unmet health needs and barriers to care within local AAPI communities in the Greater Washington DC area through a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
4D Printing of Thermo-responsive Hydrogel with Reversible Transformation for Neural Tissue Engineering In this study, we present a thermo-responsive hydrogel for 4D bioprinting of reversible, shape-transformable constructs. The system integrates GelMA with PNIPAAm, enabling programmable swelling below and shrinking above its LCST (~32 °C). Bilayer designs enable controlled bending and twisting. Moreover, a 4D-printed proof-of-concept nerve guidance conduit supports NSC-laden matrices and autonomously contracts under physiological conditions, enabling sutureless tissue integration.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
A Dual 3D Bioprinting Platform for Engineering an Anisotropic 4D Cardiac Patch with Perfusable Vasculature Repair of infarcted myocardium remains difficult. Current therapies cannot simultaneously reproduce myocardial anisotropy, build perfusable vascular structures, and adapt to the beating cardiac environment. This study developed a dual 3D bioprinting platform combining SLA and coaxial printing to fabricate anisotropic cardiac patches with vascular structures and 4D shape-morphing capability for myocardial repair.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
A Queueing-Theoretic Approximation of Truck-Drone Collaborative Delivery In last-mile delivery operations, drones are emerging as a transformative complement to traditional truck-based delivery systems because of their advantages in speed, flexibility, and low emissions. However, their practical deployment is constrained by limited battery endurance and payload capacity. These limitations motivate the integration of drones with trucks, whereby the truck serves as a mobile launch and recovery platform that transports drones closer to customers.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
A Wellness Initiative: Mindfulness Training for Unlicensed Assistive Personnel to Promote Self-care and Well-being This study's wellness initiative aimed to promote self-care and improve well-being for the Unlicensed Assistive Personnel through Mindfulness Training. Findings from the self-paced, web-based Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program demonstrated statistically significant improvements in participants' self-care behaviors, supporting the intervention's value.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Beyond School Phone Bans: How Home Rules Shape Adolescent Social Media Use This study of 638 U.S. adolescents (ages 15-17) examines how home and school rules around mobile phone use relate to adolescent social media and online use. Results show that stricter home rules were significantly associated with lower social media and online use, including general and school-day use. Conversely, school rules showed no significant associations. While school policies on mobile phones may be insufficient alone, supporting parents through evidence-based guidance could be promising.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
C8-ISR Framework in Emergency Response A search and rescue operation is a race against time, complicated by fractured information often in remote areas with intermittent communication. This presentation introduces C8-ISR, a novel AI framework that fuses these disparate data streams into a single, coherent intelligence picture for first responders. Demonstrate how this distributed system dynamically manages thousands of data points per second to pinpoint a target's location faster under DDIL. Featured at SPIE Defense & Security 2026
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Detection of Human and Parasite-Specific Immunoglobulin in Archived Dried Blood Spots Dried blood spots (DBS) collected on filter paper are a low-cost method for field-based blood collection and long-term storage. This study investigated whether long-term refrigerated DBS (n=35, up to 20+ years) could serve as a reliable matrix for IgG detection and malaria sero-surveillance, using hemoglobin quantification, sandwich ELISA, Western blot, and Plasmodium-specific antibody detection.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Epimene: A Collaborative Hub for Youth Voice in Research Youth voices are frequently overlooked in research studies. This oversight can exclude the perspectives of 1.2 billion individuals. Young people are confronted with dual challenges as competition in the workforce requires them to have more skills and experiences than ever before. Epimene, an online collaborative platform, provides young intellectuals aged 15 to 24 with tools, connections, and a platform to create and publish research on their own terms.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Exploring Epistemic Trust, Therapeutic Alliance, and Flourishing in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Epistemic trust (ET), trust in interpersonally communicated information, plays a key role in psychotherapy. Impairments in ET may disrupt processing of social information, while its restoration through the working alliance (bond, tasks, goals) supports treatment outcomes. This study examines ET, interpersonal problems, and flourishing in a psychodynamic clinical sample. Higher mistrust linked to poorer goal agreement; trust trended with task. Trust predicted flourishing, but mistrust did not.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Feminist Theory, Feminist Pedagogy, and the Ethics of Care in Online Higher Education Teaching and Learning: A Systematic Review This literature review of empirical research investigated the intersection of feminist theory, feminist pedagogy, the ethics of care, and online higher education in formal educational settings between 2005 and 2025. This systematic review emphasizes the importance of these frameworks in fostering relational, student-centered approaches essential to inclusive online learning environments and underscores the need to co-design justice-oriented learning environments between educators and learners.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Governing Crisis: International Frameworks and Structural Inequality in Health Emergencies This study examines the interplay between international legislation frameworks and crisis coordination mechanisms and how they can be agents in perpetuating structural inequalities during health emergencies, specifically within the context of chronic crises.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Mobile DNA Activity in Parkinson’s Disease: A Locus-Specific View of Endogenous Retroviruses Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are mobile DNA sequences that become integrated in the host genome during evolution. HERV reactivation is associated with gene dysregulation and has been implicated in aging and neurodegenerative diseases. The connection between Parkinson’s disease (PD) and HERV reactivation remains poorly understood. This study investigates locus-specific HERV expression in PD compared to healthy controls, and examines how these changes contribute to systemic inflammation.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Nanoparticle Photothermal Therapy Generates Polyclonal, Multiantigen-Specific T cells that Persist in Immunocompetent Models of Ovarian Cancer We present a novel application of an ex vivo expansion platform that engineers multiantigen-specific T cells for ovarian cancer. This approach uses nanoparticle photothermal therapy to generate polyclonal, tumor-specific T cells without the need for genetic modification. Further, we developed a fully autologous, immunocompetent murine model that demonstrates our product synergizes with FDA-approved epigenetic therapy to increase immunogenicity in the tumor microenvironment and improve survival.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Nef-Containing Extracellular Vesicles Potentiate Neuroinflammation through Epigenetic Modification HIV-associated dementia (HAD) is a comorbidity of HIV characterized by neuroinflammation of an unknown cause. Our research proposes that the HIV-1 protein Nef is a potential causative agent, traveling in extracellular vesicles to interact with brain support cells, priming these cells for increased inflammatory responses. We show that these interactions result in changes in cell shape and signaling spurred by epigenetic modification. This work aims to support targeted effective treatment options.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Physics-Based Noise Simulation in Silicon Devices This project develops a physics-based Monte Carlo framework to simulate electrical noise in silicon devices from microscopic carrier motion. Using self-consistent Poisson coupling and Ramo-Shockley current extraction, the work validates thermal, shot, and generation-recombination noise in resistors and PN diodes across 1D and 2D device structures, including temperature and bias sweeps.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Predicting Demonstration Size on Salience and Demographic Characteristics This study predicts US demonstration sizes from 2017–2018 using data from the Crowd Counting Consortium Phase 1 (2017-2020), the American Community Survey 1-year estimates, and the Most Important Problem Dataset (MIPD), Second Release (2024). The findings reveal that issue importance is more useful than demographics in predicting crowd sizes, though factors like age, unemployment, and education also play key roles. Implications include resource allocation for social movements and public safety.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Public Knowledge of Data Centers, Public Health Impacts and the Effects of Education This study surveyed 114 Metro Atlanta residents aged 13 and older to assess their understanding of data centers and the effects of educational interventions. Results highlight the importance of proactive education and transparent engagement for fair public health policy. Data centers generate heat and use significant energy, worsening air quality and health risks. The study suggests that a lack of educational outreach before construction can worsen health disparities.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Silenced by Design: Confucianism, Colonialism, and Gender Inequality in South Korea This research examines how Confucianist values, reinforced by Japanese colonial rule, entrenched gender inequality in South Korea and continue to hinder progress toward SDG 5. By tracing the historical mistreatment of Korean women through the comfort women system to present-day wage gaps and workplace discrimination, this project argues that genuine gender equality requires confronting the colonial and patriarchal roots that bilateral diplomacy alone has failed to address.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Simulation of Distributed Low-Energy Arrhythmia Therapy towards Hardware-Mappable High-Definition Processing Traditional cardiac implants use low-resolution sensing and high-energy shocks to stop arrhythmias, which can be traumatic for patients. This work proposes a distributed, closed-loop system using high-resolution data and trianed cellular neural network to detect cardiac patterns and guide precise, low-energy therapy. Simulations show over 96% accuracy and successful arrhythmia termination within 1 second using much lower energy, enabling more efficient, targeted, and patient-specific treatments.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Skewed Allele Expression of Single-cell SNVs Correlates with Predicted Functional Impact We present a single-cell framework that uses allele-specific expression (ASE) skew as a quantitative readout of variant impact, integrating long-read and short-read single-cell RNA sequencing across multiple biological systems. Across classes of expressed single-nucleotide variants, variants predicted to be damaging consistently exhibit stronger ASE skew than those predicted to be tolerated; supported by categorical imbalance testing, continuous effect metrics, and permutation-validation.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Teal in Action: How Community Independents Advocate for Climate Action in Australia's Parliament This project analyzes the effects that community independents have had on climate legislation and debate within Australia using speeches and amendments to four climate laws. It analyzes themes related to SDG 13 to understand how the teal independents used their offices to bring attention to climate change, specifically through parliamentary procedures such as speeches and questions. Teal independents can provide a model to combat climate change using official actions.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
Understanding How Patient Engagement is Enacted through Telehealth: A Grounded Theory Study This qualitative study explored how patient engagement occurs in ambulatory telehealth following COVID-19. Using grounded theory methods, participants described engagement through information exchange, active involvement, and mutual understanding. Findings emphasize trust as central to engagement, built through appropriate telehealth use, mindful communication, reciprocal relationships, and frequent interaction, with implications for telehealth practice and policy.
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| 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Poster Presentation
When Top-Down Messaging and the Bottom-Up Narratives Collide: Exploring Human Readiness for AI Adoption in Organizations This study makes sense of the societal hype and fear associated with the rapid rise of AI. It uses sentiment analysis of social media posts and interviews with professionals across diverse industries to explore human readiness for AI. The data reveal five distinct attitudes towards AI representing competing narratives, that conflict with one another, resulting in inconsistent and uneven AI adoption. Based on these findings, the study provides practical recommendations.
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