Students and faculty across campus are making discoveries and building prototypes, displaying ET expertise in STEM.

As a Carnegie Research 2 (R2) university, East Texas A&M University is advancing research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) while giving undergraduates an important role in the work.

Over the past year, students discovered new viruses in local soil, built a drone-tracking system that won a national competition and helped investigate how moons behave around distant planets. Faculty researchers also took on challenges in cybersecurity and semiconductor manufacturing.

National STEM Day, observed Nov. 8, offers a chance to look at what students can do when they put their coursework to work.

Finding new viruses close to home

One discovery began near Charles S. Garvin Lake on campus. Another began in a stormwater basin in Caddo Mills. East Texas A&M undergraduates collected soil from those sites and isolated two previously unknown bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria. The students named them LastNadiia and Mireles.

The project spans two courses. In the fall, students isolate viruses in the lab. In the spring, they use bioinformatics tools to identify genes and compare them with those of other viruses. Guided by faculty members Hyun-Joo Nam and Archana Srinivas, the students carried the work from soil samples to a manuscript accepted by microPublication Biology.

Tracking drones on a national stage

Five East Texas A&M electrical engineering seniors took first place in the Air Force Research Laboratory's 2025–26 Software-Defined Radio Challenge. Their team was one of eight selected from a field of 22 to demonstrate a working prototype at the final showcase in Dayton, Ohio.

Advised by Drs. Nizar Tayem and Redha Radaydeh, the students built a system that used radio signals to estimate a drone's direction, angle above the horizon and distance in real time. Designed for indoor and outdoor use, the prototype gave the team a chance to apply signal processing concepts to a working system with potential uses in navigation and defense.

Modeling moons beyond our solar system

Astrophysics undergraduate Alan Briseño wanted to know how many moons could stay in orbit around an Earth-mass planet over billions of years. Working with faculty adviser Dr. Billy Quarles, he expanded the project's computer code to account for tidal forces, the same kind of gravitational interactions that drive Earth's ocean tides.

Their simulations suggest those forces reduce the number of moons that can maintain stable orbits over time. Briseño led the research and wrote the manuscript, earning first authorship in The Astrophysical Journal.

Preparing Bitcoin payments for future threats

Computer science researcher Dr. Ahmet Kurt and his collaborators built and tested protections for Bitcoin's Lightning Network, which lets users send payments without recording each one directly on Bitcoin's blockchain. Their design aims to protect Lightning communications and payment requests from future quantum computers powerful enough to break some of today's encryption. Tests showed that upgraded nodes could still communicate with existing ones, allowing for a potential gradual rollout. The added protections also increased the amount of data the network had to exchange.

Recovering valuable material from electronic waste

Chemistry professor Dr. Ben Jang is leading East Texas A&M's work on a $250,000 collaborative project to recover gallium from discarded electronics. Gallium compounds are used in semiconductors found in products such as LED lights and electric vehicles. Working with Texas A&M University and Prairie View A&M University, Jang's team is developing the purification stage of a process that could give manufacturers another source of the material. The project also provides laboratory research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.

Exploring a future in STEM education

East Texas A&M's STEM Education Alliance gives undergraduates a chance to explore teaching while they pursue a STEM degree. Through the Learning Assistant Program, students can gain classroom experience by helping peers learn STEM subjects. They can also join workshops where experienced teachers share ways to put education research into practice.

“We host workshops several times a year for experienced teachers to collaborate on research-based classroom instruction and our undergrads can participate and gain an understanding of how students learn and process information,” said Clay Stanfield, program specialist for the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the STEM Education Alliance.

The alliance also connects eligible biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics majors interested in teaching with financial support through the Noyce Scholarship Program. Stanfield sees room in STEM for students with a wide range of interests.

“If you like solving real-world problems, working on a team or just being generally curious about the world around you and how it works, then STEM is something to consider,” Stanfield said.

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For more information about our STEM programs, visit our College of Science and Engineering.