On May 2, the Recreation and Wellness Center on the Mount Carmel Campus hummed with activity as hundreds of Bobcats presented their work in a showcase celebrating innovation, discovery and creativity. Taking place on two floors, the expo featured compelling research posters, thought-provoking oral presentations, unique interactive game designs, inspiring digital art and more.

Event co-organizer Deborah Clark, professor of biology and chair of biological sciences, said Illuminate highlighted the work of students from across the university, including those demonstrated by the expo’s huge number of poster presentations.

“In the sciences, a poster presentation is one of our standards, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true for all the different programs. It’s special to be able to make a product like that, which looks so beautiful, and to be able to talk to people about what they’ve done,” said Clark.

Row after row of posters, each representing unique student work, filled the main floor of the center. Attendees were invited to engage with student scholars and learn more about the diverse academic and creative work happening on campus.

“It’s showcasing third-year or fourth-year students who are graduating; and the work they’ve done either as a culmination of independent research with a faculty member, or as a capstone class,” Clark said. “But there’s also art and game design; there’s music happening outside, and oral presentations upstairs. It’s a proud day for students to be able to show their work.”

Journalism major Geneva Cunningham, ’26, captivated her audience during her spoken presentation, “Did Change in Leadership Alter Coverage of Black Lives Matter? A case study of The Philadelphia Inquirer.”  Cunningham developed the work during her Journalism and Diversity course led by Associate Professor of Journalism, Margarita Diaz.

“It’s such an honor to see my support at this university,” said Cunningham. “To see Professor Diaz, my parents and everyone who supported me was really special.”

Oral presentations were also shared by students in the Department of History and Geography, Legal Studies, students performing in the English Advanced Poetry Showcase, and students presenting their English Senior Seminar capstone readings.

For her English Senior Seminar capstone, Maritsa Radoslovic, ’25, focused on the genre of memoir for her original work, “Inheritance.” During the audience question and answer session, Associate Professor of English, Nicholas Robinette asked Radoslovic how she arrived at memoir as her vehicle. Radoslovic said she was inspired by writer T Kira Madden’s memoir work.

“I really felt that with each vignette, you were transported to that specific memory,” said Radoslovic. “When I was writing, I was able to focus on how my emotions felt during my time as a child; and how it felt now, looking back onto that moment as an adult, and seeing how far I’ve come.”

Down on the main floor, students were at their posters, sharing insights with guests stopping by to learn more about their projects. Thomas Peters ’25, a political science major, shared the results of his work on the topic “How Different Connecticut Government Structures Impacted ARPA Stimulus.”

The project compared how efficiently and effectively towns with different types of local government structures expended American Rescue Plan Act federal monies issued as Covid relief funds.

“I’m involved in local government in my hometown of Durham, and I recognized that there was a lot of struggle with the ARPA money that was granted to all towns and municipalities. So I wanted to see which style of government was more efficient at spending ARPA money,” said Peters.

At Quinnipiac, Peters is completing his final year in his elective post with the Student Government Association, serving as a vice president. In his hometown, he successfully ran for a seat on the Durham Zoning Board of Appeals, for which he has been serving as an alternate since 2023.

“I don’t see myself as a politician, I see myself more as a volunteer,” Peters said. “Now more than ever, communities are having a retention issue with the younger generation. That probably has a lot to do with the housing situation, but a lot of these communities are dependent on volunteers to be in these positions. While the national politics is so polarized, you see a very united front at the local level.”

While some students undertook solo projects, many others worked in teams. Molecular biology program graduate students Raine Mangan, MS ’25, and Teddi Matthews, MS ’25, were part of a group that produced the research project “Purification of Fruit Bromelain from Ananas comosus.”

It all started with a pineapple, explained Mangan.

“Sometimes people say if you eat pineapple, it eats you back. That kind of inspired this idea. If you ever experienced a tingly sensation in your mouth after eating pineapple, it’s due to bromelain, which is enzyme that digests other proteins – it kind of breaks things down. So we wondered what kind of biological significance this would have,” said Mangan.

Matthews said the project was an amazing independent learning experience.

“We didn’t have any instructions to do this project. We were doing the calculations and making the solutions on our own,” said Matthews. “We had to do the digging to determine what we thought would be a successful experiment. It was really cool to actually apply what we were learning.”

Mangan said it was exciting to be a part of all of the different academic presentations on display at Illuminate.

“I really like that it brings together all the majors. You see what the school has to offer, and you can also see your fellow students and support your friends in other majors,” said Mangan.

Jared Lupien, ’26, a game design and development major, displayed his talent with an impressive three-dimensional creature and character he created with digital sculpting software.

“I created this for an assignment for my 3-D sculpting class Character and Companion. The premise was we had to model a character and his pet or companion. In this case, I modeled a wizard with an undead dragon,” said Lupien.

Game design and development major James Cioppa, ’26, leveraged his time at the expo to introduce a package of 10 animated characters he created as Pixel art. The suite of characters can be downloaded as an asset package with Unity, a cross-platform game engine.

“This asset package has 400 to 500 different assets and animations. Each character has 12 animations, and I also have four color variations for each character,” said Cioppa.

Cioppa said his Quinnipiac academic experience has been productive and fun.

“The whole program has been super fun. A lot of the professors are super sweet. More than a student, you are a friend, and they’re always great advisors. I’ve always felt really comfortable, and I’ve learned a ton here. I wouldn’t be able to show this off today if it weren’t for this program,” he said.

A few tables away, game design program majors Christie Borchetta ’25, and Zachary Lauri, ’25, were hosting players at their 3-D puzzle solving game, “Gravity Canvas.” Borchetta is the game’s lead artist and programmer, and Lauri is its environmental artist.

“We’ve known each other since freshman year. The game design program here is very tightly woven; we’re almost always in the same classes in our year. Going through that together builds a strong bond,” said Borchetta.

“There’s a lot of unique classes for game design that I didn’t expect to have here,” added Lauri. “We get new professors that come in with new ideas and new classes all the time. All of our professors are amazing people and they’re great at what they do. They definitely know game design.”

Last summer, Borchetta signed on as a student advisor with Quinnipiac’s Game Development Summer Camp. She was working with high school students when she came up with the idea for Gravity Canvas.

“It started out as a project with them where if you put your mind to it, you can make anything; and I started to really enjoy the concept,” Borchetta said. “For the first semester of my senior year, I developed it on my own; and for the second semester, Zach expressed interest in helping me make the vision for the environment and all the levels come true, and now here we are.”

The team said Quinnipiac’s Illuminate expo gave them their first opportunity to present their game to the public.

“It’s our first time displaying it to an audience this big. I feel like every booth here is doing that. It’s a good opportunity,” said Borchetta. “Over the summer, we definitely aim to continue this as a passion project.”