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The senior capstone papers of four Spring 2025 graduates from Southern Adventist University’s School of Computing were presented at the Fall 2025 Future Technologies Conference (FTC) in Munich, Germany.

Computer science majors Meg Ermer, Abishur Moses-Pakkianathan, and Ivan Vakal, along with information technology major Edwin Regalado, earned the impressive honor while enhancing their professional development and preparing for future challenges.

“I feel incredibly grateful and humbled,” Vakal says. “This experience is a reminder of how faithful God is when we trust Him and work diligently.”

Each year, seniors in the School of Computing take on multifaceted capstone projects—ranging from research papers to presentations and creative works—that demonstrate mastery of their chosen discipline. This year, Ermer and Moses-Pakkianathan collaborated on a paper exploring the role of artificial intelligence in studying, while Vakal and Regalado analyzed the business benefits of two virtualization software programs.

Both research papers were submitted to FTC and accepted, despite rigorous competition from graduate students and industry professionals. The achievement was particularly significant for Regalado, who became the first undergraduate information technology major from Southern to have a paper presented at a leading international technology conference.

In addition, a paper by Corbin Weiss, ’25, was accepted for presentation at the Computing Conference 2026 in London, England. Over the past four years, Southern students’ research has been presented at several prestigious international events, including FTC 2022 and 2024, Computing Conference 2023, and the Intelligent Systems and Applications Conference (IntelliSys) 2023 and 2024. Students’ papers have been cited in other academic works as well. Most recently, a paper published by Brandon Gustrowsky and Joel López-Villareal was referenced in the acclaimed Journal of Systems and Software journal.

At IntelliSys 2024, Ryan Downs, ’24, and Daryl Illangovan, senior computer science major, virtually presented their research on an advanced technology designed to combat AI misuse. Their watermarking innovation helps prevent photographers’ work from being stolen to train AI image-generator models. Receiving high praise for their breakthrough technology, the pair won the Best Presentation Award, selected from among 181 other participants—an impressive accomplishment for two undergraduate students.

Professor Harvey Alférez, PhD, who teaches in the School of Computing and directs Southern’s Center for Innovation and Research in Computing on campus, expressed gratitude for his students’ success and the divine guidance evident throughout their projects.

“The Holy Spirit guided us to work on these projects,” Alférez says. “It’s amazing how all the dots connect and the pieces fit together when you put everything in His hands.”

Beyond the academic recognition, Alférez emphasizes the spiritual impact of these scholarly efforts. “The most important achievement with these papers is witnessing,” he says. “When people read these published papers, they will find Southern Adventist University in the authors’ affiliation. They may ask, ‘What does it mean to be Adventist?’ and want to learn more. We can reach people in academic circles that we might not be able to reach in any other way.”

Looking ahead, Alférez has high hopes for the continued growth of the School of Computing as students engage in research that addresses real-world challenges. “In academia, books are very important,” he notes, “but it’s even more important that, as a university, we continue to generate knowledge.”

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