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PItch Day at SDSU, an opportunity for faculty members to share their entrepreneurial ideas, was revived Nov. 1 after being inactive for a number of years. The current effort is the vision of the South Dakota State University Division of Research and Economic Development and the Research Office in the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering. It featured six presenters — four from engineering, one from the College of Natural Sciences and one from the School of Psychology, Sociology and Rural Studies. Rajesh Kavasseri, associate dean for research in the Lohr College of Engineering, served as moderator. He said the presentations at the Research Park at South Dakota State University are expected to continue on a quarterly basis.

Statistics doctoral student Andrew Simpson has found great success in the complicated field of large-scale number crunching and data analysis. He already holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics (2021) and a master’s degrees in statistics (2022). In 2026, he should complete his third degree from South Dakota State University with a doctorate in computational science and statistics with a statistics specialization. He has presented at a national conference and had a paper printed in an academic journal.

Seniors in Michael Twedt’s Renewable Energy Systems class got a close look at what it takes to bring renewable natural gas to a viable market during a tour of NorthWestern Energy’s renewable natural gas receipt facility at the north edge of Brookings Nov. 19. The 24 mechanical engineering majors got an opportunity to “see the working systems that we discuss in class,” Twedt said. That included monitoring equipment to ensure the methane that originates at area diaries has been processed to pipeline quality and odorizing equipment to give odorless gas its rotten egg smell.

Jun Huang, assistant professor in South Dakota State University's Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering, has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to alleviate network efficiency and data privacy concerns related to wireless communications networks.

As the grants program specialist for the College of Nursing at South Dakota State University, Marie Schmit works to secure funding for training and research opportunities. In May, she was recognized with the Presidential Award of Excellence, alongside six others at the SDSU Professional Staff Advisory Council annual meeting. 

New publications are worth recognizing, but four publications in a year for an academic unit calls for a special celebration. Three faculty in the South Dakota State University School of American and Global Studies, Molly Krueger Enz, Luz Angélica Kirschner and Graham Wrightson, have published books in the last year, making it a record for the school.

South Dakota State University professor Xijin Ge has received a $1.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to enhance ShinyGO, a widely used bioinformatics website for analyzing genomics data.

Public health researchers from South Dakota State University’s Community Practice Innovation Center presented two posters at the American Public Health Association annual meeting, which was held in Minneapolis at the end of October.

With loud enthusiasm often reserved for athletic events, students, faculty and staff from South Dakota State University’s agricultural programs showed up in full force to welcome a live television taping of “AgDay College Roadshow” Oct. 30 on the SDSU campus.

An associate professor in South Dakota State University's Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering have received a grant from the National Science Foundation to train artificial intelligence models in making accurate predictions with theoretical guarantees.