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High school students interested in the South Dakota State University Data Science Camp don’t need to have completed Balloon Twisting 101 or Introduction to Coding to enroll. But they will get plenty of experience in both. This year’s camp, June 23-26, drew a full computer lab of 20 high schoolers who may have learned as much from the balloons as they did from their leaders — professor Xijin Ge and lecturer Bill Alsaker, both from the SDSU Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

A young group of mechanical engineering students delivered a “wow” factor to judges at a NASA contest and came home with the best prototype award. South Dakota State University’s NOVA team was one of two SDSU entries selected to compete in Revolutionary Aerospace Systems – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL), an annual contest sponsored by NASA and administered by the National Institute of Aerospace for undergraduate and graduate students.

Four mechanical engineering students from South Dakota State University found a way to make drones more useful for farmers and won a prestigious NASA contest in the process.  The first-place SDSU team was one of eight finalists in NASA’s Gateways to Blue Skies contest, which this year had a theme of AgAir: Aviation Solutions for Agriculture.

SDSU sent a dozen students and a faculty adviser to the Formula SAE competition at Michigan International Speedway, but one thing they didn’t cart with them from the South Dakota State University campus was a spare differential.  It would have been helpful as breakdowns took the luster off an otherwise strong effort.

James Kemeshi, a doctoral student in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, has built a low-cost agricultural drone.

Levi Minion, a construction and concrete industry management student from Wheaton, Minnesota, tested a new type of cement for its compatibility with various chemical admixtures as his Future Innovator of America project.

Two student engineering teams at SDSU spent their senior year on capstone design projects at Sanford Underground Research Facility. One team built a new mine rail cart for hauling liquid nitrogen underground. The other built a drone for inspecting hard to reach vertical shafts at the former gold mine at Lead. Both teams gained valuable experience they will take into their future careers.

The South Dakota State University Robotics Club came home with best design honors after competing at the Vex Robotics World Championship in Dallas May 9-11.  VEX competitions make up the largest and fastest growing robotics engineering platform in the world with divisions for elementary and middle schools, middle and high schools and VEX U for colleges and universities. This year’s Vex U game involved placing rings onto various stakes — some stationary and others mounted on mobile goals that could be moved to corner zones to either double the team’s points or result in negative scoring,  In addition to winning the design award, the South Dakota State University entry placed 13th out of 54 teams in the math division, one of two divisions in the Vex U competition.

How South Dakota State University's Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory plays a critical role in keeping South Dakota's food supply safe.

AeroFly — a Brookings-based aerospace company bred from South Dakota State University research — is working to bring humanity closer to Mars.