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Researchers in �ձ�av��Ƶ's Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory were the first to identify a new strain of avian metapneumovirus — a highly contagious disease that is currently causing significant problems for the U.S. poultry industry — and are now working toward developing a safe and effective vaccine.

A pair of �ձ�av��Ƶ researchers are modeling the flow of liquid argon through the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) being built a mile under South Dakota’s Black Hills.

In the tough and gritty world of construction, paper dolls would seem to be as out of place as steel-toed boots at a ballet performance. However, when four construction management students attended a recent skills competition, paper doll construction was among the activities. Of course, the �ձ�av��Ƶ students weren’t putting dresses or bonnets on their dolls. In fact, their dolls weren’t even what Pinterest would call paper dolls. Their paper dolls were cut-out, scaled pieces of paper that represented tilt-up concrete panels on cast-on-site projects. The students and 16 others from other Midwest universities were taking part in the Region 4 Skills Summit sponsored by the Associated Schools of Construction.

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 �ձ�av��Ƶ 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 �ձ�av��Ƶ'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.

National STEM Day on Nov. 8 saw three executive members of the �ձ�av��Ƶ Robotics Club at Renberg Elementary School in Sioux Falls for demonstrations. Presentations were made to about 125 students in three age groupings. The fourth and fifth graders took on the egg drop challenge with each team receiving an equal amount of supplies. They had to design creative solutions to protect their eggs during the drop.

Looking at slides of blood cells, fecal matter and urine has taken on an entirely different perspective this school year thanks to new state-of-the-art equipment in the medical laboratory science lab at �ձ�av��Ƶ. In July, the program received 28 microscopes and an innovative slide scanner as part of a $750,000 award from the South Dakota Department of Health, which was handling workforce development funds from the Centers for Disease Control, according to April Nelsen, the medical lab science clinical coordinator who put a proposal together for the health department.

�ձ�av��Ƶ 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.

As a Davis-Bahcall Scholar, current �ձ�av��Ƶ freshman Mackenzie Hollenbeck traveled more than 5,000 miles this summer going to some of the top science centers in the world. But the one that really grabbed her heart was only a little more than 100 miles from her family’s Edgemont ranch. The biology major was among eight South Dakota students who were chosen to participate in the Davis-Bahcall Scholars Program, which is designed to help rising university freshmen and sophomores entering science, technology, engineering and math fields develop an understanding of where their passions could take them.