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Gabby Robbins, an incoming junior construction management major at ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ, has received the coveted Beavers Scholarship for students pursuing a heavy construction career. Created in 1977 by construction companies and individuals engaged in heavy engineering construction, the Beavers Charitable Trust will generate $1.8 million in grants in 2025. Some of that goes to support heavy construction education programs, such as the one at ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ, and some goes directly to students like Robbins, who received a $10,000 award.

Tyler Wood spent the summer after high school graduation working on a concrete crew. Never once when he was setting forms, laying rebar and troweling concrete did he think about getting a doctorate in civil engineering by researching reinforced concrete.

ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ senior Emily Hofer recently represented South Dakota at the National Association for Music Education’s Collegiate Leadership Advocacy Summit in Washington, D.C., where she joined peers from across the country to promote the impact of music education.

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 ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ 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 ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ 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 ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ entry placed 13th out of 54 teams in the math division, one of two divisions in the Vex U competition.

ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ saw its first cohort of elementary education students graduate May 10, making history after the South Dakota Board of Regents approved the program at ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ two years prior. The inaugural class included 11 women who started their studies in other programs but ultimately decided a major in elementary education at ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ was the right fit for them.

The first law of thermodynamics is energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change forms. Whether energy can be retired and what form it will take when retired is about to be tested by ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ physics professor Larry Browning, whose 35-year career at ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ will officially wrap up May 21. This spring was the final semester in a 50-year career of teaching science.

Greg Heiberger, associate dean of academics and student success in the College of Natural Sciences at ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ, will serve as interim dean of the Van D. and Barbara B. Fishback Honors College.

Seven members of the professional staff at ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ will be honored for their quality work at the ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ Professional Staff Advisory Council annual meeting May 14. The event, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in the Woster Celebration Hall at the ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ Alumni Center, will include an all-staff social with the program and awards beginning at 3 p.m. A Zoom link will be available for those who cannot attend in person.