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Regionally and nationwide, �ձ�av��Ƶ quietly has positioned itself as a leader in integrating artificial intelligence in higher education.

�ձ�av��Ƶ Robotics Club hosted its first-ever Carrot Cup Jan. 17-18 with eight university teams from across the region competing and 20 teams from three states competing in the high school division. “The teams showcased impressive engineering skills, creative designs and teamwork throughout the challenges,” according to �ձ�av��Ƶ student Mason Jes, event partner for the Carrot Cup and Jacks VexU project manager. The Robotics Education and Competition Foundation presents the Vex Robotics World Championships each year for grades elementary through college. �ձ�av��Ƶ Robotics Club has had an entry the last few years. As a host team, �ձ�av��Ƶ was unable to compete for a world-qualifying entry, but will be able to do so at future contests.

�ձ�av��Ƶ’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has benefitted from the generosity of alum John M. Hanson since his creation of an endowed professorship in 2013. He attended Grand View Country School north of Brookings as a youngster. As the school’s only seventh grader, the teacher thought him capable of learning with the school’s three eighth graders. That was 1945. He went on to graduate from Brookings High School in 1949 and enroll at South Dakota State at age 17.

Six electrical engineering students at �ձ�av��Ƶ are among 244 students nationwide to have been selected for a prestigious scholarship in the power and energy field. Students selected to receive the Power and Energy Society Scholarship Plus Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers are described as “high achievers with strong GPAs with distinctive extracurricular commitments and are committed to exploring the power and energy field.” The awards are for $3,000, except three-time recipients receive $4,000. The IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization with 500,000 members in more than 190 nations and 189,000 student members. The �ձ�av��Ƶ selections are Nick Erickson, Nick Ankrum, Cole Brown, Cyrus Nelson, Jaxon Lohnes and Connor Delehant.

Subash Thapa, a doctoral student in the �ձ�av��Ƶ Department of Agronomy, Horticulture and Plant Science, has distinguished himself with several recent recognitions for his research and academic achievements.

Nick Erickson, a senior electrical engineering major from Pierce, Nebraska, Erickson is the recipient of the major scholarship — the Center for Power Systems Studies Outstanding Senior Scholarship — a $5,000 award. Also,

Selections for the fourth class of Future Innovators of America Fellowships have been announced by the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering.  The eight recipients and the department which selected them are:  • Maxwell Donelan, mathematics and statistics  • Tennille Eremas and John Akujobi, both computer science • Keaton Ranslem, civil engineering • Connor Matthies and William O’Connell, both mechanical engineering • Eli Otten and Gabrielle Robbins, both construction and concrete industry management.

AeroFly, a Brookings-based aerospace company bred from �ձ�av��Ƶ research, has been selected by NASA to test and advance its innovative technology. If successful, it could help enable the first long-term presence of humans on the moon and may even allow for deep space exploration.

For the fifth consecutive year, Yucheng Liu, head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at �ձ�av��Ƶ, has been named to the Stanford University-Elsevier World’s Top 2% Scientists’ list. The compilation is based on the number of times a scientist’s papers are cited in another scientist’s papers. Liu’s writings have been cited a total of 1,966 times with 377 of them occurring in 2024. Liu, the Duane Sander Endowed Professor, has served as department head since 2021 and is a Distinguished Member of the American Society for Engineering Education.

Turner Marr, a mechanical engineering senior from Buffalo, Minnesota, wanted to become a doctor when he enrolled at �ձ�av��Ƶ in fall 2022. That lasted all of one semester. The switch from biochemistry premed to mechanical engineering had nothing to do with the sight of blood or the thought of working on a cadaver. He simply wanted a major that required more math while allowing hands-on learning. He found that in mechanical engineering and in December 2024 was selected by the college as a Future Innovator of America.