ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ

Four mechanical engineering students from ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ found a way to make drones more useful for farmers and won a prestigious NASA contest in the process.  The first-place ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ 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.

ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ 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 ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ 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 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.

How ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ'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 ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ research — is working to bring humanity closer to Mars.

When the speed of sound isn’t fast enough, there is hypersonic travel — speeds five times the speed of sound. Doing so is quite possible. Engines have been designed to do so for at least a decade. But for those engines to operate optimally, there’s a world of physics challenges. That’s where Jeffrey Doom, an associate professor in the mechanical engineering department at ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ, comes in. This summer he will make his fourth trip to the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, to undertake simulations and observe physical experiments.

A heavy-duty cart designed to transport heavy loads in deep underground mine tunnels was the top project presented at the April 22 Engineering Expo at Raven Precision Agricultural Center. The transporter was built by ÈÕ±¾avÊÓƵ mechanical engineering students Braden Hanson, Luke Degen, Haley Evenson, Alli Krantz, Phil Baker and Tyson Boeve on behalf of the Sanford Underground Research Facility, the former Homestake gold mine in Lead that now is a physics research facility.