South Dakota State University

Retired NorthWestern Energy general manager Mike Sydow has been awarded the 2024 Wayne E. Knabach Excellence in Power Award. The award is given by the Center for Power Systems Studies, a group of utilities and electrical firms that work with the electrical engineering department at South Dakota State University to promote the industry through and to students and faculty. The Knabach Award is a lifetime achievement award named for a longtime electrical engineering professor. Sydow, a 1978 electrical engineering graduate from SDSU who spent his entire career with NorthWestern Energy, received the award at the center's annual banquet Sept. 30.

By the narrowest of margins - two points out of more than 2,000 - the SDSU Quarter Scale Tractor Team came up just short of winning its third consecutive national title. Competing at the 27th annual International Quarter-Scale Tractor Student Design Competition at the Expo Gardens Fairgrounds in Peoria, Illinois, the South Dakota State University team placed third out of 21 teams. SDSU scored 2,164 points out of 2,405 possible points. North Carolina State won the event with 2,166 points while Kansas State was runner-up with 2,165 points. The top five teams were separated by just six points.

Competing against the best and the brightest, a South Dakota State University engineering team finished third overall in a NASA contest and again was awarded for building the best prototype. The SDSU students were one of 14 teams selected from 75 higher education entries to compete in the finals of the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts - Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition June 10-12 in Cocoa Beach, Florida. It is the second straight year for an SDSU team to qualify for the finals. Traditionally, NASA only awards the top two entries in the overall results. In fact, this is only the third time in the contest's 23-year history that third place has been recognized.

For the third year in a row, the award for the best student chapter of civil engineering students went to South Dakota State University. The Robert Ridgway Student Chapter Award is presented by the American Society of Civil Engineers to the top chapter nationwide. On April 18, adviser Zach Gutzmer learned that the SDSU chapter was tops among 416 student chapters nationwide and 26 foreign countries. Before its 2022-2024 streak, SDSU also won the award in 1999 and 2004.

Jackrabbits Forensics has just wrapped up a historic season, with several "firsts" achieved by one of South Dakota State University's longest-running cocurricular teams.

A team of South Dakota State University mechanical engineering students has worked to solve this problem by developing a cheap and affordable prosthetic that can be made and built with materials that are readily available around the world.

Following a family history of answering the call to serve, Catie Natvig will be commissioned into the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant Friday, May 3. The South Dakota State University senior was preceded in the ROTC program by her grandfather, Virgil Natvig, and her father, David Natvig. There are two more Natvigs in the wings. Sisters Carlee and Kimber Natvig are slated to commission and earn their bachelor's degrees in 2025 and 2027, respectively. Catie Natvig expects 15 family members to gather Friday. For her 6 p.m. Saturday graduation from SDSU, seating capacity at the Dacotah Bank Center limits graduates to six tickets per family.

Two faculty members and one graduate student in the School of Communication and Journalism at South Dakota State University received recognition at Central States Communication Association annual conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on April 2-7. Recognized for their contributions to the discipline and excellence in teaching, these awards underscore the student-focused approach to academia in the School of Communication and Journalism.

South Dakota State University's Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering has recently been exploring the viability of automated controlled drainage systems in eastern South Dakota. The systems would allow farmers to maximize the available water and potentially improve their yearly crop yields.

Building on the tradition of past student entries in NASA contests, another group of South Dakota State University engineering students has advanced to the finals of a NASA contest. This year's group of five mechanical engineering students will appear before NASA judges to present their idea and prototype of a rover that can explore rugged and permanently shadowed lunar south pole craters searching for water, ice and other volatiles. They are one of 14 teams nationwide that will be in Cocoa Beach, Florida, June 10-12.

Four undergraduate students in South Dakota State University's Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics attended the American Physical Society's annual meeting March 3-8 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Cole Brown, Gavin Baker, Matthew Wieberdink and Jax Wysong - all physics majors - presented their research on Heusler alloys, with Wieberdink's poster being recognized as an "outstanding presentation" by the American Physical Society. The quartet's research is under the direction of Parashu Kharel, an associate professor of physics in SDSU's College of Natural Sciences.

South Dakota State University student Kaitlyn Preszler conducted research on the relationship between cattle and wildflowers in South Dakota.

South Dakota State University engineering students used down-to-earth knowledge to design an out-of-this-world lunar transport vehicle which won them a NASA-sponsored contest. The SDSU team was one of 15 teams selected as a finalist in NASA'S Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts - Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition. Finalists were grouped in four categories. SDSU was one of four universities chosen as finalists in the Lunar Surface Transporter Vehicle category along with Maryland, Texas and Virginia Tech.

South Dakota State University has pulled out another national championship-this one in the field of quarter-scale tractors. While the football team grabbed a lot of attention with its first-ever Football Championship Series national title in January, the students on the quarter-scale tractor team brought home national honors for the second year in a row and third time in the past five years. They were competing in the International Quarter-Scale Tractor Student Design Competition organized by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, which held the annual contest June 1-4 at the Expo Gardens Fairgrounds in Peoria, Illinois.

Tackling a complicated bridge-building project with an inexperienced crew, a group of civil engineering students from South Dakota State University figured out how to span the Sweetwater River near San Diego and qualified for a national competition. The American Society of Civil Engineers began the student steel bridge competition in 1987, challenging student teams to develop a scale-model steel bridge to fit a given hypothetical environment. Each team must determine how to design and fabricate a bridge and then plan for an efficient assembly under timed construction at a competition. Bridges are then load-tested and weighed. SDSU students competed in the Mid-America Student Symposium at Kansas State University in Manhattan April 15, finishing third and qualifying for nationals in San Diego June 2-3.

Five mechanical engineering students at South Dakota State University had their project selected for the finals of a NASA contest, meaning all three of the department's entries in three different NASA contests have advanced to the finals. "This honor again reflects the solid skills our students are gaining and the dedication of our students and faculty to pursue student success beyond the classroom walls," Yucheng Liu, head of the SDSU Department of Mechanical Engineering, said.

Engineering students at South Dakota State University pedaled their way to a third-place finish in the national e-Human Powered Vehicle Challenge at Liberty University, Forest, Virginia. The contest is sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and attracted 15 teams. The University of Central Florida won with 51.23 points while Missouri University of Science and Technology was second with 46.49 points. SDSU's 44.54 points edged the University of Wisconsin-Madison (44.50). Scoring is in two parts-design and endurance racing. SDSU finished first in design and ninth in racing.

For the second year in a row and the fourth time in school history, the best student chapter nationwide of the American Society of Civil Engineers belongs to South Dakota State University. "I was so ecstatic to hear that we had won again and a little bit surprised," said Rachel Zook, the 2022 president of the chapter and its 2021 vice president. Chapter adviser Zach Gutzmer, a lecturer in the civil engineering department at SDSU, made the announcement to the chapter's officer team April 17, but the formal presentation of the Ridgway Award won't be until this fall.

SDSU doctoral student Andrew Simpson has been chosen as one of 22 students to present his poster at the Joint Statistical Meeting of the American Statistical Association in Toronto Aug. 5-10. It is the largest gathering of statisticians and data scientists in North America with nearly 7,000 attendees, including 1,000 students. His adviser, Semhar Michael, an associate professor of statistics at SDSU, said, "The student paper competition is a big part of this conference and, to my knowledge, this is the first time an SDSU student has been selected."

More often than not, the story about how someone figured out what they want to do-with their life or their career-is quite interesting. When a person is passionate about what they do, the "how I got to where I am" can even be inspiring.

From Galileo to Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein, physics has been dominated by people who were set apart from their contemporaries. For South Dakota State University physics majors Gavin Baker and Jax Wysong, it is undergraduate research that has set them apart from their contemporaries. In March, they shared their undergraduate research with those gathered at the mass meeting of the American Physical Society in Las Vegas. It is an international gathering with more than 10,000 participants. Their research on Heusler alloys was undertaken at the direction of associate professor Parashu Kharel, who has National Science Foundation funding for the work.

The sports and recreation management program is relatively young, compared to other programs at SDSU, but has seen exponential growth in recent years. The undergraduate program has grown by 86% while the graduate program has grown by 367%.

Ellie Balken, a South Dakota State University pharmacy student, has received a couple major recognitions from the nation's largest and oldest association of pharmacists in the United States. Balken, of Dilworth, Minnesota, was one of four students to receive the Student Leadership Award from the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists and one of six students chosen for its National Standing Committee. In addition, she and another SDSU student will give a presentation at the association's annual meeting in Phoenix March 24-27.

What goes up must come down. That is the interesting dilemma for a group of South Dakota State University engineering students whose project has been selected as one of six finalists in a NASA competition. The six senior mechanical engineering majors entered NASA's FLOATing DRAGON Challenge. That's NASA's simplified title for the Formulate, Lift, Observe, And Testing; Data Recovery And Guided On-board Node (FLOATing DRAGON) Balloon Challenge.

A cohort of six South Dakota State University Indigenous undergraduate students honored "place" through a series of performances at the National Communication Association Annual Conference. The theme for the national conference, held Nov. 17-20 in New Orleans, was "Honoring PLACE: People, Liberation, Advocacy, Community and Environment."

Madison Fitch, a senior at South Dakota State University, will show state legislators the need for palliative care services for Native Americans in rural communities when she heads to the Capitol next month. Fitch, a Rapid City native majoring in nursing, is one of two SDSU undergraduates who will showcase their research in front of South Dakota lawmakers. Fitch and Jay Holm will travel to Pierre on Feb. 7 for the 2023 South Dakota Student Research Poster Session.

Nick Grote became only the second South Dakota State University student selected to participate in an elite group that toured Israel during Christmas break. Grote, a 2021 graduate of Aberdeen Central High School and a junior business economics major, was one of 70 U.S. college students chosen for the Jewish National Fund's Caravan for Democracy. The all-expense paid, 10-day (Dec. 27-Jan. 7) trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Grote said.