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Human Powered Vehicle Challenge Story
by: Dave Graves
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. Scoring is in two parts—design and endurance racing. SDSU finished first in design and ninth in racing. The design was based on one used by past SDSU teams and then tweaked for this year’s vehicle, which was dubbed Thunder Jack, according to Jack Koester, team captain and a first-year student in the mechanical engineering graduate program.
Seniors from five majors with the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering showed off a year’s worth of hard work and innovation at the annual Engineering Expo April 26, held for the second year at the Raven Precision Agriculture Center. Forty-five projects, the work of 173 students, filled the center’s east entryway, the atrium, second-floor hallway and high-bay fabrication lab. These capstone projects were submitted by students majoring in mechanical, electrical, civil, agricultural and biosystems engineering and computer science.
First place went to Artemis Navigating Transporter System, a NASA project with Todd Letcher, an associate professor in mechanical engineering, serving as adviser. The mechanical engineering students designed a robotic forklift system to manipulate heavy cargo on the lunar surface for a NASA contest. Their entry was one of 15 to qualify for the finals of the national contest in Cocoa Beach, Florida, June 12-14. From there, two will be selected for a future presentation. Team members are Liam Murray, Omaha, Nebraska; Jacob Pettit, Dublin, Ohio; Ben Sobczak, Rapid City; Nick Stegmeier, Sioux Falls; and Elisabeth Timmer, Savante, Aruba. All are seniors graduating May 6.
Placing second was Electric UTV (utility task vehicle), and third place was Raven Wireless Vehicle Controller. Honorable mentions went to South Dakota 28 Bridge Replacement, LD7 Cart Redesign and Vertical Garage Storage.
The College welcomed about 185 high school students and their families. The future Jackrabbits were able to learn about the Expo projects directly from the SDSU students who completed these projects. Assistant Dean Suzette Burckhard welcomed the group and shared the information about the college. They also learned about the admission process, enjoyed the lunch and SDSU ice cream, toured the campus, visited some of the state-of-the art engineering labs, and interacted with students and faculty within the college.
Based on extremely positive feedback about the event, the college is planning to make this a regular event and invite more high school students for the next Jackrabbit Engineering Day.
SDSU Bridge Builders Headed to Nationals
by: Dave Graves
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.
This is the first time since 2019 and only the second time in school history for the bridge-building team to qualify for nationals.
Back- to-Back/ SDSU Civil Engineering Club Tops in Nation
by: Dave Graves
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.
The American Society of Civil Engineers, which is the nation’s oldest engineering society, has presented the award since 1965. It is named after former ASCE national president Robert Ridgway.
Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering had an opportunity to honor its own during the annual awards banquet April 26 in Club 71 at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium. This issue of Engineering Connection takes a look at those five faculty and staff members, including an abbreviated glance at Stephen Gent, who was featured in the April issue. Award presentations were made by Dean Sanjeev Kumar.
