����vlog����

The South Dakota State University Department of Natural Resource Management invites the public to attend its 2026 International Year of Rangeland and Pastoralists seminar. All are welcome to attend the event on Friday, April 17, at McCrory Gardens in Brookings.

South Dakota State University professor Tyler Miller is the newly appointed director of the School of Psychology, Sociology and Rural Studies. He joined the SDSU faculty in 2012 after earning his Ph.D. in experimental cognitive psychology from Texas A&M University. Miller’s appointment will officially begin in June 2026.

Two engineering graduates who have become pioneers in their field of expertise will be honored as Distinguished Engineers by the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering at South Dakota State University April 28. Selected as the 2026 Distinguished Engineers are Kent Klemme and Steve Warntjes.

Graduate students make up about 10% of the student population across more than 100 master’s degree and Ph.D. programs and specializations and 23 graduate certificate programs offered at South Dakota State University. Each graduate student is immersed in research and scholarship with the support of their advisor and the Graduate School staff. April 6-10 is Graduate Student Appreciation Week, a great opportunity to highlight a few graduate students at SDSU and the work they are accomplishing.

The Drone Club at South Dakota State University is hosting its fourth annual Drone Day on April 17. The event is free and open to the public.

For the fourth year in a row, South Dakota State University has qualified a team to the finals of a prestigious NASA competition — and this year’s team is composed of only freshmen and sophomores. “This is an Aerospace Club team, so none of the students on the team are doing this for any class credit, and we have three sophomores and three freshman,” said faculty adviser Todd Letcher, who will lead the mechanical engineering students to the finals of the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition in Cocoa Beach, Florida, June 2-4.

South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Secretary Hunter Roberts was on campus March 27 to meet with South Dakota State University students participating in ECON 319: Seminar with Industry Leaders.

Industry and academic leaders, startup entrepreneurs, graduate students and researchers convened in Sioux Falls to explore how artificial intelligence is transforming critical sectors and industries. Artificial intelligence is transforming nearly every sector of society, and South Dakota State University's Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering is leading critical conversations on the role AI is playing in reshaping industries key to South Dakota, the region and the United States. Over 400 industry and academic leaders, startup entrepreneurs, graduate students and researchers congregated on March 27 in Sioux Falls' Sanford Event Barn for the university's first Innovate AI Symposium.

Mathematicians like Michael Puthawala are few and far between. Thanks to a National Science Foundation program, the SDSU assistant professor was able to get better acquainted with a similar mathematician 6,000 miles away. Through a joint program between the National Science Foundation, the primary U.S. agency for funding fundamental science research, and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, the counterpart agency in Japan, Puthawala was able to spend the first six weeks of this year in Japan. He spent extensive time with colleague Takashi Furuya of Doshisha University and was able to meet future potential collaborators as well as open doors for potential regular visits.

Claire Mooney’s journey from her Yankton home to her college home at South Dakota State University in Brookings has been filled with career-defining side trips. Today the civil engineering major is just weeks away from graduation, which will be followed by another adventure—studying coastal engineering at Oregon State University. The fact that she is even going to studying in the field is the result of one of her side trips. She came to Brookings with an intention of studying civil engineering, but she didn’t know which branch. Following her freshman year, she and a friend decided to follow the example of her friend’s parent a generation ago. They packed a suitcase and headed to Skagway, Alaska, to work at a restaurant at the cruise ship harbor city. Those three months provided her some good spending money, improved her people skills and showed her where she wanted to focus her civil engineering career.