1South Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research

SD EPSCoR Update

L i n k i n g S o u t h D a k o t a ’ S F u t u r e W i t h S c i e n c e & t e c h n o L o g y

South Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research

Summer 2014

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South Dakota EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Goals:

Photo Active Nanoscale Systems (PANS)Research focused in four Interdisciplinary Research Groups:• Noble-metal-enhanced phosphor and sensor composite materials• Security Printing• Broad-spectrum organic/inorganic photovoltaic materials and devices• PANS Catalysis

Technology-Based Economic Development & Entrepreneurship• Partnering with the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (Department of Tourism & State Development) to promote entrepreneurship• Encourage S&T leadership development• Support technology entrepreneurship education programs

Partner with South Dakota’s Tribal Colleges and Universities• Develop and implement research infrastructure improvements• Increase collaborations with other South Dakota universities• Promote participation in South Dakota’s economic development activities

Outreach Activities• Raise awareness of SD EPSCoR and its contributions to the state• Provide research experiences to Tribal College faculty and students • SD EPSCoR partners with the SD Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the SD Office of Commercialization, and the SD Board of Regents to create entrepreneurship education programs• National science & economic development and entrepreneurship conferences held in South Dakota• Annual Student Research Poster Day held at the Capitol Building in Pierre

The REACH Committee • Provides leadership to SD EPSCoR• Promotes understanding of EPSCoR programs and their impact on our state• Spearheads new policies and resources• Ensures rigorous merit review processes• Generates high levels of collaboration• Keeps EPSCoR responsive to state and regional needs• Develop and implement the state’s first Science and Technology Strategic Development Plan• Expand graduate education• Strengthen interdisciplinary and collaborative research in strategic “niche” areas• Develop the state’s research infrastructure• Support the Governor’s STEM-based economic deveopment initiatives• Members are drawn from South Dakota state government, legislature, higher education and the private sector

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The National Science Foundation (NSF) created the first Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program in 1980. Its success led Congress to expand the program and since 1990 create EPSCoR-like programs in several federal agencies, including: USDA, NIH, DoD, DOE, NASA and EPA.

EPSCoR identifies, develops, and uses a state’s academic science and technology (S&T) resources to support its economic growth and promote a more productive and fulfilling way of life for its citizens. EPSCoR acts on the premise that universities, their science and engineering faculty, and their students are valuable resources that can influence a state’s development in the 21st century. To achieve this goal, NSF collaborates with state leaders in government, higher education, and business to create partnerships that can bring lasting improvements to the state’s academic research infrastructure and increase its national research and development (R&D) competitiveness.

What is EPSCoR?

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation/EPSCoR Grant No. 0903804 and by the State of South Dakota. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

SD EPSCoR Office Staff

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Dr. James A. Rice DirectorKaren Theodosopoulos Project AdministratorMj Powers Program AssistantAndrew Turner Communications OfficerEmma Diercks Communications Intern

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IN THIS ISSUE5 SD EPSCoR awarded $20

million grant 6 Professors from the University of South Dakota receive reseach awards

12 South Dakota universities create research center for security printing10 South Dakota students compete

in world robotics championship

9 South Dakota universities’ professors and graduate student attend research conference8 Science festival engages next

generation scientists

14 South Dakota university building diversity awareness 15 Undergraduates present

summer research

On the cover: 3D micro-computed tomography image of a pouch (from a bustle) containing copper rings. The image was part of a SPACT REU Site authentication project of Native American artifacts developed by Mr. Domingo Tamayo in conjunction with the Heritage Center at Red Cloud School. Courtesy of Jon Kellar (SDSMT). Read the story on page 12.

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SD EPSCoR awarded $20 million grant

The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year $20 million Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-1 grant to the South Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (SD EPSCoR).

The award will bolster South Dakota’s academic research infrastructure, improve education opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and drive economic and workforce development.

SD EPSCoR Project Director Jim Rice says research in STEM-related fields is important for three reasons.

“First, the research that takes place in state universities generates new ideas,” said Rice. “Second, because these ideas are critical to our future well-being, they are competitive for federal grants that bring significant funding to our state. And third, university-based research is performed by graduate and undergraduate students who are trained in problem-solving skills that are essential in today’s workforce.”

Because of the recognition for the need of a STEM-supported economy, SD EPSCoR led the development of the “2020 Vision: The South Dakota Science and Innovation Strategy.” The 2020 Vision proposes a set of South Dakota-specific strategies for strengthening the STEM research infrastructure, creating higher paying jobs and improving STEM education in K-12 and higher education.

According to Rice, one of South Dakota’s greatest STEM research needs is more “idea generators.” This award helps SD EPSCoR address this need by providing funding to establish the “Biochemical Spatio-temporal NeTwork Resource” (BioSNTR) led by South Dakota State University assistant professor Adam Hoppe.

“BioSNTR will support growth in human, plant and animal health and biotechnology businesses using powerful tools that integrate state-of-the-art imaging, computation and cellular manipulation,” Hoppe said.

BioSNTR will apply imaging and molecular biology to predict cell functions, signaling processes and growth factors. Its capacity to map biochemical molecular circuitry will advance the science and technology of high-yield crop production, and

cellular mechanisms that affect human and animal health.“Our main goal is to create the infrastructure to catalyze

innovation and discovery in bioscience and biotechnology,” said Hoppe.

BioSNTR plans to hire up to 12 new faculty members at South Dakota colleges and universities and will also provide research opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students. Faculty and students will receive support from SD EPSCoR through the RII Track-1 grant. This effort should allow BioSTNR to reach its goal of improving STEM education in the state.

“The key to strong and dynamic higher education programs is faculty who are actively involved in the discoveries that are advancing their disciplines,” said Rice. “These individuals are the idea generators who build research and educational programs around basic and applied STEM research questions that turn these ideas into something real.”

The grant plans to add a new doctorate program in biochemistry and expand three other doctorate programs in nanoscience, biomedical engineering, and computational science.

SD EPSCoR also focuses on building collaboration between public, private and tribal colleges and universities, state government and businesses across the state. These collaborations help support the state’s economic and workforce development.

“It also works to build partnerships between higher education, the private sector and state government to align our efforts so that the ideas coming out of university-based research contribute to state economic development priorities and the students that are graduated from these programs are ready to fill the jobs that are created as a result,” said Rice.

SD EPSCoR was established in 1985 and received its first award in 1989 for $1.8 million. In the last five years, SD EPSCoR and EPSCoR-like programs have brought more than $55 million of research funding into the state used to help hire new faculty, purchase major pieces of research equipment, train graduate and undergraduate students, and strengthen STEM programs in higher education.

For more information, contact Andrew Turner at 605-688-6231 or Andrew.Turner@sdstate.edu.

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Professors from the University of South Dakota receive research awards

Two professors from the University of South Dakota received Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to financially support their research and outreach events.

Haoran Sun and Zhenqiang Wang of USD received NSF CAREER awards, which support junior faculty over five years to build foundations for a lifetime of leadership in research, education and the incorporation of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

Sun was awarded $418,357 for a five-year period. His research focuses on the creation and assembly of synthetic fluorinated molecules for low cost, stable and high performance organic semiconductor devices for next generation electronics. Organic semiconductor devices consist of organic materials able to conduct and control electronic signals.

“With this research we’ll be solving the important problems in flexible optoelectronics, the combined use of electronics and light,” Sun said. “We’ll be looking at the stability and performance problem.”

The research will answer a fundamental question in developing the next generation’s high performance organic semiconductor materials by discovering how to design artificial molecules able to assemble into desired functional materials, said Sun.

A fundamental understanding of weak intermolecular interactions is expected to have impact on new organic functional materials design and to assist new drug designs. The materials may also be used in energy storage and biomedical imaging as used in MRIs, said Sun.

This research project has been integrated into the advance organic chemistry courses taught by Sun at USD for the past four years.

“The results from the course helped to further strengthen the proposed research,” said Sun.

Sun said the research has trained students in the skills they’ll need after graduation by learning hands-on skills to complete the research project.

A vital part of Sun’s goal is to create outreach events for children and high school students to help them get involved in research. Sun and his research group plan to work with local schools to organize

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educational outreach activities including “Coyote Science Education for Kids” and a “Renewable Energy Workshop.”

“The activities will benefit the society in STEM education and provide new blood into the STEM field,” said Sun.

Sun said these activities will be key to the national economic development and maintain the leading position of the U.S. in economic development by getting students interested in STEM related careers and interested in research.

For Wang there will be $319,253 for a five-year period to fund his research focusing on developing approaches to assemble complex functional architectures from small molecular building blocks by linking cup-shaped structures to create a new enclosed hollow space while maintaining the free voids of the cup-shaped building blocks to create a family of these container molecules and to investigate their properties.

“A fundamental understanding of the properties of this new class of containers could lead to the development of novel materials with applications in many different fields, such as gas separation and water remediation,” said Wang.

Wang said the research provides new projects ranging from new materials synthesis, clean energy technologies, to biomimetic chemistry to students taking advanced undergraduate chemistry.

“Students taking these courses will not only gain hands-on laboratory experience, use state-of-art instrumentation, and be exposed to modern research fields, but also learn communication skills, writing skills, and critical thinking skills,” said Wang

Getting involved with Wang’s research won’t only be furthering students’ understanding of container molecules, but will also be building foundations for future careers.

Wang said he plans to engage Native American students and undergraduates at small primarily undergraduate institutions in his research to promote successful futures in research.

One outreach activity will include onsite hosting of tribal student-faculty research teams and chemistry workshops at regional tribal colleges to engage STEM education to faculty and students.

Another outreach activity will establish

research partnership with primarily undergraduate institutions, which includes onsite hosting of undergraduates and “at-home” support for student-faculty research teams.

“The representation of Native Americans in science and health fields is of critical importance to the state of South Dakota,” said Wang.

According to Wang tribal colleges in the region are typically geographically isolated, have very few offerings in the physical sciences and enroll almost exclusively Native American students.

Wang said the primarily undergraduate institution student population in South Dakota and nearby areas is large, and the pressure for faculty to maintain a vibrant research program in the face of high teaching loads and overcoming the struggles of a constructive structure can be overwhelming. Partnering with these institutions by providing access to research expertise and instrumentation can be an effective approach to engaging both faculty and students in intensive research activities.

“Attracting these students to the STEM field is a rewarding task,” said Wang.

Sun and Wang prepared their proposals by attending CAREER workshops offered

by SD EPSCoR.The CAREER workshop included an

understanding of the NSF CAREER program and hints for developing the proposal.

“The workshop provided direct and interactive feedback on questions related to proposal writing and included a proposal pre-review after the workshop,” said Sun.

Current CAREER awardees helped in the question and answer portion of the workshop to help those writing proposals. A moderator was present to discuss the good and bad points of previously submitted CAREER award proposals.

The workshop provided sample CAREER proposals, a department letter template and sample supporting letters.

When asked if they would recommend the CAREER workshop to other faculty both Sun and Wang replied, “Absolutely.”

Zhenqiang Wang (right) and his students examined newly-synthesized supercontainer molecules. Courtesy of Zhenqiang Wang (USD).

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Sanford Health hosted the 3rd annual “It’s All About Science” Festival June 14 at the Sanford Research Center in Sioux Falls, S.D., to encourage children to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers using interactive science experiments.

Approximately 3,500 children from the surrounding area attended the all-day festival promoting STEM education with more than 50 hands-on activities, demonstrations, and exhibits.

The science festival exposed children to the changing world they live in. They learned about different subjects including population growth, the way their bodies work, and factors affecting our world like wastewater, ocean acidification, and pollution.

“We’re dumping a huge problem on our children today,” said June Thormodsgard of the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center. “They

need to know how to protect and feed a growing population.”

Thormodsgard said our future generations need to know how to maintain a sustainable earth. The science festival was a good opportunity for children to become aware and take interest in their world.

The organizations represented at the science fair also want children to know about the future of science and hope they take an interest in it when deciding on a future career.

“There are so many career opportunities that children don’t know about,” said Reid Christopherson, the executive director of the South Dakota Wheat Commission.

Christopherson, along with the South Dakota State University Health and Nutritional Sciences Department, hosted a booth at the festival educating children about careers in food science.

Rebecca Weicht, a student with the University of South Dakota Women in

Science booth, said children don’t often know about STEM-based careers because they aren’t often exposed to them.

“There isn’t enough promotion or interest in science for children,” said Weicht.

The USD Women in Medicine and Science find it important to reach out to youth with interactive activities to excite them about careers in medicine because children sometimes forget how fun science can be while they are in school.

The science festival had 58 organizations from all over the state gathered to introduce children to the world of science and possible career choices.

The festival included interactive performances titled “Doktor Kaboom!” by David Epley and “Bubbleology” by Keith Michael Johnson, which introduced children to the wonders of scientific exploration and taught them about the science of bubbles respectively. SD EPSCoR sponsored both performances.

Science festival engages the next generation of scientists

Ben Odlend, 8, learns how wheat gets turned into pasta.Children learning the science of creating foam bubbles at the Children’s Museum of South Dakota booth.

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Three faculty members and a graduate student from the South Dakota Photo Active Nanoscale Systems (PANS) Research Project attended the 2014 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) in Lucca, Italy May 4-9.

The PANS Research Group involves faculty, research staff and graduate and undergraduate students from Augustana College, Black Hills State University, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, South Dakota State University and the University of South Dakota.

Grigoriy Sereda, a chemistry professor at USD, Brian Logue, a chemistry professor at SDSU and Dimitris Anagnostou, an electrical and computer engineer professor from SDSMT were PANS faculty researchers invited to participate in the “Electronic Processes in Organic Materials” GRC. Dayton Vogel, a graduate student at USD, working with Sereda also attended.

These researchers are working to reach the PANS goals by doing research to create new devices able to address research challenges associated with solar energy, direct-write electronics, the use of nanostructured materials for converting solar energy into chemical fuels and converting solar radiation into electricity.

Sereda, Logue and Vogel had research posters accepted for presentation during poster sessions held in the evenings.

A GRC provides an opportunity for scientists with common research interests to come together for a week of discussion and examination of aspects of the “state of the art” in their field as an approach to share information and ideas. Participation in a GRC is by invitation only to a select group of scientists. At the conference the PANS researchers had the opportunity to talk with research experts and sit in on their discussions.

“I learned several cutting edge concepts from the leading experts in this field,” said Sereda.

Anagnostou said he learned about materials able to direct-write printable transistors, sensors, and their different applications. These materials could be used

to make organic electronics in labs at South Dakota universities.

The PANS members had the opportunity to meet with professors and researchers from other universities to talk about their experiences and learn how they work and present their results. Anagnostou said the speakers were great researchers and have influenced him to reach to their levels in his future research.

“I was able to make a number of connections with both students and faculty from universities both of high prestige and from around the world,” said Vogel.

The connections made at the GRC resulted in research with others who attended the conference.

“Some of the contacts we made at the GRC might help establish new collaborations,” Anagnostou said.

Anagnostou and Logue took first steps in starting on a project together immediately after the GRC.

“We sketched out a few ideas on the bus ride back to the airport,” said Logue.

Logue said he and Anagnostou are currently doing laboratory experiments

with graduate students and students in the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates program on platform technology able to detect many chemicals inspired by a presentation at the GRC. They expect the results to pave the way for future projects.

SD EPSCoR supported the travel expenses to the GRC for Sereda, Anagnostou, Logue and Vogel after they were accepted to participate in the conference.

“This conference was one of the best experiences I have ever had at a conference event,” Anagnostou said.

South Dakota professors and graduate student attend Gordon Research Conference

This conference was one of the best experiences I have ever had at a conference event.

Dimitris AnagnostouSDSMT

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Two teams from South Dakota high schools competed in the 2014 VEX Robotics World Championship April 23-26 in Anaheim, Calif.

Teams from Harrisburg High School and the Sioux Falls Career and Technical Education (CTE) Academy qualified to compete in the world championship after winning awards at the South Dakota State VEX Robotics Competition.

Each year the VEX Robotics Game Design Committee creates an engineering challenge game where students build robots designed to earn the most possible points.

This year’s game was called “Toss Up.” The game consisted of 28 large and small balls on a 12-foot by 12-foot field. The teams developed two-team alliances and worked together to push the balls into the scoring area while attempting to prevent the opposing alliance from scoring.

VEX Robotics gives students an opportunity to take part in an engineering

based project to learn basic engineering skills

“It was much harder than I expected. There are many parts of the robot able to go wrong during a tournament and many obstacles to overcome when designing and building a complex robot,” said Rilyn Fox, an 8th grader from Harrisburg High School.

The robots couldn’t exceed 18 cubic inches. They also needed to be programmed to score the most points possible, first without the use of controls for 15 seconds. Then the students were allowed to control the robots for one minute and 45 seconds. Fox said it was challenging to program the robot to complete the autonomous part.

Students also learned how to solve problems and to form alliances with teams from other schools to achieve their goals.

“The students were driven but still willing to help each other. They had ‘never quit’ attitudes,” said Ray Tracy, the South Dakota

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South Dakota students compete in world robotics championship

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VEX Robotics co-coordinator.When they created alliances, students

from other teams worked together for the first time to develop the best strategy for the competition.

The students got the base kits for their robots in the fall, Tracy said. He traveled to the schools to deliver the kits and showed the students how to use them. VEX also provided instructions for a claw bot, which can be used for every challenge.

“Our team did not use this design, but in the end the robot looked similar to it,” Fox said.

The students were free to design their own robots with assistance from their coaches and teachers. Students recorded their designs in an engineering notebook to keep track of the changes they made.

Students first competed in preliminary scrimmages held at their schools in November. Scrimmages were held in Harrisburg, Mitchell, and Groton, Tracy

said.“Our team did very well in all the

tournaments. The further we got into the season the more my confidence grew because we made many adjustments and improvements to our robot making it a worthy opponent by the end of the year,” Fox said.

After competing, the students recorded what went well and what needed to be done for redesign before the state tournament.

The Vex Robotics State Tournament was held March 8 at the Sioux Falls CTE Academy in Sioux Falls, SD. Harrisburg High School won the judges award for having a well-designed robot able to score the most points and for being able to work well with other teams. A team from the Sioux Falls CTE Academy won the design award for having a good design and a good engineering notebook.

“I felt proud of my team. It was a great feeling to be the best in the state and

compete at the international competition,” Fox said.

The two teams won the opportunity to represent South Dakota and were two of 700 teams from 400 VEX Robotics Tournaments who participated at the VEX Robotics World Championship.

“We didn’t do so well during the matches, but it was a cool thought to play against and learn from the best in the world,” Fox said.

The students met people from other schools and were able to see what others did to achieve the goals of the game.

“It was a fantastic opportunity to do this, and I am extremely grateful I can compete next year,” Fox said.

Students like Fox are able to continue to compete in VEX Robotics Tournaments through the support of SD EPSCoR. SD EPSCoR is funded by the National Science Foundation EPSCoR grant No. 0903804.

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South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, South Dakota State University, and the University of South Dakota have developed a new collaborative research center for Security Printing and Anti-Counterfeiting Technology (SPACT).

The SPACT Center is a byproduct of Photo Active Nanoscale Systems (PANS) Research Group, which is working to connect participants to expand research opportunities, educate and train science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students across South Dakota and communicate the importance of STEM to society through funding from SD EPSCoR’s NSF Research Infrastructure Improvement Track 1 award.

The three universities will develop new partnerships with faculty in many fields and create new research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students through the SPACT Center.

The goal of the research for SPACT is to develop new anti-counterfeiting technologies for pharmaceuticals and consumer products based on unique printing and identification of their source.

Their research includes the creation of non-toxic fluorescent inks that can be used to print QR codes invisible

in ambient lighting but readable with a smartphone app.

According to the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, counterfeited goods are costing U.S. businesses more than $200 billion each year. The research from the SPACT Center are a set of technologies that can be used to print tracking labels on pharmaceuticals, techniques to determine the authenticity of pharmaceuticals, print hidden markings and labels to track the security of items during their shipment.

A Research and Development Collaboration Grant, from by the South Dakota Board of Regents, enables the SPACT Center to provide SDSMT, SDSU, and USD with the ability to collaborate on their findings and share their information together.

“I didn’t know any of the scientists from other universities across the state when we started our collaborations and to say I am impressed would be a great understatement,” said Antonette Logar, a math and computer science professor at SDSMT. “South Dakota is blessed with some incredibly brilliant faculty members.”

Logar said technology has played a big part in collaborating among the three universities through the use of file sharing, Skype and the Access Grid, an audio and video based collaboration tool

South Dakota universities create research center for security printing

Optomec aerosol-jet printer in the Direct-Write Laboratory at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Courtesy of Jon Kellar (SDSMT).

Sierra Rasmussen (2013 SPACT REU Site) showing quick response code/antenna printed with an aero-sol jet printer. Courtesy of Jon Kellar (SDSMT).

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between groups of people in different locations.

Much of this collaboration provides partnerships with faculty specializing in physical sciences, informatics and engineering. These faculty members are creating cyber-enabled security and working with undergraduate design teams to develop security applications.

“The next generation of anti-c ou nte r fe i t i ng technologies will undoubtedly be cyber-enabled,” said Jon Kellar, a professor of materials and m e t a l l u r g i c a l engineering at SDSMT and lead investigator of the SPACT Center.

Kellar said the collaboration with these faculty ensure the security-end products can connect to the Internet.

Randy Hoover, an electrical and computer engineering professor at SDSMT, is one of many professors researching security options. He is looking into methods for secure encoding and decoding of

identification into multi-layered QR codes.

“My contributions have aided in the research by bringing the cyber-side to the physical implementation and fundamental research,” said Hoover.

Hoover said collaboration with the SPACT team is essential for the research to take place and to accomplish their goals.

The faculty specializing in human behaviors also has the opportunity to collaborate on the SPACT Center. The research focuses on the interactions among humans and other elements to improve the overall system performance of the security provided by SPACT.

“The goal of this partnership is to help researchers appreciate the ‘human factors’ associated with how the public views

security and how we can use that understanding to help with developing relevant security-end products,” said Kellar.

Julie Yingling, a professor of sociology at SDSU, has researched answers to questions on how producers and consumers would view the security printing the SPACT Center is creating and what makes somebody want to counterfeit a product.

The SPACT Center not only offers opportunities to professors for SPACT training and research but also for undergraduate and graduate students. These opportunities allow student and faculty to broaden their expertise beyond their core studies.

These students receive the opportunity to take part in creating a marketable device through their research by specializing in a specific study.

Julian Brackins, an undergraduate at SDSMT, is working with a team to design a smartphone reader able to read QR codes when made readable with a near-IR laser. Brackins’s role is to design a QR reader phone application allowing the

user to control the camera’s aperture, focus, and shutter speed. His project includes making the phone app able to control the near-IR laser.

Fredrick Ochieng, a graduate student at SDSU, is working to find what is used to make up different pharmaceuticals and to develop fast isotope ratio MS (FIRMS) as an analytical technique to measure isotope ratios to identify the source of chemical components of pharmaceuticals.

“There were billions of dollars worth of drugs being counterfeited every year,” Ochieng said. “What drives me to do this research is knowing I’m contributing to something that saves lives.”

The faculty and students working for the SPACT Center understand the importance of collaborating in different areas on this project to positively affect the lives of people.

“Without these partnerships there wouldn’t be SPACT,” Kellar said. “The partnerships are one of our hallmarks.”

Security printing of fluorescein ink (under UV light) on pharmaceutic tablets. Courtesy of Brian Logue (SDSU) and Jamie Kern (2013 SPACT REU Site).

South Dakota is blessed with some incredibly brilliant faculty members.

Antonette LogarSDSMT

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Esther Bolding, the NSF Engineering REU Site Program Manager spoke at the South Dakota Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Shimara Gunawardana, a senior at South Dakota State University, presenting her research on Native American Juneberries.

The finalists from the South Dakota Undergraduate Research Symposium poster sessions. Left to right: (back row) Jason Zellmer, Spencer Duncan, Jack Ryan, David Langerman (front row) Shimara Gunawardana, Zackary Shulte, Emily Byers, Hayley Naasz. David Langerman and Shimara Gunawardana won best overall awards.

The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology is implementing programs aimed at increasing diversity and inclusion for new and current employees and students.

The SD EPSCoR Diversity Task Force awards allow for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-based faculty to build educational pathways for members of underrepresented groups.

SD EPSCoR funded a $10,000 project proposal submitted by the SDSMT Diversity Task Force award. According to Jesse Herrera, the principal investigator and the director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at SDSMT, the project was primarily funded by SD EPSCoR with cost-share provided through various campus departments including Human Resources, Multicultural Affairs, the Office of the Provost, the Dean of Students Office and the Business Office.

“By intending to take measures to increase overall campus inclusivity, our campus will benefit by establishing a comfortable, welcoming and appealing work environment for current faculty and staff as well as prospective employees,” said Herrera.

Herrera believes taking steps toward empowering faculty to increase campus inclusivity will set the tone for the campus.

The project began in January 2014 and took the entire spring semester to implement, so there haven’t been any new programs developed on the campus yet.

“Whenever one works with diversity and inclusion, building a foundation takes much time,” Herrera said. “It could be years before there is significant change in the campus climate.”

According to Herrera, it takes time for any institution or organization to build a change toward an emotionally and politically sensitive topic like diversity.

Herrera said the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Human Resources Department hope to develop programs this coming fall.

South Dakota university building diversity awareness

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Undergraduates present summer research

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Undergraduate students participating in the Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) programs at South Dakota’s public, private, and tribal universities gathered in Pierre, S.D. July 25 to present their summer research at the South Dakota Undergraduate Research Symposium.

The REU program, established by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1986, offers undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in a ten-week research experience where they conduct research alongside university faculty.

More than 100 undergraduate and two high school students from South Dakota public, private and tribal colleges and universities participating in the REU program presented at the symposium. This year’s symposium was the first time all South Dakota REUs have had a joint poster session.

Awards were given to the first and second place presenters for the engineering and science divisions of the two poster sessions. The first place winners receiving $100 were Jason Zellmer, Shimara Gunawardana, David Langerman and Hayley Naasz. The second place winners receiving $50 were Jack Ryan, Zackary Schulte, Emily Byers, and Duncan Spencer. Two plaque awards were given to David Langerman and Shimara Gunawardana as the overall winners in the poster sessions.

South Dakota institutions usually have their own closing ceremonies according to Michael West, the department head of materials and metallurgical engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

“We asked ourselves, ‘instead of having our own closing poster session, why don’t we have a joint poster session with all the institutions?’” West said.

The South Dakota REU directors wanted undergraduate students’ poster sessions to simulate professional research conferences. With only a few students in an REU at separate institutions, it was hard for them to attain the experience.

“It benefited the students to see what’s going on in the state in research programs rather than just in their own programs,” said Esther Bolding, the NSF’s Engineering REU Site Program Manager.

West said the goal was to have a bigger venue, more collaboration between the institutions and better research exposure for the students.

When approaching Jim Rice, the SD EPSCoR director, about the idea, West said Rice thought the symposium was exactly the kind of program SD EPSCoR wants to support because it builds partnerships among institutions, faculty and students in the state’s colleges and universities.

“We wouldn’t have been able to put on the symposium without the support of SD EPSCoR,” West said.

SD EPSCoR hosted the South Dakota Undergraduate Research Symposium while coordinating with the REU site directors and provided accommodations for REU participants.

Students were given the opportunity to meet with representatives from graduate schools at South Dakota universities to discuss their plans and talk about the possibilities of furthering their education in the state.

“It’s great to have the graduate schools here to talk to the students about what’s going on in the state,” West said.

Attending graduate school in South Dakota allows students to stay in the state and take part in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-related research at South Dakota universities.

“Each student has something to bring to the table,” Bolding said. “The professors have done a tremendous job.”

Bolding was one of the guest speakers at the symposium along with Kathryn Johnson, a member of the South Dakota Board of Regents, and Mary Berry, the Interim Vice President for Research at the University of South Dakota.

More than 100 students presented research posters at the South Dakota Undergraduate Research Symposium held at the Best Western Ramkota Conference Center in Pierre, S.D. on July 25.

2301 Research Park WaySuite 157Brookings, SD 57006