College names Future Innovators of America

Selections for the fifth class of Future Innovators of America Fellowships have been announced by the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering.  

The six recipients and the department which selected them are:  

• Ethen Lincoln, construction and concrete industry management 
• Trevor Johnson, Cesar Saavedra and Keegan Sigl, all civil engineering
• Mrabet Edam and Jacob York, both mechanical engineering 

Recipients are awarded $5,000 with $4,500 as a stipend and $500 to cover the cost of lab supplies or travel to disseminate the results of their projects.  

The fellowships were created to provide unique research opportunities for undergraduate students in the college. Any student is eligible to apply as long as they are attending full time and have a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Application deadline was Nov. 5.  

Each student worked with a potential project mentor, who must be a faculty or research staff member, to develop and submit a research plan that entails learning by doing.  

Projects that 2026-27 recipients will focus on are:  

• Lincoln, a junior civil engineering major from Sioux Falls, is working under Phuong Nguyen, an assistant professor in construction and concrete industry management, on “Systematic Analysis of State Highway Design Manuals for Federal Highway Administration's Proven Safety Countermeasures.”

The project is to determine how states have implemented the countermeasures and be able to make recommendations as to best practices.

• Johnson, a junior from Sioux Falls, is working under Arita Banerjee, an assistant Professor in civil engineering, on “Wicking Geotextiles for Mitigating Freeze–Thaw Effects in Pavement Systems.”

Johnson is investigating how freezing and thawing affects soils beneath roadways and pavement. 

He said, “Currently most of my work is to assist with developing tests to study cryosuction, the process of water migrating to the freezing zones within soil, and to study how different salinity levels within soils affect the cryosuction process and soil behaviors during freezing and thawing.

“As this research continues, I will also have the opportunity to contribute to a directly related project that investigates wicking geotextiles, a specialized fabric designed to remove excess moisture and improve pavement performance in freeze-thaw conditions.”

• Saavedra, a senior from Panama City, Panama, is working under Akram Jawdhari, an assistant professor in civil engineering, on “Shear Strengthening of Reinforced Concrete Beams Using Prefabricated C-FRCM Jackets.”

His research is to investigate the effectiveness of prefabricated carbon fabric-reinforced cementitious matrix jackets as an alternative to traditional strengthening methods. By prefabricating these jackets, the project aims to improve installation quality, reduce construction time, and provide more consistent structural performance. Through experimental testing, the research seeks to evaluate improvements in shear capacity, cracking behavior and overall structural performance. 

• Sigl, a senior from Sioux Falls, is working under Jawdhari on “Carbon-Fiber Reinforced Polymer Rod Panels.”

Sigl’s research explores the bond relationship between CFRP and traditional mortar, as well as ultra-high performance concrete and CFRP rods in the hopes of possibly replacing epoxy with traditional mortar in these applications. Epoxy is used to bond CFRP rods into a panel. However, epoxy is a relatively expensive organic material, its application requires strict safety precautions and it performs poorly under hot temperatures.

• Edam, a sophomore from Tunisia, is working under Shabbir Ahmed, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering, on “Drone Controlled by a Microcontroller Under Disturbances.”

A microcontroller-controlled drone uses a small onboard chip that reads its sensors, calculates corrections with a program and drives the motors directly to stay stable. The study tests whether the whole stabilization system works as designed, including whether the microcontroller runs the control loop on time. The study also measures how well the drone holds its angle under disturbances like wind or an off-center weight.

• York, a junior from Brookings, is working under Solaiman Tarafder, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering, on “3D-printed Collagen Scaffolds.”

His research investigates eggshell particles as mineralizing agents in collagen scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Specifically, he is developing artificial bone grafts designed to deliver stem cells to defect sites, evaluating how incorporated eggshell particles alter the mechanical integrity and biocompatibility of the scaffold. 

Because eggshells are predominantly calcium carbonate, combining them with collagen more closely mimics native mineralized bone architecture, potentially offering a cost-effective alternative for defect repair.