News at SDState

Navya Joy, a South Dakota State University doctoral student in electrical engineering, is working on a research project that could radically change how medical laboratory testing is done. She is working on a project with Sungyong Jung, head of the McComish Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, that could replace conventional, large-scale medical laboratory instrumentation with a computer board as small as a credit card. This miraculous device, called an all-in-one electroanalytical device, can also be modified for environmental monitoring, food safety assessment and agricultural analysis. “By enabling on-site testing at the point of need, it eliminates the reliance on centralized laboratory facilities for sample analysis,” said Joy, who joined Jung’s lab in January 2025. She is one of 17 Future Scholars of America, a program created in fiscal year 2025 by the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering

On the afternoon of March 13, just before spring break began, Todd Letcher, associate professor of mechanical engineering, was notified that all three of the SDSU teams he oversees had qualified for the finals of the Gateways to Blue Skies competition, which is managed by the National Institute of Aerospace on behalf of NASA.

Natalie Sturm first learned about the Dakota Lakes Research Farm as part of an undergraduate cropping systems class. She was so inspired she emailed the farm manager, Dwayne Beck, asking if he was hiring. Now, six years after the initial email and four years after completing her master’s degree by conducting research on the farm, Sturm is returning as the new manager of the Dakota Lakes Research Farm.

From health care to agriculture to education, artificial intelligence is reshaping the modern world, and college graduates must have the skills, knowledge and tools to meet the challenges and demands AI presents across nearly every industry. To ensure its graduates are ready to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven world, South Dakota State University has announced the establishment of the Center for AI Innovation and Emergent Technologies.

The 2026 Midwest American Society of Animal Science Annual Meeting was held March 8-11 in Omaha, Nebraska, bringing together researchers and students from 12 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. “Faculty and students from South Dakota State University were highly successful at the Midwest ASAS Annual Meeting, showcasing the strength of the university’s teaching, research and extension programs,” said John Jaeger, Calvin and Mary Hayenga Endowed Department Head of Animal Science.

Researchers in South Dakota State University's Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering are developing algorithms that allow artificial intelligence to gather meaning from images and other data sources in support of technological advancement and scientific discovery.

Researchers in South Dakota State University's Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence utilized satellite data to better understand how destructive wildfires swept through Los Angeles in January 2025.  

The Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering at South Dakota State University will host the Innovate AI 2026 Symposium, a one-day convening of leaders from academia, industry, government and the startup ecosystem to explore how artificial intelligence is transforming critical sectors of regional and national importance.

Research is the engine behind innovation, commercialization and economic growth across nearly every industry. At South Dakota State University, that innovation doesn’t stop in the lab; it goes to work. In this episode, we explore how a single research idea can become a commercial product with real regional and global impact.

Srinivas Janaswamy, associate professor in South Dakota State University’s Department of Dairy and Food Science, has been named to the Stanford/Elsevier Top 2% Scientists List for 2025.