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Description: Mineshaft inspection drone

Sponsor: Sanford Underground Research Facility

Description: This hydraulically lifted cart is intended for use of transporting up to six, 600-pound dewars approximately ¾ of a mile across the Sanford Underground Research Facility premises. Comprised of a solid steel frame and wheel carriages, this cart will be placed on a large wooden platform measuring 12 feet by 8 feet. The overall dimensions of this cart are 4 feet high, 4 feet wide and 12 feet long, and it weighs approximately 3,000 pounds. A Wesco dolly will also be used at the expo for showcasing the functionality of the cart along with two empty dewars for demonstration purposes.

Sponsor: Sanford Underground Research Facility

Description: Currently, lighter-than-air vehicles are steered based on wherever the wind blows the aircraft. Some steering control can be taken back by adjusting the altitude of the lighter-than-air vehicles, which then guides the vehicles into different wind currents. Overall, there is very little control as to where the lighter-than-air vehicles go. The goal of this project is to eliminate these issues by providing a guidance system for lighter-than-air vehicles. We will create a prototype of a stable, closed loop propulsion system for a lighter-than-air vehicle.

Sponsor: Aerostar

Description: Autonomous soil-sampling rover

Sponsor: Jeff Peterson

Description: The Large Remote-Controlled Snowblower combines hydraulic, electric and mechanical power to create a remotely driven and controlled unit equipped with a 42-inch, front-end snowblower and skid steer tracks. With an adaptable base frame, watertight and corrosion resistant electrical components, interchangeable front PTO and hitch points, and constant tractive effort, the operator will be able to safely relocate snow from any surface in any ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ condition.

Sponsor: Letcher Industries

Description: Design and fabrication of a suspension system meeting the requirements for a SAE Baja vehicle. This is installed on Desert Hare Offroad's 2025 competition vehicle.

Description: The primary objective of this project was to establish an ultra-high-performance concrete mix design using materials sourced from close proximity of Brookings to reduce the hauling cost. Mix design efforts consisted of experimenting with various supplementary cementitious materials, reinforcing fibers and their combinations, among other parameters. The testing program mainly focused on achieving the compressive strength of ultra-high-performance concrete. The team followed the standard methods for batching and testing concrete, as well as problem-solving throughout the project.

Description: BDM Rural Water System in Britton needs a new water treatment plant to fulfill the growing water demand of the community. The new water treatment plant withdraws groundwater from nearby wells, and the groundwater has iron and manganese levels exceeding the recommended values for drinking water. The project team designed a pressure filtration system with active media to remove iron and manganese from the raw water for the new water treatment plant. Chlorination was designed to provide adequate disinfection of the finished water. This new water treatment plant will produce high-quality drinking water to meet the future growth of the City of Britton.

Sponsor: Mike Siewert and Matt Erickson

Description: A temporary trestle bridge is needed to be constructed to hold cranes for construction of a new bridge in Oregon City, Oregon. The bridge will improve freight movement and enhance safety by widening the bridge. We analyzed four different types of piles (timber, H-pile, pipe and concrete) and three different sizes for each pile. We analyzed the required depth from the tip resistance and end bearing strength of each pile size. Then, we calculated and compared the material cost, daily output and total cost to find the best solution.

Description: The Persona senior design project tasked the team with designing and integrating a solar system that could power Persona’s directional signs. Persona requires that 80 LED modules be lit for 12 hours off a day’s solar charge. This will eliminate the need for Persona’s customers to connect the signs to grid power, a very costly process. Transitioning to solar powered signage also provides a renewable energy alternative. The design consists of three major components: (1) solar panel(s) to provide power, (2) a charge controller to regulate battery charging and (3) a battery to store the energy.

Sponsor: Persona Inc.

Description: The South ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ Highway 115 roadway, located just north of Sioux Falls, is expected to experience increased congestion and safety challenges that require immediate attention. Different roadway and intersection alternatives were analyzed such as a two-lane roadway, two lane with two-way left turn lane, and a multilane roadway and two-way stop intersections, four-way stop, roundabouts and signalized intersection. The recommended solution is a multilane roadway with roundabouts at key intersections and a signalized intersection at East Dike Place. This approach balances traffic flow, safety and long-term costs, ensuring the corridor meets its needs through 2055 and beyond.

Description: Our team has designed and built a custom hydraulic drivetrain for a 34 horsepower tractor. This system features an electronically controlled variable displacement hydraulic pump, which has allowed for an automatic variable transmission. The system has been extensively tested utilizing a dynamometer and will be utilized for the 2025 International Quarter-Scale Tractor competition this June.

Description: We have worked on creating engineering plans for the rehabilitation of a washed-out earthen embankment dam leading into Lake Alvin for a local producer. The current dam was built insufficiently and has completely washed out, retaining no water currently. We have surveyed the site, discussed goals with the producer, and met with Natural Resources Conservation Service engineers, in addition to utilizing ArcGIS Pro, Winpond and AutoCAD Civil 3D software for this project. Ultimately, we have completed plans for the construction of a dam that meets Natural Resources Conservation Service standards and achieves both the producers' goal for eye appeal and irrigation needs.

Sponsor: Brett Pettigrew

Description: This project is a continuation of a 2023 senior design project aimed at building a teaching aid that was a fully functional scale-version of a modern ag sprayer. This year, the stand has an added air system for wall hookup to recycle the fluid left in the line, drift simulation to allow testing of various nozzles at different wind speeds, onboard tanks, a diaphragm pump, neon liquid tracing dye, a venturi and many other components of a full-size sprayer. Everything onboard is highly visible to be used as a teachable piece.

Sponsor: Nick Ulk

Description: An autonomous electric zero-turn vehicle engineered for precision vineyard pest management. While this project's primary objective is targeted spraying, the platform has been developed with modularity in mind, enabling future integration of additional capabilities such as pruning, harvesting and mowing. The system supports both manual operation via remote control and fully autonomous navigation, leveraging GPS-RTK for high-accuracy path planning and ultrasonic sensors for real-time obstacle detection.

Sponsor: Jerry Natzel

Description: Condon Dairy (Horicon, Wisconsin) is looking for a financially conscious solution that improves its environmental impact while increasing its feed-storage capacity and controlling runoff from the site. The improvements need to adhere to applicable Wisconsin Confined Animal Feeding Operation requirements and Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Practice Standards. This will allow the farm to expand its herd by the anticipated 300 cows, without having to make significant modifications to the facility to meet CAFO requirements when applying for a Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit down the road.

Sponsor: MSA Professional Services Inc.

Description: This project focuses on modernizing the SDSU College of Nursing’s simulation lab medication carts to better prepare nursing students for real clinical environments. The goal is to improve the carts across the Brookings, Sioux Falls and Rapid City locations by adding essential features like digital security, better organization and iPad integration. The current carts lack these tools, limiting their use as effective training equipment. The improved carts, called Dispense Right EDU, are designed to create a more realistic learning experience by supporting digital tools, hands-on training and student engagement while improving usability, learning effectiveness and patient safety.

Sponsor: SDSU College of Nursing and Alyssa Zweifel

Description: 

Sponsor: KBR

Description: An autonomous sprayer designed to spray vineyards. Built on a electric zero turn with a modular design for future use cases.

Sponsor: Aerostar

Description: An autonomous system that will guide a 25-pound payload released from a stratospheric balloon at 65,000 to 75,000 feet to a predetermined landing zone on the ground.

Sponsor: Aerostar

Description: The McComish Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at South ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ State University uses an outdated LAMP stack exit interview system that tracks student information and collects academic experience responses. This system is problematic due to its outdated architecture, causing usability issues, poor scalability and maintainability issues. To modernize the user interface for the system, the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Frontend Team developed a frontend using React, Node and JSX. This redesign creates a dynamic, responsive user interface with better usability, advanced form validation, improved administrative control and reporting.

Sponsor: George Hamer

Description: Small lunar maintenance and servicing rover. A NASA competition.

Sponsor: NASA

Description: The U.S. Highway 202 bridge over South Fork Snake Creek in Faulkton is at the end of its useful service life and needs to be replaced. A hydraulic analysis was conducted using Hydrologic Engineering Center's River Analysis System and StreamStats flood data to determine the water surface profile and flow velocity distribution at the bridge site, followed by a Level 2 bridge scour analysis to predict the abutment, contraction and pier scour depths. The results suggest that moving the bridge piers closer to the banks and deepening the foundations would reduce the risk of scour-induced failure.

Description: A medical assessment vest designed for medium-sized dogs which collects electrocardiogram and cardiorespiratory audio data from the dog and stores the data to an SD card so the information can be easily transferred to a veterinarian. The designed device has an easy-to-use interface for the customer, and the data saved to the SD card will be easy for a veterinarian to read and analyze.

Sponsor: Joe Darrington

Description: Our project began with the challenge of irrigation being restricted during peak power demand due to electricity shut-offs, limiting crop production. To address this, we conducted a detailed economic analysis comparing agricultural yield under power-limited irrigation versus full-time irrigation. Using this data, we determined the optimal solar farm size to ensure continuous irrigation while maximizing return on investment. Our analysis factored in financial incentives, inflation and long-term economic sustainability to develop a solution that best meets our sponsor’s needs.

Sponsor: Nick Sternhagen

Description: The Skunk River runs through Peterson Park near Ames, Iowa, which features water trails and paddling access. Story County Conservation manages the park and wants to connect the trails with a steel bridge for park users and maintenance vehicles. A variety of park impacts were considered throughout the design, resulting in steel as the ideal bridge material. These also posed design and construction limitations due to the river's shape, protecting wildlife and preserving the park's beauty and purpose. With these considerations, we chose a deep truss bridge design that will serve the park well environmentally, socially and economically.

Description: The compact image capture system allows CNH Raven to validate sprayer systems. The company intends to compare pre- and post-spray images of a field to conclude the effectiveness of its systems. The compact image capture system will perform this by containing a camera and display, as well as full telemetry to consistently align a user to a near identical position, regardless of the time in between camera captures.

Sponsor: CNH Raven

Description: The McComish Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at South ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ State University uses an outdated LAMP stack exit interview system that tracks student information and collects academic experience responses. This system is problematic due to its outdated architecture, causing usability issues, poor scalability and maintainability issues. To modernize the user interface for the system, the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Frontend Team developed a frontend using React, Node and JSX. This redesign creates a dynamic, responsive user interface with better usability, advanced form validation, improved administrative control and reporting.

Sponsor: George Hamer

Description: This project will consist of recreating the two Early Childhood Center calendar applets and the web-based application. The priority will be to provide simpler schedule creation, which is used by the school administrator, as well as changes to make the calendar tool more user friendly for staff and parents.

Sponsor:  Peace Lutheran

Description: A data logger system for the triode data systems to monitor its flow of data across its different software systems.

Sponsor: Grant Sternhagen

Description: The project aims to enhance Triode Data Systems' backend management by developing a no-code, drag-and-drop interface using React.js and React Flow. This intuitive platform allows users to configure API endpoints, manage databases and handle HTTP requests visually without coding. Key features include role-based authentication, a centralized project dashboard, seamless backend integration and scalable endpoint management. By simplifying API interactions, the project improves accessibility for developers and nondevelopers, making backend operations more efficient, user-friendly and adaptable for a broader audience.

Sponsor: Grant Sternhagen

Description: We are making sure the plasma cutter is used in a safer manner by filtering out the dirty air/particulates with a filtration system in place. This will create a safer shop environment for the ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ and students.

Sponsor: Tyler Hanks

Description: This project aims to develop a cost-effective alternative to other powered mobility devices for manual wheelchair users while minimizing impacts on the wheelchair’s functionality. It seeks to create an affordable, efficient and user-friendly motorized attachment to be easily integrated with and removed from standard wheelchairs. Key objectives include optimizing design for lightweight construction with minimal specialized tools, ensuring ease of installation and detachment, maintaining manual usability of the wheelchair, and making the final product as affordable as possible. The scope covers research, design, prototyping and testing phases, ensuring the final product meets safety and performance standards while remaining economically viable.

Sponsor: LifeScape

Description: 

Sponsor: South ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ Space Grant

Description: The Litter Identification for Targeting Trash and Environmental Restoration Drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle. The drone combines both aerial and ground maneuverability. The drone uses artificial intelligence detection systems to scan for trash in fields, ditches and other target areas. Once trash is scanned, the litter drone flies close to the area and proceeds to drive directly over the trash. The drone then uses an onboard robotic arm to collect and deposit the trash into an onboard disposal binm which will be dumped at a central location when full.

Description: A backend web server and database used to intake and properly store McComish Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science graduating students’ information.

Sponsor: George Hamer

Description: Ryan Companies is seeking a general contractor for the construction of a distribution center for L&M Supply. Contractors must submit a proposal and give a presentation to communicate their solution, the benefits that their company can provide to Ryan, to include requested construction services, timeline and cost for the project.

Description: Design superstructure system of steel girder bridge over BNSF Railroad in southern Sioux Falls.

Sponsor: Joe Darrington

Description: For the 2025 NASA RASC-AL competition, NOVA presents a 2035 lunar rover concept for autonomous servicing at the moon’s south pole. It features a boom arm, mobile arm, rear forklift, and cryogenic storage for maintenance and transport tasks. A small-scale prototype demonstrates the suspension, forklift system and manipulation capabilities of the design, which is built for extreme lunar conditions and rugged terrain.

Sponsor: NASA

Description: This system uses ASP.NET C# and runs as a Windows 11 service, with PostgreSQL as the database and communication handled via JSON and URL queries. Its endpoint logic is programmed using flowcharts, granting each endpoint access only to the tables that specific developer or project owns. The previously hard-coded API key has been replaced with a user-configurable one for enhanced security.

Sponsor: Grant Sternhagen

Description: The City of Aurora’s wastewater treatment facility, operating since 2010 with a capacity of 0.30 million gallons per day, currently uses two stabilization ponds and has no effluent discharge under its permit expiring in 2026. A new permit will require discharge to a nearby creek and compliance with limits for flow, BOD₅, TSS, and ammonia. Aurora’s population grew from 562 in 2010 to 1,047 in 2020, prompting the need for upgrades. This project will expand the wastewater treatment facility to meet future capacity needs through 2040 and ensure regulatory compliance under the new discharge permit.

Description: Bullseye is an autonomous roping dummy designed to enhance team roping training. Building on Sparky, a roping dummy with limited self-driving capabilities, Bullseye introduces remote-controlled operation, autonomous repetition of user-defined paths, and autonomous navigation to a user-configurable starting position.

Sponsor: Nick Sternhagen