RAPID CITY (Dec. 18, 2017) – The South Dakota Space Grant Consortium (SDSGC) has provided eight awards totaling $100,000 in NASA funding to the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and four other affiliate members of the consortium.
The Space Grant Consortium, headquartered at SD Mines, is a statewide network of 20-member organizations from education, industry and government. As the link between NASA and the citizens of South Dakota, the Consortium’s mission is to instill the spirit of exploration and discovery in students, educators and the general public, with a special focus on the fields of science, technology, engineering and math that are essential for the development of the nation’s workforce.
Three of the eight awards were given to Mines faculty within the departments of Geology and Geological Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.
The winning projects were competitively selected from among 11 proposals submitted under the SDSGC’s FY2017 Project Innovation Grant (PIG) program in the areas of higher, precollege and informal education. The objective of the PIG program is to provide seed funding for meritorious projects that align with NASA goals, and which show potential to develop into long-term, sustainable programs. The eight winning awards are listed below:
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South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City received a total of $48,762 for the following three projects titled: A) “Project Fireworker – Swarm Allocation for Project Firewalker” ($29,630), B) “Drone Home: A Housing/Recharging System for Deploying Drones” ($14,132), and C) “SDSM&T CubeSat Team Formation” ($5,000)
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Augustana University in Sioux Falls received $31,237 for a project titled: “Ultrafast Lasers for Education and Research”
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South Dakota State University received a total of $10,828 for the following two projects titled: A) “Advanced Materials for 3D printable heat exchangers” ($5,828), and B) “Startup of SDSU CubeSat Club” ($5,000)
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Black Hills Astronomical Society in Rapid City received $5,758 for a project titled: “Hidden Valley Observatory Astronomical Imaging Camera Upgrade”
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Black Hills State University in Spearfish received $3,415 for a project titled: “Women in Science Conference at BHSU”
Contact: Tom Durkin, Deputy Director of the S.D. Space Grant Consortium at SD Mines.
Phone: (605) 394-1975
Email: Thomas.Durkin@sdsmt.edu