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Selections for the fourth class of Future Innovators of America Fellowships have been announced by the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering.  The eight recipients and the department which selected them are:  • Maxwell Donelan, mathematics and statistics  • Tennille Eremas and John Akujobi, both computer science • Keaton Ranslem, civil engineering • Connor Matthies and William O’Connell, both mechanical engineering • Eli Otten and Gabrielle Robbins, both construction and concrete industry management.

Alysha Kientopf, who received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural education from Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ, has received the Region III Outstanding Agricultural Education Teacher Award from the National Association of Agricultural Educators.

Working alongside college classmates isn’t a common experience, but for three Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ music education graduates, it’s become their everyday reality.

Turner Marr, a mechanical engineering senior from Buffalo, Minnesota, wanted to become a doctor when he enrolled at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ in fall 2022. That lasted all of one semester. The switch from biochemistry premed to mechanical engineering had nothing to do with the sight of blood or the thought of working on a cadaver. He simply wanted a major that required more math while allowing hands-on learning. He found that in mechanical engineering and in December 2024 was selected by the college as a Future Innovator of America.

This summer, Delaney Baumberger, a mechanical engineering graduate student at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ, spent ten weeks working among some of the nation’s top aerospace scientists at the Air Force Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Lab in Dayton, Ohio. Baumberger and her adviser, associate professor Jeffrey Doom, collaborated with Air Force Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Lab researchers to run advanced computational fluid dynamics simulations for hypersonic scramjet engines, experimental engines that burn fuel at speeds above Mach 5. Their work explored how engine geometry affects combustion stability and performance at extreme speeds. .

Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Master of Mass Communication student Jenny Albers is wrapping up a prestigious fellowship from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for her project focusing on mental well-being among women who experienced pregnancy after loss.

Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ honored its newest endowment holders during its fourth annual University Leadership Honors.

South Dakota Board of Regents released fall enrollment figures for the state’s public universities and it brought great news for the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering. Undergraduate enrollment reached 1,507, an increase of 228 students since fall 2022, reflecting a steady increase of almost 18% in the last three years.

Kate Connor is only a junior at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ, but she already is developing quite a resume. The most recent entry is the receipt of a $5,000 scholarship from the American Society of Concrete Contractors, which was presented to her and a student from Middle Tennessee State at the association’s banquet in Indianapolis Sept. 10. In April, she was notified that she was the recipient of a $10,000 scholarship from another concrete group.

Caden Fischer, of Menno, is in his first year of graduate school, pursuing a master’s degree in mathematics. After his junior year, he participated in Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Experience for Undergraduates at Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ. That lead to him becoming a Future Innovator of America during his senior year. That lead to a summer fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory this past summer.