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����Ӱ��'s Wokini Initiative has announced the projects and awardees for the 2026 Challenge Grant.

Shabbir Ahmed, assistant professor in ����Ӱ��’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, is conducting unique research to better understand a technological invention that has defined the 21st century: lithium-ion batteries.

A damaged wheel knuckle proved to be a knuckle sandwich for the ����Ӱ�� team competing at the national Baja SAE competition in Maryland June 12-17. The wheel knuckle, which connects the wheel hub to the suspension and steering components, was damaged while the SDSU team was competing on the suspension course at Budds Creek Motocross Park in Mechanicsville, Maryland, according to Matthew Anderson, president of Desert Hare Offroad Club.

High school students interested in the ����Ӱ�� Data Science Camp don’t need to have completed Balloon Twisting 101 or Introduction to Coding to enroll. But they will get plenty of experience in both. This year’s camp, June 23-26, drew a full computer lab of 20 high schoolers who may have learned as much from the balloons as they did from their leaders — professor Xijin Ge and lecturer Bill Alsaker, both from the SDSU Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

A young group of mechanical engineering students delivered a “wow” factor to judges at a NASA contest and came home with the best prototype award. ����Ӱ��’s NOVA team was one of two SDSU entries selected to compete in Revolutionary Aerospace Systems – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL), an annual contest sponsored by NASA and administered by the National Institute of Aerospace for undergraduate and graduate students.

Four mechanical engineering students from ����Ӱ�� found a way to make drones more useful for farmers and won a prestigious NASA contest in the process.  The first-place SDSU team was one of eight finalists in NASA’s Gateways to Blue Skies contest, which this year had a theme of AgAir: Aviation Solutions for Agriculture.

SDSU sent a dozen students and a faculty adviser to the Formula SAE competition at Michigan International Speedway, but one thing they didn’t cart with them from the ����Ӱ�� campus was a spare differential.  It would have been helpful as breakdowns took the luster off an otherwise strong effort.

James Kemeshi, a doctoral student in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, has built a low-cost agricultural drone.

Levi Minion, a construction and concrete industry management student from Wheaton, Minnesota, tested a new type of cement for its compatibility with various chemical admixtures as his Future Innovator of America project.

Two student engineering teams at SDSU spent their senior year on capstone design projects at Sanford Underground Research Facility. One team built a new mine rail cart for hauling liquid nitrogen underground. The other built a drone for inspecting hard to reach vertical shafts at the former gold mine at Lead. Both teams gained valuable experience they will take into their future careers.