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Steam Cafe

  • Hay Camp Brewing Co. 601 Kansas City Street Rapid City, SD, 57701 United States (map)

Join us for the STEAM Café this month! January’s STEAM talk, “National Security Innovation Network: South Dakota Mines student projects for Ellsworth Air Force Base”, will be presented South Dakota Mines students and moderated by Jason Combs, program director of the National Security Innovation Network at Mines. (This is a follow-up to the NSIN presentation given in July 2021.)

Universities across the nation work with the Department of Defense (DoD) to solve real-world problems through the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN). Jason Combs, program director of the NSIN at South Dakota Mines, will moderate three presentations from Mines students on their NSIN-Ellsworth Air Force Base projects:
• “Fix My Broken B-1s” – This team helped the Ellsworth Additive Manufacturing Shop reverse engineer, design, and test B-1 parts, and researched current software solutions to decrease the time it takes to reverse engineer a B-1 component. The base plans to purchase new software based on this research.
• “Air Force 10: It Hurts When IP” – This team improved the Ellsworth Communication Squadron’s network cable closet layouts and organization by designing, testing, and printing cable routing and bundling hangers.
• “The Juice is Worth the Squeeze” – This team compiled summaries of currently available and future energy production, storage, and security solutions for the Ellsworth Mission Support Group commander, and developed a model and matrix to help visualize the tradeoffs of any energy-related decision. Ellsworth leadership used these matrices to identify three small businesses (through a NSIN accelerator program) with novel energy solutions that will help the base's and DoD's future energy resilience.

Mines students interested in being a fellow this summer (June 7-Aug. 12) can apply here no later than Friday, Jan. 21. Because the application window is quickly coming to an end, interested students should also contact Mr. Combs at jcombs@nsin.us.

Information for attendance/viewing
• In person: join us at Hay Camp Brewing Company, 601 Kansas City Street in Rapid City.
• Online: view the livestream on Zoom. The talk will be posted to the SD Mines YouTube channel and the SD Mines Facebook page after the event.

What’s the STEAM Café?
STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, Hay Camp Brewing Company, and South Dakota Public Broadcasting have teamed up to create STEAM Café, which will be held at 6 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month at Hay Camp. Join us for drinks and enjoy a talk by a member of the SD Mines family. Collaborative programs, cutting edge research and historical perspectives on everything from gothic literature to the impact of motherhood are just a few cool things that you’ll learn about at these fun gatherings. The STEAM Café is a place to share new ideas, forge new friendships and grow as a community.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Quentin K. Marx)

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Coleman silent auction fundraiser

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January 20

Trivia night