South Dakota Mines CAMP, a student-centered,
hands-on engineering program, is adding three new teams: the Moonrockers, the Mines
Association of Rocketeers (MARS) and the Unmanned Aerial Systems Team (UAS).
CAMP is a competitive, co-curricular program at
South Dakota Mines that brings together students, faculty and industry leaders
to partner on challenging projects. Through hands-on learning and problem
solving as a team, the nearly 500 students in CAMP are more prepared for jobs
outside of college. CAMP now includes 14 teams in total that offer students
in-depth experience through a wide range of collegiate competitions.
“These three new teams allow more opportunities for
CAMP students to find a project and community on campus to build their skills
outside of the classroom,� says Amy Hasvold, CAMP director. “Through these
new-to-CAMP teams, we are excited to expand the experience our students are
gaining in electrical engineering, computer science, aerospace and mining as
well as interpersonally in leadership, teamwork and communication.�
Moonrockers:
The Moonrockers team is a multidisciplinary group
that participates in space-related robotics competitions. For the past several
years, the team has competed in the NASA Robotic
Mining Competition at the Kennedy Space Center. This
competition challenges teams to develop a robot capable of traversing the
difficult lunar terrain, mining icy regolith and transporting it to a collection
hopper. Additional activities are focused on vehicle development, student
professional development, teaming and K-12 outreach. This year’s competition is
May 22-26 at the University at Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
“Joining CAMP is a great opportunity for growth for
the Moonrockers organization,� says Moonrockers President Mathew Clutter. “CAMP
will allow the Moonrockers to make stronger connections within the school and
community, provide additional networking opportunities for our members and give
our team access to additional resources to execute and manufacture our designs
for competition. In addition, joining CAMP will provide additional students
with valuable extracurricular experience working on a design team, to develop
their interpersonal skills and offer project experience, especially for those
interested in a career in the aerospace field. The Moonrockers team is excited
to join the CAMP organization.�
Mines Association of
Rocketeers (MARS):
The MARS team builds rockets. Mines MARS will be
competing in the Spaceport
America Cup, the world’s largest Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition, as
part of a senior design team project in the mechanical engineering department. The
competition takes place from June 19-24 in Las Cruces, N.M. at the Spaceport
America and hosts over 140 teams from around the world. At the Spaceport
America Cup, collegiate teams compete to design sounding rockets in various
categories based on rocket fuel type and altitude. The Mines team will be
competing in the Commercial Off the Shelf solid rocket propellant division with
a target altitude of 10,000 feet.
“Joining CAMP gives us access to funding and
opportunities that we wouldn't have had access to otherwise,� says MARS
President Ben Kepley. “Being able to label ourselves as a CAMP team also helps
draw in students that are looking for a collaborative engineering environment.�
Unmanned Aerial Systems
(UAS)
The UAS team designs aerial robots and is headed for
the Student Unmanned Aerial Systems
Competition in Maryland from June 20-22, 2023. The team works to contribute to the
aerial robotics community while developing the technical and professional skill
sets of its members.
“The Drone Team, a.k.a. UAS, is happy to join CAMP,�
says Dan Rederth, Ph.D., UAS advisor. “The team will benefit from the
additional experience and resources of CAMP. Our members are excited to network
with other teams to share knowledge and get more exposure on campus and in the
community.�
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