This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This project involves renovation of the Electrical Engineering and Physics building at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (SDSM&T) in support of productive research activities under safe conditions. The improvements to the following systems are expected to exceed the current safety, environmental and operational requirements of research activities that are carried out at this building: a) ventilation system including humidity and temperature controls; b) cooling water to operate lasers and cryogenic equipment and c) fire safety and safety monitoring system. The improvements would directly contribute to the efficacy, productivity, quality and quantity of research and research training by enabling a transition to safer and more productive research laboratories. The following research activities will be enabled and/or enhanced by the improvements and renovation: a) development of advanced materials for next generation solar cells; b) fundamental studies in biophysical processes for the conversion of low cost biomass feedstock to fuels; c) development of low-cost printing of electrical circuits, microwave antennas, and grid lines for solar cells using nanomaterials; d) development of advanced spectroscopy methods, including Vibrational Sum Frequency Generation spectroscopy to study nanothermites; and e) theoretical and experimental studies of semiconductor and ferroelectric materials. In addition, the improvements are expected to contribute to the development, participation in and utilization of a number of large-scale physics experiments including high-energy cosmic ray and muon physics experiments associated with the IceCube project.
The activity is expected to advance teaching, training and learning, as well as research activities of graduate and undergraduate students at SDSM&T. In addition, these facilities are used for many outreach activities including collaborative activities with neighboring American-Indian institutions of higher learning such as Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation. The University maintains a permanent Native American outreach program, serving the nearly all Native Americans in South Dakota. In addition, these renovated research labs will be accessible directly to a wider research community. The rooms in the building also host undergraduate research experiences for SDSM&T and other students from outside the campus.
(SDSM&T) was constructed in 1971 to serve the university and the State of South Dakota as a teaching facility. In recent years, many of the rooms in the EEP building were converted to research laboratories over the past decade. However, no coordinated effort had ever been made to ensure the building systems supporting these laboratories could safely and adequately support research. Proper ventilation to handle fumes, building systems to provide tighter environmental control (e.g. humidity and temperature), cooling water to operate lasers and cryogenic equipment, and laboratory safety provisions were largely inadequate or absent in the building prior to the renovations afforded by this award. The National Science Foundation, through its Academic Research Infrastructure Program: Recovery and Reinvestment, awarded SDSM&T $852,217 for proposal # DMR-0963535, entitled: "Research Laboratory Infrastructure Improvements in the Electrical Engineering and Physics Building at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology", to support renovations and upgrades to remedy deficiencies in the research laboratories located in the Electrical Engineering and Physics Building at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. The funding was used solely for construction costs, the award being exempt from institutional overhead charges. Through this funding, select building system upgrades, including a building chilled-water loop and heating, air-conditioning and ventilation system upgrades, were completed, along with significant laboratory specific upgrades to 17 laboratories located in EEP, as outlined in table 1 below. An example of the new construction is shown in figure 1, a class 10K clean room was installed in room 130. The upgrades have substantially improved the condition of the laboratories, allowing safer working conditions, and improved environmental control to support research. Broader Impacts: The affected laboratories are used primarily by graduate and undergraduate student researchers in several academic programs supported by SDSM&T, including: the Nanoscience and Nanoengineering PhD program, the Electrical Engineering BS and MS Programs, the Physics BS, MS and PhD Programs, and the Chemical and Biological Engineering, BS, MS and PhD Programs. As an example of outreach to the community, one of the PIs hosted a group of 12 Davis-Bahcall Scholars during the summer of 2013. The Davis-Bahcall program is is intended to spark an interest in and promote the exploration of science among South Dakota undergraduates. Intellectual Merit: The student researchers are engaged in research to develop next generation solar cells, low cost fuels based on biomass, the development of low-cost printing of electrical circuits, and microwave antennas, theoretical and experimental studies of semiconductors and ferroelectric materials for advanced electronics and computers, the development of nano-thermites for in-field welding or parts repair, and development of detectors for particle astrophysics projects associated with the underground mine located in Lead, South Dakota. Summary: At the conclusion of the project, substantial research infrastructure improvements were made which will have lasting impact on research and training. The substantial improvements in HVAC have improved the environmental control of the laboratories and mitigated dust problems due to aging ductwork and air handling systems. A chilled water loop has replaced tap-water or air-cooled laboratory equipment, making sustained experiments in a controlled environment possible. Multiple fume hood installations have improved the safety of research by protecting student researchers from toxic fumes which previous aging or non-existent systems did not. Multiple installations of needed plumbing and electrical fixtures, cabinetry and safety fixtures, such as a chemical eyewash, were added to the labs. It is expected that these substantial improvements in research infrastructure in the 17 affected laboratory spaces within the Electrical Engineering and Physics Building at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology will provide a safe and effective environment for student researchers contributing to our institutional goals in teaching, research and community service.
