Join us for the STEAM Café this month! September’s STEAM talk, “South Dakota Mines student projects for Ellsworth Air Force Base”, will be presented by Lorie Vega, deputy director for the 28th Mission Support Group at Ellsworth Air Force Base, and student teams from South Dakota Mines.

Teams of Mines students have been working with Ellsworth Air Force Base (EAFB) on solving problems the base faces. This presentation will highlight four projects:

• “Flying Hour Program Data Management” – This team assisted EAFB’s Flight Hour Program Manager in more efficiently managing data, which has saved at least 10 hours a week of data input and manipulation, and has provided ready-made tables and charts to populate briefings.

• “B-21 Paint Booth” – Two teams assisted EAFB aircraft maintainers with developing more efficient methods of safely painting parts of the B-21; the team built on efforts from a prior team’s project and offered valuable suggestions for process, application methods, and enhanced safety.

• “Communications Squadron Strategic Plan” – This team is currently collaborating with EAFB’s Communications Squadron on developing its master strategic plan, making it a living document that is easy to read, update, and extract data from.

• “Counter-Drone Assessment” – This team is currently collaborating with EAFB Security Forces personnel on a counter-drone assessment. EAFB is concerned about the rising threat of drones and believes this effort will help protect assets across the world.