Dec. 5, 2022

This paid piece is sponsored by Dakota State University.

College students learn skills in class but may not have the chance to apply them.

The National Science Foundation created the Research Experience for Undergraduate, or REU, program as a creative way to give students the opportunity to take that classroom knowledge and apply it to real-world problems. Dakota State University has been able to offer this summer program since 2019 through an NSF grant.

The program “not only prepares students to identify solutions, produce solutions and solve technical challenges, it also provides an environment for students to work together and build a team dynamic,” said Dr. Yong Wang, principal investigator for DSU’s REU grant and associate dean of graduate programs in the Beacom College of Computer & Cyber Sciences.

“These are all essential career skills.”

Last summer, 10 undergraduate students from across the country were on campus applying classroom knowledge to research the security aspects of medical devices that connect to the internet. Keeping these Internet of Medical Things devices secure is “mission critical” because of their impact on human life, said Dr. Bhaskar Rimal, assistant professor in the Beacom College.

The researchers spent the summer working on some standard IOMT devices, with the goal of improving patient care, while gaining experience with research and technology and other job skills as well.

Alexandra Smith, a Sioux Falls native and artificial intelligence and math double major from Dakota State, learned about the security that goes into AI; she also gained essential interpersonal skills and humility.

Adam Zimmel, a network and security administration major from Sioux Falls, discovered that “keeping notes and detailed documentation was crucial because research is really fast-paced.”

Those notes also were crucial for the papers the students wrote at the end of the 10-week program.

Smith and Zimmel were co-authors on a paper accepted for presentation at an REU conference in October in Denver. “Medical Device Security Regulations and Assessment Case Studies” won the runner-up award for best paper at the eighth annual National Workshop for REU Research in Networking and Systems. Additional authors were Kai Taylor, Korina Alcantara and Wang.

This is the second year in a row that a paper from DSU’s REU was selected to compete at an international conference. Wang said these are often “the first published paper for many of the students, and hopefully it’s not their last. This makes them feel proud and satisfied.”

It also “shows the level of faculty commitment and the quality of the programs at DSU and the quality of research the students perform,” he added.

Smith and Zimmel attended the conference to present their results. “This was definitely an introduction to public speaking,” Zimmel said, but it was a good experience, “not too nerve-wracking.”

The conference also provided them with networking opportunities with other undergraduate researchers and employers at the 70 presentations and talks, and informal chats with other attendees.

With this REU experience, along with her Dakota State education, Smith feels well prepared to enter the working work when she graduates in May 2024. She likely will need to leave South Dakota to find an AI position or will take a job in software engineering.

Zimmel graduates in May 2023 and plans to work in South Dakota after graduation along with working on his master’s degree online at DSU. He, too, appreciated the REU summer program.

“We had a lot to show for what we did, enough to win best paper runner-up at the conference.”