2026 SDES Fall Professional Development Hour (PDH) Conference

Join us in Brookings for Two Days of Fall PDH Conference Events on the beautiful SDSU Campus!

We are just days away from the Conference! Scroll down for all the Details!

Location! Location! Location! The conference will be held at Club 71 on the third floor of the Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium on the South Dakota State University campus in Brookings, SD. Tours will also leave from this location. Parking for both days will on the west side of the stadium (career fair parking area). Watch your email for the Know Before You Go information to hit your inbox with the parking link and additional information for the tours, social and conference.

(Note to Self: You must register for parking to avoid a ticket! See the Know Before You Go email hitting your inbox on October 13th.)

Updated Schedule Below!

Wednesday, October 14th 

9am: SDES BOARD MEETING

Banner Associates, 409 22nd Ave S, Brookings

2-5pm: DON’T MISS THESE TOURS!

Meet on the West Side of the Stadium at the Premium Entrance Lobby

(Same as where you enter for the Engineering Career Fair)

Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium/Frank J. Kurtenbach Family Wrestling Center

First Bank and Trust Arena

Raven Precision Agriculture Center

SDSU Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering Labs and Student Competition Team Projects

5pm: MEMBER AND STUDENT SOCIAL AT CUBBY'S SPORTS BAR & GRILL

Meet in the South Room at Cubby's, 307 Main Avenue, Brookings

Thursday, October 15th

All events are at Club 71 in SDSU Football Stadium. Take the Elevator to the 3rd Floor/Club 71 of the Stadium and check in for additional directions.

7am: BREAKFAST (Ticket Needed)

8am: Welcome!

SDES Eastern Chapter President Kent Ode

SDSU Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering Dean Sanjeev Kumar

8:15am - 5:30pm: CONFERERNCE SESSIONS AND PROFESSIONAL | STUDENT NETWORKING

8:15am – 8:45am: Dean Sanjeev Kumar, SDSU Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering

• Lohr College of Engineering: Training Tomorrow’s Innovators

8:45am  – 9:15am: SDSU Student Presentations

• Jacks‘ Rockets and Rovers

9:15am – 9:45: Todd Trooien, SDSU Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

• Managing Animal Wastes with Subsurface Drip Irrigation

9:45am – 10:00: Break

10:00am – 10:30am: Steven Myer, PE, IMEG Corporation

• Evolution of a Bridge

10:30 - 11:00am: Allyn Brummel, PE, City of Sioux Falls, and Jedidiah Reimnitz, PE, HR Green

• Sioux Falls Water Reclamation Facility Expansion

11:00am – 11:30am: Kristin Bisgard, PE, Banner Associates, Inc.

• Lewis & Clark Regional Water System Update

11:30am – Noon: Dr. George Tsakiridis, SDSU Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion

• AI and Pragmatism: Are We Missing the Ethical Questions?

Noon – 1pm: Lunch

1:00pm – 1:30pm: Richard King, Sioux Falls Regional Airport, and Mitchell Walker, Mead & Hunt

• FSD Concourse and Terminal Expansion

1:30pm – 1:45pm: Dr. Victor Taylor, SDSU Center of AI Innovation and Emerging Technologies

• Building a Center for AI Innovation and Emerging Technologies

1:45pm – 2:15pm: Joseph Barnes, PE, and Paris Marcy, EIT, HDR Engineering, Inc.

• Watertown Wastewater Treatment Facility Improvements Project

2:15pm – 2:45: Dave Huft, South Dakota Department of Transportation

• I-29 Variable Speed Limit Corridor

2:45pm – 3:15pm: Dr. Pappu Yadav, SDSU Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

• Intelligent Sensing and Autonomy for Precision Agriculture

3:15pm – 3:30pm: Break

3:30pm – 4:00pm: Stacy DuChene, South Dakota Department of Transportation, and Ben White, HR Green

• I-90 Exit 387 Design and Construction

4:00pm – 5:00pm: Mike Barnes, South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks

• Homegrown Engineering: How Hatchery Ingenuity, New Technology, and Partnerships Are Shaping Public Aquaculture in South Dakota

5:00pm – 5:30pm: Akram Jawdhari, SDSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

• Toward Automated Infrastructure Assessment: Integrating UAVs, Sampling Moiré, and Computer Vision

Book your room at the Conference Hotel by October 9th for the Conference Room Rate!

A room block is reserved at the Comfort Suites University in Brookings for $110 + tax/night. Book online through the link below or call 605.937.5867 and ask for the SD Engineering Society block.

Tax exempt State Rate rooms must be booked with a rooming list submitted through Nancy. Reach out to her to get these limited rooms reserved at Executive@NSPE-SDES.org

Thank you to our SDES 2026-27 Platinum, Gold and Silver Partners! 

This conference and other SDES activities are only made possible through the ongoing support of our industry partners. Find out more about additional Partnership and Sponsorship opportunities by clicking HERE.

Not seeing your logo below? Let's get you renewed for this year! Click HERE!

PLATINUM

GOLD

SILVER

We have plenty of room for more logos!

Questions? Reach out to Nancy in the SDES Office at 605.951.1004 or our new email address at Executive@NSPE-SDES.org