By Scout Nelson
South Dakota State University (SDSU) hosted an interdisciplinary research symposium on October 20, 2026, bringing together experts from healthcare, agricultural safety, artificial intelligence, and sensing technology.
The inaugural event attracted nearly 30 participants who explored how new technologies could help address challenges in rural healthcare, environmental monitoring, and farmworker safety.
Dave Graves from South Dakota State University, reported that the Symposium on AI-Enabled Multimodal Sensing for Rural Health and Agricultural Exposure featured 12 research presentations.
The sessions covered advanced sensing technologies, wearable devices, artificial intelligence, biomedical engineering, agricultural safety, and rural health. Researchers shared their work and discussed how different fields could work together to develop practical solutions.
The event included 23 participants from SDSU. Representatives came from the Lohr College of Engineering, including the electrical engineering and computer science and agricultural and biosystems engineering departments. The South Dakota Water Resources Institute also participated. Other university representatives came from nursing, pharmaceutical sciences, Hilton M. Briggs Library, and the Division of Research and Economic Development.
Researchers from several other universities also attended the symposium. These institutions included the University of Minnesota, the University of Texas at Arlington, North Dakota State University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Michael McAlpine from the University of Minnesota served as the featured presenter. His presentation, titled "3D Printing Active Electronics," highlighted new developments in three-dimensional printing of functional electronic materials and devices. He also discussed how these technologies could support future sensing systems and biomedical applications.
Other presentations came from SDSU pharmacy sciences professor Wenfeng An and professors representing the University of Texas at Arlington, North Dakota State University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
The presentations showed how artificial intelligence, sensing systems and biomedical technologies could help solve important problems in healthcare, environmental monitoring, and agricultural safety.
“Collectively, the presentations highlighted how advances in sensing, artificial intelligence and biomedical technologies can address important challenges in healthcare, environmental monitoring and agricultural safety,” said symposium organizer Xiaojun Xian, an assistant professor in electrical engineering.
He also explained, “This symposium provided a valuable opportunity to bring together researchers from different disciplines to exchange ideas, share recent advances, and explore new collaborations.
“By integrating advanced sensing technologies, wearable devices and artificial intelligence, we hope to develop innovative solutions to important challenges in rural health and agricultural safety. We also hope this event will help establish long-term interdisciplinary collaborations and create new opportunities for competitive external research funding," said Xian.
The symposium was also available online, allowing additional participants to attend virtually. It included a collaborative workshop for SDSU's SAFE-AG (Sensing and AI for Farmworker Exposure and Health in Agriculture) research initiative.
The SAFE-AG initiative aims to combine environmental exposure monitoring, physical health measurements, and artificial intelligence. Researchers hope these tools will help them better understand workplace risks faced by agricultural workers and develop ways to reduce those risks.
Although organizers have not announced a date for the next conference, they are interested in continuing similar events to encourage research partnerships.
Xian said, “We hope to continue organizing similar interdisciplinary events to strengthen research collaborations in sensing technologies, artificial intelligence, rural health and agricultural safety.”
Photo Credit: south-dakota-state-university
Categories: South Dakota, Rural Lifestyle