SD-ARMORGOVERNOR'S RESEARCH CENTER OF EXCELLENCE
SD-ARMOR / Research

Three interlocking pillars

BUILD, PROTECT, and SUSTAIN operate as a single operational chain, not three independent tracks — each pillar's outputs feed the others, unified by a shared AI/ML analytical backbone.

P1

BUILD

Advanced materials, manufacturing, and energetics — cold spray and additive manufacturing, munitions and materials science, cold-regions materials.
Pillar lead
L. Groven · Chemical Engineering, SD Mines
P2

PROTECT

Cybersecurity, digital forensics, OT/ICS security, energy security, and infrastructure resilience — anomaly detection for compromised PLCs and SCADA systems.
Pillar lead
A. Podhradsky · VPR, Dakota State University
P3

SUSTAIN

Defense supply chain security, provenance science, chemical trace analysis, and food/biosecurity — authenticating hardware, software, and materials provenance.
Pillar lead
B. Logue · Chemistry, SD State University
AI/ML BACKBONE

A shared detect-and-attribute analytical core threads all three pillars — spatio-temporal modeling, Bayesian learning, and statistical attribution — integrated across the center by Director R. Hoover (EE/CS, SD Mines).

Why three pillars

The vulnerability runs through all three

Compromised logistics networks, seized communications infrastructure, and a lost domestic production base are three parts of the same failure — the reason SD-ARMOR treats materials, cybersecurity, and provenance as one problem rather than three separate research programs.

The infrastructure exposure

Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) govern physical processes across U.S. energy, water, food, and defense-manufacturing infrastructure. Over 90% of industrial control system cyber incidents involve PLCs or SCADA devices, and the global PLC supply chain is concentrated in ecosystems subject to foreign state oversight.

South Dakota as proving ground

A September 2025 CISA Infrastructure Impact Assessment concluded that South Dakota's critical infrastructure — communications, energy, food and agriculture, transportation, water — is a documented target. SD-ARMOR's research agenda is set directly by that operational threat picture.