10/30/2024
Terry Traylor, a Marine Corps veteran and NDSU doctoral student studying software and security engineering, was recently selected for the 2024/2025 Veterans of Foreign Wars - Student Veterans of America Legislative Fellowship. 

Held annually since 2014, the VFW-SVA Legislative Fellowship provides student veteran fellows invaluable experience advocating in their communities and on Capitol Hill for solutions to pressing veterans’ issues. The fellowship is a roughly semester-long immersive experience for fellows to receive advocacy training and mentorship from each organizations’ professional staff, create community outreach plans and actively engage community and national leaders on a shared VFW and SVA policy priority.

"Being selected to participate in the VFW-SVA 2024 Legislative Fellowship is a tremendous opportunity to continue to serve in a program that helps others,” Traylor said.  “While in the fellowship I will learn how to advocate at the national level for resources that benefit the state of North Dakota and NDSU students.  Our specific project this year is the National Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act — an initiative that will directly impact NDSU student veterans.”  Read more

09/25/2024
A team of four talented students from North Dakota State University’s Computer Science Department—Anthony DeFoe, Gavin Kestner, Joshua Heeren, and Colum Sandford—has achieved victory in the academic division of the prestigious Cyber Cup competition at the 2024 National Cyber Summit.

The Cyber Cup is a prominent cybersecurity competition that brings together top minds from across the country to solve complex challenges involving real-world cybersecurity scenarios. NDSU’s team showcased their skills in network defense, vulnerability analysis, and ethical hacking, competing against other leading academic institutions.

Their impressive teamwork, technical expertise, and problem-solving ability earned them first place in the academic division, a testament to the strength of NDSU’s computer science program and its commitment to excellence in cybersecurity education. The team's success at the National Cyber Summit demonstrates the high caliber of students emerging from NDSU's computer science department, solidifying the university’s reputation as a leader in cybersecurity education and innovation.

Congratulations to Anthony DeFoe, Gavin Kestner, Joshua Heeren, and Colum Sandford for their outstanding achievement!

09/20/2024
The College of Engineering held the 2024 Scholarship and Awards Celebration this week to acknowledge our scholarship recipients and donors, and recognize the outstanding accomplishments of our faculty, staff and graduate students in the areas of teaching, research and service.

Pratap Kotala, an assistant professor of practice in the Department of Computer Science, was named the 2024 Excellence in Teaching Award winner.

In his more than 20 years at NDSU, Kotala has taught nearly 30 different undergraduate and graduate courses covering wide areas including computer science, software engineering, cybersecurity, management information systems, and health informatics.

Students consistently praise Kotala for creating an inclusive and supportive learning environment and for generously offering his time outside the classroom to mentor students individually.

Colleagues say Kotala exemplifies the qualities of an outstanding educator through his unwavering dedication, innovative teaching methodologies and profound impact on students.

Guy Hokanson was named the Outstanding Staff Award winner for the professional level. Hokanson started at NDSU in 2004 as a programmer for the Center of Science and Math Education. He joined the Department of Computer Science as a Programmer and Analyst in 2007 and transitioned to his current role as the Systems Administrator, Programmer and Adjunct Lecturer in 2016.

“Guy is a devoted and highly valued member in our department who manages all aspects of the computing infrastructure and provides support to faculty, staff and students,” said Simone Ludwig, professor and chair of computer science. “His commitment to the department and service goes far beyond what is listed in his job description and is exemplified by his involvement in many aspects of university and departmental operations such as the development of teaching resources, supervision of Capstone student groups, serving as the Director for the Science Olympiad for more than 10 years, and technical liaison to Advance FORWARD committee.”

09/05/2024
Last week, NDSU launched the fall semester with a range of exciting Welcome Week events. Hundreds of students moved into the residence halls, marking their first official college experiences on campus. In the Computer Science Department, under the leadership of Dr. Simone Ludwig, students had the opportunity to meet the faculty and staff. They were introduced to the department’s offerings and what they can expect in the coming years. We wish all students a productive and healthy school year and look forward to getting to know each of you.

08/26/2024
We just wrapped up our Bison Cyber Explorers camp! This was a great opportunity for high school students to work directly with college students and learning cybersecurity and programming skills. During the one-week camp, the high school student campers and North Dakota State University college students developed an artificial intelligence cybersecurity system to identify, analyze, prevent and respond to cyber bullying.

Thanks to ND EPSCoR for funding this program and providing this incredible opportunity for the campers!

04/03/2024
As part of NDSU Takeover Day, computer science student William Grube spoke today at Fargo’s StartupBREW, a weekly meetup for entrepreneurs, creatives, and community members. Grube, is the founder of Gruvy Education which provides comprehensive AI training and keynotes to educators and staff. He hopes to equip educators with the knowledge to effectively use AI tools and prepare our educational system for a future where AI tools are exponentially better than what we are seeing today.

He spoke with NDSU's President Cook yesterday about his startup and what his plans are for the future.

"When ChatGPT came out, I thought is was the coolest thing ever. I kind of got a little bit obsessed with it and I really just saw how it was going to change the nature of work forever."

"After I graduate, I’m going to really try and scale Gruvy Education to the biggest company possible. But what I like about entrepreneurship is that I can really go any avenue, so maybe down the road I will be doing something completely different."

Grube is currently pursuing an accelerated master's degree in computer science at NDSU, and aims to make a significant contribution to the fields of education and artificial intelligence. Driven by a strong desire to meaningfully impact how AI is integrated into education, he is preparing both educators and students for a future shaped by technological advancement. You can watch the full video of him with President Cook here.

03/12/2024
NDSU’s innovative minor in artificial intelligence allows students to broaden their understanding of AI, prepares them on how and where it can be used and provides practical hands-on experience in utilizing various AI techniques. 

The minor, which was launched last fall by the computer science department, is open to students majoring in computer science, as well as students in other departments who want to learn more about the rapidly developing technology. Read more

01/29/2024
Drive onwards with your team as you plan out each turn! Prove to your fellow competitors that you intend to deliver your team to certain victory! That was the theme of this year’s Byte-le Royale, hosted by the NDSU student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The 12-hour programming competition challenges competitors in teams of up to 3 to write an AI to play a video game and compete against each other to see who can create the best AI. 

The team of Amanda Fetzer, Carson Miller, and Dylan Cooksley took first place; Adam Altendorf, Enoch Satrom, and Christopher Tupper took second; and the team of Brennan Gerstner, Matthew Kurtti, Elizabeth Gylden, Skyler Skees, and Annwesha Das took third.

The ACM has been hosting the event since 2018 with the initial computational infrastructure built by computer science alum Jordan Goetze. The AI competition is a very well kept secret each year, which means that the objective and structure of the each year’s game are not revealed until the day of the event. You can learn more about the competition, including previous gameplay at the ACM website.

02/16/2024
North Dakota State University announced it has received a $25 million gift from electrical engineering alumnus Richard Offerdahl, BS ’65 electrical engineering, to support its new Center for Engineering and Computational Sciences. The gift was celebrated at a special event at the Harry D. McGovern Alumni Center on Friday, Feb. 16. In exchange for the historic gift, NDSU will request the entire engineering complex of buildings — new and some existing — to be named in Richard’s honor, pending State Board of Higher Education approval.

“The state of North Dakota and NDSU made a big investment in me some 50 years ago, so it was time to return the favor … I figured putting it toward the education of future students was a good investment,” Richard said. “I think it will pay off; the engineers educated here in the coming years will move the world forward.”

The gift is the largest in history to directly support the College of Engineering at NDSU. In addition, it is the single largest gift in school history to support a building project on campus, whether academic or athletic. The formal name will be the Richard Offerdahl ’65 Engineering Complex. Read more

01/17/2024
Anne Denton, NDSU Computer Science, was in the studio on Afternoons Live with Tyler Axness to talk about some intriguing developments in the field of A.I. . You can listen to it here.

10/02/2023
Zia Muhammad, a cybersecurity doctoral student at NDSU, recently was interviewed by Cybernews Academy about his academic journey, his appreciation for NDSU and how his growing interest in cybersecurity blossomed into an extensive educational journey. 

Muhammad highlighted the importance of assessing his options before committing to a doctoral program. Eventually, Muhammad found NDSU’s cybersecurity program largely because of the talented faculty. Muhammad found a research professor whose work aligned with his interests, and he began working alongside faculty members, researching generative artificial intelligence. Read more

11/01/2023
Doosan Bobcat and Mortenson have announced significant philanthropic investments to launch fundraising efforts toward a new Center for Engineering and Computational Sciences at NDSU.

The gifts were revealed at a special event hosted by the NDSU Foundation on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, which was attended by alumni, friends, state legislators, and university faculty, staff and students.

Doosan Bobcat and Mortenson have each pledged $5 million to boost early fundraising momentum and inspire others to get involved in the project that will transform NDSU’s College of Engineering.

“We are very pleased to be a lead investor in the new Center for Engineering and Computational Sciences that will establish a new benchmark in higher education throughout the region,” Dan Johnson, chief executive officer at Mortenson and an NDSU alumnus in construction management, said. “Engineers are a critical aspect of our workforce, and this new Center will attract and retain both students and faculty well into the future.”

Bobcat Company is one of the largest employers of NDSU graduates in North Dakota. More than 55% of its engineering staff are NDSU alumni, and 37% of its non-engineering hires are NDSU graduates. 

“As a company built on decades of engineering advancements, Bobcat is committed to investing in and developing the talent pool that will shape the next century of innovation,” Mike Ballweber, president of Doosan Bobcat North America, said. “We are proud to support NDSU as they educate future engineers who are helping us transform how the world runs jobsites, builds cities, and thinks about a sustainable future.” Read more

09/21/2023
For the second year in a row, an NDSU team won the Cyber Cup competition and the National Cyber Summit.  A team of NDSU students took first place in the academic division at the competition in Huntsville, Alabama.   

The NDSU team was comprised of students Gavin Kestner, Joshua Heeren, Keaton Hasse and Neal Buerman, who are all studying computer science.  Several dozen teams competed across the academic and industry competition divisions. Read more

09/14/2023
NDSU computer science students and a number of students from other engineering disciplines participated in national security-relevant cybersecurity research at NDSU during the summer.

On campus summer research activities in cybersecurity provide students with technical skill development opportunities much earlier in their careers than may be otherwise possible. It also provides students with an opportunity to take leadership roles in teams far earlier than typical and to learn while doing. This is all in addition to the valuable products of their research. Read more

09/11/2023
The North Dakota State University (NDSU) Institute for Cyber Security Education and Research and the NDSU Department of Computer Science have been awarded $1.5 million in federal funding through the Griffiss Institute, in partnership with the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research & Engineering and the Air Force Research Laboratory-Information Directorate, as part of the Virtual Institutes for Cyber and Electromagnetic Spectrum Research and Employ (VICEROY) program.  This funding will support NDSU and its partner institutions in providing world-class cybersecurity education to students and enhance our cybersecurity, computer science and related programs.

The VICEROY program is designed to augment the traditional college curriculum through providing hands-on, experiential learning and internship opportunities that match the workforce demands of the U.S. Department of Defense and the American defense industrial base. The program aims to increase the quality and quantity of students with job-ready cybersecurity skills upon graduation.

“Our participation in the VICEROY program provides an exceptional opportunity for NDSU students to gain hands-on experience and real-world skills in cybersecurity,” said NDSU Cybersecurity Institute director Dr. Jeremy Straub, who is a faculty member in the Computer Science Department and also serves as the principal investigator for this program.  “We look forward to using the additional resources provided by VICEROY to build on our existing strengths and develop new world-class courses, labs and other resources to drive student learning.” Read more

09/11/2023
NDSU will host Fargo’s second BSides Cybersecurity Conference from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., on Saturday, October 14 at the Quentin Burdick Building on campus. The community-focused conference will feature presentations and workshops.  It also will host a capture-the-flag style competition operated by Hack the Box.

In addition to the technical content, the conference provides an opportunity for networking between area cybersecurity professionals, students and others aspiring to enter the cybersecurity field.

“BSides Fargo is an excellent opportunity for the local cybersecurity community to gather on the NDSU campus to learn about new tools and techniques and to network,” said NDSU associate professor of computer science Jeremy Straub, who also is director of the NDSU Institute for Cybersecurity Education and Research.  “It also provides an excellent opportunity for NDSU students to meet members of the local workforce and learn about job roles and opportunities in the field.” Read more

09/07/2023
A group of NDSU computer science undergraduate students participated in national security-relevant cybersecurity research and outreach activities at NDSU this summer.  The students, which included sophomores Keaton Hasse and Sydney Deaton, and senior Mason Kornezos, developed software, conducted analysis and performed a variety of outreach activities in support of multiple projects. 

Summer on-campus cybersecurity research provides students with leadership and skill development opportunities much earlier in their careers than may be otherwise possible.  Students take leadership roles in teams and learn while doing.  They also collect and analyze valuable data. 

“I have been given many opportunities to widen my knowledge,” said Hasse, who is from Wahpeton, North Dakota and also serves in the North Dakota National Guard. “I am getting real world experience in software development.  I have been able to connect with my co-worders and learn from them.  My current position is a great steppingstone to further my career.” Read more

08/23/2023
This week NDSU kicked off the fall semester with a variety of Welcome Week special events. This weekend hundreds of students moved into the residence halls, and today many experienced their first official college events on campus. Led by chair Simone Ludwig, students were greeted by members of the computer science department in the morning and introduced to the faculty and staff. Students learned about what the department has to offer new students, and what to expect in the coming years. We wish all students a productive and healthy new school year, and we look forward to getting to know all of you.

08/22/2023
Starting this Fall the department is offering two new programs, a BS in Cybersecurity and Software Engineering.

The Bachelor of Science in Cybersecurity curriculum includes courses in topics including defensive network security, networking, ethical hacking, malware analysis, programming, and cybersecurity law and policy.  It also provides a background in general education areas such as mathematics and communications. 

Cybersecurity seeks to prevent and provides the tools to respond to attacks against computing systems and organizations.  It is a field that spans numerous areas, ranging from the highly technical aspects of securing and testing the security of IT systems to preventing manual data theft by organization members.  Cybersecurity practitioners protect important private information in all areas of society – ranging from healthcare to banks to government – and secure systems that are critical to everyone’s day-to-day lives. 

The Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering is offered jointly by the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Engineering. The curriculum includes courses in software engineering, computer science, electrical & computer engineering, along with the relevant mathematics background. 

Software Engineering is the design and application of systematic, disciplined, and quantifiable approaches to the development and conservation of software, software systems and related computing hardware. The Systems Programming track focuses on embedded systems while the Applications Development track centers on methodologies, techniques, and tools to manage the software development life cycle. 

08/22/2023
New this Fall the department will offer stackable certificates as well as a minor in artificial intelligence. Both offerings are designed to meet the needs of current students as well as career professionals in computer science. Our new certificate program is ideal for professionals looking to gain new skills as well as new students not ready to commit to a full degree program. The certificates provide a sequence of credentials accumulated over time to build up an individual's qualifications. 

With talk of ChatGPT, robots, self-driving cars, and artificially created images ever present in the media, understanding artificial intelligence and its implications is crucial. Our new minor will allow students to deepen their understanding of artificial intelligence and is laid out to include a concise coverage of mathematical and computational foundations, a specific course on artificial intelligence, and an elective that can be drawn from courses offered in the computer science department or any of the other departments that have broadened their machine learning and artificial intelligence offerings in recent years.

08/22/2023
A group of NDSU students recently attended the DefCon cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas. The experience provides an opportunity for students to learn about all types of cybersecurity from world leaders and to meet with NDSU alumni who work in the cybersecurity field. 

The students who attended brought information that they will share with others at NDSU through activities of the Cybersecurity Student Association and a variety of local events. Six NDSU students – Cameron Kolodjski, Elsa Bernard, Jack Hance, Jonathan Rivard, Neal Buerman and Sydney Deaton – attended the conference in 2023. 

“DefCon was an incredible experience,” said NDSU undergraduate student Elsa Bernard.  “There is so much to be learned and explored in just four days.  It will definitely have me coming back.”  Read more

08/22/2023
The NDSU computer science department recently hosted its annual Bison Cyber Camp, which provided a week of fun-filled cybersecurity and computing education to approximately thirty-five high school students.

Students attended core sessions related to programming, robotics, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. They also selected electives to participate in, got to visit NDSU’s dining center and the NDSU campus Wellness Center’s pool. 

This was NDSU’s fifth year of offering cyber summer camps.  Instruction was provided by computer science faculty members Pratap Kotala, Simone Ludwig, Zahid Anwar, Joe Latimer and Jeremy Straub. Staff members Ben Bernard, Cayden Schmandt and Dylan Schaefer and students Anthony DeFoe, Elsa Bernard, Gavin Kestner, Danielle Hanson, Mason Kornezos, Ryan Patterson and Sydney Deaton also played integral roles in the camp. Read more

04/18/2023
April is Pride Month at NDSU, and to celebrate the computer science department recently participated and won the "student choice" category in the campus-wide office decorating contest. The goal of the competition is to have a more visually inclusive campus environment leading up to National Day of Silence on April 14th. The department chose to honor the founder of computer science, Alan Turing, an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist.Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general-purpose computer. He is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. Turing was homosexual, for this sole reason, he was arrested in 1952 for indecency. He was chemically castrated and had developed a depression that might have caused his suicide. This tragic fate is a classic example of how society’s prejudice robbed him of a dignified and fulfilling life. Let us not forget this tragic example and keep fighting to promote a more egalitarian culture in honor of Turing’s and so many lives wasted to intolerance.  Stop by the department this month to view the decorations and celebrate Pride with us!

03/02/2023
NDSU was a site host for the 2023 International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). Facilitated by Senior Lecturer Joseph Latimer, teams from NDSU, Bemidji State, and MSUM competed in the five hour event. NDSU Computer Science teams had a strong showing in our region of 116 teams, with the team of Elijah Satrom, Jean Eckelberg, and Eathon Jablon placing 11th, newcomers Brady Vogt, Andrew Fergel, and Colin Campbell placing 12th, and the team of Carson Miller, Brandon Gasser, and William Saksoda placing 37th.

The International Collegiate Programming Contest is an algorithmic programming contest for college students. Teams of three, representing their university, work to solve the most real-world problems, fostering collaboration, creativity, innovation, and the ability to perform under pressure. Through training and competition, teams challenge each other to raise the bar on the possible. It is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world.

The contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. The contest has raised aspirations and performance of generations of the world’s problem solvers in the computing sciences and engineering.

02/22/2023
Mama Mia! Can you cook the best pizza's faster than the competition? This kitchen is only big enough for the best! That was the theme of this year’s Byte-le Royale, hosted by the NDSU student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The 12-hour programming competition challenges competitors in teams of up to 3 to write an AI to play a video game and compete against each other to see who can create the best AI. The “Papa Rivard’s” team of Elijah Satrom, Enoch Satrom, and Chris Tupper took first place, “No llambda's” Brandon Gasser and William Soksoda took second, “IntelliBeans” Brennan Gerstner finished third, and “SIMS” Jace Weishaar and Mason Myles took fourth. Additionally, the team “Fan Mention” made up of Jack Hance, Matthew Tassava, and Cameron Kolodjski were the graduate team winners.

This was the first competition for NDSU computer science sophomore Ian King. “For the first time competing, it was a lot of fun. I'm still learning a lot about programing being new to computer science, so it was a bit overwhelming, but it was fun in the sense that like, okay, let's see what we can do and then we'll see what happens in the end. The ACM did have a meeting beforehand introducing Python and that personally really helped me, and the competition was a big help with getting better with coding. I definitely want to partake in more competitions in the future.”

First place winner Elijah Satrom says it was definitely worth the effort, with each of the first-place team members winning $456. “It’s fairly easy to get into as long as you have a basic grasp of programing, logic and such. The API to interact with the game was very easy to use and it was fairly well documented. It was definitely a fun experience and for a 12-hour competition it was very well-designed. No one's going to be closing out the competition with that feeling of, well, I've been working on stuff for 12 hours and I still did almost nothing. It's a good middle ground for the amount of time you have and there was still stuff at the end that we could get done. I'd say it was very well put together.”

Second place winner Braddon Gasser added “the first hour of it is always really stressful. You get the game, you get the manual and you've got no idea what to do. This was my fourth AI competition, and it's pretty fun. Even if you don't win, it's a good time.”

The current chair of the ACM Amanda Fetzer stated that development of the game takes close to a year. “Additionally, we did do a bit of game balancing during gameplay because we noticed some parts of the code we thought were working weren't. But we kind of gave ourselves a rule where we can do game balancing within the first half, but then after that we just don't touch the code because then otherwise it won't give teams enough time to adjust to those changes. There were five updates and only one of them was balancing in the first couple of hours.”

The ACM has been hosting the event since 2018 with the initial computational infrastructure built by computer science alum Jordan Goetze. The AI competition is a very well kept secret each year, which means that the objective and structure of the each year’s game are not revealed until the day of the event. You can learn more about the competition, including previous gameplay at the ACM website.

01/11/2023
NDSU freshman Conor Quinn won first place in the cybersecurity “Scavenge-The-Flag” competition at the BSides Dallas-Fort Worth conference in Texas. NDSU junior Cayden Schmandt also took second place in a physical cybersecurity competition at the conference.

The “Scavenge-The-Flag” competition combined cybersecurity knowledge questions with scavenger hunt activities and in-person challenges. The physical security competition included several challenges related to locks and lockpicking.

“It was a very informative conference. The speakers were very knowledgeable and taught about some interesting attacks. It really expanded my knowledge of various aspects of cybersecurity,” said Schmandt. “It was an overall fun conference. I’m glad that we were able to bring a large group of freshmen and to get them more excited about cybersecurity and broaden their knowledge.”

BSides conferences are held around the world. The BSides conference in Dallas-Fort Worth has been held annually for more than a decade. Read more