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Recent news from the department

Simone Ludwig, Professor and Department Chair
NDSU alumnus gives historic $25 million gift to College of Engineering

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.

Richard’s monumental gift to NDSU will supercharge the construction timeline and accelerate development of a strong pipeline of engineers who will drive societal advancements; critical program growth related to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, precision agriculture, data science, energy stewardship, advanced infrastructure, manufacturing, and robotics; and a transformative educational experience. Read more

Can artificial intelligence demonstrate creativity?

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.

 

Have a news item you would like to share? Help us get the word out by submitting it as a Breakthrough Alert. This online form is an easy, step-by-step guide that will walk you through the process. For more information contact kathleen.t.cox@ndsu.edu.

‘Stay up to date with what’s new’

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. 

Ian King, a junior computer science major, chose to add the minor since it compliments his major and is something he’s been interested in learning more about. 

“Seeing that it was provided and that AI boomed very quickly, I decided that it would be beneficial for setting myself up for my career,” said King, who is from West Fargo.  

King has been enjoying his introduction to AI class and working with faculty in the department.

“It’s been pretty good so far. It was a very quick and easy process to get into the minor. Now that I’m taking some of the classes it’s been very fun, very interesting,” he said. “The faculty’s always nice. I know a lot of them so if I ever have questions, I’m able to go over to them openly.” Read more

Byte-le Royale 2024 winners announced

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.

 


 

CS alum Kaylee Swenson, talks about her NDSU experience

 

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