Recent news from the department
Simone Ludwig, Professor and Department Chair
NDSU spotlights Simone Ludwig, professor and chair of the department
11/18/2024
Simone Ludwig is passionate about the rapidly evolving software industry and ensuring students are provided the skills they need to enter an in-demand career.
That passion is noticeable to faculty in the department, the College of Engineering, as well as students who have had Ludwig as a professor.
The path to teaching wasn’t straightforward for Ludwig. After earning a bachelor’s in engineering, she worked as a software developer for several years. Ludwig’s desire for learning and research prompted her to earn master’s and doctorate degrees in computer science. Pursuing a career in teaching afterwards was a path she has enjoyed taking.
“I really wanted to become a faculty member because I think it’s nice that you can teach students and we all learn. I really like this aspect of forever learning,” Ludwig said. “And then I love doing research, too, and there is this opportunity to continue doing research.”
In her 15th year of teaching at NDSU, Ludwig said the most rewarding part of her job is engaging with students in the classroom. Read more
Jeremy Straub receives funding to help pharmacies combat opioid addiction
10/24/2024
A research team at North Dakota State University has received an award of $295,876 from the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program.
Led by principal investigator Jayme Steig, Assistant Professor of Practice at NDSU, and co-principal investigator Jeremy Straub, Associate Professor of Computer Science at NDSU, and in collaboration with pharmaceutical group company OpREMS, LLC, the opioid overdose data prevention project will research improving digital platforms and using AI to analyze data for the NDSU Opioid and Naloxone Education (ONE) program.
The STTR program is part of the NIH Small Business Programs, which are also known as America’s Seed Fund. STTR’s goal is to “foster technology transfer through cooperative R&D between small businesses and research institutions.” NDSU has received STTR awards in the past, dating back to 2002. Read more
CS graduate students, along with Dr. Juan Li, publish article on secure and decentralized diabetes prediction framework
09/23/2024
Computer science graduate students Md Rakibul Hasan, Qingrui Li, and Utsha Saha published an article in MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) with Dr. Juan Li. The paper "Decentralized and Secure Collaborative Framework for Personalized Diabetes Prediction" presents a groundbreaking solution for improving diabetes prediction while safeguarding patient privacy. The framework integrates blockchain technology with federated learning to enhance security, decentralization, and data diversity. By utilizing these technologies, healthcare institutions can train predictive models on distributed datasets without compromising individual privacy. Extensive evaluations show that this approach not only improves prediction accuracy but also significantly strengthens privacy and security compared to traditional centralized models. This innovative solution offers a promising direction for ethically managing healthcare data in the fight against diabetes.
MDPI is a publisher of open-access scientific journals. It publishes over 390 peer-reviewed, open access journals. It is among the largest publishers in the world in terms of journal article output, and is the largest publisher of open access articles. Go to article.
Dr. Changhui Yan awarded NIH grant for research on nickel catalysts
09/20/2024
Dr. Changhui Yan, a professor in the Department of Computer Science, has been awarded a research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the project titled "Rational Design of Nickel Catalysts for Directing Group-Assisted Alkyne Hydrofunctionalization." Dr. Yan will serve as Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI), collaborating with Dr. Pinjing Zhao from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who will lead the project as Principal Investigator (PI). The grant totals $431,400 and spans the period from September 1, 2024, to August 31, 2027.
Dr. Yan's research interests include bioinformatics, computational biology, genomics, machine learning, data mining, big data, and cloud computing. His interdisciplinary expertise continues to drive innovation at the intersection of computational science and chemistry.
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.
Computer science doctoral student Terry Traylor selected for prestigious fellowship
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
NDSU computer science team wins academic division at 2024 Cyber Cup
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!
Two members of the department honored
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.”
CS alum Kaylee Swenson, talks about her NDSU experience
