News Archive 2021
Congratulations to our recent 2021 scholarship winners
Bill Perrizo Scholarship: Francis Martinson
Nygard Scholarship: Joshua Pompa, Allison Scharmer, and Emma Cockram
Paul Juell Scholarship: Alexander Tjellesen, Jacob Rinehart, and Amanda Fetzer
Computer Science Scholarship: Alexia Schock, Alison Gonser, Dylan Miska, Brian Friedt
Niehaus Scholarship: Ryan Heilman, Alex Janssen
NDSU program ranked 6th among the top 10 most affordable online master's in software engineering
11/08/2021
North Dakota State University has been identified as one of the Top 10 Most Affordable Online Master's in Software Engineering by Master’s Programs Guide. The ranking considered affordability, graduation rate, earning potential, selectivity, and online graduate offerings. Master’s Programs Guide mission is to help find the best Master’s degree programs by providing rankings, resources, and information.
Software Engineering at NDSU is focused on the application of systematic, disciplined, and quantifiable approaches to the development, operation, and maintenance of software systems. Inclusive of computer programming but going well beyond, Software Engineering is concerned with methodologies, techniques, and tools to manage the entire software life cycle, including development of requirements, specifications, design, testing, maintenance, and project management. The advent of Software Engineering is a natural result of the continuous quest for software quality and reusability, and the maturing of the software development industry.
NDSU computer science students take third place in Digi-Key's 2021 collegiate computing competition
10/27/2021
The NDSU “Yesql” team made up of Sean Hagen, Erick Bickler, Jack Hance, and Braden Rayhorn placed 3rd in this year’s Digi-Key Collegiate Computing Competition VERSION 2.0.21. The competition held on October 15 in Thief River Falls consisted of three main events—two programming sessions and one word problem session. This is the fifth year in a row that one or more teams from the NDSU Computer Science Department have placed among the top three winning teams. Each year, Digi-Key Electronics invites two 4-person teams from each of 13 regional universities to participate in the competition. In addition to prizes for the participants, the department of the 3rd-placed team is awarded $1,000 that benefits NDSU’s ACM student organization.
October is cybersecurity awareness month!
10/22/2021
In honor of cybersecurity awareness month, Computer Science Associate Professor Zahid Anwar recently spoke with North Dakota Today about cybersecurity best practices. The theme for this year is "Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart." It encourages individuals and organizations to own their role in protecting their part of cyberspace, stressing personal accountability and importance of taking proactive steps to enhance cybersecurity.
“It’s important for everyone to have a basic knowledge of cybersecurity so as to be able to make informed decisions about their personal security, but the bottom line is that we have a data breach almost every week, and many Americans have experienced data theft, so it is something to be aware about,” Anwar said. He advised everyone "to update your software as soon as updates are available, keep backups of your data in two places, and just close accounts that you don’t use all that often.”
Paying careful attention to passwords is also important. "Instead of having small passwords and recycling them over and over again," Dr. Anwar noted, "have longer passphrases and have them be unique." Also, be very cautious about giving out your credit card information or, especially, your social security number!
View the entire interview at Valley News Live.
Dr. Anne Denton gives seminar series presentation
10/21/2021
Professor Denton recently presented "Rethinking the Processing of High Resolution Geospatial Raster Data" as part of the department's seminar series. High resolution raster data from small satellites, drones, and airplanes has become increasingly common in recent years.Her presentation demonstrated that new raster processing techniques are needed to effectively analyze such data. Denton described the process of deriving topographic variables such that the resulting algorithm scales to large window sizes without reducing the resolution of the output image, introducing artefacts, or substantially reducing performance. Additional she showed that the same ideas can be used for a vast set of derived attributes including fractal dimensions and regression coefficients, provided that only additive measures are needed in their computation. The effectiveness was demonstrated for real and artificial landscape models.
Denton teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in database systems and computational technologies for environmental sustainability. She earned a master’s in computer science from NDSU and holds a doctorate degree in physics. She joined the NDSU faculty in 2003.
NDSU to field largest ever National Cyber League team
10/13/21
NDSU is a recognized leader in the National Cyber League. The university took 13th place nationally, out of hundreds of participating U.S. colleges and universities, in the spring 2021 NCL Cyber Power Rankings. Read full article
NDSU welcomes students back to campus
08/23/2021
Today 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 this 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. With the onset of COVID last year, this is the first time many have been in a classroom setting for quite some time. We wish all students a productive and healthy new school year, and we look forward to getting to know all of you.
Department welcomes three new members
08/12/2021
The Department of Computer Science is happy to announce three recent additions our faculty and staff.
Dr. Zahid Anwar joins the department as an associate professor and will also serve as a faculty scholar in the Challey Institute for Global Innovation & Growth. Zahid’s research focuses on cybersecurity policy and innovative cyber defense, and he has authored over 80 publications in peer-reviewed conferences, journals, and magazines. He is a CompTIA Certified Penetration Tester, Network Vulnerability Assessment Professional, Security+ Professional, and an AWS Certified Cloud Solutions Architect. Prior to working in Academia, he worked as a software engineer and researcher at IBM T.J. Watson, Intel, Motorola, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, xFlow research, and CERN. He arrives from Fontbonne University in St. Louis, where he worked as an associate professor. He received his MS and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his BS in Computer Systems Engineering from GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology, Pakistan. You can learn more about Zahid at his website.
Dave Froslie joins the faculty with a half-time appointment as a lecturer leading the senior capstone program. Froslie states “ I am excited to join the NDSU faculty and lead the computer science capstone program. My previous employer was Microsoft where I had a variety of Dynamics related product development roles for almost 20 years. My most recent role was working as a principal AI architect. I was the Microsoft capstone mentor for many years so am familiar with the program from the company perspective.” He spent the last 20 years at Microsoft after 13 years at MTS Systems, received his BS in electrical engineering from NDSU, his MBA from the University of Saint Thomas, and his MS in Data Science from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Froslie and his wife live in the Pelican Rapids lakes area and enjoy a variety of outdoor activities. Their daughter recently graduated from NDSU with an MA in English and now works in the area. You can learn more about him at his website.
Melissa Bethard joins the department as an administrative assistant after recently relocating back to Fargo. Bethard worked at Citibank for 16 years in San Antonio, Texas and more recently in the accounting office at John T. Jones Construction in Fargo. She is enjoying working at NDSU and especially enjoys the opportunity to interact with faculty and students.
Salem and Latimer recently honored
08/12/2021
We would like to congratulate Dr. Saeed Salem on his promotion to full professor. Salem received his Ph.D in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York in 2009 and joined in the department shortly thereafter. His research interests include bioinformatics and data mining, and he serves as graduate coordinator for the department.
A big congratulations also goes to Joseph Latimer, the 2021 College of Engineering winner for the Excellence in Teaching award. This award is based on the quality of teaching, student mentoring and advising, as well as teaching innovation and excellence. In addition to this award, Latimer was also recently promoted to senior lecturer. He received his MBA from California Polytechnic State University in 1988 and teaches courses on topics such as UNIX, Java, and operating systems. Read the NDSU News Article.
NDSU computer science alum awarded outstanding teacher
08/12/2021
Former NDSU computer science student and lecturer, Otto Borchert has been awarded the 2021 Outstanding Teacher Award by his current university, Missouri Southern State (MSSU) in Joplin, MO. Students make the nominations for the annual award, which honor the instructors who have made a positive impact in front of the classroom and in an advising capacity.
“I am truly humbled by the award. I just make sure I am available when students have questions, try to keep my content and delivery methods current in a rapidly evolving field, and stay responsive to student educational needs. It’s incredibly satisfying to see students learn and grow. The students are why I do what I do. I’m always thankful for the education I got at NDSU from both Computer Science and STEM Education that led me down this path, and to both Gonzaga and NDSU for letting me practice my craft as a Lecturer.”
Borchert has been an assistant professor at MSSU since the fall of 2018. He graduated from NDSU with a BS, MS, and PhD in computer science and served as a lecturer in the department. He received the Ambassadors Excellence Award at NDSU in the spring of 2018.
Department hosts CyberBison camp for high schoolers this summer
07/31/21
In July the NDSU computer science department hosted BisonCyber, a two-day, on-campus summer camp for high school students in grades 9-12. Topics of the free camp included programming, networking, cybersecurity and robotics. All high school students were welcome, including those who are entering freshman year and recent spring high school graduates. Approximately 50 campers attended each day.
NDSU computer science students take third place in Digi-Key's 2020 collegiate computing competition
01/15/2021
The NDSU team, “Team Clever Team Name”, with Erick Bickler, Jack Hance, Alex Leska, and Trent Yetzer placed 3rd in last Fall’s Digi-Key Collegiate Computing Competition. The event consisted of a variety of programming challenges of various lengths, including word problems and short and long programming challenges. While the competition is normally held at the Digi-Key headquarters in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, this year’s event was run in a distributed fashion at the participating universities. It is the fourth year in a row that one or more teams from the NDSU Computer Science Department have placed among the top three winning teams. Each year, Digi-Key Electronics invites two 4-person teams from each of 13 regional universities to participate in the competition. In addition to prizes for the participants, the department of the 3rd-placed team is awarded $1,000, that benefits our ACM student organization.
