NDSU’s Technology Fee Advisory Committee has awarded funds to two campus technology projects.
This spring, proposals were sought for projects designed to improve the quality of education and campus life for students at NDSU through information technology. With approval from Marc Wallman, interim vice president for information technology, the following projects received funds:
Online Tutoring Through Smartthinking
Project director: Casey Peterson, Student Success Programs
Academic Collegiate Enhancement, known as ACE, is a free academic support program available to all undergraduate students at NDSU. ACE has seen a steady increase in demand for tutoring since 2004. Recognizing students’ need for flexibility in tutoring services—including flexibility for scheduling outside of regular operating hours and the need for remote tutoring—the project will fund Smartthinking online tutoring for students. It will improve access to tutoring, provide an additional one-on-one tutoring service, and will add a more flexible tutoring option for all NDSU students to ultimately increase student achievement and retention.
3D Printer Filament Processing System
Project directors: Chad Ulven, associate professor of mechanical engineering and Ben Bernard, computer service specialist in the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
To expand use of 3D printing on campus, NDSU will produce its own 3D printer “ink” – a corn-based, sustainable polylactic acid thermoplastic filament. The project will utilize the equipment and skills of the Department of Mechanical Engineering to design and create a filament processing system. Students will have the opportunity to design a controlled filament cooling, sizing and winding device and to explore processing of newly developed thermoplastic alloys and composites. Technology fee funding of this project will allow students to produce original research, while lowering the cost of 3D printing on campus.
More information is available at www.ndsu.edu/tfac.
Questions regarding the Technology Fee Advisory Committee may be directed to committee chair Rian Nostrum at rian.nostrum@ndsu.edu or 701-231-7890, or to the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology at 701-231-5646.
NDSU is recognized as one of the nation’s top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.