07 Jan NDSU hosts Computer Science Education Week speakers
The NDSU computer science department hosted several regional computing professionals for Computer Science Education Week. Computer Science Education Week was proclaimed by Governor Doug Burgum, in North Dakota and sponsored nationally by a collection of organizations, including the Association for Computing Machinery, IEEE, Google and Microsoft.
The proclamation stated: “Computing technology is changing how people interact with each other and the world around them. Providing students the chance to participate in high-quality computer science activities exposes them to the many opportunities the field offers and provides critical thinking skills that will serve them throughout their lives.”
Regional professionals introduced students to several careers within the computing fields. Speakers represented large corporations and small growing businesses, and fields ranging from software application development to security consulting.
“Each speaker that we host who is working in the computing industry provides students with an idea of one possible future career that they could pursue,” said Jeremy Straub, assistant professor of computer science and the organizer of the speaker series. “Events like Computer Science Education Week allow us to host a number of speakers at the same time and allow students to compare and contrast possible careers. This helps students identify where they may want to work once they complete their degrees.”
Speakers included Nathan Joraanstad, Jeremy Neuharth, Shivam Pandey and Ethan Robish. Joraanstad is from Bushel, formerly known as Myriad Mobile. He graduated from NDSU in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering. Neuharth is the co-founder of Sycorr, an information technology consulting firm. Pandey is a NDSU graduate and currently works for Microsoft as a principal lead in software development. Robish is a developer for Black Hills Information Security.
“A highlight of each semester is listening and learning from some of the many talented professionals in the region with computer science backgrounds,” said NDSU doctoral student and staff member Ben Bernard, who helped arrange several of the speakers. “It is amazing how broad the field of computer science is and how many exciting career opportunities there are in the discipline.”
The presentations were recorded and will be available for viewing online.