Overview

Ben Bernard is a key part of the glue that holds the whole NDSU campus together. Based in Architecture / Landscape Architecture, not only does he serve that department admirably, he also can be frequently found on main campus helping with all sorts of things. He helped the library develop their new makerspace. He’s also part of a committee that is looking at developing a second larger makerspace. Beyond this, he has helped Geology develop augmented reality sandboxes and numerous other things. He has also gotten a number of internal grants to support these projects, making him more active than a good number of faculty in this area (despite the fact that this is not an explicit part of his position description).

In Architecture, Ben frequently has to deal with cybersecurity issues including securing the department’s collection of desktops and high-end workstations and dealing with reported cybersecurity issues. The workstations are a particular target, due to their extensive computational capabilities.

In addition to his work on all sorts of other projects, he also makes lots of connections between people all over campus. Ben knows who’s doing what interesting thing across campus. Not only does he help people find others with skills, resources and interests that they’re looking for, in many cases he proactively finds people to let them know about opportunities.

Most recently, Ben has turned his focus towards cybersecurity. Ben earned NDSU’s first Graduate Certificate in Cybersecurity and the first M.S. in Computer Science with a Cybersecurity focus. He was also among the first to enroll in NDSU’s new Ph.D. with a focus in cybersecurity education.

Ben has done a tremendous amount helping with NDSU’s cybersecurity educational programs. He has helped with everything from getting students food during competitions to lab development.