NDSU receives Heartland Pride award at computer conference
NDSU received the Heartland Pride Award for showing significant efforts to bring a major convention to the area.
NDSU’s Archaeology Technologies Laboratory brought the Computer Applications in Archaeology conference to Fargo in April.
The award is presented by the Fargo-Moorhead Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The CAA is a virtual reality modeling group that goes to archaeological sites around the world and maps the sites using computers.
Jeffrey Clark, a sociology professor and organizer of the conference, said a good example of this work is at onaslant.ndsu.edu.
The site shows Mandan village sites and how they have been remodeled using virtual reality.
“ At the conference, the people were given special glasses to view the site,” Clark said, “And when worn, certain parts of the virtual reality show popped out, such as a person talking.”
A few graduate students from NDSU were able to attend the conference, work with the computer animated show and help with the reports that often get published.
“ One good thing about students working here (is that) they get to sometimes co-author for published papers in the preceding volumes,” Clark said.
Students were able to attend the conference for a reduced rate, and Clark said he applied for grants to offer scholarship funds for graduate students to come.
More than 300 people from 28 countries attended, and one-third of them were graduate students.
The countries included England, Ireland, Italy, France, Romania, Sri Lanka, India, Korea, Australia and many more.
“ This was the first time the conference was held outside Europe,” Clark said.
Clark said he has been all over the world for these conferences and wanted to bring it to the United States to make the CAA more known to this part of the world.
Two years ago, the conference was held in Florence, Italy, and that is where the bidding to have it in Fargo took place, Clark said.
“ A really good thing about having the conference here is that people from the conference get to see and experience everything North Dakota has to offer,” he said.
Clark said he is very excited to see NDSU reaching more toward a more global stance in fields such as archaeology.
“ I have always been for an international NDSU,” Clark said. “It provides avenues for students to go out and gain awareness and learn extremely valuable things.”
Next year the CAA conference will be held in Berlin, Germany.