Media Advisory: Interim Legislative Workforce Committee of the North Dakota Legislature to meet at UND’s EERC on Nov. 30

Committee will hear from several industry members on workforce needs, including how to advance inclusion of autonomous systems. Members of EERC, UND’s Research Institute for Autonomous Systems, College of Engineering & Mines to speak

Who: Interim Legislative Workforce Committee (link to Committee webpage)

When: Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023, 9:00 a.m.

Where: Discovery Hall, Energy and Environmental Research Center, University of North Dakota

Background: The Interim Legislative Workforce Committee will meet in Grand Forks on Thursday, Nov. 30, at 9 a.m. at the Energy & Environmental Research Center, located on the UND campus.

The Workforce Committee is meeting to gather input from industry members about their work force needs, and how they are integrating autonomous technology into their operations. Among other areas, the committee is tasked with studying the use of existing autonomous system capabilities and infrastructure to provide solutions to workforce and safety needs in the state.

The committee is seeking to gauge the state of autonomy in North Dakota, and how it can impact industry as they deal with critical workforce issues.

Representatives from UND who will speak at the event include Mark Askelson, associate vice president for national security research, and Brian Tande, dean of the College of Engineering & Mines, and members of the UND Research Institute for Autonomous Systems.

Organizations and agencies whose representatives will speak include Grand Sky, the uncrewed aerial systems business and aviation park located near Grand Forks; Vantis, the state’s infrastructure network supporting research efforts into commercially viable beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights; the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Microsoft, among numerous others.

The committee will meet over the course of two days, with the first being at the EERC, and the second  taking place on Friday, Dec. 1 in Fargo, at the Memorial Union on the North Dakota State University campus.

More information about the Interim Legislative Workforce Committee can be found on the committee’s webpage. The two-day meeting can also be viewed online at https://video.ndlegis.gov.

Members of the media are welcome to attend the committee meeting.

Committee members include: Representatives Shannon Roers Jones, Dick Anderson, Landon Bahl, Josh Christy, Hamida Dakane, Jay Fisher, Mike Motschenbacher, Scott Wagner, Jonathan Warrey; Senators Jeff Barta, Ryan Braunberger, Randy A. Burckhard, Michael A. Wobbema.

Media contact:

David Dodds, David.dodds@und.edu, 701-777-5529

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