Anduril Industries Inc. founder Palmer Luckey visits UND
Fresh off his visit to the 2024 UAS Summit & Expo as a special guest of Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Palmer Luckey visited UND on Wednesday Oct. 9, to speak to students about his recent work in national security, and the importance of technological innovation when it comes to national defense.
Luckey is the inventor of the virtual reality (VR) headset Oculus Rift, and founder of Anduril Industries Inc. – a defense technology company that brings an ultra-modern approach to solving problems for the U.S. Department of Defense. He shared a stage in the Nistler College of Business & Public Administration’s Barry Auditorium with Cramer and President Andy Armacost, who moderated a discussion that gave students access to the billionaire CEO’s ideas on innovation, not only in the defense arena, but in business as well.
Playing a sort of matchmaker for innovators, Cramer said he immediately knew he wanted to introduce Luckey to the Grand Forks-based uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) ecosystem, after touring the Anduril facility.
“Every time he showed me something new, I kept thinking, and I kept saying out loud, you really have to come to Grand Forks, you really need to get to Grand Forks because the ecosystem here that (UND) is a big part of is something I wanted to both expose him to, and expose you to him,” Cramer told Armacost on stage.
