Jakob Barnard, PhD

Biography

Originally coming from Hasting, MN, I have lived in Jamestown, ND since coming to Jamestown College in the fall of 2000. After graduating from Jamestown College in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History/Political Science, my wife and I moved to Fargo for a year before returning to Jamestown. Through this time, we have grown our family with a son and pets. My wife (a fellow Jimmie) is co-founder of Triumph Incorporated here in Jamestown, a human service orientated company. I had previously been working in roles such as software support, IT Helpdesk, and director of data science at various local companies over the years. I am also a volunteer firefighter with the Jamestown Rural Fire Department.

In 2017 I completed a Master of Science Computer Information Systems degree with a concentration in Databases and Business Intelligence from Boston University. That fall I had the opportunity to rejoin the University of Jamestown as an adjunct instructor and in 2018 joined the Computer Science & Technology Department as a fulltime instructor. In 2019 I began working on a Doctor of Philosophy in Information Technology program with a concentration in cybersecurity through the University of the Cumberlands. I was promoted to Assistant Professor in May 2021 and Department Chair in May of 2022. The PhD program was completed, and dissertation successfully defended, in October of 2022. I am also passionately involved with the ACM SIGCSE Committee on Computing Education in Liberal Arts Colleges and working with the wider computer science education community.

My Favorite Course to Teach

My favorite courses to teach are Networking, Linux, and Introduction to Information Security. In our modern world we have developed high levels of connectiveness. Networking is the tool that facilitates this – and Information Security is the study that helps us understand the risks associated with that. Combine that with the approach and philosophy behind the Linux operating system – it allows me to enjoy exploring the how and why of our digital lives with my students through these foundational, cross-disciplinary courses.

Scholarly and Creative Works

• CS Curricular Innovations with a Liberal Arts Philosophy. Proceedings of the 52^ndACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education – SIGCS ’22, 537-543. https://doi.org/10.1145/3478431.3499329 
• Doctoral Dissertation through the University of the Cumberlands on “A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Project Exploring The Adoption of Cybersecurity Into Liberal Arts Computing Programs.” (2022) https://drbarnard.one/publications/
• Reflective Curriculum Review for Liberal Arts Computing Programs. The Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges – Papers of the 29th CCSC Midwestern Conference, 38(4), 58-60. https://dl.acm.org/journal/jcsc
• Computer Science Curricular Guidelines: A New Liberal Arts Perspective. Proceedings of the 53^rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education – SIGCSE ’23, https://sigcse2023.sigcse.org/details/sigcse-ts-2023-papers/72/Computer-Science-Curricular-Guidelines-A-New-Liberal-Arts-Perspective [Pre-publication abstract]

Awards and Grants

• ACM SIGCSE 2019 Travel Grant Recipient
• Cyberpaths @ CoFC 2019 Travel Grant Recipient

Professional Affiliations and Memberships

• ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) Member
• SIGCSE (ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education) Member
• USENIX (Advanced Computing Systems Association) Member
• NDFA (North Dakota Firefighter’s Association) Instructor/Firefighter