Committed to Protecting Our Military

UND professor who leads high-profile defense project demonstrates how a gift from Smith Circle donors Mark and Claudia Thompson can fuel discovery.

On Sept. 8, U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer spoke at the investiture ceremony of Dr. Jeremiah Neubert.

Jeremiah is the Mark and Claudia Thompson National Security Faculty Fellow in UND’s College of Engineering & Mines. 

“North Dakota’s contribution to the security of the free world is far above our weight class,” said Cramer, the first North Dakotan to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Dr. Neubert is a mechanical engineering professor with expertise in augmented reality and visual tracking, and the son of a U.S. Marine and Vietnam veteran. He is committed to discovering new ways to support our military. “Any way that I can help make the lives of military personnel safer and easier makes me feel good,” he said. 

Augmented Reality

Dr. Neubert leads a team of UND researchers working on a multiyear Department of Defense contract to develop an augmented reality (AR) system for light military trucks.

“The goal is to give users better awareness of the battlefield by displaying information such as where enemies and mines are,” Dr. Neubert said. “We are also working on autonomous detection capabilities for things like other vehicles, people, and buildings – which will help operators drive at night without lights.”

The system will provide travel routes through challenging conditions like dust storms and navigation support when GPS is unavailable. It will also detect drones overhead.

Truck operators will view the data in an AR “head’s up” display, which is projected onto the windshield in their line of sight. The display mirrors the actual depth and distance of what the operators would see while driving.

A Lifetime of Service

Mark Thompson, ’71, served as a KC-135 navigator in the Air Force after graduating from UND. He and Claudia (Roley), ’70, said they were shaped and formed by their four years as a military family, and created the Thompson National Security Fellowship to help expand security-related research at UND, its impact would reach far outside our campus. “We are doing our small part to continue serving our country,” Mark said.