PEWAUKEE, Wis. (Monday, June 10, 2024) – Waukesha County Technical College is pleased to announce the addition of Dan Lindberg as the director of the College’s new WCTC Applied AI (artificial intelligence) Lab: Wisconsin Center for AI Development and Implementation.
Lindberg will serve as the first director of the Applied AI Lab, which will be housed in a newly renovated space in Building Q and is slated to open in fall 2024. Remodeling and renovations are currently underway and involve creating a first-of-its-kind incubator for businesses and entrepreneurs on the first floor, along with modern, state-of-the-art classroom and lab spaces for students on the second floor.
In his new role, Lindberg will have two main areas of focus: he will spend half his time working to oversee the Applied AI Lab and the other half working closely with the School of Business’s Information Technology department teaching and developing AI and data-related courses. With the lab, Lindberg is hoping to drive WCTC’s vision for AI forward, putting together workshops and seminars, and providing the resources and tools needed to help businesses – large and small -- to implement AI into their company operations. In the classroom, he is planning to teach and refine courses including Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing and a capstone, along with others that focus on predictive analytics and machine learning.
“We are excited to have Dan join our team,” said Alli Jerger, associate dean of Information Technology at WCTC. “He will bring his industry and consulting AI experience to our students to help prepare them for jobs in the ever-evolving AI landscape.”
Maximizing AI's offerings
Lindberg is looking forward to shaping his position, growing the Al lab and maximizing AI’s offerings at WCTC.
“I want to foster an ecosystem between students, faculty and businesses in Waukesha County. There’s a wonderful platform to work off of at WCTC, and there is vision here,” he said. “We have a physical space with the lab, we have the expertise with the faculty, and on the startup front, the accelerator with gener8tor (which helps early stage tech-enabled startups, with a special focus on AI). That is going to be a huge catalyst to help create that ecosystem. We want to drive traffic to that lab, and put together a platform for workshops and seminars, as well as any sort of custom engagements that groups might need.”
By working closely with students who are enrolled in AI programs, and members of the business community who want to deploy AI in their company operations, Lindberg’s role will give him a distinctive lens and an advantage in helping both groups.
“I view the academic side and the lab side as working together,” he said. “I’ll have a unique perspective to see what businesses are asking for, what they are working on and what’s out there in terms of courses, content, activities, and tools and resources, and I’d like to blend that. We have academic rigor, but it’s also focused on producing students who can work on these (AI) projects.”
Diverse AI, machine learning background
Lindberg brings relevant experience to the role, though his diverse work and teaching background. He founded and served as principal of Applied Economic Insight LLC, a consultancy that provides data analysis services (using machine learning) to real estate owners, operators and developers. He taught predictive and prescriptive business analytics, and microeconomics courses, at Marquette University, while incorporating machine learning into his teaching. Additionally, he served in market analyst roles of increasing responsibility at Direct Supply Inc., where he led market selection, assessment and strategic planning initiatives for senior living providers.
"Dan's extensive experience using data and machine learning to help organizations solve problems and grow their business made him the perfect fit to lead our Applied AI Lab,” said Laura Krohn, executive director of WCTC’s Corporate Training Center. “He will be able to advance WCTC's comprehensive portfolio of AI programs and services in partnership."