Computer science prof earns doctorate

Thomas Tiahrt, instructor of computer science at Northwestern College, has earned a doctoral degree from the University of South Dakota after successfully defending his dissertation this spring. He was awarded a Ph.D. in computational science and statistics during commencement ceremonies May 7.

Tiahrt’s dissertation is entitled “Bitwise-AND Sifting Set Intersection Trees.”

A resident of Wakonda, S.D., Tiahrt joined Northwestern’s faculty last fall. He specializes in the storage and retrieval of unstructured and semi-structured information, the role of ethics in the use of information technology, and computational thinking. 

Tiahrt previously served as chief scientist for BrightPlanet Corporation, where he oversaw research and development of novel indexing, storage, search and retrieval software. His professional software development experience spans nearly three decades, with work in accounting systems, newspaper production, image databases, picture archiving communication systems, bioinformatics, and information retrieval software.

Tiahrt also holds a master’s degree in computer science and a bachelor’s in accounting, both from the University of South Dakota.