NAU Country - NDSU Capstone Pitch

Chapter 1: Introduction

  • Speaker Introduction

    • Joe Hoffman, NAU Country, Development Organization Manager

    • Over nine years of experience with capstone projects at NDSU.

  • Company Background

    • NAU Country: Crop insurance company based in Ramsey, Minnesota.

    • Second largest crop insurer in the US, serving American farmers.

    • Collaborates closely with the Risk Management Agency (RMA), a government agency backing Multi-Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI) policies.

    • Differentiation through high-quality service, technology, and efficient claims handling.

Chapter 2: Open Developer Position

  • Company Presence

    • Main offices in Ramsey, Minnesota; significant IT staff in Fargo, Council Bluffs, and Eclair, Wisconsin.

    • Approximately 150 total IT staff with 60-65 developers primarily in Fargo.

  • Technologies Utilized

    • Involves Visual Studio, C#, and various technologies in capstone projects.

  • Job Opportunities

    • Ongoing open developer positions; encourage contact for interested candidates.

    • Unique work schedule: 37.5 hours/week (Monday-Thursday: 8.25 hours, Friday: 4.5 hours).

    • Additional perks: 10% annual bonus potential, competitive 401k match.

Chapter 3: Called Special Provisions

  • Understanding Special Provisions

    • Special provisions documents are created by the RMA at the county level, detailing insurance adjustments for crops.

    • Annually, 160,000 documents generated concerning crop specialties, including crop rotation rules.

  • Project Necessity

    • The challenge of managing vast amounts of special provisions makes it difficult for underwriters and agents to stay updated.

Chapter 4: Ask Those Questions

  • Project Goals

    • Utilize generative AI to simplify the inquiry process for underwriters and agents.

    • Develop a system to answer natural language questions, e.g., crop rotation requirements or updates in handbooks and special provisions.

  • Proposed Solution

    • Create a Proof of Concept (POC) that loads special provisions and crop insurance handbooks into blob storage.

    • Develop a user interface to facilitate natural language questions.

Chapter 5: Conclusion

  • Project Team Engagement

    • Marvita (Business Quality Analyst) will guide the project, ensuring connection with relevant team members.

    • Joe Hoffman will serve as project sponsor.

    • Development team: Dean Redmond and Trent Schnell, responsible for project setup and scope definition.

    • Open invitation for questions and collaboration; [emails available for contact].

    • Encouragement to choose this project for capstone involvement.