What Defines Us
Class of 2024 senior Josh Ichen enrolled in the University of Minnesota after growing up in a small town in Wisconsin. He originally planned to major in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, which stemmed from family ties.
“My dad’s uncle was an astronaut, so he flew into space when I was a junior or senior in high school. I saw that and thought ‘This is awesome! I want to do this!’”
In the COVID year of 2020, however, he started to look inward at what his career would be like after college, and eventually he made the choice to switch to ISyE. Ichen liked the idea that it was a mix between engineering and business, but it wasn’t until his first course called “Foundations of Industrial and Systems Engineering” with ISyE Teaching Associate Professor Darin England that he knew for sure that he was in the right place.
Ichen likes ISyE’s focus on making things better. He also appreciates his interactions with ISyE faculty members.
“The professors are so committed to their students, and students get to know their professors on a personal level,” says Ichen.
He recalls a collaboration with Professor Nick Arnosti after taking the “Engineering the Allocation of Public Resources” course, where he had the opportunity to research a website that served as a community for board gamers. Through this website, people organize "math trades" (trades of used games). Each month, people list games they are willing to trade, and indicate which other games they would be willing to accept in return. Then an algorithm called "trade maximizer" is run to determine who trades with whom. Ichen and Arnosti obtained roughly 6 years of trade data, and used it to study how different trading algorithms compared. Together Ichen and Arnosti then looked at scenarios where this method would be beneficial to use and compared it to other allocation methods. This research project eventually led to a research report, summarizing the findings.
Ichen has been able to work on projects that make a direct impact. For example, he applied a shortest path algorithm that he learned in his first ISyE course to Minneapolis crime data to find the shortest and safest path through campus. This algorithm could directly impact future University of Minnesota students because, in an entrepreneurship class, Ichen turned his idea into an app that was selected as one of the top five pitches in the class. In doing so, he was given the opportunity to work with University of Minnesota students from departments in software development, marketing, and finance to build the app and a website supporting it. The app called SmarterWALK is knee-deep in development. In late November, Ichen and his team will meet with the University Campus Safety Committee to determine the next steps.
His most important and impactful experience during his time in ISyE was the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) Global Seminar: “Design for Life: Water in Tanzania”. According to the Global Seminar blog, the program is designed for student teams to make a direct impact on the global community. Ichen and his peers evaluated needs and infrastructures of a small Tanzanian community to model a potable water-handling system. Eventually the model will be evaluated by a local non-profit organization with the funding and resources to take their project to the next level. Ultimately, this trip served as an inspiration for Ichen.
“I credit a lot of my learnings to this project, which is open to all CSE students.”
In an update Ichen provided in October 2024, “We received full funding for our water project in Tanzania back in May, and just last week they broke ground on building the water system for the village of Makungu. Fingers crossed the build goes well, and they are expecting to be completed before the winter is over.”
Before Ichen’s graduation, he received two exceptional honors. The first was the Dr. Alan L. Eliason Undergraduate Achievement in ISyE Award. This award, which is made possible by a generous gift by College of Science and Engineering graduate Dr. Alan Eliason, each year recognizes ten ISyE undergraduate students who have excelled in areas such as leadership, academics, community impact, and innovation. For Ichen, however, the meaning of this award goes beyond the scholarship. This award reflects his hard work and dedication, and is a true point of pride for him. He was also proud to see nine additional peers who were equally as deserving receive this award.
Ichen was also selected to be the 2024 College of Science and Engineering Graduation Commencement speaker. Knowing that graduation is an important moment in the lives of graduates and their families, Ichen took to heart the opportunity and platform to discuss an impactful project and message. His speech focused on life after college, encouraging his peers to consider what defines them now and to remind them that grades will no longer be a part of their lives. This idea stemmed from his time in Tanzania.
“I walk through my story of this past year, going to Tanzania and seeing kids just like us, but they don't have access to education or clean water. Experiencing that, I wonder how that feels compared to getting raises or making money; what should define us?”
And for Ichen, things that make real impacts in life are what define us all.
ISyE Teaching Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Lisa Miller could not be more proud of Ichen and all of his accomplishments as she recalls hearing his speech. “I loved hearing Josh encourage his fellow graduates to think about how they will impact the global community.”
In August 2024, Ichen began his career as a Manufacturing Engineer with Boston Scientific in Maple Grove, MN. Here he assists in the manufacturing of balloon catheters, which are used to help better patients' lives around the world. His studies in ISyE positioned him well for his new job. Indeed, he credits the ISyE program with preparing him for his 2022 summer internship with a startup medical company, which he subsequently leveraged to receive an internship at Boston Scientific in 2023. That internship helped lay the foundation for his new permanent position.
Looking back, Ichen states, “It was cool having a community of students who were connected and I cherish the bond we all had together as students, but that couldn’t have been done without the work of the professors. They created the space that we all felt comfortable in.”
Ultimately, Ichen practices what he preaches when he expresses that what defines us all are the impacts we make. It is clear that the department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Minnesota has made an impact on him, but even more so has he made an impact on the department.