Bjorn Melin: Discoveries in Data The Augsburg Podcast
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- Education
Bjorn Melin, intern at Cteq Data Consultants and 3M, is proof that drive and work ethic really do make a difference. Not about to allow his Edina upbringing to afford him any opportunities he didn’t earn, Bjorn tackled a challenging double major in Computer Science and Math and forged his own opportunities in data science at Cteq and 3M by personally undertaking 50 plus informational interviews (over five times his advisor’s recommendation) and networking vigorously in the Twin Cities’ analytics field before acquiring internships in both small and large business environments. Bjorn’s is a story spanning math faculty all the way up to corporate CEOs. He credits his education to both.
Transcript
Bjorn Melin: There's so many things that resources are being wasted on or that can't happen because it takes too long or it's not possible by humans that if you'd just developed an algorithm or used AI or machine learning, you could handle those tasks so easily. Save people, help people. I want to be able to invent something that's going to help people. That's my ultimate goal.
Paul Pribbenow: Augsburg University educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. I'm Paul Pribbenow, the president of Augsburg University, and it's my great privilege to present the Augsburg podcast.
Catherine Day: I'm Catherine Reid Day, host of the Augsburg podcast. Today we speak with math and computer science, double major Bjorn Melin, class of 2020, about his discoveries in mathematics and data science, both at Augsburg and at multiple internships at companies large and small. We also hear from several of his academic and professional mentors about his passions for math and problem solving, which first took shape years ago on the street in Niagara Falls.
Bjorn Melin: Whenever there was money on the street, I was the one who found it, which my whole family thought was hilarious. One time, we were in Niagara Falls and I found, I think it was a $100 bill on the ground and I was just always keeping track of my money, counting it, keeping track of my coins. That's probably the earliest memory I have is just counting coins, honestly. I was always just interested in math, not really directly, but I'd always be interested in money and counting things, doing puzzles. I guess that's why I turned out as a math major, but I didn't realize it at the time.
Bjorn Melin: When I started at Augsburg, I originally had no clue at all what I was going to do. I started off taking Calc 1 because I knew that, okay, I took pre-calc last year, I should probably keep going if I can handle it. After first semester freshman year I declared an econ major, which looking back I think that's kind of crazy. Second semester then I took Calculus 2 and microeconomics at the same time and I remember sitting in microeconomics one day and our professor had written just full board equation and in calc we had just learned a single derivative that's seven numbers long and it could solve the entire board equation that she just wrote and I couldn't handle it, so I just went up. I was like, I got to show you this. And showed her this derivative, and that's when I was like, okay, I need to switch to a math major. My advisor convinced me to pick up computer science later on, but that's sort of how I started.
Catherine Day: Advising plays a key role for students as they venture into internships. Bjorn tells us where he found guidance.
Bjorn Melin: The Strommen Center,
Bjorn Melin, intern at Cteq Data Consultants and 3M, is proof that drive and work ethic really do make a difference. Not about to allow his Edina upbringing to afford him any opportunities he didn’t earn, Bjorn tackled a challenging double major in Computer Science and Math and forged his own opportunities in data science at Cteq and 3M by personally undertaking 50 plus informational interviews (over five times his advisor’s recommendation) and networking vigorously in the Twin Cities’ analytics field before acquiring internships in both small and large business environments. Bjorn’s is a story spanning math faculty all the way up to corporate CEOs. He credits his education to both.
Transcript
Bjorn Melin: There's so many things that resources are being wasted on or that can't happen because it takes too long or it's not possible by humans that if you'd just developed an algorithm or used AI or machine learning, you could handle those tasks so easily. Save people, help people. I want to be able to invent something that's going to help people. That's my ultimate goal.
Paul Pribbenow: Augsburg University educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. I'm Paul Pribbenow, the president of Augsburg University, and it's my great privilege to present the Augsburg podcast.
Catherine Day: I'm Catherine Reid Day, host of the Augsburg podcast. Today we speak with math and computer science, double major Bjorn Melin, class of 2020, about his discoveries in mathematics and data science, both at Augsburg and at multiple internships at companies large and small. We also hear from several of his academic and professional mentors about his passions for math and problem solving, which first took shape years ago on the street in Niagara Falls.
Bjorn Melin: Whenever there was money on the street, I was the one who found it, which my whole family thought was hilarious. One time, we were in Niagara Falls and I found, I think it was a $100 bill on the ground and I was just always keeping track of my money, counting it, keeping track of my coins. That's probably the earliest memory I have is just counting coins, honestly. I was always just interested in math, not really directly, but I'd always be interested in money and counting things, doing puzzles. I guess that's why I turned out as a math major, but I didn't realize it at the time.
Bjorn Melin: When I started at Augsburg, I originally had no clue at all what I was going to do. I started off taking Calc 1 because I knew that, okay, I took pre-calc last year, I should probably keep going if I can handle it. After first semester freshman year I declared an econ major, which looking back I think that's kind of crazy. Second semester then I took Calculus 2 and microeconomics at the same time and I remember sitting in microeconomics one day and our professor had written just full board equation and in calc we had just learned a single derivative that's seven numbers long and it could solve the entire board equation that she just wrote and I couldn't handle it, so I just went up. I was like, I got to show you this. And showed her this derivative, and that's when I was like, okay, I need to switch to a math major. My advisor convinced me to pick up computer science later on, but that's sort of how I started.
Catherine Day: Advising plays a key role for students as they venture into internships. Bjorn tells us where he found guidance.
Bjorn Melin: The Strommen Center,