On Friday, September 29th, Center for Healthcare Engineering & Patient Safety (CHEPS) alumnus Ryan Chen participated in the Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE) 101 Career Seminar Series hosted by the University of Michigan’s IOE Department.
Having graduated from U-M in 2014 with dual degrees in IOE and Euphonium Performance, Chen told students and faculty about the formative experiences he had as a student at Michigan. Chen began working at CHEPS shortly after its 2011 founding, noting that he still keeps in touch with some of the friends he made here years ago.
“One of the places I really got to learn a lot from was CHEPS, and that is where I really formed myself as an intellect at Michigan.”
Chen talked about how his time at Michigan prepared him for life after college, reflecting specifically on the fact that knowing how to take advantage of repeated processes and utilizing systems thinking are both skills that any company looks for in potential employees. Chen stated that he was able to learn all of this not only through his IOE degree, but also through his work at CHEPS.
After graduating from Michigan, Chen received a Master of Science in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, and then worked as a data scientist for the Orlando Magic NBA team where he was able to put his acquired knowledge to practice. He described that his motivation for wanting to work in the sports industry was because of his desire to introduce more quantitative analysis into the conversation of sports—a cultural aspect of America that has become more and more important over the years.
Chen is currently a third-year law student at Harvard University, and upon graduation, he hopes to return to a full-time career pursuing professional basketball analytics and law.
We here at CHEPS wish Ryan Chen the best of luck in his final year of law school and are so impressed by everything he has accomplished!
— Written by Ethan Kraus, CHEPS Student