Fellow:Ben Paulson


Name Ben Paulson School (Cohort) Milwaukee School of Engineering (2022 cohort) Majoring in Computer Science Country United States of America Email Special:EmailUser/Email.benpaulson

Bio

Ben Paulson describing fan-controller prototype in GHIE2019

Ben and Tyler Snowboarding, 2021

Hey! My name is Ben Paulson, and I'm currently attending the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) for an undergraduate degree in Computer Science.

I come from a small town in Central Wisconsin called Mosinee, and I've been a farmer for most of my life. At Mosinee High, I moved away from being uncomfortable with public speaking by competing in competitive public-speaking competitions for all four years, as well as starting Mosinee's Programming Club as our high school did not offer any opportunities for students to learn about programming. I was also a member the National Honor Society (NHS), as well as the president of Math Club, funding annual scholarships through fundraisers.

Outside of class, I've been a game developer since the beginning of the quarantine in 2020. This is where I knew I wanted to have a technical background with programming. From this process, I eventually became advanced in a language called Lua, starting a game-development studio that inspired me to focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, staying conscious of the business-side of companies throughout my life. Striving to do an hour of game or app development every night is still an integral part of my life.

Once coming to MSOE, I was pretty busy my Freshman year, moving all over campus to see what resources were available. I eventually found AI-Club where I -- beyond learning about neural networks during workshops -- worked as a project manager for a research team, publishing our findings (https://paperswithcode.com/paper/lymphocyte-classification-in-hyperspectral) and winning awards at both MICS 2022 and MSOE's first ROSIE Supercomputer Competition.

Then, I found UIF: a place where I think the themes of what I've all said previously come together. The fellows I've met have all been great innovators who've started their own businesses, ran huge events, and trained to be leaders in their field. Since going to a Design-Thinking workshop at the end of 2021, I've been hooked ever since.

Away from school and side projects, I currently work at Direct Supply as a data science intern. Direct Supply has innovation and entrepreneurship deeply integrated into its business structure. I work at a building name the "innovation and technology center" with direct access to the nearby computer science building. They've also provided amazing resources to learning more about deep learning beyond what's taught at MSOE.

Achievements

Academic Excellence Scholarship, Mosinee High Valedictorian | National Merit Scholarship Finalist | Reached State competitions all four years through Forensics at Mosinee | Started Programming Club at Mosinee High | Greenheck Innovation Expo 2018 Winners | Project Manager & First Author on "Lymphocyte Detection in Ovarian Biopsies" Research Paper | MSOE Dean's List/High Honors