Logan Mathesen — Outstanding Undergraduate
Logan Mathesen
Logan Mathesen
B.S.E. in Industrial Engineering
Graduated from University High School in Tucson, Arizona
Logan Mathesen always knew he wanted to be a doctor or an engineer, and as a recipient of the ASU Fulton Dean’s Graduate Fellowship, he’s on the way to earning a doctorate in industrial engineering.
“Industrial engineering is so cool to me because it’s all about practicality. There are always economic considerations and it’s a lot of data analysis to get the best possible answer or solution, not just some answer or solution that would work,” says Mathesen, a Fulton and Barrett, the Honors College student who was the recipient of both the ASU President’s and the Regents High Honors Endorsement Scholarships.
Currently the secretary of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), Mathesen says he enjoys the opportunity to help fellow students find full-time careers and internships. He also has worked as a production control teaching assistant.
As an engineering icon, Mathesen names statistician George E.P. Box, “who is famously quoted as saying ‘All models are wrong, some are useful.’” And if he could bestow an engineering super power upon himself, he’d choose the ability to see into the future. “I think of myself as a modeler, and seeing into the future is essentially what modelers try to do — or at least get a fuzzy idea of what a future could look like and what will be useful.”
For Mathesen, rewarding and memorable moments of undergraduate life center on studying with friends. “The most rewarding has to be the challenges, and the resilience that you get from those challenges, the long hours spent studying with my friends,” he explains. “Finals season, taking up a room in Noble library and barricading myself and my buddies in there for hours. All of us grinding on our work and pushing towards our future.”
As for the biggest challenge, Mathesen cites his honors thesis. “It has been a beast and a half, but I’m sure I will look back at it with more pride than anything else in my undergraduate years.”
But it hasn’t been all work for the former high school football and soccer athlete, for whom a serious back injury ended those pursuits. Now he enjoys playing basketball and working out, but especially going to concerts. “I’ve been to at least 75 concerts,” he explains.
Several professors have made an impact on Mathesen, including Senior Lecturer Linda Chattin (for whom he served as a teaching assistant) and his thesis director, adjunct faculty member Fran Zenzen. “But I believe the professor who has helped me grow the most as a student and as an engineer is Professor of Practice Daniel McCarville, he says. “He has shown me how to be an ethical engineer and what it means to work hard to get what you want in life. He has given me help in the classroom and out, reviewing my resume, helping prepare me for career fairs and interviews, and writing endless letters of recommendation. And he always had a smile whenever he saw me: his help never disappointed.”
After graduate school, Mathesen isn’t really sure what the future will look like for himself, or for engineering. “I think engineering solutions arise when engineering problems present themselves,” he says. “But I do know that I want to teach at some point in my life. I want to help the next generation of young engineers have a love for problem solving. I want to give back to my community. I want to teach. I want to travel the world. I just want to find happiness in whatever I do.”
