Our Final Trailblazer: Alex Bender.
A discussion of engineering’s empathetic potential, the strengths of being interdisciplinary, and orientation sessions past.
by Veronica Cihlar, image design by Gabi Homonoff
As we at Northeastern finish off our semester this year, we’d like to take a moment and reflect on the Trailblazers we chose. First, Eliana and Mia, the unstoppable best-friend duo and creators of the Women’s Interdisciplinary Society of Entrepreneurship; second, Professor Miso Kim, an expert on the new and ever-evolving field of service design; and finally, Alex Bender, a Northeastern engineering student about to graduate.
All four come from different industries, have different specialties, and interact with different parts of Northeastern’s campus. Together, however, they all have in common a deep commitment to their communities, an appreciation for and understanding of the power of empathy, and an ability to never allow established conventions to limit their aspirations. These attributes are what made our Trailblazers, trailblazers.
But before our Trailblazer nominations fully come to a close, we’d like to present to you our fourth and final Trailblazer: Alex Bender.
Veronica Cihlar (VC): “First of all, congratulations on being nominated! We can just start with an intro — who you are, what you do, what you study, and what you’ve been able to experience and be a part of at Northeastern?”
Alex Bender (AB): “Yeah, all right! Well, my name is Alex Bender. I’m currently a fifth-year Industrial Engineering major, but I’m also doing a minor in Psychology and a combined Master’s program… I can’t even believe that it’s already my fifth year here, it’s really flown by. Ever since being at Northeastern, I’ve just really loved it, and I tried to maximize my experience and get involved as much as I could. I’ve done three co-ops in various places: one at Lahey Health Systems just north of Boston, one at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York City, and for that I was traveling, so I also spent some time in Chicago and the Bay Area… and then my most recent co-op was at a startup called Boom Supersonic in Denver, Colorado. I’ve experienced two Dialogues, so I’ve gone abroad to the Netherlands and South Korea. Dialogues are some of my favorite adventures — they’re just a great short time to go abroad, and you can go traveling too.”
VC: “Yeah, Dialogues are really cool, I went to Israel after my freshman year and it was amazing. Thanks for the great intro; I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone as involved in so many different kinds of things, both on campus and off. I did want to ask why you chose Industrial Engineering with a Psych minor: what was behind that combination?”
AB: “So I entered Northeastern as an Undecided Engineer because I knew I loved to build things, and I liked the technical side of engineering, but I wasn’t sure exactly what type. After going through my first semester of classes, I realized Industrial Engineering was the perfect balance because it’s all about understanding a system in depth, diagnosing technical problems, and then developing a solution; and I just felt like it fit really well. Then Psychology: it’s something I’ve always been excited about and it’s just so applicable, and can be useful in every situation. For example, a company just bought your company, and there’s going to be a whole bunch of change happening. You have to figure out ways to motivate employees, and send out the right communications, and I was able to be involved in those sorts of things during my second co-op at PwC… As well as in just being an RA and an Orientation Leader, Psychology is really useful.”
VC: “So, this isn’t really that relevant, but I remember you were actually an OL [Orientation Leader] at my own freshman orientation session.”
AB: “Really?!”
VC: “Yeah, I’m not kidding! When we were choosing the nominees I thought, “Huh, why does the name Alex Bender sound so familiar…?” and then I figured it out.”
AB: “Wow, that’s so funny! Yeah, being an Orientation Leader was definitely a blast, it was a great time during the summer.”
VC: “Okay, so my next question has a bit more to do with design. When you were describing your co-ops and what made you choose what you studied, the first thing I thought of was system design, and human-centered design. So I was wondering if there’s an engineering version, like “human-centered engineering,” and if that’s been something you’ve come across?”
AB: “I’m actually taking a class right now called “Human Machine Systems,” which is my final Industrial Engineering class, and it’s all about the human factors in engineering. It goes into designing products and interfaces that are human-centered, and thinking about the user experience rather than just being purely functional… When I was at Lahey Health, I was always evaluating performance for improving a specific department. The purpose was to go into the hospital and understand different processes that take place, whether they were administrative, like onboarding a doctor, or clinical, like doing a procedure. It was important to understand those systems from the perspective of the medical staff — like the doctors, nurses, and medical assistants — but also from the perspectives of the patients, and how they feel about them.
That job really taught me how important it is to hear perspectives of all the different stakeholders in order to develop a new process or system… It really taught me how to problem-solve and how far treating people compassionately goes.”
VC: “I’d like to elaborate a bit more on how you mentioned compassion. When we were going through the nominees, one important feature we looked for was empathy, which is really important in design, and I’m sure in engineering as well. How has empathy played a role not only in your work or school, but also in your other involvements as well?”
AB: “Yeah, that’s a great question, I like that. So I think for myself personally, where I feel the most engaged is in affiliations — it’s something I learned in my industrial-organizational class. It’s when I’m a part of what feels like “organizational citizenship,” which just means I’m a “citizen” of my organization: I feel a belonging for that organization, and I feel the responsibility to act to improve it. I thrive most when I feel “citizenship” for an organization, and I feel frustrated when I don’t, so trying to help other people feel that same sense of belonging or “citizenship” has been a driving factor for me. The way to do that is just by listening to people; meeting them where they have an understanding, seeing what is a barrier to them, and what are their frustrations… and then acting to mitigate those or improve them. When I was in student government, I would go to different club meetings and do these informal town halls to gather feedback and then act on it, and try to move the needle at least a little bit. It’s so important to be empathetic and understand what people are feeling, and the best way to validate that is through acting and executing on an idea… As far as engineering goes, I think it’s getting there, there’s definitely been an improvement. I’ve noticed more and more, whether it’s on my LinkedIn feed or at a meeting at Northeastern, there are more engineers that care about social ventures or social justice, rather than just being a software engineer at a random company. A lot of people want to find more impact.”
VC: “That actually segues well to my next question, about a bigger emphasis on the potential impact of engineering. I was wondering if you had any hopes for doing that through engineering, specifically regarding having a greater communal impact?”
AB: “For myself, I think the majority of my aspirations are around developing a socially-conscious organization. I really love building teams, but also have realized that greater or global issues, like climate change, is an interest of mine, as well as transportation and urban mobility, and its social and economic disparities.
I don’t know for sure, but I would say it’s kind of a non-negotiable, wanting to have an impact.”
VC: “Non-negotiable,” I like that. So those were all of the questions I had prepared, but I wanted to ask: since you had such a variety of things you were involved in at Northeastern, do you have one favorite thing during your time here, like a highlight?”
AB: “I just love, and I can’t get enough of the Husky Hunt. It’s just so much fun. You build a team of diverse skill sets, you get everyone to be really committed and excited. Then you get to build a team culture, and then you do this absolutely insane event that brings everyone together, all over the city of Boston, doing these crazy challenges. It really tests your mental and physical strength… it’s just such a great community. I don’t know if it’s my favorite thing, but I’d highly recommend it.”
