Originally from Minnesota, Ryan Malvey decided to come to B´ÎÔª because of the software engineering program as well as the abundance of opportunities offered outside of the classroom. “My favorite part of B´ÎÔª is all the clubs and extracurriculars that exist.”

You can find Malvey running across campus for his extracurriculars—both literally and figuratively! He is a member of the cross country and track as well as a CREATE Student Fellow. As a CREATE Student Fellow, he assists students with the 3D printers and Cricut machines in the Nelson Prototyping Lab in the Cove. “I wanted to be a student fellow because I enjoy helping other people work on their engineering projects.”

Malvey melded his passions for helping others and software engineering at his internship at the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). The NMDP is a nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that operates the Be The Match Registry of volunteer hematopoietic cell donors and umbilical cord blood units in the United States. Here he served as a software development intern where he assisted with a variety of different projects. “My favorite part of the job was getting to work on real software that is actually being used.”

In addition to his internship, Malvey also was part of a team that was granted a patent for a life-saving invention. The group developed a fire-resistant shutter that closes over windows. Malvey explained, “In a wildfire, houses usually burn down because the heat shatters the windows and the embers ignite the flammable interior, so our device essentially closes over the windows which can help save houses in wildfire areas.”