“Team-up, share your interests, and make the world a better place.”
Edited by Ashley Villanueva
I would like to nominate Meryll Dindin for his exquisite craftsmanship in programming, creative and comprehensive grasp of ill-defined questions, and remarkable contribution to the Capstone project. Motivated by the desire to bring value to the society in healthcare industry, he played a pivotal role in transforming millions of data and healthcare questions into applicable data science algorithms that can truly bring technical innovations and scaleable improvements to millions of patient’s with diabetes. Beyond technical strength as an engineering, Dindin possesses strong and concise communication skills which could hardly have obtained in any other traditional engineering. Dindin inspired and supported his teammates intellectually with his passion and relentless seeking for great solutions and insightfulness. He vividly expressed him ideas and solutions through combined text, pictures, videos, from multiple perspectives.We asked Meryll some questions about his Berkeley MEng experience.
What does it mean to you to receive this award?
I feel recognized by my peers, which is priceless. My peers accompanied me throughout the whole year, knew about the ups and downs, recognized the efforts, and surely understood what it took me to get where I am today. Working with those bright and motivated people made this year unforgettable! Moreover, I have been granted an opportunity to make my parents proud. They came to Berkeley to see me graduate and that was the greatest gift I could give them. I’m so happy!
What are your post-graduation plans?
Currently, I am fully dedicated to my startup, which I co-founded with two MBAs here in Berkeley (thrive-education.co). I have been thriving in an infinite pool of possibilities and will be pursuing what I believe will have the most impact on the world. In addition to that, I plan to keep my role of freelance consultant/tech advisor because I believe in the importance of idea diversity and network growth. During my time at Berkeley, I pursued two long-lasting hackathons. The first one — IBM Call for Code — deals with natural disaster responses and mitigation. We are now trying to expand the team through recruitment in the MEng. The second one — CMS AI Challenge — is more related to my true conviction, as it consists in defining a real strategy for the US healthcare system using AI. I am thrilled by the team of PhDs and MBAs I am working with.
What was your favorite class at Berkeley?
That is a tough question and I will cheat by giving two. Technically speaking, my favorite one was about neurosciences and neuroethology, mainly because of Professor Michael Yartsev, who is an awesome teacher. And since UC Berkeley is 75% about entrepreneurship, my second favorite class was the Lean LaunchPad, which taught me what real entrepreneurship means and finally got me out of the building to face it.
What is your favorite Cal memory?
My favorite memory is all of the people that surrounded me during my time in the MEng program, because they are the reasons why I loved the classes, trips, sporting events, parties, associations (big up to the Machine Learning at Berkeley — ML@B) and life on the campus. I’m so so sad to see them leaving, but also excited to join them in so many different places of the world!What is your advice to future MEng students?
Do not be lazy. Live Berkeley as a 200% version of yourself, because the amount of opportunities that actually matter is largely bigger than what you can bear alone. Team-up, share your interests, and make the world a better place. Connect with Meryll.Meryll Dindin wins MEng Intellectual Contribution Award was originally published in Berkeley Master of Engineering on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.