December 09, 2025
Caden Davis graduates in December 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and a wealth of leadership experience in the lab, the workplace and on the court.
From Springfield, Missouri, Caden Davis transferred to Mizzou in 2023. He has been active in Tau Beta Pi and Alpha Pi Mu honor societies. He served as a freshman peer mentor and as an event planner for the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. He completed two research positions, one internship and earned his Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. He graduates in December 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering.
I see the world through problem solving and optimization.
I always wanted to consistently and effectively solve problems in everyday life, and engineering became the path that allowed me to amplify that mindset. Industrial engineering focuses on designing the best possible solutions, which aligned perfectly with how I already thought.
My experience playing college baseball strengthened this interest. Baseball demands efficiency, consistency and process improvement, all of which mirror principles of industrial engineering.
My favorite memories are the long days of studying with friends.
We’d work through problems together and push each other so our grades matched the effort we put in. Those hours helped us grow closer while also deepening our understanding.
My most memorable experience was completing the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates with Dr. Suchi Rajendran. It gave me a full research experience and allowed me to co-author a paper on natural language processing in health care reviews that we are currently working to publish.
I am starting my PhD in industrial engineering next semester.
Last summer in Dr. Rajendran’s REU, we studied using natural language processing for behavioral health care companies’ customer and employee reviews. With this research I also applied for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program to expand on in my doctoral studies. I plan to work in health care analytics or health care operations.
When you find something you are passionate about, everything else follows.
It’s not about being the best. It’s about finding work you genuinely love and want to pursue every day. I found that passion immediately after transferring to Mizzou Engineering in 2023, after my time playing college baseball at the University of Indianapolis and the Missouri University of Science and Technology. My industrial engineering professors believed in me, supported me and helped me grow into someone ready to pursue engineering at the highest level.
Becoming a Tiger was one of the best decisions I’ve made.
Mizzou gave me a sense of community and opportunities I would not have found anywhere else. My professors, the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Mizzou as a whole opened my eyes to possibilities I never knew were available.