Science and music in harmony

By the time Melanie Chen ‘19 graduated from high school, she had already performed at Carnegie Hall twice — with her youth orchestra and choir. A violinist since the third grade, Chen knew that while she needed music in her life, she had to make room for her other love: science.

“I always loved going to school. I knew that I wanted to be a scientist of some sort. When I first came to Binghamton I was studying chemistry,” she says.

Chen switched her major when she was a sophomore and graduated in May 2019 with a double major in computer science and music.

“The thing that really helped get me on the path to computer science was the Freshmen Research Immersion program,” she says. “I began in the microbial biofilms stream and then transferred into the image and acoustic signals analysis stream, where I met a lot of my computer science peers.”

As much as she enjoyed being in the classroom, Chen found value in gaining hands-on experience in the field during her three internships.

“I completed two internships with General Electric, one after my freshman year and one after my sophomore year. I got the internships by talking to recruiters at the Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development’s job and internship fair.”

More recently, Chen interned at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters in California, where she worked on Android app development.

Chen says that in addition to her internships, the music courses she took and the roles she held in Binghamton’s chamber music group and orchestra taught her leadership, teamwork and collaboration; all of which she knows will benefit her in the workforce.

She put those soft skills to the test as a co-director of the University’s sixth annual student-run hackathon, HackBU. More than 300 participants teamed up at this 24-hour event to design software programs and complete hardware projects for a chance to win a prize.

“I’m proud that this year we had a larger spectrum of majors participating,” she says. “The emphasis for next year is to continue the effort of making the hackathon a beginner-friendly place to learn how to program.” The next HackBU event Chen attends will be as a Binghamton alumna.

“I accepted a full-time offer and will be returning to Facebook in the fall. I’ll be working in Seattle as a software engineer,” she says.

Although music isn’t in her job description, Chen has plans for her violin to make the cross-country trek with her.

“I’d like to play in a chamber music group and will most likely end up joining a community or regional orchestra. Music will be a part of my life wherever I go.”