What's Been and What's Ben

1987 Born in Minneapolis, MN, USA

• Swedish-German-American

1992-’96 Hale Elementary School, Minneapolis Public School (MPS)

• Briefly on: Chess Team, Student Council, and Choir
• Television: Nickelodeon, Pinky and the Brain, Doug, Angry Beavers
• Films: Jurassic Park, The Brave Little Toaster, Annie Hall, Homeward board
• Games: Pogs, Duck Hunt, Oregon Trail (I and II), SimCity

1996-’99 Field Elementary School, MPS

• Radio Theatre: once had to voice both sides of a man and woman having a conversation
• Future Problem Solvers (FPS): made it to state in 4th grade
• School Play: Hillbilly Reunion
• University of Minnesota PRIME program (adv. math)
• Piano: three years of terror
• Televsion: PBS, the Simpsons, Matlock, ER
• Films: Happy Gilmore, Labyrinth, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
• Games: Cross-Country Skiing, Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye, pokemon, magic cards (MTG), SimTower, SimCity 2000

1999-2001 Anwatin Middle School, MPS

• FPS, pre-IB program
• Ms. Young’s summer science program
• Internet: first website in 1999, a tripod site mostly about gameshark codes
• Television: FOX, Seinfeld, the X-Files, the Red Green Show, David Letterman
• Films: High Fidelity, Austin Powers
• Games: Perfect Dark, magic cards, Roller Coast Tycoon

2001-’05 Southwest High School, MPS

• IB Diploma, Extended Essay: The Hypothetical Electability of Huey Long, ’02 Cross Country
• Election: ’04-’05 Board of Directors of Hale, Page, Diamond Lake Community Association as Hale Neighborhood representative, head of Gardening Committee, lobbied for Minneapolis’s first real Disc Golf course
• Research: University of Minnesota Landscape Research Arboretum with Dr. Harold Pellett
• Research: Army High Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC) numerical modelling
• Southwest Think Tank Club: co-founder and president of club for math and physics exploration
• Programming: TI-83+ calculator program with over 2000 lines of code for trigonometry, statistics, linear algebra, game of life simulation
• Building: demolished, designed, and built bedroom from cement and joist into insulated room with built-in desk, shelves, ethernet, and coaxial
• Prank: cemented a toilet to Washburn High School boulders in a blizzard
• Internet: first preserved blog entry on 7 March 2005 at 9:31 pm on Collinear Development Stratgies
• Books: Godel, Escher and Bach, the Selfish Gene
• Television: CNN, C-SPAN, Bravo, Comedy Central, Crossfire, Newsradio, the West Wing, Daily Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien
• Films: went to a film about every week such as Adaptation, The Royal Tenenbaums, the Lord of the Rings
• Music: Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Schubert, Van Morrison,  the Postal Service, Atmosphere
• Games: bicycling, disc golf, poker,  paintball, assassins (MVP ’04), Halo, magic cards, CS, SimCity 4
• Politics: specifically didn’t protest the invasion of Iraq, a position I changed when I realized “shock and awe” is a nice way of saying “terrorism”
• Politics: stopped favoring death penalty in 2003 when told “you know it costs more” in class and after seeing a play about exonerated death-row inmates called Exonerated

2005-’09 Rose-Hulman Institute of Science and Technology, Terre Haute, Indiana, USA

• B.S. in Optical Engineering, Minor in Language and Literature, Certificate in Semiconductor Materials and Devices
• Art Project: control systems and artistic input for astro-turf covered arcade machine that symbolizes the artifical means of mans modern interaction with nature
• Internship: Fast Diagnostic Minimally-Invasive Kidney Diagnostic Machine and Dow Agrosciences Termite Detector
• Senior Design Project: Spinning Persistence of Vision Display Color Arbitrary Image Generator
• KAUST Discovery Scholarship: two-year full academic scholarship including living expenses
• Computers: built a custom desktop from a footstool and another smaller computer (what is now called a “nettop”)
• Internet: Daily blog on Rose-Hulman student webspace that was longer than War and Peace
• Feud: minor internet feud with actor Justin Long for being the worst person of 2006
• Books: the Character of Physical Law, In Search of Lost Time, the Evolution of Cooperation
• Television: MSNBC, FOX “news”, C-SPAN, Comedy Central, LOST, 30 Rock, House, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Daily Show, Colbert Report
• Films: Little Miss Sunshine, I’m Not There, No Country for Old Men
• Music: Elliott Smith, Daft Punk, the Velvet Underground, Andrew Bird, Big Fresh, the New Pornographers
• Games: bicycling, disc golf, camping, Rock Band/Guitar Hero,Picross
• Voted: President Barack Obama, Senator Al Franken, Representative Keith Ellison
• Politics: supported Kucinich, Gravel, Biden, Dodd, Clinton, and then finally Obama – whom I should have picked from the start
• Politics: my view is shaped by deceased (maybe assassinated) Sen. Paul Wellstone after I felt bad that I made jokes about him the day his plane crashed
• Politics: became pro states’ rights in a governmental structure way, not the racist way

2009-’10 King Abudllah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

• M.S. in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in optics and solid-state devices
• Research: low-cost statistical lidar positioning system with Dr. Boon Ooi
• TEDx: helped organized local TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference on technologies for the poorest billion people on Earth
• Media: got in The New York Times on 18 November 2009 in an article that starts “the $12.5 billion question is this: can Ben Frevert change Saudi Arabia?”
• Internet: benfrevert.org
• Books: The Drunkard’s Walk, Team of Rivals, Fountainhead
• Television: Bored to Death, Corner Gas, Painting with Bob Ross and everything from college that is still on TV
• Films: District 9, Up in the Air
• Music: Ok Go, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
• Drivers License: pass test in August 2009

Time-Invariant Information

• Ideas of Interest: optics, physics, evolutionary biology, mathematics, logic, history, politics, social psychology, movies, television, internet, computers, solid-state devices, optics, physics, evolutionary biology, mathematics…
• I like to make things in just about the most general way possible with activities such as: building construction, electronics design, optical systems, and semiconductor fabrication
• I obsess about tools and am an early adopter of technology (cheap technology)
• Outdoorsy, parks are my favorite place, the wilder the better – heavily influenced by travels t0 western America when child
• Watch television proudly
• Gone to many dozens of plays through family, friends, and in 7th-12th grade through Project Success which provides Minneapolis school kids with free tickets to almost every play in the area (Guthrie, Mixed Blood, Cedar, U of M, etc.)
• Enjoy museums of art and science – when I was a child I went to each almost every month
• Enjoy winter
• Night person
• Conversationalist
• Dislike suburbia, prefer city or rural
• Obsessed by Indie films and Hollywood movies
• Mildly allergic to mold, cats, and food from the water
• Cat person
• Had several aquariums
• Gardening-enthusiast
• Don’t go to church, but am onboard with most of what Jesus said
• Very left leaning politically, but try to avoid the crazy
• Don’t like to wear blue jeans
• Have only cracked ring fingers since start of high school in an  experiment on bone wear
• Favorite Drink: Gin and Tonic (for Malaria prevention)