Deal is earning a degree in Computer Science // Mizzou Engineering

May 3, 2024

Logan Deal has spent his time at Mizzou Engineering doing everything from undergraduate research to entrepreneurship. In the laboratory he conducted research into medicine and neuroscience, and in industry his network with local entrepreneurs led him to an internship after a surprising encounter in the supermarket.

Deal says he enjoyed his time at Mizzou and the flexibility of the computer science program to take classes outside of his major. He also enjoyed interning at Paycom last summer, and after graduation he will return to become a software developer at the company.

Read on for a Q&A with Deal about his Mizzou Engineering experience.

How did you get involved with Mizzou?

Initially, I met people in my residential community, participated in a Freshman Interest Group (FIG), and joined a study group. I later joined the Mizzou Computing Association and participated in the TigerHacks hackathon. Then I learned about research, co-authored K-12 neuroscience classes at the Society for Neuroscience, and later participated in a research grant on AI’s ability to hypothesize diseases.

I still wanted to get more involved, so I joined the Mizzou Engineering Student Council. And to leverage my entrepreneurial interest, I attended Missouri Startup Weekend, where I won an innovation award and worked to co-found a software company.

What made you interested in computer science?

What it has done for me is that I have learned that software is relevant to every industry and to almost every problem. I also love the critical thinking aspect and honestly the ability to create so many cool things from Minecraft to ChatGPT to Google.

But it took effort to come to that realization. A lot of effort. My dad tried to get me involved when I was in primary school, but it was just boring and made no sense. Printing “Hello World” and adding two digits just wasn’t exciting. But in high school I started making funny spinoffs of Flappy Bird in Scratch, and that eventually got me interested. Later, I started making Roblox games and attended summer coding camps at Washington University in St. Louis, and eventually got bribed.

What is your favorite Mizzou memory?

By going to some Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization (CEO) meetings and Missouri Startup Weekend, I became familiar with a local venture capital firm, Redbud VC. One day I saw one of the associates at Walmart and he asked if I was looking for an internship. He then helped me build a remote startup as a software engineer intern, which was one of my favorite experiences during college.

What is your favorite part of computer science?

I can take economics, acting, business law, graph theory and internships as credits towards my studies, in addition to electrical engineering, computer engineering and IT courses. It’s great to be able to take classes beyond my major to get credit for them.

Why are you proud to be a tiger?

Mizzou is a school for incredibly rewarding opportunities, people and places. I’m amazed at how much there is to discover, benefit from and contribute to, whether it’s taking an acting or business law course, getting paid to do undergraduate research, or finding of an internship and then become an ambassador for that company at the Engineering University. Career Fair. These are just a few of the great things I have had the opportunity to do in addition to learning about Mizzou’s history and enjoying our campus amenities.

What’s the next step for you after graduating?

I’m moving to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to become a software developer at Paycom, an employee software company. Last summer I enjoyed getting to know the growing area as an intern at the company and got to work with a team of other interns on an awesome project to essentially create a new programming language.