Next time you get a notification on your phone prompting an update, you can think of John Paul Bunn, computer science and computer engineering double major who recently completed an internship with Google where he worked behind the scenes optimizing software.

Bunn, a Stevens Point, Wisconsin native, was part of Google’s Student Training in Engineering Program (STEP) over the summer. Here he worked in static analysis and computer optimization of Android-Java bytecode, or in Bunn’s words, “that’s programmer-speak for I made code faster and more efficient in general. Next time you update your phone, your apps will experience a slight decrease in size. Essentially, I wrote software that takes other apps, unwraps them, makes them more efficient and returns them to your phone.”

Although challenging at times due to the complexity of the work, Bunn values the experiences Google provided him through his internship, including the mentorship and career guidance, intern events and the work itself.

“The most rewarding part of my internship was the overall experience of working for a top tech company and having the chance to make such an impact,” said Bunn. “I was in a unique place in Google—working on code that would, quite literally, affect billions of people. That’s what I want to do with my future, and this was one important step in the right direction.”

This wasn’t Bunn’s first experience with Google. After graduating high school, he was offered a chance to be a part of the Google Computer Science Institute, which ramped up his computer science focus at MSOE. This program, along with his application-oriented courses at MSOE, enabled him to have a little more experience under his belt than the average freshman and prepared him for STEP.

“Classes at MSOE are hands-on and let you jump right into the thick of the matter. My first classes at MSOE involved software systems and digital logic circuits. It’s hard to find an advanced set of classes so early at another university. This meant that I had the background I needed to jump into an advanced topic at Google.”

While he originally couldn’t choose a major, Bunn decided to double major in computer science and computer engineering because he wanted to start his career strong and desired to make a difference in the world.

“I chose CECS because it’s the forefront of discovery in our world today as technology becomes integrated in our daily lives more and more each day. I’ve always wanted to make a difference and have an impact, so I knew computer science and computer engineering was the place to be.”

Over the course of his freshman year, Bunn was involved in many different organizations at MSOE, but was heavily involved in the Google Developer Student Club (DSC). He served as secretary for the group last year and was selected to be the group’s new lead for this academic year. He also was active in the VEX Robotics team. In his free time, he’s an avid fan of gaming, enjoys fiction writing and fiddling with home-automation.

Bunn encourages other freshmen to dive in and find internships that enable you to apply your education to your job, as well as your job to your education.