ISE senior succeeds in swimming and engineering

In Anton Ipsen’s five years at NC State University, he maintained a perfect GPA and won his department’s Senior Award for Scholarly Achievement — all while putting in 20-25 hours of weekly training for international and NC State swimming, which culminated in a 2016 Olympics performance representing his home country of Denmark, an NCAA championship and an ACC record.

Ipsen has more athletic and academic accomplishments ahead of him. After graduating this May from the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE), Ipsen will take a year off from school to train for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo before heading to the Massachusetts Institute for Technology to pursue a master’s degree in business analytics.

“I’ve gotten everything I’ve ever wished for,” he said. “What bigger thing could I want than going to Tokyo and then being able to attend this prestigious institution afterwards — I’m really, really excited.”

Ipsen is from Birkerod, Denmark, a small town outside of Copenhagen. He was heavily recruited for swimming, and he chose NC State because of its focus on a team environment. He also knew he wanted to major in engineering, and he liked NC State’s program.

He’d never heard of industrial engineering until his introductory courses — but he’s found that his studies and swimming overlap.

“I think industrial engineering fits really well with the athletic mindset of continual improvement,” he said. “How do you go from being a great athlete to an international elite athlete, and it’s by improving small things, and that’s exactly what industrial engineering is about. It’s about identifying all the small things and optimizing them.”

Ipsen’s careful time management skills have been critical in balancing swimming with academics. Swimming internationally and for NC State meant he was gone for three to four weeks each semester.

“My professors have always been super willing to help me, and I think that’s part of my success story,” he said. “Without them and their support, this wouldn’t have been possible.”

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Ipsen was one of four NC State swimmers competing. He finished in the top-20 in the 400-meter and 1500-meter freestyle races.

On NC State’s men’s swimming and diving team, Ipsen was part of a group that achieved unprecedented success for the team, which had never won more than one championship race at the NCAA finals until 2017, when the team won three championship races and placed fourth overall. He placed first in the men’s 1,650-yard freestyle.

“The swim team is definitely a certain kind of brotherhood that I hadn’t seen anywhere else in my life,” he said. “The team environment that there is in the U.S. has helped me really reach the best mindset to become successful in life.”

Ipsen said he’s also felt that kind of community in ISE, where he’s glad to have gotten to know his classmates and professors over the last few years.

He’s looking forward to his department graduation, which his mom and brothers are also attending. It will be his brothers’ first time in Raleigh, and his mom’s first visit since 2015. Ipsen said he’s excited to show them NC State, especially Hunt Library, where many of the chairs are inspired by Danish design.

“When you are in the U.S. you go a long time without seeing your family,” he said. “I’m very excited to show them around and just have a good time.”

After graduation, Ipsen will return to Denmark in June before competing in the World Championships in South Korea, which is his last major event before the 2020 Olympics.

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