Grad Student: Vaishali Surianarayanan

General questions:

1. How did you decided to go to graduate school? How did you decide on a masters'/PhD over the other option?
   • Undergrad experience involved research and industry
   • Was interested in research courses
   • Higher studies was a nice option
   • PhD allowed more research
   • Wanted more school before Industry
2. Did you work before going to graduate school?
   • Just internships
   • industry research internships
   • BS/MS degree 5 year
3. How did you select UCSB? What factors were important to you?
   • CS theory
   • Current advisor here aligns with her research interests
   • Smaller department, can be more involved
   • Also spoke to some alumni and got good feedback
4. What undergraduate experience/course work/project work was most important in helping prepare you for graduate work and research?
   • being curious in undergrad and learn more about courses she was passionate about
   • tried undergrad research
   • did summer schools and did short and long internships
   • identify passions
   • explore alot!!!
   • fundamentals are important
   • try new things, even if you don’t think you’ll like it
5. Is graduate school what you thought it would be like? What is it like? What did you expect? How are these the same/different?
   • it had everything she wanted
   • there were unexpected things
   • did undergrad in India, cultural differences
   • treated like equals of professors
   • not feel intimidated by advisor/professor
   • overtime, developed skills in her specific area/field and build confidence
   • call professors by first name
   • holistic experience, how everything ties together in computer science, making connections and overall view of what learned in undergrad courses
   • widen knowledge of the field
6. Tell me about a time that you've been frustrated or discouraged with your research? How did you get through it? What did you do?
   • feel it all the time, a lot of times happy and a lot of times feel stuck
   • PhD is five years long
   • Over time you find your own way of doing things your own way and getting better at handling these moments
   • Covid was hard, no peers to work with
7. What's your favorite part about doing research? Tell me about a good research experience you have had.
   • New results makes her day
   • Completing proofs, even if small (because she works in CS theory)
8. What's your favorite aspect of graduate school (the whole thing, not just research or classes)? Your least favorite?
   • favorite: able to explore more options as grad student (even in industry), able to work in WiCS, and interact with all different people (faculty, undergrads, industry)
9. What's your relationship like with your advisor?
   • Really nice advisor
   • From beginning, has been smooth journey
   • Of course, from beginning a little uncomfortable, worried and careful
   • But now over the years, interactions are at an equal level

Specific Questions:

1. If you had the opportunity would you have done a bs/ms five year program?
   1. did a bs/ms five year program in India
2. What is your view on industry as a grad student? How is it different than just having a BS?
   1. has been exploring distributed databases
   2. industry research
   3. has done internships, different internship for grad students
   4. blend theory into quantum fields
   5. go past just software engineering
   6. you go into industry knowing what you want and you are able to get roles of your interest
3. Do you ever have second thoughts on whether or not your research is making an impact in your field?
   1. all the time, every researcher thinks of this
   2. especially in CS theory, your research isn’t applied directly or making direct impact

Reflection:

I thought that Vaishali’s experience with being a grad student made it seem less intimidating than how I had perceived it before. Before the interview I thought that the expected five or more years being a grad student would be too difficult and exhausting for me to continue through. However, the way that Vaishali described the excitement that she gets when completing proofs and finding new research makes it seem way more exciting than life in industry would be in comparison. However, I still struggle to get over the fact that I can’t see myself not getting caught up in the second thoughts that my research may just end up being unimpactful and I have wasted the last few years of my life over nothing. To me, that is still one of the scariest fears that I would have to get over and I will have to think more about in the future.