Research Scholars Shaping your future Dr Jeyakesavan Veerasamy

Research Scholars: Shaping your future Dr. Jeyakesavan Veerasamy University of Texas at Dallas jeyv@utdallas. edu jeyak 7@gmail. com

Agenda • Introduce myself • • Look back at my life Your future - choices Importance of Collaboration Doctorate Research Current research @ UT Dallas Getting personal Q &A

Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Academia, Industry & Personal • Dad was a school teacher • B. E. (ECE) in CEG Guindy, Anna University – 1986 -90 • UNIX System Software Engineer, HCL Limited, Chennai, 1990 -91 • MS Computer Science, University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), 1991 -94

Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Academia, Industry & Personal … • Telecom Software Engineer, Northern Telecom, Dallas, 1994 -97 • Ph. D. Computer Science (part-time), University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), 1994 -99 • Technical Lead, Samsung Telecom, 1997 -2010 • Got married in 1998 • Adjunct Faculty, UTD CS department, 1999 -2002 • Online Adjunct Faculty in several online universities from 2000

Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Academia, Industry & Personal … • Adjunct Faculty, Southern Methodist University, 2010 • Sr. Lecturer (full-time), UTD Computer Science, 2010 -present • 2 daughters: Nila (8) and Chinmayee (4) • Passionate about teaching – happy to share ideas to improve teaching quality in colleges

Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Summary • 18 years experience as Software Engineer • 12 years of teaching experience

My personal story • Major decision: Engineering vs. Medicine? • Life @ RCC: Dr. V. Ramachandran • PC era started: wrote first virus vaccine program in Chennai – did a TV program with a friend. • IIT professor Dr. C. R. Muthukrishnan – another well-wisher who spent lot of time for me!

My personal story … • How/why I did part-time Ph. D. ? • Enjoyable professional life in Nortel & Samsung for 16 years • Switched to full-time teaching last year! • Visiting so many Engineering Colleges is a new experience.

Mr. Steve Jobs I get the following question from students now & then: "Why should I learn this now, since I do not believe I will be using it anytime soon. " I think Mr. Steve Jobs has answered it well in the following paragraph: "you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. "

My own experiences • I had no idea what I will do with my Ph. D. since I already had a great job in the industry! • I had no idea that I will visit & interact with so many colleges when I moved back to teaching last year.

Full-time teaching One of my friends asked me whether I hated my job at Samsung. I responded, "I worked with my mind, but I teach with my heart. "

Your career choices Focus on completing Ph. D. first. • Teaching : do not settle for less! • Research : post-doctorate position? • Industry : will it utilize your skills?

Doctorate Research • • Confusion over multiple potential topics Quality & Quantity Few papers in IEEE/ACM conferences/journals Attend conferences – plan your day and network with people.

Doctorate Research … • requires hard work and patience • Several research papers require you to read lots of times! You are not alone. • Think about problems & solutions any time any where. • Enjoy the learning/thinking process! • You may never know how close you are to an important result!

More collaboration / joint-work : why? • reduced funding • working with others / international joint-work is viewed positively • great way to associate with higher quality colleges • enables individuals to develop ideas separately, then put them together.

Research @ UT Dallas • Quick review of Research areas @ UT Dallas • Access websites to get the papers and research reports. • Contact them with an idea of your own! • Possibilities are endless! – joint-paper – post doctorate position – higher studies – research funding through MNCs – joint proposals to UGC

Getting Personal • • • Be a good communicator! It is ok to ask questions. Become a leader! Your guide is probably 3 rd most important person in your life. No place for ego, but you do not need to be a servant either. do not hesitate to say sorry or ask forgiveness. Criticize privately, congratulate publicly. Give constructive criticism – “that is a stupid idea!” Do not be serious all the time!

Questions & Answers Thank you!