Research Scholars: Shaping your future Dr. Jeyakesavan Veerasamy University of Texas at Dallas

Agenda Introduce myself Look back at my life Your future - choices Importance of Collaboration Doctorate Research Current 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 – UNIX System Software Engineer, HCL Limited, Chennai, MS Computer Science, University of Texas at Dallas (UTD),

Dr. V. Jeyakesavan: Academia, Industry & Personal … Telecom Software Engineer, Northern Telecom, Dallas, Ph.D. Computer Science (part-time), University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), Technical Lead, Samsung Telecom, Got married in 1998 Adjunct Faculty, UTD CS department, 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? 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.

UT Dallas Quick review of Research 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 for forgiveness. Criticize privately, congratulate publicly. Give constructive criticism – “that is a stupid idea!” Do not be serious all the time!

Questions & Answers Thank you!