1. Research Scholars: Shaping your future Dr. Jeyakesavan Veerasamy University of Texas at Dallas jeyv@utdallas.edu jeyak7@gmail.com

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. 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!

8. 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.

9. 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."

10. 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.

11. 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."

12. 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?

13. 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.

14. 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!

15. 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.

16. 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

17. 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!

18. Questions & Answers Thank you!