CSpotlight: Developing Future Technologies

Why did you choose to pursue a degree in computer science specifically at the University of Minnesota?

I finished my masters in robotics at the University of Minnesota first, then continued into a PhD program to explore autonomous vehicles.  I am passionate about autonomous vehicles and trying to make systems more secure, reliable, and autonomous. This university has very good research projects focusing on autonomous vehicles.

How did you become interested in computer science? What are your specific interests within the field?

Since I was a child, I’ve been super fascinated by autonomous vehicles, like self-driving cars. In my current lab, we are trying to build a system where you can sit wherever you want in the world, and you can drive a car on the road. We are working on teleoperation of vehicles.

Tell us more about your internship experiences.

I currently work with Nokia Bell Labs as a student intern. I previously worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) as an intern, where I worked on developing factory automation and metaverse-based solutions for different clients. 

Are you involved in any student groups? What inspired you to get involved? 

I am not as involved in student groups, but I volunteer my time at Twin Cities STEM and help teach kids every weekend. Since my undergraduate years, I’ve been into social service and my aim is to build an egalitarian society with the knowledge that I have gained. I wanted to make sure that I continue to support that initiative on my own. 

What do you hope to contribute to the computer science community at the University?

I would love to bring some innovation and solid foundational research on autonomous vehicles, specially with respect to connected autonomous vehicles.

Have you been involved with any research on campus?

I am a part of the Networking AI and Mobile Research Lab, which is led by professor Zhi-Li Zhang. I am currently working on building an autonomous teleoperation system where you can sit anywhere in the world and control a vehicle on the road over 5G. That is one of the research focuses, but my main research focus is working on connected autonomous vehicles, such as connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) and building a cellular vehicle for everything communication that stands for CV2X. We are trying to work on cooperative driving, such as vehicle-to-vehicle communication and vehicle-to-network communication. These are supposed to aid and help people in their day-to-day lives to mitigate or reduce the number of accidents, and make sure pedestrians and all the vehicles are driving safely. Alongside this, I am also working on creating digital twins of transportation systems, which act as virtual replicas of real-world environments to test, simulate, and optimize connected vehicle performance before deployment. 

What advice do you have for incoming computer science students?

I would suggest being open to learning if they do not know something. Everyone should be open to learning new things. If you don't know a certain thing, you should not be ashamed of sitting and learning it from scratch. Everything is a learning curve, and knowledge has no restriction of when you learn it or not. You can learn something new everyday. 

What are your plans after graduation?

I would like to work as a researcher in industry and build a start-up company of my own. 

Are there any additional experiences you did that you would like to highlight in the article?

I was a United Nations millennium fellow during undergrad and I had an initiative which supported over 750 school students. It basically helped lower income students and the ones who don’t have access to education. The UN Millennium Fellowship is a global leadership program that brings together university students from around the world to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a Millennium Fellow, I collaborated with peers to design and implement community projects that addressed local challenges while aligning with these global goals. The fellowship provided training, mentorship, and a platform to connect with a worldwide network of student leaders committed to social impact.