IITKONNECT

Our alumna, Dr. Drishti Wali (BT/CSE/2017), shares her experience of pursuing higher studies in a foreign university, talks about her current work with Microsoft as an Applied Scientist, and important life lessons learnt.

What are you currently pursuing and how is it in alignment with your major at IIT Kanpur?

I am currently working full-time at the Turing Division of Microsoft as an Applied Scientist. I work on designing and implementing state of the art Natural Language Processing models for immediate applications like email content recommendation. I use a lot of knowledge about computer science as well as engineering on a day-to-day basis, right from understanding the context of the problem or task, the right design to implement for the desired application and debugging a solution of mine or someone else’s.

How did you narrow down your interest in your major, and what are the things that directed you towards what you are doing today?

I was always eager to learn through experimentation and exploration via outside course projects and take the extra step beyond classroom education. This helped to ensure that I was absorbing the depth of knowledge and skills being taught but helping to retain and implement them on a day-to-day basis, including my current work. Keep an open mind towards the different career paths, interact with your peers - there is a lot one can learn from one’s peers but do try to develop a plan. It’s good to be flexible, but persistence and focus can help to achieve incredible goals.

What motivated you to choose academia over corporate after IIT Kanpur?

The truth is I am a nerd, which means I enjoy the nuances of the technical knowledge provided. I enjoyed the technical insights that my research experience was providing me. I wanted to follow that, and given that most of my prior learning had come in an academic setting, I felt that academia might be the best place for my continued growth.

What challenges did you face when you started your higher studies in a foreign university?

Well, like most of us, I’d never really been outside India before my internship in my 3rd year of undergrad. So there were differences in culture, which were both exciting and exhausting to adapt to at times. Cornell is located in a small village town called Ithaca, which was also a new experience since I’ve grown up in a big city like Delhi, so addressing the differences in lifestyle brought by moving to such a place by oneself were new challenges as well. Being in an intense PhD program at a high ranking research university was fun but also emotionally and physically draining on many levels. As a human, I also valued my connections prior to my PhD and so maintaining those relations with family and friends while also putting in energy towards making new relations in Ithaca would get quite exhausting as well.

Could you elaborate on your research on Online Learning Algorithms and Coding Theory at Cornell University?

In Online Learning Algorithms, I worked mostly on the Multi-Armed bandit problem - looking mostly into its game-theoretic applications. My paper with my co-authors, Thodoris Lykouris and Eva Tardo, uses graphs to extract the similarities between multiple choices when using the multi-arm bandit algorithms to any decision making problem. We use a neat multi-layering argument to highlight the critical and key points which these algorithms use from their data. This also helps explain why they perform better on some data than others in the real world.

In Coding Theory, I mostly worked on Maximally Recoverable Error-Correcting Codes. These are codes that are designed specifically for a given network of computers that may share data. The aim is to use the minimal bits for the encoding of the data such that we can recover data even in case of the worst kind of system failure.

You started your career in this field as Summer Research Intern in IIT Delhi and EPFL, Switzerland and then chose to pursue a Master's in the same from Cornell University and now you are an Applied Scientist at Microsoft. Could you tell us about your journey and the role of IITK in shaping your career?

Well, IITK was the platform that gave me all these opportunities to grow and learn. I was inspired by my peers in terms of their decision making. I learnt a lot from them technically as well when working together on projects or just having conversations or discussions in the halls. IITK also gave me a concrete place to put my confidence in. Between my struggles, there have come multiple phases of self-doubt but the foundation provided by IITK provided me firm ground to rest in those moments and find a way to grow further.

Did you face any challenges due to the low gender ratio during your college life or further in your career? What do you think is the reason for a low gender ratio in IITs and other foreign Universities? What impact does it have on women in research and innovation?

Absolutely. I expected college life to be filled with certain kinds of activities and social interactions but constant belittling of women around me by men would more often than not affect my mental health as well as technical interest. As few women come into engineering, it becomes more and more difficult for them and they soon begin to drop out and move away from it even if they enjoyed the technical aspects of it. There are multiple aspects to being a woman that can only be understood by another woman and thus the need for higher numbers in women in order for their sustenance. This is evidenced by data on the decline in gender ratio with higher STEM education. Studies show how minority bias can lead to higher self-doubt and lower performance in the minority group. This thereby also affects their mental health - studies report more women facing mental health problems than men in STEM fields including imposter syndrome, depression and anxiety. It’s hard to be able to provide a good output when you are not at your best and thus in turn affects the field. Innovation relies on creativity as well as adaptability. If the population in STEM is homogenous, it will only slow down progress and harm the growth of our society.

What are the non-academic activities you were involved in during your MS program?

I was the organiser of the Women’s support group in my department for the graduate program and staff for about 9 months. I was a Graduate Resident Fellow at one of the undergraduate programs where I was mentoring the undergrads, be it providing guidance towards their career, providing basic tutoring or just having fun by hosting a social event like watching a movie collectively or going to get ice cream. Via this role, I was part of a wonderful team/family and place that has come to form a bright light in my life. I was provided guidance and support by my senior graduate students there as well as mentorship by the staff towards my career as well as life goals. To help find an outlet for any frustration caused by the struggles of research, I would play a variety of sports. This not only helped me connect with my peers in fun ways which later came to form strong bonds, but also helped inspire a growth mindset towards my journey. In my department, I was also a graduate mentor to two wonderful junior students in their journey.

What do you think is the significant difference between academic research in Indian universities compared to universities abroad?

I found that in the universities abroad the research was more concretely driven by a more immediate impact on society. IITs can feel more like a teaching institute than a research institute with the focus being on training the students towards education rather than conducting research useful to our society.

What are your views on improving research culture in India, and what do you think Indian universities should do to promote quality research?

I think we need to promote innovation and critical thinking as well as redesign our courses and education style towards helping students to connect their technical learning to their real lives. These changes are already being added to school education systems. By adding them to university education, particularly prestigious ones like IITs would help ensure that the bright and hard-working minds of our country will be bringing faster development in our lives. Funding in Indian universities has been an issue in the past as well as the craze to publish papers in high ranking conferences. I think those conferences are designed by countries leading different phases in their development so making sure we continue to emphasize the immediate impact and making sure that the students are guided well can go a long way.

What has been your biggest takeaway from studying in a foreign university?

Of how similar yet dissimilar humans are. It has questioned nearly every aspect of my life and my identity and also helped in providing clarity on what I value and how quickly things can change.

How has your experience been studying in a multicultural environment?

It has helped me to take a clear and hard look at myself even when what I see in the mirror is not something to be proud of. It has helped me to understand my strengths and weaknesses as well as adapt them according to my environment or my goals.

What have been your biggest life learnings after joining Cornell University?

That life is a gift so cherish what you have. I’ve learnt to see life from multiple perspectives - my own as well as others and I’ve learnt to stand up and work for what I value.