M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering - Alumnus

Why did you choose graduate school at IUPUI?

IUPUI’s affiliation with Purdue University was the primary reason I applied. After receiving admits from multiple universities, I chose IUPUI because of the extensive research conducted by faculty members of the ECE department, specifically those working in the computer engineering and data sciences domains.

What has been your favorite academic accomplishment since you’ve been here?

The research I have done has been my proudest accomplishment at IUPUI. During my undergraduate program, coursework was the only focus and opportunities for research didn’t exist. Over the last year, I have worked on various inter-disciplinary projects in natural language processing, data sciences and healthcare. Each one of those projects has taught me something new that can only be learnt by research and practical experiments, not theory or coursework. As a result, in just over a year, I have already published 5 papers at various international conferences, with a few more I am currently working on to submit before I graduate.

What do you enjoy most about life in Indianapolis?

Indianapolis strikes the perfect balance of a city that feels more like a big town. There is something for everyone, and you are never far away from a place. I relish the pleasant weather and the outdoor spaces.

Please provide some details about your work/research as a graduate student and/or any activities you are involved in.

I am a Research Assistant in the Department of Computer Information Technology in the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology. Most of my time is spent working on applying natural language processing techniques to the healthcare domain. To this end, my primary research focuses on improving the preventive healthcare provided to patients by bridging the gap between preventive care guidelines and patient information in Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Another project that I have been working on focuses on improving document search and retrieval by clustering biomedical documents.

I am also a part of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s Data Driven Knowledge Discovery and Management, and Internet of Things laboratories. In the former, as a part of IUPUI and Citizens Energy Group’s Partnership for Excellence in Research and Learning (PERL) program, I developed a daily and monthly water demand prediction model for Citizens Energy Group.