Why I am doing Ph.D.
So finally I have enrolled in a Ph.D. program. The obvious question is why now in 2020?
Do I need a Ph.D. to advance my career? Well the answer is a big NO
So why I am taking so much burden at this stage of my life to start something which will require a great amount of time, energy, also some money.
I am in my mid 40’s and doing well in my career as a software engineer/Architect I still code and design software systems and have no immediate intention to switch to academic anytime soon.
Well, my quest for Ph.D. is not new, I enrolled myself in Ph.D. from BITS, Pilani in 2004/2005 that time I was a faculty member at BITS, Pilani Goa Campus (what a fantastic time that was :-) but soon in 2005 I switched to the industry but a thrive was always there, I even got a chance to be interviewed at CSE IIT Delhi almost 10 years back but couldn’t continue. Now after so many years I finally started my Ph.D. in the old city where I have spent some time in the late ’90s.
I feel one of the reasons why my quest for a Ph.D. is still up because at some point my late father had a wish to see me as a college professor with a Ph.D. degree. My father himself was a school teacher but never attended a university but he used to have great regard for university teaching.
Technically, Ph.D. will definitely help in understanding more about Machine learning and AI mostly the complex maths behind it.
I am very privileged to be associated with Data Analytics Laboratory (DAL) at IIIT-A. The coordinator of the DAL and my guide Dr. Manish Kumar has great expertise in the field of IoT/Sensor Networks/Machine Learning. I hope to learn a lot from my Ph.D. and hopefully something interesting comes out from this collaboration.
I thank my company Ockham b.v.b.a for allowing me to do this.
More posts expected in the future about my Ph.D. journey. I am sure this is going to be a fun journey…
Thanks!