Life @ Arizona State University

This fall I joined the Masters in Computer Science Graduate program at the ever amazing and diverse Arizona State University.

Coming to the US was an intimidating task given that I had never lived alone and the baggage loss at the airport added to the troubles but more on that later. So after arriving in Phoenix, Arizona and witnessing the blistering heat of this otherwise amazing city, I finally managed to go to the Sun Devil county, my home for next 2 years, Arizona State University!

Vibrant Culture

The culture at ASU is very happening. The group of International Students consists of students from China, Vietnam, Ghana, South Africa, England, Spain and many more.

At the orientation, I met students from different countries and cultures and learned many things. We ate together, danced together and enjoyed the hell out of the organized events.

Diversity: The art of thinking independently together

~ Malcolm Forbes

Every week, there is something exciting on campus. So many schools, so many organizations and so many events! Everyone’s culture is welcome in the Sun Devil family. So far my experience ranges from Bible readings to pool parties. Though after classes start, it’s difficult to attend even your roommate’s birthday party, yeah it gets that hectic!

Engineering at ASU

Fulton Schools of Engineering has great resources for engineering students ranging from Career center to VentureDevils, a startup accelerator for students and staff.

Personally, I’m thrilled to have so many entrepreneurial resources around me given my passion for building products. It’s the #1 school in Innovation after all. Maybe I’ll apply to VentureDevils program soon.

Given my interest in the field of Data and ML, and the reputation of ASU Profs in these fields, I decided to choose all ML related courses this semester.

Classes have started now and I have taken Artificial Intelligence, Fundamental of Statistical Learning, and Social Media Mining courses this semester to fuel my learning.

So far in AI class, I have already made two individual projects somewhat similar to Berkeley Pacman Projects and now gearing up for the final project.

The Social Media Mining class aims at studying social networks through various network measures. Currently, I’m working on a Sentiment analysis project using Amazon reviews.

Fundamental of Statistical Learning or FSL provides the mathematics behind Machine Learning and brilliantly explains the working of so many models we daily use in the Data Science space.

I’ve also joined the Software Developer Group (SoDA) which organizes tech events for engineering students. A lot of companies like Amazon, AmEx, Goldman Sachs etc have visited so far for technical talks and other events which provides good opportunities for students to mingle up and learn from with Industry experts. #Networking is very important, as they say.

The beauty of Arizona

Apart from the intense dry heat of Arizona, it’s an amazing place. So many things to do and so many places to explore.

Az is also home to some beautiful places on the planet. Grand Canyon and Sedona are on the top of my list currently! Flagstaff is another amazing place to go.

(Separate post coming on the Grand Canyon Trip soon!)

Apart from having so many things to do here, Arizona is also close to LA and Las Vegas. I’m excited about my Winter Break! 😀

From celebrating my birthday to spending sleepless nights working for assignments and projects, I have done a lot of things in these two months here.

First Football game! PS: SunDevils won

It has been a great journey so far. Really hectic but worth it. Cheers to Life @ ASU.

The fun is only beginning!