Random Walks

In this episode, I converse with  Julienne LaChance, a final year doctoral candidate in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. Prior to coming to Princeton, Julienne worked in NYC as a firmware engineer and programmer at 3D Printing giant MakerBot Industries, and then at General Electric’s Global Research Center, designing jet engines and building tools for other design engineers. She received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, whilst working on submarines, helicopters, smart grid optimization and electric vehicles.

Julienne's current interests transcend machine learning, computer vision, control and dynamical systems, and collective behaviour in cells. We indulge in a terrific conversation on her interesting journey in science, foraying into Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at the cusp of the ImageNet led Deep Learning revolution, COVID19 pandemic, and its disruptive impact, her pioneering the fantastic AI4ALL, a summer camp for high school students that targets underrepresented minorities, the great importance of incorporating ethics into AI algorithms to prevent scapegoating racial and ethnic minorities, and many more fascinating things.

In this episode, I converse with Pranam Chatterjee, the Carlos M. Varsavsky Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School in the group of the legendary Prof. George Church. He recently completed his Ph.D at the MIT Media Lab with Joseph Jacobson, one of the inventors of the Kindle, and completed his undergrad at MIT double majoring in Computer Science and Molecular Biology after transferring there from Dartmouth where he was studying Religion. 

Pranam is currently developing state-of-the-art algorithms and high-throughput experimental screens to interrogate germ cell development whilst utilising the genome-editing tool, CRISPR. We indulge in a fantastically riveting conversation in his quest to study life spiritually and scientifically, the importance of listening to folks on the other side of the aisle, the essential nature of interdisciplinarity and collaboration in academia, how science is built on the shoulder of graduate students and other researchers toiling away without recognition, combating SARS-CoV-2 on the frontlines, the importance of diversity and inclusion, and many more things.

In this episode, I talk with Caroline Werlang, a Siebel Scholar and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Biogels Lab in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. Before coming to MIT, Caroline earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Caltech and spent a year in Switzerland as a Fulbright Fellow at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).  

We indulge in a wide ranging conversation about her path to science and academia, fantastic mentors who inspired her, her fascinating work exploring the secret of mucus and microbiome, science as a collaborative enterprise and disputing the notion of genius' revolutionising it, actively combating bias and discrimination in science through terrific endeavours to foster a more welcoming environment for underrepresented groups, and many more things!!

The pioneering BEAPP Caroline pioneered at MIT-BE: http://be.mit.edu/academic-programs/prospective-graduate/beaap

In this episode, I talk to Prof. Sandhya Koushika, a Cellular Neurobiologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. She is a recipient of the International Early Career Award by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. We talk about her foraying into science and academia, working with C. elegans, her terrific mentors, overcoming personal and professional barriers, negotiating COVID19 by stitching new collaborations and combating pseudoscience, and her inspiring advice to budding scientists.

In this episode, I chat with Bichlien Nguyen, a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, and an affiliate assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. Bichlien's main interests are in developing sustainable infrastructure for datacenters including DNA-based data storage systems and she works in conjunction with the Molecular Information Systems Lab at UW CSE. We talk about her family background as a refugee, battling strong expectations from multiple fronts, life-shaping experiences in undergrad and grad school, fighting stereotypes and biases, influence of incredible mentors, her fascinating research, seamlessly straddling university and industrial academia, her sagacious advice to young and upcoming researchers, and many more things!

In this episode, I talk with Prof. Boaz Barak, the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. We converse about his serendipitous path to the theory of computing after starting to programme on a Commodore 64 in his childhood, his insipid stint in the military, the influence of his cohort and mentors during graduate school, computational complexity, quantum computing, the differing experience of working in a university research lab and industrial research lab, communicating science to the masses, and the great importance of diversity and inclusion in academia. 

In this episode, I converse with Priyanka DeSouza, a Research Fellow in the Senseable City Lab, MIT, and a former Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. We talk about her fascinating journey in science, navigating through graduate school and confronting the ubiquitous imposter syndrome, her important work on air quality monitoring and helping mitigate the deadly effects of air pollution, how data colonisation threatens marginalised people, and the concrete steps required to transition to a healthier and sustainable future.

Welcome to Random Walks, a podcast that explores the intricacies of science and the intricate stories of scientists behind it. Join me every week as I indulge in a freewheeling conversation on science and myriad other things with an eclectic set of people who do science.

I’m your host, Abhigyan Ray, a Chemical Engineering Undergrad currently exploring the Physics of Life. To introduce the podcast, I'm joined by Sagar Shrivastava, currently a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).

We discuss the motivation behind the podcast, random walks as a scientific and metaphorical concept, the fascinatingly intricate journey in and through science, and a sense of what and who to come in the podcast.

Welcome to Random Walks, a podcast that explores the intricacies of science and the intricate stories of scientists behind it. Join me every week as I indulge in a freewheeling conversation on science and myriad other things with an eclectic set of people who do science.

I’m your host, Abhigyan Ray, a Chemical Engineering Undergrad currently exploring the Physics of Life. To introduce the podcast, I'm joined by Sagar Shrivastava, currently a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). 

We discuss the motivation behind the podcast, random walks as a scientific and metaphorical concept, the fascinatingly intricate journey in and through science, and a sense of what and who to come in the podcast.