The industrial inclination

“I got placed in Philips Healthcare after my Bachelor’s and was lucky enough to be a part of the MRI construction team. We had to implement algorithms into our project which required recruitment of physicists from some of the top institutes. I saw how the mathematics that I had studied in my college was being applied in real life, while working with PhDs and PostDocs. It motivated me to study more. So after two years, I took a sabbatical to start looking for a Master’s program that had a balance between computing and medical physics.

TU Munich’s Masters in Biomedical Computing course aligned with my interests. I applied there and got selected. My industrial experience proved to be beneficial in my selection. My experience was so enriching that I decided to take it up a notch higher. I resigned from my job and opted for a PhD. But, my project in Germany dealt with handling animal models which I wasn’t comfortable with. I wanted to work on something that encompassed scientific computing. I found that IITB-Monash had the perfect project and moreover, the location provided me the opportunity to stay close to family . So I moved back to India.

The only nightmare I had to go through was doing computer science coursework in my first year of PhD. I had to somehow pull through those two semesters. I was nevertheless motivated and the support from both my supervisors in India and…