Srihari Radhakrishnan

MMath - Programming languages

Was your undergraduate in CS? If not, what did you study?
My undergraduate degree is in Electrical Engineering. I did my first year in Birla Institute of Technology and Science - Pilani, India and transferred to McMaster University, Canada, where I earned my BEng with highest honours.

Why did you choose graduate studies and why did you choose graduate studies in CS?
After working full-time for a few years, I wanted to explore academia in greater depth as well as make time to pursue other interests in my life, including volunteering, music and travel. Graduate school was a great opportunity to do this.

What is your research area and why did you choose it?
After finishing my undergraduate studies, I joined BlackBerry where I worked for two years on development projects - it was there that I developed an interest in concurrent programming, and decided to delve into the subject a little deeper.

Who is your supervisor and why did you choose to work with him/her?
My supervisor is Peter Buhr. Peter is fantastic to work with - he displays a sense of passion and energy about his work like he is a new graduate student himself, and yet possesses immense knowledge in his field which has come over years of experience and dedication. He does a great job guiding new graduate students into their projects, and is very accommodating of students.

Why did you choose Waterloo for graduate studies? If you did your undergraduate at Waterloo, why did you stay?
UWaterloo has an international reputation for innovation in Computer Science - the pool of talent in terms of faculty and students in the CS department rivals some of the top technology schools worldwide. The decision to come to UW for graduate studies was a no-brainer for me :).

What sort of research/projects are you working on?
I'm currently working on developing high-performance web servers using user level threading. I'm also interested in systems research, and wish to publish some work in the field of systems and/or networking.

What classes are you taking? What has been your favourite class so far?
As a part of my transition from Electrical Engineering to CS, I've taken some undergraduate courses - I would recommend CS 341 (algorithms) taught by Jeffrey Shallit - it is a wonderful course.

Any other information you would like to share about yourself?
I'm always open to chat, not just about your graduate application, but about any concerns you may have regarding moving to a new place or country, or just about university/graduate life in general. Drop me a line anytime and I'll do my best to help :).