Seminar: Research Notes to Myself (Circa 2004)

Abstract: Twenty years ago, I started my journey as a Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley. At the time, I had no idea where the journey would lead, but I took the first steps because I sensed kindred spirits—unlike any other—among those in the research enterprise. Indeed, academic family trees and larger research communities play a crucial role in providing a social context for—and shaping the direction of—our own research. But was that early sense sufficient to steer the ship through the ages? Of course, not! The journey from fresh Ph.D. student to professor is astonishingly packed with lessons learned (and some relearned). With the benefit of hindsight, if I could telegraph notes to my younger self to make the journey more fulfilling and impactful, what insights might I have shared? If you’re curious, join us to find out!

Bio: Prabal Dutta is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at University of California, Berkeley. Previously, he was a Morris Wellman Faculty Development Professor at the University of Michigan. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and an MS in Electrical Engineering and a BS in Electrical & Computer Engineering, both from The Ohio State University. His research has been recognized with an Okawa Foundation Grant, a Sloan Fellowship, an NSF CAREER Award, a Popular Science Brilliant Ten Award, and an Intel Early Career Award. His work has been recognized with a Test-of-Time Award at SenSys, five Top Pick/Best Paper Awards at MICRO, SenSys, IPSN (2x), and HotEmNets, three Best Paper Nominees at SenSys and IPSN and numerous demo, design, poster and industry awards, has been directly commercialized by a dozen companies and indirectly by many dozens more, and is on display at Silicon Valley’s Computer History Museum. He has co-founded several startups based on his research including Cubeworks, Gridware, nLine, and Vizi.