Profiles of Department Representatives
Departments
MICHEAL JONES, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I have previous professional managerial and marketing experience.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I want to help improve and encourage outreach and communication by better highlighting the benefits and appeal of these important aspects of our experience. I also hope to address the shroud of anxiety that can often discourage students in some capacity.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
Interaction fosters opportunity and creation; I believe I can help our school better embrace this idea!.
ANDREW BISHOP, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I served as Residential Affairs Liaison for my undergraduate student government, where I managed the housing selection process and on-campus storage, and as President and Treasurer of the student maker space. These positions required me to design new policies and implement policy changes, lead committees, build consensus among stakeholders, negotiate with administrators, and manage multiple budgets.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I am very excited about the data coming from the student Quality of Life survey and the ways in which these data could be leveraged to shape policy or start conversations with the administration. I want to continue working in student governance and help to improve the SEAS and Columbia communities.
NATHANIEL SCHWARTZ, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
"President, Future Healers of America (Queens College): the pre-health professions club at Queens College, representing nearly 600 students. Arranged speakers from graduate and professional schools to interface with and inform club members about the field and their respective school, and arranged campus tours President, Math Club (Queens College): organized socials, events, and invited speakers."
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
Being part of a community is an important part of our lives. We have many students from all over the world. My goal is to make it easier for students to interact with each other and get to know each other at social events in bars and other event spaces around the city. At an administrative level, I am happy to help maintain records of Council meetings and student organizations. Finally, I enjoy collaborating with other departments and student government bodies, as it gives a broader context to what we do on a University level.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I'm excited to be part of the Columbia community and would like to contribute in any way I can!
NAVEED TAVAKOL, PH.D.
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Throughout my four years at the University of Virginia, I was heavily involved in our (undergrad) Engineering Student Council: from serving as a general member, committee director, Vice President, and ultimately President. I was very passionate about helping improve our engineering school, from the activities and events we provided for students to the interactions between different members of our engineering community. Throughout my time, I was especially enthusiastic about (1) engaging collaboration between students (both undergraduate and graduate!) and faculty - to help develop this "engineering community" we were aiming for through mixers, optional departmental funding for major specific events, and mixers between different schools; (2) help reinvent our student-taught classes program, where we were able to help undergraduate students design and teach their own courses to their peers; and (3) partner with a few K12 outreach groups in Virginia, notably to bring the Virginia State Science Olympiad tournament to UVa as a host and recruit student volunteers throughout the year. I also helped facilitate relationships between our students, organizations, and the admin, which I felt was an important role especially later in my term.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
On the academic affairs committee, I feel like I would be able to help bring the thoughts and opinions of my peers (in BME specifically) to help gear some events EGSC and the SEAS admin put on to cater best to our niche. I think some things in particular, like the pre-PhD orientation (Prof. and Leadership Development series), can be better organized (in the future) to hone in on skills more closely necessary for the first few years of each individual major, e.g. BME PhDs have different first years than a lot of other engineering disciplines, etc. In addition, I think it would be appropriate to help organize a database of all the incoming/current students in each department - including both Masters and PhD - to make it a bit easier to meet people within the department towards the beginning of each program...and work with the departmental groups to coordinate some of these early on in the academic year. Especially relevant to PhDs in their later years, I'd love to get involved in framing/hyping up the 3-Min Thesis competition EGSC is starting/has been putting on - obviously I'd have to learn more, but I think there's a lot of potentially in ramping up excitement for events like this. I've had the opportunity to work as a liaison between the students and the administration in the past, and I believe my roles have helped me become better at listening to student concerns and working through the appropriate steps to resolve matters important to the engineering community.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
Fun facts: big fan of Chipotle, Switzerland, and Taylor Swift - you can probably find me bringing up one of the three if you ever meet me in person. Even though I just joined the MS-to-PhD program in the BME Dept. here, I hope to be able to contribute to the engineering community at Columbia as much as I can! :)
TEO DINESCU, PH.D.
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
My name is Teo Dinescu and I am a 2nd year PhD student in biomedical engineering. In undergrad, I served as the bioengineering representative for Tau Beta Pi, where I served as the liaison between students and faculty. I planned events to help students with professional development, such as improving their resumes, as well as organized lab tours to help students secure research positions. I spoke with students about issues concerning them and brought these up during the bioengineering town hall meeting with the department chair so that they could be addressed. I also worked as a resident assistant where I developed a positive living environment for a floor of 70 second year students by addressing student needs and conflicts. I collaborated with other RAs to plan events for the residential community and increase awareness of campus resources. After attending many of the EGSC events last year, I want to get more involved this year and believe that my experiences would make me a great candidate for BME department representative.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
My vision for all the committees is to increase awareness of events and get greater input from the student body. Having each department representative go lab to lab or having coffee hours in a central location so that students could voice their opinions would increase transparency between the department and EGSC. For the alumni and career affairs committee, I would aim to include more biotechnology representatives at the career fair and at networking events so that BME students could learn more about the opportunities available post-graduation. Having a variety of representatives from industry, academia, consulting, and other fields would demonstrate the diverse possibilities and give current students an opportunity to ask them questions one on one. For the interschool committee, I would communicate with the other graduate school student councils to organize both social and professional events to encourage collaborations between the schools. Establishing these connections could encourage students to work on interdisciplinary projects together. For the social committee, I would want to organize events such as museums tours/visits, trips to the zoo, and Top of the Rock visits so that we can explore more of New York City while getting to know our fellow classmates.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I have gotten to know many of the BME students and faculty during my first year at Columbia and I am really excited to get to know more of you!
DHARAN JAYESH PATEL, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
During my undergraduate program I've been the Vice President of a club named "Invincible Leaders League" whose focus was to help students find their inner potential so that they can lead and represent themselves. I have also been the lead member of the fund raising committee in a NGO named "Together in Development and Education" whose aim was to collect funds monthly in order to carry out various NGO activities. I have also been the Placement Co-ordinator during my final undergraduate year where my role was to communicate with various MNC's in India and bring them for the on campus placement.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
My goal for the budget committee would be to clearly communicate with all other departments like planning and discuss with them regarding the allotment of funds and yes end the fiscal year with a positive balance and some reserve. Being a part of the inter-school committee, we could organise some leadership events where we bring in professionals to speak about their experiences.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
During my tenure as the Vice President of the Invincible Leaders League Club, we had organised events like TEDxNirmaUniversity for two consecutive years in 2016 and 2017.
ZIYU WU, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I used to be the Secretary General in the School of Civil Engineering’s Student Union in my undergraduate from Sep 2014 to Jun 2017.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
To serve my classmates and all my schoolmates. I want to use my great interperson and communication skills to make deals with every relevant party for the optimum benefit of my mates.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I have the experience of being the minister of New Media Department of a Seminar to publicize it.
ASHUTOSH TRIPATHI, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I have worked as the head and subhead of the logistics department of cultural fest in Undergraduate. I have also worked in he administration department of CESA powered by ASCE. Additionally, I have been the class representative of my class in Undergrads.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I plan to learn more about events and socialize more. I plan to learn and participate more in the international events.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
In addition to this, I have been a gold medalist of Civil department in Undergrads so this says that extracurricular activities do not affect my grades.
SACHIN PAUNIKAR, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
"1. Being a Treasurer for the music club in my undergraduate university (2015-2016), I managed the budget by weekly monitoring the expenses incurred through learning material for students, purchasing/repairing of music instruments etc. 2. Cultural Secretary, Civil Engineering Department (2014-2015) - Conducted various departmental events like teacher’s day celebration, cultural nights etc."
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I want to work in the field of business development in the near future which requires proficiency in analyzing budgets and handling them. I think based on my past experience, I believe the skills which I have developed during these years will definitely contribute to the choices made.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
While I was working with my previous employer, I was a part of project management team where I reviewed various cost proposals for civil works and also assisted in analysing financial year budget for a smart city project.
ANDRES LLANO, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
N/A
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
My goal is to be a voice for civil engineering graduate students in the Academic Affairs Committee; I hope to inform grad students of organizations they can participate in at Columbia if I become part of the Administrative Committee; With the Alumni & Career Affairs Committee, I'd like to ensure students have opportunities to network with Columbia's robust alumni community.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
Fluent Spanish speaker; Have three years experience working in structural and drainage engineering projects
CHRISTOPHER GUILCAPI, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I have been part of student professional organizations and was a civil engineering department class representative during my undergrad years. I like to help out planning events and activities so that everyone can join together and have a great time. I have experience planning events and networking opportunities as a past President of organizations such as the American Society of Civil Engineers. I'm organized and dependable, so I think this would be a nice way for me to help out in the department and input any ideas my classmates have to offer.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
For the Alumni & Career Affairs committee, I envision helping put together networking events for our department and reaching out to alumni to get them involved with our current class of students. I want to contribute my part by actively staying connected with the various alumni organizations for the EGSC which would have good opportunities for all students. For the social committee, I would contribute by volunteering at the social events that take place and input any ideas that my classmates and I come up with. For the budget committee, I would help with the budget proposals from student organizations. I remember and know how important these documents are for helping an organization get more support and attendance.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I am currently just doing courses, so this would be a great way for me to put in time and effort into an organization that strives to put together events for the good of everyone. I would like to volunteer my time and effort with this group and help out the Engineering Graduate Student Council as a department representative in any way I can.
CHENGZHONG QIU, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I was a member and then the vice president of department of literature and art in Student Union in undergraduate school. Our department organized the largest Welcome Party for freshman student in our school every year. As a participant and leader, I needed to consider the programming of the show, stage arrangement, coordination of arrangement of various departments, etc. The two Welcome Party I participated in were quiet successful and the latter one was called the most successful Party in recent year.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I hope that the students can not only focus on their school work but also willing to taking part in some social activities which are attractive and innovative designed by us making them enjoying their Columbia life. I will apply my experience of organizing the successful events in the committees to plan and organize better and more innovative social events in our school.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I was also a leader organized my class in my undergraduate participated the Class Talent Competition in my school. In that competition, my class got the champion for our amazing show programming.
VIDIT HIRANI, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I have been deeply involved in student organizations throughout my undergraduate life. I along with a few batch mates founded the Civil Engineering Student Association (CESA) at my university. This gave a platform for to students to address their issues and conduct events outside the classroom within the department. I worked with student from various years to improve their student life and address their problems. I was also selected the Department Head for Sports which enabled me to improve the sports culture in the department. Furthermore I was involved in organizing committees in different leadership positions of various technical, cultural , entrepreneurial and sports events at my university. I want to continue use my capabilities to help improve the student life at Columbia University.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
"Interschool Committee: The core value of Columbia University is about diversity and collaboration. I want to work on that and help SEAS student work with different schools across the university to help. This would include organizing inter-school events in fun-filled environment. Alumni & Career Chairs: Columbia alumnus are spread around the world and are great pioneers in their respective industries and students would learn a lot from their experiences. This would include talks by famous alumnus throughout the semester and networking events across the year Budget Committee: Finance is the heart of every student organization. Getting the appropriate budget needs to be decided by their importance of their activities to the university's goals. Having interacted with students from various majors throughout my undergraduate life has given me different people's perspective and help them with their problems. Having been closely associated with my high school's alumni association, I have experience in organizing alumni events. Having worked with student organization has given me knowledge of their financial needs and how to prioritize them"
YU (SABRINA) XIAO, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
"Experience 1: Student Council (Sep 2008 - Jun 2016) Positions: President, Vice President, Deputy Secretary General Description (During undergraduate period): 1. Planned 6 kinds of large student events like New Student Orientation, Student Council Recruitment, Undergraduate Representatives' Congress, earning a positive feedback rate of 91.3%, being honored as Excellent Student Leader 2. Accomplished 65 tasks with 936 working files, which included but not limited to writing monthly work reports, holding regular meetings, coordinating subdivisions' work in all student events Experience 2: Model United Nations (Jul 2009 - Jun 2017) Positions: Club Leader, Head of Admin. Department; Conference’s Chairman, Delegate Description (During undergraduate period): 1. Organized 3 university level Model United Nations Conferences(ZMUNC) from 2014 to 2017, each covering 180-220 participants from about 20 universities nationwide, being awarded as Advanced Individual and Excellent Club Leader 2. Ran university MUN Association(ZMUN), wrote monthly reports, trained ZMUN Admin staffs to write official documents, coordinated conferences for the whole academic year, got sponsors for annually ZMUNC 3. Won all sorts of honors by participating in 5 MUN conferences, such as Best Reporter and Best News Agency of 12th National MUN Conference, Best Delegate, Outstanding Delegate, Best Position Paper, etc."
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
The Alumni Chair mentioned that he would like to improve the quality of alumni panel in the coming academic year by organizing alumni Talks and Dinners. I am interested in those ideas and would like to join in the committee. Based on my academic experience on journalism (my double major), I would like to create more interactive way to help student to be more involved in alumni panels, and at the same time, facilitate our brilliant alumni to share their views more efficiently. I agree that with higher frequency but fewer attendees in each panel, everyone will be more satisfied about this beneficial events.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
My Hobbies: bamboo flute, broadcasting and hosting, orienteering, badminton
NOYONIKA ROY, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Although it is not to my benefit, I will say that this is new for me. However, I am eager to push my boundaries and discover new aspects of my personality by holding a position of responsibility. The most relevant experience I have had is to lead a team to organize an event in the cultural festival of my undergraduate institute. This included budgeting, advertising, acquiring participants from all over the country (India), inviting judges, looking after logistics etc.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
Chemical Engineering has an intermediate strength in numbers compared to the rest of the engineering departments. However, regardless of its numbers, it should be afforded an equal percentage of the limelight within the academic as well as social circle. For academic affairs, it is essential to have a good network of communication, not only within the department but interdepartmental as well. This allows awareness of the technical electives and research opportunities outside one's own department but still within one's interest areas. For administrative department, I believe it is essential to relieve the burden on students of admin work, hence if they have a person who has set procedures for any kind of problems, it would be a great benefit. I would also like to help post these solutions to common issues online for wider perusal. For the other posts, I would try my best to complete the given duties and try to incorporate ideas which leads to a better and more structured organization of EGSC.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I take any work assigned to me very seriously and am ready to give proper respect and attention to any post awarded.
HONGKANG ZHU, M.S 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Vice president at Department Student Union at Tsinghua University
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
My goal is to add value to the Budget Committee on how to optimize the allocation and distribution of funds to organization’s expenditure. My previous experience in Student Union was to manage the budget and finance, so I have the abilities and skills.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I have solid foundation in finance: CFA Level 1 passed.
ZIHAN WANG, M.S 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Chemistry Club member
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
My goal is to improve students life with diverse events, including academic and entertainment. I have the experiI would like to work with alumni and build effective network between students and industries. I am looking forward to grow my communication skills, learn from others in the committee and better serve the student population in connection with the school as a whole.
MIN YEA (KAREN) LEE, M.S 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Public Relations Officer and Class Representative of Korean Student Association (during undergraduate career)
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
My goal is to allow students from all departments to feel connected and as one with each other. Students would be encouraged and have additional opportunity to go outside their department and interact with students from other departments. Graduate school coursework is difficult and by promoting social events, I hope to relieve students' stress to a reasonable extent. During my undergraduate career, I served as a class representative and public relations officer of the Korean Student Association (KSA). The duties I had as a KSA member correlate very well with those of an EGSC Social Events Committee member as I had to plan and organize annual events. I promoted events both physically (hardcopy flyers) and digitally (social media platform) and supervised events with fellow officers.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
Have experience with treasurer work as well.
LILIANA CALIX, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
During my undergraduate program, I was the liaison between the Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering departments since a lot of the events we hosted were joint/interdisciplinary. In addition, I have had various leadership experiences: Tutoring Liaison for Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, Vice President of NY Water Environment Association, Membership Representative for American Society of Civil Engineers.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
For both the Alumni & Career Affairs and the Interschool committees, I have a lot of background in organizing new events related to networking, panels, etc. I also love getting other schools involved in combining different groups of students for one awesome event. One of my main goals would be to work on more interdisciplinary events. Since I am an EAEE student, a lot of my classes are already interdisciplinary and I get to take a lot of classes in policy and international affairs. I think one of my goals would be to create more events that combine engineering with other schools like policy and international affairs to get students interested in more interdisciplinary careers! In addition, through my previous extracurricular activities, I have used Instagram frequently as the primary outlet to shout out events and I would even love to expand that here at Columbia. After attending the EGSC information session, the chair of the Social Media Committee mentioned that you have not used Instagram as much as you had hoped. I would love to make one of my goals to expand EGSC's platform on Instagram since I know a lot of students use it. I envision using Instagram as another way to bring people to events, especially if they see the events frequently on Instagram.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
Since I am a first year master student, I am excited to start to get involved in SEAS and EGSC. I did not do my undergraduate studies at Columbia so I am completely new. However, I am very motivated and a hard worker. I love getting involved in extracurricular activities as a way to meet more people and get involved and I hope as a Department Representative I can do so.
SEAN (SHOUYU) LI, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Have worked for the student union in the past
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I would like to engage more international students in department social events and try my best to make the best of everyone's grad school experience in Columbia./p>
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I have had experiences in different fields such as sales, consulting and education, which gave me the chance to practice my communication and organizational skills, it would be my great honor to further enhance them and contribute towards our group.
SHRIPAD PATIL, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Secretary of Civil Engineering Association
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I will give importance to all the minute details and work towards the betterment of the student community.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I am fun to work with.
MIN FU, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I was the president of Tongji university Innovation Club when I was an undergraduate. During that time, I organized several programming and circuit design contests in Tongji University for students in Shanghai. Besides that, I actually hosted a lot of meetings for teachers, students and employers.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I am experienced since I organized a lot alumli and career fairs when I was an undergraduate.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I took part in a lot of academic and nonacademic activities such as Shanghai Innovation and entrepreneurship forum, F1 contest and so on.
TYLER KULCSAR, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Biomedical Engineering Executive Board at Tufts University
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I hope to have the opportunity to help build the network between current Columbia engineers and alumni, as well as the network between Columbia students. I believe that by organizing events and opportunities to communicate, the Columbia engineering experience can be enhanced and allow students to get the most out of their time in NYC.
ZHI JI, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Deep Learning internship
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I would like to make the work at committee helpful for both committee and myself. I will work for the committee not only when I am school but also after my graduation.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I can speak Chinese, Japanese and Spanish?
SOWMYA GARG, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Event Manager at Indian Institute of Telecommunication Engineers for 2 years
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
Social events are the major life events for students, I'd love to make them better. I could put in the experience as an Event Manager to everything I do. I'm a very dedicated person, put in all the efforts in everything I do!
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I'm fun to work with. Umm, yeah, that's all I guess. :P
XIAOHAN LIU, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Member of Student Union in Tsinghua University
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
Alumni & Career Affairs, Social, Academic Affairs. I want to contribute to new students networking with their alumni and among themselves.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
Yes
ASHIK BANGER VEERAPPA, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I have confounded and run a student club called Kannada literary association and also worked as in student startup called Infinull technology as CMO.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
Administrative, Alumni & Career Affairs, Academic Affairs.I don’t know the problem or issues faced by students as of now. But I will know them and try to solve them
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
No.
SHUBHANGI MAHESHWARI, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
1- I was sponsorship committee head for my undergraduate college national level techno- management fest 2 - I have also organized a special event for the same fest
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I learned a lot while working as the manager and as committee head and I would like to implement those learning here. Few of them are: 1 - Being transparent with the fellow committee members and non committee members. It was utmost necessary because I was dealing with huge sum of money. A large portion of my job also included allocation and managing of funds. Being detailed in description and reasoning and transparent with the faculty incharge, the vendors and the sponsors is must. 2- Be creative with the meetings and easily approachable. It's very important to maintain a good working relationship with the sponsors so that they are more than happy to come in the next event. Since it's a big University and not everyone knows everyone, organising a creative and fun Meetup helps people to approach you with their issues and certainly takes the edge off. 3- Open to feedback. I take healthy criticism/ negative feedback very positivily because one needs to adapt to the ever changing scenario to survive.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I was also assistant manager - HOD of the dept at TATA Chemicals
ZELAI YU, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Have taken responsibility as the Undergraduate Leader for University of California Los Angeles Education Abroad Program at Japan, and co-directed multiple school cultural-exchange programs and activities involving over 1,000 student participants.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
My vision for the committees is to strengthen our students' connections with students from other schools of Columbia University, with Columbia alumni, and with faculty members, through a positive and active student network featuring all kinds of social and cultural events, to which I could use my past experience in student organizations and programs to add value.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I enjoy in my spare time doing a lot of things including skydiving, archery, shogi, and foooooood(all kinds of food, and I'm fond of making kaiseki cuisine), so you could get in touch with me if you share similar interests with me :)
TIAN LEI, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Previous experience in student union and relevant internship in Fiance industry.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
From my perspective, the main goals of the budget team is auditing and reporting. Under the certain budget limit, we should make sure the funding match with our propose and the report is accurate, reasonable and verifiable. I got my bachelor degree in accounting and also took some advance accounting courses from CBS now. Hence, my solid accounting background would be helpful for this position and committee.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
NONE
WEBBER HAO-YUN HSU, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Served as representatives of College of Science in National Taiwan University for 2 terms 2015-2017 and leading team of 5 auditing final accounts of $30,000
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
It is a great pleasure and honor to have one of the most expansive alumni network in the world. I see a future with a more splendid future with alumnus and students brainstorming critical problems for human society while we, the committee, served as a platform bridging two amazing groups together.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
A fun fact of myself, I love bartending. Come join a drink with me someday.
DIPANSHU GURWARA, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Student representative at Shiv Nadar University Hostel Commitee
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
One of my goals is to get together the various ethnic and cultural groups present in the department and get them more involved and aware by conducting and facilitating activities such as festivals ,sports events etc.
NAIF ALZAHRI, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
During my time at UC San Diego, I aimed to fill my daily schedule with a wide-range of activities to improve my communication, social, and leadership skills. In addition to the fact that each activity uniquely contributed to my personality, these activities also led me to come across many individuals who left an indelible impact on me and helped me maximize my knowledge in different fields and cultures. Upon coming to UCSD, I noticed a lack of a Saudi community, so with the help of a fellow Saudi student, we founded the Saudi Student Association (SSA) to reflect the cultural and historical aspects of Saudi Arabia and to cultivate a sense of Saudi community within the university. Two years after being an integral part of the leadership team, UCSD has witnessed a drastic increase in the number of Saudis attending UCSD, from 9 students to a total of 56 students. Additionally, I joined the Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) organization. One year after being an active member in the organization, I became part of the Public Relations committee. This gave me the chance to help in career opportunities for students by contacting different companies and hosting information sessions for ESW. Those experiences allowed me to join the Emerging Leaders Program at UCSD, a program that aims to guide and inspire the development of leadership skills through experiential activities. To further hone my professional and leadership skills, I, along with other fellows, founded the SABIC Student Council to serve SABIC (a major global petrochemicals company) scholarship recipients. We came up with multiple initiatives that contributed to uniting the student body, such as a monthly newsletter and multiple professional development programs. The work our team has done led the council to be an integral part of the scholarship program.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
For the academics committee, one of the things I would like to contribute to is the pre-arrival orientation to help graduate students figure out their tentative plan prior to the start of their programs. With EGSC help, I am confident that we can come up with a clear system that covers all academia matters with the goal that every incoming student would have a clear understanding of the offered classes. This would include reflection videos from current cohorts on each course, and online conferences by current students and faculty for incoming students. The main goal of such an initiative would be to save current and incoming students time and money as well as to allow them to enjoy a hassle-free journey at Columbia University. For the social committee, although the IEOR department, along with EGSC, has done a great job in creating memorable social events/mixers, one of the things I will strive to improve upon, is having more faculty presence in those social events. In addition to the fact that this will give graduate students the opportunity to hear more about current IEOR research opportunities and different industries which they might get involved in, more student/faculty interaction in a less formal setting would drastically help students and faculty alike in various aspects. For the career affairs, I would like to assist in establishing a system that ensures that every student is getting the chance to sign up for different information sessions by inviting more companies and hosting those sessions in bigger auditoriums. On a general note, I aim to help in creating an accessible online tool for current students to raise any questions or concerns which would redefine the goals and vision of EGSC by having diverse and varied opinions and contributions count.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I would like take this opportunity to thank you all for your time and consideration.
AKSHAY KUMAR, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
As an undergraduate student, pursuing my Bachelors in Computer Science in India, I’ve often believe in participating and contributing to as many diverse experiences as I possibly could, be it as the head of the Accounts Department for the first every Model United Nations conference in my college, or as a member of the Computer Society of India, responsible for organizing conferences focused on educating students on latest trends in technology, or as an Exchange Controller at AIESEC – VIT Chennai (the world’s largest non-profit youth run organization) responsible for marketing social internships all around the world, helping match university students with internships in global locations based on preference and requirement. Such experiences not only help build versatility, they allow one to respect challenges that various fields present (instead of undermining what one generally wouldn’t understand). During my time at S&P Global Market Intelligence, I was managing a team of 20 individuals from distributed geographies like India, United States, United Kingdom, Pakistan, and was responsible for building and supporting a product that covered data for about 88,000 public companies, 825,000 private companies and in-depth global data for 17 industries. In parallel, we were actively engaged in building out new analytics solutions that helped improve product offerings for more than 900 clients who had registered with us. This experience taught me the following – 1) Effective and regular communication is key for a business (or any group) to be sustainable and successful; 2) One should always be versatile and open to feedback, be it negative or positive; 3) One should always be respectful of different cultures and work ethic. These principles helped me brand myself as an ‘Agent of Change’, allowing me to successfully deliver unmanageable product priorities against tight deadlines. Thus, I feel these experiences have allowed to be develop myself as a multi-tasker, an impactful communicator and a deferential human being.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
The Alumni and Career Affairs Committee Columbia University, as one of the pioneers in education, has been a hotbed of talent. Students, current and past, and from diverse cultures have done seminal work in their respective fields which continues to make Columbia a brand associated with academic excellence. It would be my objective to improve the University’s outreach to such individuals (who are often very busy with their professional commitments). Additionally, given my experience in S&P Global (or the Financial Services Industry in general), where I got the opportunity to work with a few Columbia alumni, as well as accomplished professionals in the industry, I would like to increase the frequency of tech talks by individuals from companies like Kensho(an award winning machine intelligence company), S&P Global Market Intelligence, Barclays, JP Morgan etc. These are people I’ve worked with, and who understand how data in general is transforming the industries around us, thus making their experience very relevant to most of our programs at Columbia. Thus, as my vision for this committee, I would like to help improve our university’s connections with firms that have not been very actively associated with us, and improve our alumni outreach, holding regular networking sessions/talks that allows them to share their experience post Columbia. The Academic Affairs Committee In any institutional setting, be it academic or professional, feedback is one of the key metrics that helps assess an entity’s efficiency in execution of its daily duties. Universities, given their culturally and geographically diverse student populace, often find themselves at the forefront of unique and unexpected challenges. It thus becomes important to ensure that students have a platform that allows them to unequivocally voice their concerns, without any fear. To help facilitate such conversations, I feel it important to conduct feedback sessions with relevant authorities by organizing regular (twice a month) sessions with a relatively small group of randomly selected students that would share issues/suggestions on topics that are important to them. Such sessions (in my professional experience), often allow students, hitherto silent and passive in communicating concerns, to speak up. Thus, as my vision for this committee, I would like to focus on improving transparency and accessibility, thereby allowing relevant feedback being shared with proper authorities. The Interschool Committee Co-operation and collaboration – these are two words that are key in this era of globalization. The synergy of distributed and individual bodies is the ‘mantra’ for effective and organic growth. As an individual who’s managed i) a team distributed over multiple geographies like United States, United Kingdom, Pakistan, India; ii) clients that come from different industries, with different requirements and temperaments; I feel that’s it’s imperative to be a good listener and an effective communicator. Articulating one’s thought clearly is key to maintaining good relations with people around you, and I feel (even though it is a practice that never really ends) that my professional experience has helped me realize this. Additionally, it’s important to be open to feedback, since when you’re engaging with diverse student bodies, one is often faced with opinions that may be different from your own. Evaluating perspectives with an open mind (which may even mean admitting your folly) helps build positive and collaborative relationships with people.
SIYUAN LIU, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I was one of the Japan Intercultural Network (J-NET) broad member for 1.5 years, and co-hosted a university-wide annual event in Spring 2015. I also majored in Accountancy in my undergraduate college.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
For the Budget Committee, I want to make the best use of our money based on my previous knowledge and experience so that we can be efficient and resourceful when holding events. And for Academic Affairs Committees, I am more than willing to talk with faculties and students to keep the close connection, as well as hearing any advise to help us improve. Regarding the Alumni & Career Affairs Committee, I am glad to help my peers to connect to alumni in this essential career development period. And I also want to improve myself with the committee.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I would like to see a calendar for the EGSC to see how many events are holding each year and get a sense of how many people are working together.
DI WANG, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I used to be the vice president at China Agricultural University Student Council. During my term, I managed couple big campus wide talent shows, career social events as well as monthly council meetings bringing school faculties and students together.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I believe strongly in equality within academic settings for people of different socioeconomic status, genders, races, and ethnicities. A university department should bring people from diverse backgrounds to lead and succeed together. Since being part of Career Affairs, Inter-school or Social Committee would allow me to speak for students in the IEOR department, I am excited about and, fully committed to, the prospect of becoming a department representative.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
Our society has changed tremendously over the past decades, but carving out a scientific career remains difficult for young women. From high school through college, I encountered strong institutional biases and personal stereotypes on a daily basis, and I saw male peers receive more favorable treatment than women with the same qualifications. This fact did not stop me from seeking progression; rather, it inspired me to prove that women can succeed at the highest level. With my quantitative ability and my determination to stand out, I ultimately earned the China National Scholarship, the country’s highest academic recognition, granted only to the top 0.02% of undergraduates.
RAMESH KOTTAMASU, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I am an active participant in IIT MADRAS NY alumni meets. I help organizers spread the meeting schedule to recent graduates who are staying in New York.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
Alumni & Career Affairs: I believe that students can learn a lot and take advice from alumni's. Every students wants to get connected with alumni in the field/job they are interested. Hence organizing the alumni meets by various field experts will be helpful for students. Also, mentor-mentee hasn't proved better way of approach since either students or alumni are reluctant to ask specific questions thinking to be on safer side. If we can provide piazza kind of platform where there is possibility of anonymity, i see that more question are posted. So i will plan to provide similar platform for alumni and students so that each party will be able to ask questions or post answers with anonymity. I believe this approach will break the ice between students and alumni
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rameshkottamasu
MITCHELL SITZER, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
As an Associate Quality Engineer at Abbott Laboratories, I met bimonthly with department management to provide feedback from the cohort of associate engineers. Topics typically consisted of ensuring ample training resources were available to associates and promoting a healthy work life balance. As I was a liaison between the associate engineers and management, this experience is directly relevant to what I expect to do as an EGSC department representative.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
In addition to the Professional Development and Leadership program, I believe it would be immensely helpful to have a more involved mentorship program between current job-seeking students and students that have previously interned or are currently working in that subject area. These mentorship programs typically exist for high-demand, high-stress positions like investment banking or consulting, however, a broader platform that caters to students seeking any position would be ideal. This type of program would enable returning students (mentors) to become involved on campus while mentees would gain invaluable insight into their specific job function and recruiting process.
FELIPE CALDERON, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I am a first-year student at the MS in Operations Research program. During the last year of my undergrad I joined the local chapter of an international student association, AIESEC, that promotes youth leadership through transformative cultural experiences abroad. Within three months of joining the organization, I was elected to be Vice-president of Incoming Global Volunteers. In that role I was responsible for project conception and initiation, project planning and execution of community development programmes in Bogota (Colombia) and surrounding communities with the support and sponsorship of public and private universities, government agencies and private companies in Bogota. I run and raised funds for 7 projects in education, human rights, environment, computer literacy, and organizational strengthening of NGOs. More than 100 international volunteers from 21 countries and different backgrounds participated. It represented a growth of 65% of our revenues and a growth of 320% in volunteers recruited. I improved social media management, CRM, and analytics on traffic sources; as result conversion rates increased from 60% to 85% and average conversion time decreased from 45 days to 10 days In 2015 I moved to Mexico City and worked as consultant for a governmental agency and a digital marketing agency for about three years. With the former, I advised small and medium private companies in its strategy of Export and International Business Development. I helped American companies identify opportunities in Mexico and formulate strategies for entry into the Mexican market. With the latter, I developed a new product portfolio and defined the marketing strategy of digital products and services based on leading commercial business intelligence and artificial intelligence platforms. These experiences have provided me with a strong foundation in project management and client-facing skills. They will allow me to be efficient and effective in the projects I engage in at EGSC. I can support EGSC to strengthen the relationship with the student body and to engage fundamental stakeholders to fulfill our vision.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
The selection of the committees was based on the synergies that can exist between them and how my skills, interest and knowledge align with them. I believe the digital media committee plays an important role in the achievement of EGSC vision and mission. In order to be able to serve the graduate students of the engineering school there has to be an effective communication where any student can reach us to express their ideas and concerns, and digital media plays an important role in this setting. Moreover, digital media is a very convenient way to invite and engage all students to our many social, career and alumni activities. I want to help consolidate this team and take advantage of the many opportunities there are to boost EGSC vision. The alumni/career and social committees have a more direct impact accomplishing the mission of EGSC. They have created a vast network with prior students and members of the engineering school. I would like to contribute to the expansion and diversification of this network.
ZIXUAN DING, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I was DR and on the Social Committee at EGSC for Spring 2018 term. I have also been School Representative at Office of Student Life since April 2018. Prior to Columbia, I served as Deputy Minister of Internal Liaison Department in University Student Union and a Start-up Club.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
After actively serving on the Social team for a semester and volunteering as Engineering School Representative at Office of Student Life, I believe I have more thoughts and passion and would like to continue serving in the EGSC big family. I've been to events held by other Schools (Law, SIPA), and I found their events usually combined different elements(social+nice food, or games+bar+clubs), while our Carleton social was more often packed with food tasting not so good and merely socialising with people they've already known, while we should be aiming at more. Our Social Committee also have some great events like the Boat Cruise, and we should be developing more interesting social events for Grad Engineering Students.
LOKESH LODHA, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
As a part of the organizing committee in my college, I was actively involved in orchestrating The Manipal Conclave, a platform where an array of distinguished professionals from varying fields are invited to speak about their work. I was also the Operations head of Engineers Without Borders, Manipal Chapter, and organized fundraisers and raised over $3800 for projects. I was responsible for launching a Vocational Computer Training Center and led a 15 person team that trained and managed 100 volunteers to facilitate basic computer education to unemployed adults free of cost. As the joint secretary of Talk It Out- MIT Manipal’s social and open discussion forum I lead a team that organized open forum discussion on socially relevant topics such as feminism, LGBT rights, and religion.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
My goal as a part of the Alumni & Career Affairs team would be to maintain strong relations with the alumni and highlight their career achievements for the benefit of the students. I would also like to make a video, available to public, in which the alumni answer common questions that students generally have. If I get a chance to work in the Interschool team, I would to organize talks by eminent personalities who are of interest to all the participating schools. On the sidelines of such an event, students from different institutes will also get a chance to network. With the budget team, I would like to raise funds from corporate sponsors and utilize that money to host inspirational as well career related talks for the benefit of students..
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I am an avid reader with an interest in a wide range of genres such as natural history, business and science fiction. I also like to spend time in chatting with people, getting to know their culture and background. I believe these qualities keep me abreast of current affairs and allow me to engage in interesting conversations with people.
SHATIAN WANG, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I am a founding member of the IEOR PhD student group. We organize student seminars as an opportunity for practice talks before conferences, and organize department socials such as hiking and BBQs. Through these events, I have improved my organizational skills and have also developed closer relationship with my fellow PhD students. I get to see students' major concerns, and things we can change to make our graduate studies experience better. Also, I have been a teaching assistant for three semesters at Columbia (head TA for two semesters), and a tutor and lab assistant for two years in my undergraduate institute. These jobs have trained me to better understand students’ questions and concerns, clearly explain related knowledge points and problem solving steps. Furthermore, I have become better at handling class logistics and communicating with professors about issues related to students’ understanding of the material, classroom environment, exam related issues, etc..
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I want to better represent the PhD students in our department, especially to speak up for female students, a minority in our PhD program and in engineering school as a whole. I will actively communicate with my fellow students to collect their concerns, suggestions, and feedbacks, and bring them up in EGSC meetings. I will also advocate the efforts EGSC has put in to improve our graduate experience, as well as related opportunities at or offered by EGSC..
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
For many years, IEOR PhDs are underrepresented in EGSC. The situation changed only last semester when two students in our program became DRs. I hope, by applying to EGSC, we will have at least one IEOR PhD DR this semester.
PARAM AWASTHI, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Logistics Coordinator, Civil engineering Society (CES, IIT Delhi) (Apr, 2013 - Apr, 2014) : o Arranged funds to upgrade annual budget to over 60% more than previous year's budget. o Managed logistics and hospitality for Dimensions(annual CES fest) which saw over 1000 participants o Edited and designed annual magazine of Civil Engineering Society, Nirmaan-6 and Nirmaan-7 Achievement: A new process for fund expenditure was setup to increase efficiency in spending of upto 50%.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
- Arranging more funds - Optimising Spending Process. - Introducing Provisional budgeting(if not there).
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
Handled Budgeting for CES, IIT Delhi and achieved spending optimization of about 50%. - Handled monthly budgets for PAN India office facilties for ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd (Ola Cabs) and reduced Admin Expense per employee by more than 30%.
NAMHA ADUKIA, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I was the treasurer of my college undergraduate body of 450 students. In this capacity I liaised between different college administrative bodies, maintained and managed a budget of 25,000 pounds, and conducted several student body meetings. Thus I have the relevant organisational and communication skills needed to be a member of the EGSC.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
If elected to the Alumni and Career Affairs committee, in addition to organising alumni and career events, I would like to create a centralised database from where present engineering grad students can easily find alumni working at companies of their choice. Can achieve this by getting permission from relevant authorities to share the contact information and placements of recent graduate students who agree to the same. I would also like to create some kind of shared resource bank of materials needed to prepare for interviews, available for all engineering graduate students. I would like to create a mentorship program with interested alumni who can guide students through their careers. As a member of the academic affairs committee, I would like to hold some type of open forum especially before during registration, so that students can raise any concerns they have about academic policies and these can be effectively dealt with.
MRIDUL GUPTA, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Served as the President of Safety and Advisory council of BITS Pilani, where I spearheaded a team of 50 individuals to design and implement safety protocols during College Festivals. We acted as liaison between campus administration and the student community and initiated a process of setting up Apollo Telemedicine throughout the campus. We organized guest lectures by prominent healthcare experts, and workshops by Red Cross Society.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
In my opinion, networking is a key ingredient in professional development. As a member of Alumni and Career Affairs committee, I'll focus on organizing student- alumni interaction more frequently and creating a question dropbox system if feasible. As a member of Social committee, I plan to come up with different kinds of team activities where we randomly create teams in order to maximize interaction As a member of Interschool committee, I aim to organize.
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
I am a team player who is interested in organizing & networking. In past, I have worked with student councils and organized several events as the President of SMAC and Event Coordinator of Hindi Activities Society. I like to interact with new people, fun to be around, think out of the box, and bring lots and lots of energy to the table.
SAAD NAQVI, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
I was the Training Head and a Core Committee Member of the Placement Unit at BITS Pilani, my undergraduate institution. I was recruited for this position after a series of group discussions, team activities, and stress interviews to make sure I can handle this commitment with rigor. As the Training Head, I was responsible for placement training and career guidance to over 400 undergraduate students from across 11 departments of engineering and sciences. To achieve this, I spearheaded a 3-day training workshop comprising of mock interviews, group discussions and aptitude tests before the start of the placement semester. During the rest of the semester, I was always approachable to students needing assistance, and for those who required more training, I successfully negotiated with the university officials to release funds providing free training services to students who were yet to receive any job offers. I believe this experience, when at the same time I had to prepare for my own placement, truly displays my level of commitment. I would like to continue this as a department representative of IEOR and hope that I get all your support with this.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
I would like to be a part of the Alumni and Career Affairs. For this committee, I would like EGSC to organize networking sessions with students and alumni together to directly open up opportunities for students seeking employment. We all know referral is the best way to get into any firm and with Columbia University having such a great alumni stronghold across different industries, we can really leverage this edge that we have. I believe I can contribute to this goal as I have prior experience of reaching out to alumni of my undergrad institution. I have organized numerous talks by alumni about their career trajectories and information sessions about their industry domains to make the students more aware of the latest trends and paradigm shifts. Second, I would want the committee to also look into on campus part time employment. Such opportunities could be extremely important, especially for international students. Informing the students about them through regular updates or creating a better structured application process for such opportunities via EGSC could eliminate the endeavor of regular checking handshake or the IEOR job portal..
ANY OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE
As the Finance Head of the SAE team at my undergraduate university, I was entrusted with handling and allocating a budget of $35,000 for design and manufacturing of a single seat race car. This experience, along with the other experiences of being a team player in an administrative committee, my positive attitude and assertive nature makes me a good fit for this position of immense responsibility.
AYUSHEE NIGAM, M.S. 2019
PLEASE DESCRIBE ANY RELEVANT PAST EXPERIENCE
Leadership positions held, apart from regular office work, at my Previous Organization: • Corporate Social Responsibility Head (The Adopted Schools – Gurukuls) (Jul’14 – Dec’15): Headed 50-member team across India. Did budgeting of funds, selected ‘education for orphanages’ as the target area, helped school with funds & resources for sanitation/infrastructure needs. Adopted schools’ literacy & passing rates were improved by 20% in the next year • Women Diversity Campaign Lead (Dec’15 – Sep’16): Was chosen among 3000 employees to lead a campaign for increasing number of women in senior management positions. Introduced women specific referral drives across the Organization which led to 20% of the open positions being filled with women candidate at E3+ band in 5 months. Explored portals & started a paid campaign with Organization’s marketing team leading to 5% of ex-female staffs to join back • Campaign Lead of ‘Careers in Financial Services’, recruitment campaign to hire 600 staffs in 3 months across 3 states. Analyzed the statistics, worked on branding & promotion channels for the campaign, designed marketing collaterals and coordinated with the Marketing partner for promotion of events to get the desired intake. • Initiated a branding campaign for Online reputation management of my Organization in Northern Ireland through Google Analytics. Result was an improved click rate, lower ranking of negative URLs & highest impressions for our new posts • Was selected by the Organization’s management to compere & host the ceremony for two Board meetings (one of them at Boston, US) • Was awarded as ‘Outstanding Performer’ for my leadership excellence. Positions held/responsibilities taken during Masters (MBA) & Under graduation (B.Tech) During MBA: • Cultural Committee Head: Organized intra-college & inter-college cultural fests (in a team of five committee members) with more than 1000 participants from MBA institutes all across the country. • Master of Ceremony for intra/inter college fests in the college. [2012 & 2013] • Event judge for dance performance and fashion show events held in inter college cultural fests. • Conceptualized & coordinated a flash mob performance for the promotion of Tedx event in the city. • Organized festivals specific to each state in the college across two years for IIM Trichy family. • Selected as Campus Ambassador among 250 students, for the annual cultural and management fest of another Institute (2013). During Under graduation: • Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) Representative of B.Tech first year, in 2006. • Coordinated & led social groups for fund collection and donation to old age homes and blind schools • Managed several blood donation camps. • Event coordinator for second year for Inter-college annual technical & cultural Fest[2007]. Volunteer at NGO - Mahila Utthan Aivam Gram Udyog Sansthan (Jul’05 – Present): I feel proud to be associated with such an Organization where I get to give back to the community. Have tutored underprivileged & differently abled students in English & Math, helped them with funds for safety & sanitation needs, and taught handicrafts works for them to earn income.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS/VISION FOR YOUR COMMITTEES OF CHOICE? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THEM?
• I have 2 years of experience in budgeting, expense tracking, financial projections, etc. at my workplace which will help me manage budgeting committee better than other candidates. I would create catalyst bucket for each budget track & will try to track it with analytics tool (with my Analytical tools learnings in Business Analytics program @ Columbia) so as to effectively utilize the budget for specific activities. • Merging technology with these committees: Being a student of Business Analytics at Columbia and having used Google Analytics in my earlier projects, gives me an added advantage to use Analytics tools to perform better analysis out of the survey conducted in the past years for academic affairs. I would try to improve the survey with my findings in such a way that it enhances the academic life of students at Columbia • Would try to conduct a flash mob performance to improve the reachability of our Social events.