The Road To Harvard : An Interview with Mehul Smriti Raje

Since its inception in 2007, IECSE has been providing a platform to technology enthusiasts in Manipal. Students get to meet like-minded people, learn, share their knowledge and grow to become the best developers, coders and designers they can be. Owing to our dedication to this mission over all these years, IECSE has a network of very talented alumni who went on to achieve pinnacles of success. Be it founding startups, working with tech giants or studying at some of the most reputed universities in this world, we’re everywhere.

Mehul Smriti Raje is one such alumnus of IECSE. A graduate of the 2016 batch, Mehul is a former Vice President of IECSE and the founder of two clubs here in Manipal – Women Techmakers and The Spectacular Female. She’s also managed grades that will leave your jaws hanging. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Computational Sciences from Harvard University. She had also been selected to complete her graduate courses at Cornell University, UCLA and University of Pennsylvania.

We at Hashtag by IECSE recently had a talk with Mehul about her time in Manipal, her experiences at Harvard, her plans for the future and advice to all techies and enthusiasts in Manipal.

Q) What attracted you towards IECSE in your first year? Also, after being a part of IECSE for three years, how do you think the experience has helped you and will help you in the future?

I was quite keen on joining a Computer Science club because I knew that I will get to learn a lot by interacting with seniors and peers. Another idea that I had in mind was that I wanted to collaborate with like-minded people to work on projects, competitions etc. IECSE is the only club I applied for. It was the largest club even then and so I applied for it just like many other people and it was also more active than all other clubs.

I was exposed to a lot of different technologies very early. When I joined IECSE, I didn’t think I was good at anything technically but with every meeting I had some new idea and I went back and read up on it. And apart from that I got a lot of managerial experience.
The kind of experience you get at school is very limited but at IECSE, I had to deal with a lot people and faced different kinds of challenges. And these are the things that I believe will help me later in my career as well.


Q) You founded two clubs in your time at Manipal – Women Techmakers and The Spectacular Female. What was your inspiration behind starting these?

IECSE is very active with programming in general, but Women Techmakers is a platform to encourage more girls to take part in the kind of events that we conduct as a part of IECSE.
And as far as The Spectacular Female is concerned, it was started with aim of being a mentorship platform to connect people with potential mentors in the industry.

Q) On that note, what is your advice to female techies?

My advice is that do attend programming events, even if you are not a part of the club. For example, I got to learn about so many technologies only because I was in IECSE. So, attending such events will give you exposure and a lot less anxiety when you go and sit for your campus placements.

Q) How do Harvard and other Ivy League Universities differ from Manipal in terms of the student life, opportunities, club culture and opportunities to work on projects?

Well, both are very different. I can’t slack here, that’s a major difference. In the aspect of research I find a stronger base here at Harvard. But Manipal had a larger role in my overall
personality development by providing me different kinds of opportunities. At Manipal, you also have quite a lot of free time so if you want to work on something new, you can do it easily. Here, I need to plan it out in advance.

Q) How did you first get into research?

I was fascinated by the entire idea of research and so that’s how I went to a couple of teachers and asked them if I could work on some projects under them. Then some time later, I started working on my own projects and wrote research papers on them.

Q) What do you think is the next big thing in computer science after the recent boom of AI dominating the field?

So this field I am interested in is Cognitive Sciences. It is completely mind boggling because it is basically trying to understand how your mind works and then teaching that to a machine. This is what I am trying to do my thesis on. Currently, AI is very data based
and methodological, and it takes a lot of time to train any kind of AI. Giving a machine the ability to think can help change that.

Q) Apart from coding and learning about technology, what else do you like to do? How do you usually spend you free time?

I love movies. I mean, movies are so inspirational and if I see something in a movie, I just want to go and do it own my own. That is why I wanted to be a sportsperson. I have a lot of favourite movies but I love Interstellar, and other than that The Matrix is my all time favourite.

Q) While at Manipal, how did you manage your academics, IECSE, two other clubs you started, personal projects and research work all at the same time?

Honestly, I didn’t think much about it. Okay, so believe me or not, but I only ever studied for exams just a week before. I never had time before that. Apart from that, the rest of my time was divided between clubs and I didn’t think about all the other things that were pending, while working on something. If you keep thinking about other work, it will give you anxiety. Don’t think much, just do it.

Q) You mentioned about your interest in cognitive sciences.Apart from that, what all domains do you want to explore in the future?

From a job perspective, I do realise that there is a gap between what you want to work on and what you actually get to work on in a job environment. That said, I am quite interested in general platform development and software engineering, but I am not much into stuff like quality assurance. So my immediate plan is to get into a software based company for software development. But I am also looking for jobs that help me incorporate cognitive sciences into the work. For example many companies are working on using techniques like NLP for personality development, speech assistants and similar projects. So working at that type of a software company is my plan.

Q) If you got to do your Undergrad all over again, what would you do differently?

Honestly, I won’t do anything differently. Manipal was a great experience because I got to learn a lot of things that I would not have learnt at a college like IIT, where a major portion of my time would have been spent on studying. Being at a place like Harvard, I realise this.

Q) How important would you say networking is in getting selected to reputed schools for Postgraduate studies and getting jobs at dream companies?

For getting selected into good schools, networking doesn’t play a huge role. But to get into the industry, networking with people really gives you an edge. If you can find a mentor from the industry who can sponsor your ideas and help you bridge the gap between what colleges prepare us for, and what the companies need, it plays a huge role in helping you get into the industry.

Q) What points on your resume do you think were important in getting accepted into so many reputed schools?

I had a few research papers and side projects which definitely helped . But most importantly, I think my SOP ( statement of purpose ) played a huge role in getting me accepted. On a slightly different topic, another thing I have realised with my recent job hunting is that when you apply for jobs at companies, people really look at your side projects. This tells them how enthusiastic you are to learn new technologies

A passionate coder, an innovative developer and a curious researcher, Mehul is an inspiration to everyone, be it a novice trying to find his calling or an expert looking for a new challenge.Tapping into this inspiration and celebrating the achievements of our alumni like Mehul over the past 10 years, IECSE is organizing Founders’ Weekend from the 27th to 29th October. We invite all members to come and take their first steps into the beautiful universe of technology at this three day fest.

Compiled by Ekam Walia, Noopur Vaishnav (IECSE) and Pujan Parikh (MTTN)

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