Interview with CS PhD Alumni Series: Harish Arunachalam PhD’18
Being a PhD student is a significant undertaking that takes time and requires dedication, effort, and patience. During your PhD you are both a researcher and a student. Knowing what to expect can help you learn to adapt to various changes and challenges that may occur when working toward your PhD. With the following interview series, we seek to engage students who want to learn more about the PhD program by learning from those who have gone through it. The following interview is with 2018 PhD alumni, Harish Arunachalam, who now works as a principal engineer with Verizon Communications where he develops enterprise-scale Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) systems, studies advanced AI/ML techniques, tools, frameworks, and business applications, and works on developing responsible, innovative solutions.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’ve been a technology enthusiast at heart for a long time. How computer technology has transformed everything we see, feel, and experience around us is fascinating. My bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in India was the beginning of a wonderful journey into tech for most of my last decade and a half. I came to the US to do my MS in Computer Science at UT Dallas. Little did I know that this would have a transformational effect on my career to come. The experiences I gained at UT Dallas and during my various internships led me to pursue a PhD under Dr. Ovidiu Daescu. After a few strenuous years, I completed my MS and PhD degree. I’m a principal engineer since then with Verizon Communications responsible for developing enterprise-scale AI/ML systems, advanced AI/ML techniques, tools, frameworks, and business applications, and working on developing responsible, innovative solutions. My research interests have always been the application of computer science to solve meaningful problems; currently, it is everything related to AI.
What is/was your primary area of research? What type of research were you doing?
My primary area of research was in artificial intelligence and machine learning applied to computational biology and, more specifically, medical image processing. I was studying pattern recognition methods using computer algorithms, statistical approaches, and machine learning on tumor images.
Please explain your thesis in layman’s terms.
Osteosarcoma is a rare bone cancer occurring in growing children. Children diagnosed with this type of tumor have a relatively low chance of surviving. An important part of the treatment and follow up process is the surgery and the analysis of tissue post-chemotherapy, the latter being a time-consuming task for pathologists. Any potential time savings could benefit the pathologists and, in turn, the patients undergoing treatment.
My PhD research involved developing a tumor identification mechanism to aid pathologists in their analyses. The solution I developed leverages machine learning to learn tumor patterns from pathological images and provided a heat map to the doctors showing regions of tumor presence with great certainty. All this could be done in 96% less time than the current process.
What inspired you to pursue a PhD?
In 2014 I interned at Oracle on a whole genome sequencing project which involved working with cutting-edge technologies from hardware to software. My team members, mostly PhDs, inspired me and sowed the seeds of advanced research and problem-solving. That experience was life-changing and drove me to pursue my doctoral studies.
Why did you choose to pursue your PhD at UT Dallas?
One of my master’s courses at UT Dallas included an independent study on an advanced topic. During this time, Dr. Ovidiu Daescu, my advisor, introduced me to Genome Sequencing. He helped me explore the field of computational biology. His encouragement, combined with this field of research, was a natural fit for what I was looking for. Consequently, I signed up for the PhD program at UT Dallas.
What made you decide to choose what you were studying?
In my second year of my PhD, my advisor received a subaward from the UT Southwestern Medical Center from a CPRIT grant to investigate Osteosarcoma using computational techniques and machine learning. After spending significant time researching two other topics, I took on this opportunity and made it my field of research. I specialized in the application of computer vision and machine/deep learning to digital pathology. This was my PhD research.
Describe your experience studying at UT Dallas.
My time at UT Dallas was total fun! During the times of studying, researching, and working on projects, exams, and qualifiers, the faculty and facilities at UT Dallas enabled me to leverage my creative thinking toward problem-solving. The whole experience was enriched with amazing guidance from my mentor, Prof. Balaji Raghavachari, while my advisor, Prof. Ovidiu Daescu, enabled me to perform high-quality independent and collaborative research. And not to forget, the friends I made along this journey made it worthwhile!
Do you have any advice for future students seeking to obtain a PhD at the UT Dallas Computer Science Department?
Passion, Perseverance, and People
Passion: Your love for the subject/ field/ the topic comes foremost. Leverage your passion in order to do great work.
Perseverance: Once you start your work, perseverance provides you with direction. Work hard and consistently.
People: Build great connections through collaboration and networking. They are a central piece to your success. Research progress can never be done in isolation. Invest in creating meaningful connections.
What other projects did you participate in while studying at UT Dallas?
I was actively involved in many campus student organizations. I served as a President of the Yes Club of UT Dallas, which focused on yoga, meditation, and community service. It helped me develop leadership skills while making a difference in the community. I also had the opportunity to teach Artificial Intelligence and Data Science topics to university students, for which I received Jonsson’s School of Engineering’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant award.
What type of obstacles did you overcome while obtaining your PhD?
Working towards a PhD and doing independent research can be a long and arduous journey. There are so many challenges that one encounters, from coursework to research obstacles and more. In particular, I overcame obstacles related to fear of failure and imposter syndrome. I had to discover what my strengths were and let go of my fear of failure. I had to unlearn to focus on results and learn to trust the process.
Where are you currently working, and how did your PhD help you get your current job?
I work as a Principal Data Scientist in the Responsible AI group at Verizon, one of the top telecom providers in the US. My PhD experience made me a subject matter expert in my field. It gave me the credibility and the knowledge to ace the interviews.
What type of work do you currently do?
My work involves studying the impact of enterprise-scale machine learning/deep learning models and artificial intelligence solutions. I develop guard rails and governance measures to counter harmful biases and create transparent, fair, and robust AI products and services.