Sagar Sen is a Research Computer Scientist at Simula Research Laboratory in Oslo, Norway. He has studied in several countries, such as Bangalore, Canada and France
and he loves rowing.
Sagar also believes that it is important to meet people in the real-world, to interact and learn from them. One great way of doing this, is by attending free meet-ups, where you can meet new and exciting people!
Let’s go chat with him!
Interview Notes:
Timestamps:
[01:15] – Sagar’s story – Where is was born, where he has lived, and more
[04:36] – Getting a bachelor in Bangalore and a scholarship to study in Canada
[08:59] What Sagar did after finishing his Master’s Degree
[11:12] – Sagar’s experience studying in France
[13:37] – Starting a PhD in Montreal & moving to France
[19:53] – Doing two post-docs in France and applying for more permanent positions
[23:45] – Sagar’s drive for higher education
[25:16] – What it’s like to be a researcher
[26:32] – The possibility to work with Sagar
[30:35] – What a day at work looks like for Sagar
[31:51] – The Job prospects after doing a PhD
[33:45] – What Sagar loves about his job
[34:38] – If Sagar could go back in time, he would…
[35:35] – A myth about research scientist?
[37:02] – If being a research scientist was not an option…
[38:10] – Singing at Christmas
[40:12] – Sagar’s heroes
[42:00] – Recommended books
[47:23] – Life lessons learned the hard way
[50:10] – Resources recommended
[53:00] – What the future job prospect looks like for this kind of work
[57:11] – Sagar’s advice for anyone choosing a career path
Books mentioned in the interview
- Man’s Eternal Quest: Collected Talks and Essays – Volume 1 by Paramahansa Yogananda.
- The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda by Swami Vivekananda.
- Scientific Discovery: Computational Explorations of the Creative Processes by Patrick W. Langley, Herbert A. Simon, Gary Bradshaw, and Jan M. Zytkow.
- Semiology of Graphics: Diagrams, Networks, Maps by Jacques Bertin.
- Etc.: Frequency Processing and Cognition by Peter Sedlmeier and Tilmann Betsch as editors.
- Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques by Ian H. Witten, Eibe Frank, and Mark A. Hall.
- Visual Miscellaneum: The Bestselling Classic, Revised and Updated: A Colorful Guide to the World’s Most Consequential Trivia by David McCandless
- The Art of Computer Programming by Donald E. Knuth
- Software Abstractions: Logic, Language, and Analysis by Daniel Jackson.
Movies
- Tare Zameen Par, a 2007 Indian drama film produced and directed by Aamir Khan.
- Casablanca, a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and based on Murray Burnett and Joan Alison’s unproduced stage play Everybody Comes to Rick’s.
- Udaan, a 2010 Hindi language Indian coming of age-drama film produced by Sanjay Singh, Anurag Kashyap and Ronnie Screwvala; and directed by Vikramaditya Motwane.
- Munna Bhai M.B.B.S, a 2003 Indian comedy-drama film directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The movie is based on English movie Patch Adams released back in 1998.
- 3 Idiots, a 2009 Indian coming of age comedy-drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Rajkumar Hirani and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Abhijat Joshi wrote the screenplay. It was loosely adapted from the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat.
- Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, a 1969 Indian Bengali fantasy-adventure comedy film directed by Satyajit Ray and based on a story by his grandfather Upendra Kishore Roychowdhury.
Links and other useful resources
- Google Scholar, an online, freely accessible search engine that lets users look for both physical and digital copies of articles.
http://originoflife.net/ - Udemy, a platform or marketplace for online learning. Unlike academic MOOC programs driven by traditional collegiate coursework, Udemy provides a platform for experts of any kind to create courses which can be offered to the public, either at no charge or for a tuition fee.
- Science, also widely referred to as Science Magazine, is the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the world’s top academic journals.
- See this list of the 50 Highest Paying jobs in Computer Science.
- Wikipedia has an article on different degrees within the field of Computer Science.
- Indian Institute of Science Library. The Library of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, was established in 1911 and it is one of the first three departments started in the Institute. It is regarded as one of the best scientific and technical libraries in India.
- McGill Library, an online library with free educational resources currently partnering with 17 other Quebec universities to research and explore the possibility of implementing a shared library platform.
Software and other tools
- Omnigraffle, a diagramming and digital illustration application for Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch created by The Omni Group.
- TextMate, a general-purpose GUI text editor for Mac OS X.
- Google Docs, a word processor, a part of a free, web-based software office suite offered by Google within its Google Drive service.
- Google Calendar, a time-management web application and mobile app created by Google.
- GQueues, a full-featured task manager for your Google Account that helps you stay organized, be more productive and reduce stress in your life.
- Eclipse, a project aiming to provide a universal toolset for development.
- Slack, a cloud-based team collaboration tool that allows communities, groups, or teams to join through a specific URL or invitation sent by a team admin or owner.
- Facebook, a for-profit corporation and online social networking service.
- Skype, an application that provides video chat and voice call services.
- Neo4j, a graph database management system developed by Neo Technology, Inc.
Videos
This video can also help you give an idea of what computer science is
It is important to remember that computer science is not all about programming.
Thanks for checking out this episode with computer scientist Sagar! We hope that you found it useful!
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Thanks for listening! 🙂
E foarte tare. Good job!