Meet Our Students

Paul Constantine

Math, UNT

Why I Chose Stanford

I considered two offers for graduate school. I had one offer from a second tier school for four years of support in the Ph.D. program in mathematics, and I had an offer from iCME for no support and admission to the M.S. program. However, iCME's offer came with the promise that if I passed the qualifying exams, I would likely be admitted to the Ph.D. program and receive support. This was a very difficult decision for me, so I polled my undergraduate professors. Three out of four of those I polled said that I should take the risk and try the program at Stanford because of its resources and reputation, so I did.

My Background

I completed a B.A. in mathematics with a minor in music from University of North Texas. Within my math degree, I chose electives focused on applied math and computation including PDE's, numerical analysis, and probability.

What Do You Work On

My current research assistantship is with the Center for Turbulence Research in Mechanical Engineering. I work on uncertainty quantification in numerical simulations with random inputs.

What's Great About Studying Here

I truly enjoy the collaborative spirit in ICME. We are an interdisciplinary program with students from a variety of backgrounds. Each person offers a unique perspective; math, engineering, computer science, management science, etc. to the problems we tackle. The iCME courses facilitate an environment where students are encouraged to work together as opposed to competing with each other. Also, the graduate students at Stanford compose a thriving community. There is always a multitude of activities for grad students designed to get them to interact with one another and share life together.

What Advice Would You Give Prospective Students

Find out which textbooks are being used in your courses. Get them early and read the introduction and first couple of chapters. This will get you comfortable using the language. If you need financial support, be proactive about approaching professors and selling your talents and abilities. Each professor is different, but you won't know if he or she has an opening in his or her research group unless you ask.

What I Hope To Do After Graduation

After graduation, I want to be on the forefront of research in my field. Typically, this involves an academic position, but I'm not limiting myself to that. I may look at industry as well.

David Gleich

CS/Math

Why I Chose Stanford

I chose Stanford and iCME because of the breadth of research and opportunity they offered. All the other graduate programs I examined focused on one particular field or application. In the iCME, I saw the potential to work in many different fields guided by the expertise of the iCME faculty.

Besides, iCME has Gene Golub on the faculty. Who wouldn't want the chance to work with someone like Gene?

My Background

I completed a B.S. in computer science and mathematics from Harvey Mudd College. Rather than a double major, Harvey Mudd designed a program to integrate both degrees. I guess you could say I've always been interested in combining computation with mathematics.

I also interned at Yahoo! Research Labs where I had the opportunity to experiment on a series of extremely large datasets using numerical linear algebra software.

What Do You Work On

Usually, I try and avoid this question because I don't like classifying my research. I really like to work on interesting problems where I believe I can make a contribution! Most often, my contributions are towards algorithms for large scale numerical linear algebra computations. The way I view it, I just like playing with large matrices and my work is an extension of that "play."

What's Great About Studying Here

The other students. They are all smarter, faster, and better looking than me. I consider it a good thing if I understand half of what comes out of their mouth.

What Advice Would You Give Prospective Students

Come to iCME with an open mind. Try working on problems and taking classes in areas that are unfamiliar.

What I Hope To Do After Graduation

By 30, I hope to have revolutionized my field; by 40, awarded some significant academic prize; and by 50, I want to go back to graduate school and do it all over again. More seriously, I hope to continue working on interesting problems after I graduate and share my interest in these problems with anyone who will listen.

Elizabeth Day

Math

Why I Chose Stanford

I chose Stanford because it offers iCME; a program specific to computational math, which is what I'm interested in. At all other schools I applied to, I was applying to the math or computer science departments because they had no such department. I thought that being in a program specific to my wants would be better because there are so many classes and opportunities geared to the specific field I am interested in.

My Background

I earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Brown University in Applied Mathematics. As an undergrad, I spent one summer at an REU at Mississippi State working on a project on wave propagation in non-homogeneous materials. The following summer I did research for my advisor at Brown in which I applied the method of snap-shots, i.e. Partial Orthogonal Decomposition (POD), to bat flight. Simultaneously, I was organizing a science outreach for under-privileged junior high and high school students, meant to encourage scientific interest and provide an outlet for those already excited and eager to learn more. I brought the students to Brown and gave them an introduction to virtual reality by giving them a tour through Brown's virtual reality CAVE.

The following semester in school, I continued working with POD, but applied it to studying ocean currents in the New Jersey Bight. Upon graduating in December, I continued to work on that project until May as a paid research assistant, all the while maintaining my outreach work and training someone to take over for me after I left.

What Do You Work On

This past quarter (my first quarter) I worked (under Prof. Eric Darve) with a Ph.D. student, Song Li, to convert code he wrote for his Ph.D. thesis into parallel (MPI).

What's Great About Studying Here

The people in the program are considerably less nerdy than I had anticipated (But still nerdy enough that they appreciate my nerdy jokes). They're all great to work with and very organized about arranging study groups. It's great! All the professors I have come in contact with thus far, seem to be very accessible and approachable and earnestly concerned with our progress. Plus, the weather is also awesome and the campus is very pretty. Even when you're super stressed and very tired, the bike-ride to the office is usually very enjoyable-makes it hard to be in a bad mood (plus, everyone actually rides bikes and it's totally nostalgic of childhood).

What Advice Would You Give Prospective Students

Make sure to visit every University you are considering. I know I had a mental list of the order of my favorites, but after I visited, that list got shifted around quite a bit. While you're there, make sure to ask/notice how happy the grad students seem to be. If they're unhappy, chances are, you will be too. See if you can find any statistics about how many people are admitted to the program vs. how many actually graduate. Some programs make it a standard that they make it fairly easy to get in, but will only graduate 40%, which often lends to a cut-throat (and miserable) work environment.

If you know you want to work with a particular professor, make sure to contact him/her to see if they are interested in taking on new students, and also talk to their current students to see how they like working with them. Also, calculate the proportion of how long they have been at the University to how many students they have graduated; big number = bad news.

Look for scholarships you can apply for while researching programs you're interested in. If you get outside funding, there is little reason to turn you down.

What I Hope To Do After Graduation

Be a professor and a mom.

Jeremy Kozdon

Physics

Why I Chose Stanford

When looking at programs around the country in applied math and computational science, I found that many of them were setup to cater to people that had undergraduate math or applied math backgrounds, and this didn't fit me. The broad scope of the iCME curriculum is what makes it unique and allows anyone from a field that uses math and computation to benefit and thrive. Also Stanford's research program is so diverse, that since I didn't know what exactly I wanted to do, coming to Stanford seemed like the logical choice.

My Background

I did my undergraduate education at UC Santa Cruz in physics (B.S.) and computer science (B.A.), well technically a minor due to me forgetting to take the comprehensive exam.

What Do You Work On

I work on numerical methods for PDE's. In particular I currently use fundamental numerical error analysis techniques to understand anisotropic errors made in numerical simulation of gas injection processes for enhanced oil recovery. The hope is that in understanding the types of errors that we develop numerical techniques to more accurately predict oil recovery for certain types of unstable problems. In conjunction with this I study coupling methods for enforcing solutions in a volume conserving manner.

What's Great About Studying Here

It's California! Besides that there are a few things. First the program is relatively small, yet not tiny. What does this mean? That you can interact with a large portion of your colleagues on a regular basis and know everyone, yet there is a diverse enough collection of students that if you don't get along with someone it isn't the end of the world. Also, the interdisciplinary nature of the program exposes you to topics that you wouldn't have otherwise known about. The students and faculty are generally friendly. Though you will work hard, you will probably enjoy it.

What Advice Would You Give Prospective Students

When you visit Stanford (or any other school) talk to the students. Find out what they honestly feel about the program. Remember this is your graduate education. If you dislike the people, the program, the location you won't finish (or at least won't look back on it fondly). Certainly you should go to the best program that you can, but you are also giving up some of your prime years and you should keep this in mind.

What I Hope To Do After Graduation

Don't know. Teach? Work? Become a stable boy? That is too far down the road.

Irina Kalashnikova

Math

Why I Chose Stanford

While pursuing my Bachelors and Masters in pure math, I realized I wanted to do something more interdisciplinary and to study various engineering applications of mathematics. I applied to close to a dozen Ph.D. programs in applied/computational math but the choice boiled down to Stanford's iCME and Princeton's PACM (Program in Applied & Computational Math). I chose iCME for its breadth and the diversity of the research done by the affiliated faculty. Having had limited exposure to engineering applications, I wanted a program where I would have the chance to explore various areas before settling on a research topic. I felt the structure of the iCME program encouraged this type of academic exploration. I was not sure if I would have the same opportunity at a smaller university like Princeton, where the faculty interests are less varied.

My Background

I was in a combined Bachelors/Masters program in pure Mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with both degrees in May 2006. I also did a minor in Actuarial Science as an undergrad.

What Do You Work On

Since I'm a first year student, I'm still in the process of choosing a research area. My research rotation during the fall quarter is on finite element analysis.

What's Great About Studying Here

I was and continue to be impressed with the amount of collaboration that goes on. People at iCME are genuinely interested in helping each other learn, whether it be for a particular class homework or project, or just for the sake of imparting knowledge they may have. The faculty are also readily available, as are the more senior students. The various social ICME events enable you to get to know other people in the program and make you feel like you're part of the ICME community.

What Advice Would You Give Prospective Students

In terms of choosing a grad school, definitely visit the places you are considering and talk with the students. You get a much better sense of whether or not a particular university is the place for you when you actually go there and meet some of the people in person. As for preparing for grad school, I would say try to take classes in analysis and linear algebra if you still have time. It's helpful to have a strong background in both for the core courses.

What I Hope To Do After Graduation

Graduation's still a long way away for me, but right now I am looking at a career in academia.

Michael Atkinson

Math

Why I Chose Stanford

Stanford is one of the premiere mathematics/engineering research institutes in the world. There were a few different areas I was interested in studying before coming to graduate school, but I was not sure what I really wanted to focus on. The almost limitless scope of iCME's research was the most appealing part of the program. Besides the location is also amazing, with weather that is tough to beat. Stanford is only an hour from the beach, 4 hours from Lake Tahoe, 3 hours from Yosemite, and 45 minutes from San Francisco.

My Background

I am from Mountain View, CA. I graduated from Harvard in 2003 with a degree in Applied Mathematics with an emphasis in Economics. I worked for a year at the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco doing economic research, before coming to Stanford in the fall of 2004.

What Do You Work On

I currently work with Professor Larry Wein of the business school on operations research oriented projects. I have analyzed the transmission of influenza, the control of mosquito borne diseases, and the detection and interdiction of terrorists attempting to detonate a nuclear weapon.

What's Great About Studying Here

iCME exposed me to many different types of methods and research areas, giving me the tools and background necessary to delve into deeper research topics. There is also a very collaborative atmosphere in iCME that draws on the strengths of the varied backgrounds of our students.

What Advice Would You Give Prospective Students

Visit the schools you are interested in and talk to the students about their experiences and opinions.