Testimonial

Aniruddha Pal

[ Ph.D. ME 2007]
Mechanical Engineer
Applied Materials Inc.
Silicon Systems Group-Etch
Sunnyvale, California

The prospect of doing my doctoral studies at Georgia Tech came as a wonderful opportunity, when my advisor, Dr. Yogendra Joshi decided to accept a position at the Woodruff School and I transferred from University of Maryland, College Park. I was aware of the world-class research endeavors of the Woodruff School faculty, and was really excited by the prospect of doing my research in the thermal management of electronics. I also liked the close integration between the faculty members and students of the Woodruff School and the Packaging Research Center. In a nutshell, Georgia Tech offered an excellent opportunity to participate in functional and futuristic research, while collaborating with members of academia, industry and government funding agencies.

My dissertation work on the design of a two-phase liquid cooling device for thermal management of electronics definitely gave me a head start in the semiconductor industry, where right from my first week I was comfortable handling the complex physical and chemical processes in wafer processing. Dr. Joshi was especially helpful in advising me through the various stages of the dissertation, while providing guidance for developing the faculties of critical thinking, a hands-on and action oriented approach, and designing and building new devices. I was also fortunate to present my research work at various international conferences and on-campus symposiums, which helped me to get a sense of the industrial perspective toward approaching a scientific problem. I also had the good fortune of having friendly co-workers, who kept the atmosphere conducive for productive work and interaction that allowed me to assimilate to the team-oriented work environment of industry. Apart from that, the teaching practicum for Ph.D. students and the educational partnership programs with the K-12 community are definitely excellent opportunities for developing mentor-mentee relationships. I believe that the graduate-level research experience and skill set developed at Georgia Tech has truly helped me tackle complex industrial problems while not losing sight of the big picture.

The strengths of the graduate program are definitely the people involved with it. The professors go above and beyond the call of duty, from making the students feel special during recruiting events, to nurturing them for their future careers. The amazing members of the staff are definitely instrumental in accelerating the pace of research work by helping us with administrative issues, financial support, lab support, and purchasing. The lab and computational facilities are state of the art, which allows the student to concentrate more on developing the research topic. The regular seminars from world-class researchers also kept us abreast with the latest engineering research and developments. Another highlight is the teaching practicum course, which is instrumental in developing the essence of teaching in higher education, and really helps those who want to join academia.

Georgia Tech's reputation as a Tier 1 research university is truly well deserved. I was especially proud to find that Georgia Tech is one of the most preferred universities for recruiting fresh graduates at high-tech companies. The facilities are one of the best that a student can wish for, as professors leave no stone unturned for providing the necessary equipment for research. When I joined Georgia Tech, the ME department expanded into the Love Building, an impressive, new facility. Fully stocked lab spaces, functional office spaces, as well as wide open spaces for a person to unwind were definitely part of a fulfilling graduate experience. Georgia Tech also has a good mix of students from all over the world, who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience, and thus enrich the graduate experience. I can proudly say that I worked with some of the most knowledgeable colleagues during my tenure at Georgia Tech. During my time, we also started to revive the graduate student body, MEGA, the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Association. MEGA played a big role in reaching out to graduate students and helping them develop an enjoyable and functional strategy for tackling the various steps of the challenging graduate program such as preparing for Ph.D. qualifier exams, searching for a dissertation topic, choosing a research advisor, and preparing for an academic careers. I feel proud to have been part of the graduate program and truly appreciate the quality and effectiveness of the program in preparing us for our careers in industry and academia.