My groupmates - as I have known them in these last two weeks

I was unaware of this, but coming here I came to know that I am fortunate to be associated with the 'Apsel group' here in Cornell. As I had mentioned in my very first post, I am here working with Prof. Apsel and her group - the OEVLSI group. It has been just 2 weeks since I've known these people, but we are pretty good friends already. Here is something about each of them in the little time that I've known them for -

Zhongtao (left) is the seniormost among us students in the group. He is smart as hell, and always has that piece of advice ready for any one should they be stuck up with something - whatever it may be. Looking at Zhongtao, one would get the feel that he is a very serious chap and a busy researcher; but he is way more jolly than even what the pic might suggest. I enjoyed Cornell's slope fest - the biggest fest here - with Rajeev and Zhongtao, and that's when I saw his lighter side. Zhongtao is one person you ought to have as your friend.




Tony is another senior student in the group. When I first came here, Tony felt that I would be working with him on his project and was quite happy about that. But that was not to be, and I guess Tony might work on his project himself :( Tony is a brilliant chap too, and was a dominant figure in the group meeting we had last week. He is the cool guy in the group and has a nice smile always when he greets you. Seems to be a great person and it would be nice working with him.





A bihari babu in America - Rajeev is the most helpful guy (apart from Suresh) I would have ever known. He was the one who put me in touch with Suresh and has been very helpful ever since I had mailed him the first time in March seeking help for my accomodation. Known to all as the smartest chap in our group, Rajeev comes rich with a great work experience in Intel prior to his joining Cornell. He has never refused to help me whenever I have asked for it. Now-a-days we are TT partners, spending about 2 hours daily playing TT in our lab :P



Xiao is another cool and brilliant chap in the group. I have heard that he is a champ at Basketball. Xiao is into sports and quite sincere with his research. If you happen to be roaming aroun in Duffield in the middle of night, say at 2 or 3 am, you shouldn't be surprised to see Xiao working at his desk - he usually comes late and stays up the whole night. A very sincere guy, he is quite devoted to his research. Always smiling and ever cheerful - I doubt if he ever frowns. Went to the big red barn for a barbeque with him once - where he asked me -'So you plan to return to Cornell next year right?' - to which I said I am not sure as I have heard life gets quite dull and boring here in the winters, to which he said - 'That's not true; I am happy even during the winters!'



Paul has done his undergraduate and his masters at Cornell, before he went on to join Prof. Apsel's group for his PhD. He is quite helpful too and he was the one who helped me in setting up my desk and jugaading a comp on day1. Didn't get to interact much with him, as he left for the CLEO conference in Baltimore alongwith Prof. Apsel soon after I came here. He's also a friendly chap though.







Mustansir (Masti) is the dude in the group and also in ECE as a whole. He is the all-rounder dude every chap dreams of becoming ever so soon - a champ at sports, well informed, a stud at his acads and research and ever so cool in his life. He's also really helpful and is a great chap to hang out with. He showed me around campus on day1 and is also very helpful and quite lively. Man I do hope I become like Masti some day! :P







Sylvia is my project partner during this internship. She was a topper at Tshingua University (China's great Univ, which I believe has more respect here than our IITs) and is quite intelligent. She always has bright ideas popping up which never let our project stagnate. She is also quite helpful and has been very supportive in this project so far. The project that we are working on was something she has been working on for the past 6 months or so, and she had forewarned me that it is a bit tough. But so far, with each others' help, we have managed to handle it pretty well till now. Let's see how things go on from here.

Well, I do hope I have presented a good picture of my groupmates... all this in the 2 weeks that I have known them for. By the looks of how the last 13 days have been, I am pretty sure I am going to enjoy the rest of my stay at Cornell - research and otherwise :)

~Ta tas.