When I got a seat in the topmost university program in India that selects 100 students from 1.6 million who give the exam - it was a no-brainer for me to join and become a computer engineer. I had always been creative at heart, but my love for sketching, painting, and art in general never found the light of day in my "work-life" being a scientist and technologist.

In my sophomore year, when I took my first course in design, which started as "something related to art", and "going to help boost my GPA" took me down this path that ended up changing the course of my career. I learned that a field exists that marries technology with creativity, and maneuvers creativity through empathy. This motivated me to learn more, and this time it led me to move halfway across the globe to join the world's #1 program in human-computer interaction.

My career and life experiences have helped me shift my perspective on technology from just solving complicated problems to understanding who I am solving for. I find value in being able to make a person's day a tad bit better through their interaction with technology, and my arsenal of skills as a designer and technologist help me make that difference.