Doctoral Student's Experience as a Software Developer Contributes to his Academic Success

In 2004, doctoral student Pushpak Karnick, along with fellow colleague Ashish Amresh, conducted the preliminary research to develop a prototype for ASU's Decision Theater, a three-dimensional Virtual Reality (VR) environment that helps simulate and visually observe outcomes based on public policy decisions using real world input. Using state-of-art visualization techniques to display computer models of air quality or ground water projections, policy makers can view the consequences of vital decisions prior to implementation.

Karnick's experience as a software developer has contributed to his success as both a scholar and faculty member. A Ph.D. candidate in computer science and engineering, his dissertation research focuses on computer graphics that employ real-time rendering algorithms and facilitate spatial modeling of urban environments. In the next year, he hopes to lead the effort to implement a game design curriculum in the upcoming School of Informatics at ASU.

Last fall, after, Karnick and Amresh created and led a course in game programming and their students' nominations earned them a Teaching Excellence Award from the Graduate and Professional Student Association. He credits ASU's nationally-recognized Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program with helping him learn about the important roles that service, teaching and research play in becoming a successful faculty member at a Research I institution.

"PFF opened up a whole new world of opportunities and processes for me," says Karnick. "As an international student, I had very little or no idea about what it takes to apply for faculty positions in the U.S. I think the program gives ASU graduates a good head-start over their counterparts in other universities, and I see it as a mandatory requirement for any graduate student who intends to pursue a career in teaching and research."

All of these experiences have taught Karnick a valuable lesson about his career plans. "In the last couple of years, I have been able to define my research and teaching goals and now I have a strong foundation on which to build my future career path," he says.




Top photo: Karnick, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science and engineering, hopes to lead the effort to implement a game design curriculum in the upcoming School of Informatics at ASU.

Lower Photo: Doctoral student Pushpak Karnick helped conduct the preliminary research to develop a prototype for ASU's Decision Theater, a world-class facility providing state-of-the-art visualization to help make informed decisions.