Institution/Organization: University of South Dakota
Department: Computer Science
Academic Status: Faculty
Biography:
Dr. Vijayalakshmi Saravanan is currently working as Assistant Professor, Computer Science, at the University of South Dakota. Prior to this, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Vassar College, NY and an Adjunct Faculty at Rochester Institute of Technology, USA. Earlier she was a Postdoctoral Associate at University at Buffalo, SUNY, USA and University of Waterloo, Canada under the prestigious “Schlumberger Faculty for the Future” Fellowship award (2015-2017). She completed her Ph.D. under the prestigious Erasmus Mundus EU-Govt Fellowship award at Malardalen University, Sweden as a research exchange student. Prior to this, she was Assistant Professor of Practice at UTSA, USA. She is serving as a program committee member for reputed conferences & journals such as GHC, SIGCSE and Springer. Her research interests include Big Data in Healthcare, AI, Data Analytics/Visualization and Power-Aware Processor Design. She is also a lead editor for Pattern Recognition Letters (2020), Special Issue of Multimedia Tools and Applications (2020) and CRC Press Taylor &ed speaker, CSI and Chair of IEEE WIE Affinity Group at VIT University during 2009-2015, Chair of NPA (National Postdoctoral Association) Annual Meetings and a Board Member of N2WOMEN.
Motivation:
I attended the BE program and presented a poster the in the poster presentation and it was a truly wonderful experience. It was inspiring to be surrounded by so many women who are successful in a field in which I hope to someday succeed. When I came back, I bragged about the amazing people I met and the wonderful experiences I had, and I continue to talk about them. I encourage all my Computer Science colleagues, male and female students, to a end. I think it is important for women to a end in order for them to see that women do exist in computing and they are successful, and I want them to experience the inspiration I felt. I also volunteered at the workshop. I sincerely thank the organizers for their wonderful feedback about my research work. From that experience and feedback, I am glad that my improvised research work. Being physically challenged women, I understand the struggle as a minority and disadvantaged student trying to get directions in STEM especially in a field with few women and minority students like computer science. As such, I will make an active effort into spreading the words about SRP BE conferences and computer science in general to campus groups for women and minority engineers. Moreover, from my own experience, I know that some disadvantaged students never have the chance to be exposed to computer science to consider it; therefore, I will also reach out to more general programs such as Women Mentorship Program, and Hidden Minority Council to talk about my experience and help them navigate their paths once their interest is ignited. I encourage all my Computer Science colleagues, male and female students, to a end. I think it is important for women to attend in order for them to see that women do exist in computing and they are successful, and I want them to experience the inspiration I felt. Being a senior member of IEEE and IEEE WIE chair (2009-2015), VIT affinity group I volunteered a mentor to discuss my experience at BE workshop as a female Computer Science fellow. I love sharing my experiences from SRP BE, and by doing so, I hope to shed more light on women in computing and their accomplishments and to encourage female students to a end SRP BE and have the same wonderful experiences I had.