February 9, 2022 / Podcast Episode

Episode 24: IIT Madras CS Batch of 1998 | Part 1

One of a kind episode: Together in one room--Seven graduates of IIT Madras (Chennai)'s Computer Science and Engineering Bachelors' degree Batch of 1998, now all technologists in the US. They discuss their immigration journeys as well as their perspectives on IITs, India, and immigration. Part 1 of 2.
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Episode Guide

In this Episode: This is the Premiere episode of Season 2! This is the first of three episodes focused on India. A unique conversation with six guests who all graduated from IIT Madras (Chennai) India, Computer Science and Engineering Bachelors’ degree batch of 1998. In 1994, all these individuals wrote the IIT JEE 1994 (IIT Joint Entrance Exam). In 1994 only those ranked in the top 48 ranks in the entire nation of India, among 200K candidates, were admitted to IIT Madras’ Computer Science batch. Our discussion covers a range of topics, starting from our individual immigrant journeys, to everyone’s perspectives on the IITs, on India, on technology, and on life as Indian immigrants in the US. Surprises abound, as we discover new things about each others’ backgrounds. And some of us make surprising revelations about how our outlook has changed in the 24 years since we came to the US, and some of us divulge surprising plans for our futures. Featuring: Balaji Srinivasan, Praveen Patnala, Ramesh Chandra, Rajasekar Krishnamurthy, Shankar Ponnekanti, Sriram Sellappa. Together with the host (Indy Gupta), these seven individuals comprise nearly 25% of the CS Batch of IIT Madras 1998 (7 out of 30 total students in that batch). Of these guests, three are/have been startup-founders, and three are long-timers in companies. Part 1 of 2.

Disclaimer: Because India is a large country, the second most populous nation in the world, no single episode can capture the experiences of all immigrants originally from India, and that’s not our goal at all in this episode! Instead, our aim is to talk to technologists who studied, graduated, and immigrated together. Seven individuals with parallel careers.

  • mm.ss: Segment Info (Index)
  • 0.00: Voices in this episode
  • 2.07: Introduction to Episode
  • 7.15: Act 1 – The Three Startup Founders
  • 7.15: Introduction to the group
  • 7.15: Praveen Patnala, Co-Founder Valtix
    • 7.15: Why jump from big tech into startup?
    • 13.11: Does working big tech help create a better startup?
  • 16.14: Ramesh Chandra, Co-Founder of Moka5, Software Engineer at Databricks
    • 16.14: Why return from startup world to do a PhD?
    • 21.37: Does entrepreneurial experience help in doing a PhD?
  • 22.01: Shankar Ponnekanti, Co-Founder Trust Lab
    • 22.02: Why jump after 15 years at Google into startup?
    • 26.41: Could he have done the startup inside Google? 
  • 29.22: Act 2 – The Three Long Timers
  • 29.22: Balaji Srinivasan, Director of Engineering, SAP Ariba
    • 29.22: What made him leave big tech company after 15 years?
    • 31.14: Has he thought of a startup?
    • 32.45: His side activities – quiz organization, writing and directing plays. 
      • “If you are in the rat race, you lose your work-life balance… you’re saving up for the last 10-20 years of your life when you don’t have the energy to do the things you want to do.”
  • 35.10: Rajasekar (Sekar) Krishnamurthy, Principal Research Staff Member & Senior Manager, IBM Watson Discovery
    • 35.11: Why stay in IBM for 17 years?
    • 40.36: What has happened to blue sky research at research labs? 
  • 43.14: Sriram Sellappa, Member of Technical Staff at Arista Networks
    • 43.14: Initial experience of coming to Silicon Valley, his journey of moving from one job to another, and what made him stay in Arista. 
    • 48.45: Sriram was SC (Scheduled Castes) National Rank #1. What challenges did he face in preparing for the IIT JEE entrance exam in 1994?
    • 50.51: Did parents support his IIT interest?
    • 52.27: What resources did he use in preparing for the IIT JEE entrance exam?
  • 53.47: Act 3 – Challenges of Preparing for the IIT JEE (IIT Joint Entrance) Exam in 1994. And a discussion of the inequity inherent in IIT JEE and other exams.
    • 54.38: Balaji Srinivasan 
      • “Access… I have become conflicted with what IIT JEE has stood for… It is not a level playing field!” 
      • “In some way we were the product of a system that was inherently flawed, but we waded through it.”
      • 1.05.23: Comparing IIT JEE vs. SAT (US)
    • 1.00.26: Rajasekar Krishnamurthy 
      • “Grew up in a big city… with access to tutors. Different from smaller towns.” 
      • “I as an individual needed to know — what is my strength, play to that strength to the max, and learn the subject where you’re weakest so you don’t fall too much. … True at every career level”
      • “At IIT… working with peers who are as smart or smarter than you.”
    • 1.02.39: Ramesh Chandra 
      • “I’m from a smaller town… Last time someone went to IIT from my town was 6 years before me.”
      • “It was super hard when you don’t have anything to calibrate against.”
    • 1.05.50: Shankar Ponnekanti 
      • “Small town… my brother’s journey helped me.”
    • 1.06.29: Praveen Patnala
      • “My family wanted me to go into medicine.” 
      • “I had to reverse engineer what was needed to get into IIT.”
      • “I prepared 12 hours a day for IIT… rest of education didn’t matter.”
    • 1.11.48: Balaji Srinivasan on accidentally choosing Computer Science
      • “When I joined IIT, I had no idea what Computer Science was.” 
      • “We accidentally landed in this field (Computer Science).”
    • 1.12.26: Sriram Sellappa on learning programming in school
    • 1.13.18: Ramesh Chandra on intentionally choosing Computer Science
      • “I was interested in computer science from very early on.”
    • 1.14.41: Balaji Srinivasan
      • “Kids in Bay area are under tremendous pressure.”
Featured in this Episode

Six guests who all graduated from IIT Madras (Chennai) India, Computer Science and Engineering Bachelors’ degree batch of 1998. In alphabetical order of first name:

  1. Balaji Srinivasan, Director of Engineering, SAP Ariba
  2. Praveen Patnala, Co-founder and Chief Architect of stealth mode startup Valtix (with $27M+ funding including Series A)
  3. Rajasekar Krishnamurthy, Principal Research Staff Member & Senior Manager, IBM Watson Discovery
    • 1970s-early 1990s: Grew up in the state of Tamilnadu
    • 1994-1998: IIT Madras CS Batch
    • 1998-2004: PhD in Computer Science, from University of Wisconsin Madison
    • 2004-Present: 17 years at IBM
  4. Ramesh Chandra, Co-Founder of Moka5, Software Engineer at Databricks
  5. Shankar Ponnekanti, Co-founder at startup Trust Lab
    • 1970s-early 1990s: Grew up in the (then) state of Andhra Pradesh
    • 1994-1998: IIT Madras CS Batch
    • 1998-2004: PhD in Computer Science from Stanford
    • 2005-2020: 15 years at Google, where he left as Distinguished Engineer
    • 2020-Present: Startup founder, Trust Lab
  6. Sriram Sellappa, Member of Technical Staff at Arista Networks
Useful Links
Upcoming Episodes

This is the Premiere episode of Season 2! This is the first episode of a 3-episode segment featuring technologists who immigrated from India, specifically from the southern part of India.

Look for our next episode, a continuation (& conclusion) of this episode’s conversation with 7 IIT Madras technologists (Episode 25). And then Episode 26 features a woman technologist from India who went elsewhere than the IITs.

In case you missed it | Season 1

Season 1 featured 22 episodes where we visited 5 continents, and 7 countries. Check them out!

  • Credits
    • Music Credits for Podcast
    • The caption picture at top of page is of River Mahanadi (one of the great rivers of south-eastern India), flowing near Jagatsinghapur, in the state of Odisha, India. Pic taken by Indranil Gupta. 
The Immigrant Computer Scientists Podcast is available for free on your favorite devices & apps: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and many more!
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CategoriesPodcast Episode

indygupta Written by:

Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign