April 20, 2022 / Podcast Episode

Episode 33: Rada Mihalcea Interview

In this episode: Interview with Rada Mihalcea, Prof U. Michigan. [Wikipedia]. Stalwart researcher in Natural Language Processing. Double PhD (CS, Linguistics). AAAI Fellow. ACM Fellow. Creator of PECASE award for junior faculty in Romania. Immigrant from Romania to US in 1997.
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Episode Guide

In this Episode: Interview with Rada Mihalcea, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan [Wikipedia] [LinkedIn]. Director of Michigan AI Lab. Stalwart in Natural Language Processing. Double PhD. AAAI Fellow, ACM Fellow. Innovation and Technology Award, Aspen Institute, Romania, 2014. Romanian Academy Award for Science 2010. Immigrant from Romania in 1997. This is the third of three episodes on Romania.

Topics in this Episode include: Growing up poor in Communist Romania of 1970s-80s (in Transylvania). The administrative mistake that caused Rada to apply to US grad schools and kickstart her career! Nearly failing AI class in college! And going on to become a stalwart in the Natural Language Processing field! Doing a first PhD in CS, and then a second PhD in Linguistics! Giving back to Romania – Setting up young faculty programs for Romania. Blacklisting of her family by the Communist Romanian government in 1970s-80s.

  • mm.ss: Segment Info (Index)
  • 0.00: Voices in this Episode
  • 3.24: Act 0 – Introduction to and Biography of, Rada Mihalcea
  • 7.33: Act 1 – Growing up in Communist Romania, 1970s-90s
    • 7.33: Growing up in Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania, amid “dark communism” and supportive family
      • “Education was the only way out”
    • 9.56: “I really wanted to travel”
      • “We were not allowed to have a passport”
    • 10.25: Studying by candlelight at home
    • 11.44: Growing up poor in communist Romania vs. growing up poor now in the US. Food rationing, learning about new food via neighbors.
      • “It’s hard to be poor and not have things when others around you have it… For us nobody had anything.”
      • “We were only allowed to have ten eggs per month, half a bread loaf per day”
      • “Meat, Cheese, Oranges… it was super special!”
      • “A lot of what Romania produced was exported.” 
    • 13.39: Her parents were both engineers
    • 14.39: Money system in Romania in 1970s and 80s. Living paycheck to paycheck. Scrounging for money around the house, just to buy food.
      • “They were getting actual physical money in envelopes.”
      • “There were times  when we didn’t have any money left… all five of us going around the house and trying to find… 5 cents.”
      • “You didn’t really have anything to save.”
    • 16.44:  An unofficial collective banking organized among colleagues 
    • 17.46: Before the 1989 revolution, things got… worse.
    • 18.47: “About 4 hours of power cuts at peak time every evening.”
    • 19.40: Effect of Nicolae Ceaușescu government policies on her family 
      • “Dark blue paper we got with the line ‘You cannot have a passport’ “
      • “My grandfather was sent in prison multiple times, for being an intellectual. In some of the worst prisons.”
      • “Some of my aunts were not allowed to be in school, because of my grandfather.”
      • “My mother and grandmother could not see their family in Italy.”
      • “There were these folders that the security kept on all families.. Our family had such a folder.”
    • 23.01: Romanian Revolution of 1989
      • “There were 20 Million Romanians, and a handful of people at the leadership and they managed to control… It was because of lack of trust among neighbors… because you didn’t know they were going to tell the police.”
      • “When eventually things happened, it was like a pressure cooker. Everybody was ready… it was the worst life you could imagine.”
  • 25.58: Act 2 – Early schooling, 1970s-90s
    • 25.58: Math and Science Interest. Math Olympiad.
      • “The whole school was doing Math Olympiad.”
    • 27.47: Going to the National Math Olympiad. 
      • “Don’t leave any problem untouched… Never go out before the (exam time) is finished.”
      • “I enjoy seeing new places.”
    • 29.36: Languages she learnt at school, with friends, and at home: Romanian, Hungarian, Italian, English, French. And their influence on her life and career.
    • 31.14: Not really caring about diversity (or lack thereof)
      • “The team that I was on at the Math Olympiad, there were more girls than boys.”
    • 32.21: Gendered Expectations
    • 33.09: First computer and programming language: In high school. Punched cards, tapes, Russian computers. BASIC, Pascal, C – all in high school!  
      • “I actually value a lot pen and paper Computer Science.”
      • “There were students typing in 0-1 language!”
  • 35.53: Act 3 – After the 1989 Revolution, Life in early 1990s Romania
    • 35.53: How did life change after the 1989 Romanian Revolution of 1989?
    • 37.22: The ex-Communists then became in charge of post-Communist government
    • 37.57: Food and electricity in post-1989
    • 38.56: Her Mom traveling out of Romania (to Italy) for the first time
  • 40.05: Act 4 – Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 1997.
    • 40.05: Choosing the University and choosing Computer Science 
      • “I took a lot of Computer Science in high school, and I wasn’t ever considering anything else.”
      • Mentioned in this act: Babeș-Bolyai University
    • 42.02: The entrance exams to universities
    • 44.51: Did students go to universities outside their home region?
    • 46.00: The advantage of having the same cohorts at Technical University of Cluj-Napoca.
      • “I wasn’t the model student… I would never go to courses, never attend lectures.”
    • 48.43: What got her into research: Writing an Undergraduate Thesis
      • “Thesis… I’m not sure I would have done if it wasn’t the requirement!”
  • 50.24: Act 5 – The “Administrative Mistake” that Propelled Rada to apply to the US, 1997
    • 50.24: How a random serendipitous series of events, and one email, caused her to apply to graduate school in the US. (She was not even considering applying to the US.)
      • “I wasn’t planning on coming to the United States!”
    • 53.29: Women in Bachelors program at TU Cluj-Napoca CS. 25%.
    • 54.56: What happened to her fellow women BS students from TU Cluj-Napoca CS?
  • 56.15: Act 6 – Immigration to US, 1997, and MS and PhD at SMU, 1997-2001
    • 56.15: Biggest difficulties after coming to US: English, spoken and heard.
      • “Everything!”
      • “I learnt English in school, but (that) is different from using it day to day.”
      • “Paper or Plastic?”…. “Yes!”
    • 59.36: “I nearly failed my AI class!”
    • 1.00.29: Why she liked research: Small inventions she made as a child. And her first research ideas.
    • 1.02.21: Did she take to Natural Language Processing like fish to water?
  • 1.03.26: Act 7 – Professional Career, 2001-Present
    • 1.03.26: Career options at end of PhD, 2001
      • “If I were to go back (to Romania), I wouldn’t have the power to contribute back.”
    • 1.04.56: The Romanian PECASE Award that Rada started (Collaboration with local government in Cluj-Napoca)
      • “PECASE which I won (in the US)… I realized there is no such thing in Romania. So I started one myself, working with the city of Cluj. For 8 years now.”
      • “Lot of the applicants are women”
      • “I think there’s more women in Romania doing research than in other places.”
    • 1.07.19: Has research environment in Romania universities improved since the 1980s/90s?
  • 1.08.38: Act 8 – Her second PhD, in Linguistics, from Oxford University, 2010.
    • 1.08.38: Why do a Second PhD? “I felt I needed a challenge.”
    • 1.10.40: “The Texas-England commute.” Juggling research/teaching in US while doing a second PhD in Oxford. 
    • 1.11.30: Did the second PhD change her research?
    • 1.12.39: What can US universities learn from Oxford? … “Colleges” in Oxford
  • 1.14.06: Act 9 – Retrospectives and Perspectives
    • 1.14.06:  Other role models and mentors (not already mentioned): Romanian language professor, Math professors, Parents.
    • 1.15.30 : Handling Failures and Rejections, or How Rada’s failures Rada shaped her career. 
      • “Do you want a recipe for success… it’s quite simple really – double your rate of failure.” – T.J. Watson
    • 1.18.32: Handling Impostor Syndrome
      • “Impostor syndrome is an interesting psychological phenomenon, you think everyone is good, and you are not, and you know the others think good of you, but you do not, and you choose to trust yourself that you are not good.”
    • 1.19.55: The benefits of being an introvert.
      • “I get myself some high-heeled boots and red nails!”
    • 1.21.14: If she had grown up in the US (instead of Romania), all else being equal, would your life and career have been different?
      • “I grew up under a lot of hardship… and I always saw the positives of it.”
      • “I wonder how the gender gap might have affected me.”
    • 1.23.21: Final thoughts 
      • “The support system… And thinking of those who look up to you.”
      • “If you ever think of giving up, think of who else would be impacted if you give up.” 
  • 1.24.50: Thank you and Ending
Featured in this Episode
Useful Links
Upcoming Episodes

This is the third of 3 episodes on immigrants from Romania.

Look for our next episode, where we visit a new country!

If you liked this episode, you may also be interested in the Lead Episode for Romania – Episode 31, featuring two prominent immigrants from Romania who are currently in the US.

Recently on Season 2
  • Romania Segment
    • Interview with Ion Stoica, Founder/Creator of Apache Spark, Ray, Mesos, and founder of Databricks, Anyscale, Conviva. Prof at UC Berkeley. [Episode 32]
    • From Romania: Episode featuring 2 distinguished Computer Scientists (Ion Stoica, Rada Mihalcea). [Episode 31]
  • Israel Segment: 4 Episodes
    • Interview with Regina Barzilay, Prof MIT, and Cancer Survivor. Double Immigrant from Moldova to Israel, and then Israel to US. [Episode 30]
    • Interview with Moshe Vardi, Prof Rice Univ, and Winner of Gödel Prize and Knuth Prize. [Episode 29]
    • Interview with Tal Rabin, Prof UPenn and Head of Research, Algorand Foundation. [Episode 28]
    • From Israel: Episode featuring 3 distinguished Computer Scientists (Tal Rabin, Moshe Vardi, Regina Barzilay). [Episode 27]
  • India Segment: 3 Episodes
    • Interview with Pratima Rao Gluckman, author of book “Nevertheless, She Persisted: True Stories of Women Leaders in Tech”, and immigrant from India, and leader in Silicon Valley. [Episode 26]
    • IIT Madras, Computer Science Batch of 1998: Interview with 7 graduates from that batch (comprising about 25% of the batch). 4 PhDs + 3 Masters. 3 entrepreneurs, 3 industry long-timers, and 1 Professor (host). [Episode 24, Episode 25]
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 a moving night skyline in Boston, USA. 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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Professor of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign