Episode 4: Dejan Milojicic

Interview with: Dejan Milojicic
IEEE Fellow, Distinguished Technologist at Hewlett Packard Labs
Immigrant from Yugoslavia

Episode Guide

In this Episode with Dejan Milojicic: Growing up in a communal yard and taught by aunts; Working while studying in 1980s; moonlighting in the tech sector of 1980s Yugoslavia; Losing family to the war; Escaping to Germany for PhD program just in time before war began; Immigrating to US for work; Dejan’s Algorithm when faced with Tough Choices/Decisions; Dejan’s Four-Pronged Advice; And a lot more!

• mm.ss: Segment Info (Index)
• Note: In the audio player at top of this page, you can click directly on chapter markers, To view chapters in audio file above, click on the three dots with lines next to it.
• 1.46: Biography.
• Chapter 1: 3.42-15.30: Early Upbringing, Growing up in a Communal Yard without his parents in the 1960s and 1970s.
  • 3.42: Born in a Communal Yard in 1960s/1970s Belgrade, Raised by his aunts since his mother passed, Educated before elementary school in the yard by his aunts.
  • 7.56: Early encounters with Math.
  • 8.57: Textbooks in school education, Language of textbooks, Were there English textbooks?
  • 10.07: None of his parents or relatives were engineers, Dad was a historian, Effect of Yard on his long-term career.
  • 10.46: How much effect did yard upbringing have on your long-term career?
  • 14.08: Clarifying the timeline: Yard education, then elementary school, then high school.
  • 14.33: Trade school vs Gymnasium.
• Chapter 2: 15.30-41.18: BSc and MSc in University of Belgrade from 1978-1983 and 1983-1986.
  • 15.30: Why did he choose Electrical Engineering at University of Belgrade? The entrance procedure that was more relaxed in the 1970s than later in the 1990s (see Episode 3).
  • 17.04: At university how much focus on electronics vs. software? “There wasn’t any software.”
  • 18.07: Since he didn’t do research in BSc, why choose his MSc? His first inclinations to immigrate to the US, starting work at Institut Mihajlo Pupin in Belgrade (1983-1991). Building a system for the banks and post offices. (This portion requires basic Computer Science knowledge.)
  • 25.01: A desire to come to the US for BS, but circumstances did not allow him to.
  • 27.18: Story of a tough exam with a tough professor.
  • 30.26: Effect of Political situation in Yugoslavia on his career. His (mandatory) military service, and how he “optimized” military service given his work with Institut Mihajlo Pupin, Applying for a difficult program in Germany.
  • 33.01: Was the mandatory military service tough? 
  • 34.50: Applying for PhD at University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. Did he consider US at all? “Most of my plans did not pan out the way I wanted them.” Moonlighting, 5 AM to 5 PM workstyle, Advantages of working while in school.
  • 38.58: Was moonlighting out of necessity or interest? (The last minute of this portion requires basic Computer Science knowledge)
• Chapter 3: 41.18-47.44: In Germany for PhD Program at University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, with family of his 2 kids, from 1991-1994.
  • 41.18: PhD in Germany from 1991-94: How did he manage a family with 2 kids, and what were cultural challenges? How Germany looked on guest workers aka “Gastarbeiters”. 
  • 43.52: Starting trips to Open Software Foundation (OSF) in Grenoble France.
  • 44.47: US’s vs. Europe’s treatment of immigrants.
  • (We apologize for the background construction noises in this part of the recording. They were unavoidable.)
• Chapter 4: 47.44-51.00: Immigrating to the US for work at Open Group Research Institute, Cambridge, MA, in 1994.
  • 47.44: Reaching end of PhD – Was return to Yugoslavia an option? Immigrating to the US for work on the East Coast. 
  • 49.07: How moving to the US was an easy transition for him given his experience at OSF in Grenoble; Open Group Research Institute is a successor to OSF.
  • 50.06: The Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, and its effect on him. Keeping in touch with relatives back in Yugoslavia.
• Chapter 5: 51.00-1.04.12: Moving from East Coast to West Coast (Hewlett Packard Labs) in 1998.
  • 51.00: What was Open Group Research Institute in Cambridge, MA, and what made him move away to Hewlett Packard Labs in Palo Alto, CA in 1998?
  • 53.11: Dejan’s Algorithm for making decisions!
  • 56.14: Service work – IEEE Division Director and President, and soccer coach. What attracted him to service work? 
  • 1.02.28: What are IEEE Divisions?
• Chapter 6: 1.04.12-1.10.14: Perspectives, Retrospectives, Advice!
  • 1.04.12: What is his philosophy for handling Failures and Rejections?
  • 1.05.34: Handling Impostor Syndrome. 
  • 1.06.41: If he had stayed in Yugoslavia/Serbia or in Europe, would his career have been different? Dejan talks about the time he was in the US and applied for a job in Europe.
  • 1.08.25: If he had instead grown up in the US schooling system, how would your interests and career would be different?
• Chapter 7: 1.10.14-1.19.01: Closing Thoughts: Dejan’s Four Lessons Learned.
  • 1.10.04: Dejan’s Four Golden lessons (from his commencement speech at the Computer Science Department in University of Oregon): Go an extra mile; Be flexible and embrace what you get; Get to know yourself and others; You’re never alone,

About the Narrator in this Episode

• Dejan Milojicic, Distinguished Technologist at Hewlett Packard Labs. IEEE Fellow and ACM Distinguished Scientist. 2021 Richard E. Merwin Award and Bronze medal for Distinguished Service.
• Former President of IEEE Computer Society, and IEEE Division 8 Director.
• IEEE Fellow and ACM Distinguished Scientist.
• Research Areas: Cloud, Middleware, Distributed Systems.
• Dejan Milojicic’s Immigration Journey
  • 1960s and 1970s: Yard upbringing, Middle/High schooling in Yugoslavia.
  • 1978-1983: BSc, Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
  • 1983-1986: MSc, Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia
  • 1987-1988: Return to Yugoslavia for a year of Mandatory military service.
  • 1983-1991: Staff Engineer and Project Leader, Institut “Mihajlo Pupin”.
  • 1991-1994: PhD, TU Kaiserslautern, Germany.
  • 1994-1998: Principal Research Engineer, Open Group Research Institute, Cambridge MA.
  • 1998-Present: Distinguished Technologist, Hewlett Packard Labs.

Links

• US Department of State page on Yugoslavia
• US Department of State page on Serbia
• Wikipedia page on Yugoslavia
• Wikipedia page on Yugoslav Wars

Upcoming Episodes

This was the fourth (and last) episode in a four-episode segment featuring prominent and distinguished Computer Scientists all of whom immigrated from a country that no longer exists, Yugoslavia.

We also recommend you listen to the Lead Episode for Yugoslavia (Episode 1), and the interviews with Nenad Medvidovic (Episode 2) and Jelena Mirkovic (Episode 3).

Look for our next series of four episodes titled “To and Fro”, featuring immigrant computer scientists from a South American country… Can you guess which country?

• Credits
  • (Music Credits for Podcast)
  • The caption picture at top of page is that of an apartment building in the Old Belgrade City. Pic taken by Indy Gupta.

The Immigrant Computer Scientists Podcast is available for free on your favorite devices & apps: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and many more!