What’s your year, pronouns, major, and hometown?

Senior, he/him, EECS, Sunnyvale, CA.

What are your past and current committees?

In Spring 2021, I was Data Consulting, and right now, I’m in Education and Internal Affairs.

How did you choose EECS as your major?

So I came in when I was a freshman as an engineering math and stats major. I ended up taking CS61A because pretty much everyone I knew was taking 61A. So I thought, “Okay, I'll try this as well.” To be totally honest, if I had done really terribly on midterm one for 61A, I may have just stuck with my former major, but it ended up going okay, so I figured I might as well just continue on. And then fast forward a while to when I declared EECS. Actually, it was only probably a month or so ago when I dropped engineering math and stats.

What are your professional interests/experiences?

So I've done a couple of software engineering internships. Last summer, I was a quant trading intern at Akuna capital. And next year, I'm going to be working as a quantitative trader as well. So I think my experiences in software engineering were generally positive. I really enjoyed the work that I did, but I feel like I was kind of looking for something that was a bit more fast paced and exciting day to day. So I figured, “Okay, why not give this quant trading thing a try?” It seemed like it kind of was a nice mix of some of the programming skills that I had previously acquired and math probability, machine learning, that I also had an interest in. So after this previous summer, I think that kind of reaffirmed a lot of the interest that I had in the area, and I figured, “Okay, I might as well stay in it.” So in terms of how it relates to statistics, I think it relates to statistics a lot more than people might expect. It does vary depending on what exactly your role is. But a lot of the times when you're doing any sort of data analysis, like the type of skills that you'd learn about in SAAS, and the Education Committee, or get practice with in Insights & Analytics, or Data Consulting. Those are really the types of things that you might find yourself doing, like day to day. So in that sense, it is extremely related to statistics.

Do you have any other campus involvement? Could you give us some examples?

So I'm currently the external VP of Cloud at Cal. Pretty cool club focusing on a lot of the things that SAAS does, except working on more cloud focused projects, as opposed to statistics focused work. That's kind of my main thing right now. As for other campus involvements, I'm also a CS70 TA. I've done that for a few semesters now. That's about it at this point. I've gone through a lot of other stuff through the years.

Have any hobbies or interests? Read, TV shows, movie music, sports?

I love running. I love bay area sports. I think Steph Curry is the goat. You can put that down on my member profile. TV shows? I think bojack is my number one TV show. And apart from that, I just liked playing a lot of games. I think that's the way to get me excited about hanging out with people. Playing a lot of poker. I'm pretty bad at chess. But I kind of like playing it casually. I don't like to read any chess books or any of that fancy stuff. I just play, so I’m bad, but it's kind of fun. But any sort of strategy game is always a good time. Let me make an addition. I like food, so follow @foodieefrank on Instagram.

How did you find out about SAAS? When did you join SAAS and why did you join SAAS?

I think I've heard about SAAS just because it's one of those clubs that you just kind of hear about. I think I actually heard about it when it was called SUSA. I actually knew Lucas from previous interactions in middle school and high school. This is Lucas Bandarkar who has now graduated. Lucas is a cool guy, and he’s in this club, so I remember interviewing for SUSA. And I think at the time I was interviewing for the equivalent of what the data consulting committee is, I don't know if it was called the data consulting committee back then, but I think that's pretty much what I interviewed for. Yeah. And at the time, I was a freshman with very little patience. And in hindsight, I should have just also applied for the CX committee, the committee where you actually learn things. As an impatient first semester freshman, I only applied for data consulting. And I actually remember texting Lucas this after the interview. I was like, “I don't know how serious I was about this, but I'm pretty sure I can pull it off.” And afterwards I thought that's the hardest interview I've ever done. And there was definitely some truth to that. I was very ill-prepared for it and definitely did not do well. I barely knew what a p-value was because it's been too long since AP Stats. And then I just didn't apply for a while. I sort of invested my energy in other areas, but then going back to spring 2021, I was kind of looking to maybe join one more thing to round out my schedule a little bit. I saw this club and I'm like, “Hey, SAAS. Is this what SUSA used to be?” The acronyms seemed a little questionable, and people are gonna think I'm joining software as a service. But okay, it seemed pretty cool. So I interviewed and I got in. I think SAAS sounds cooler than SUSA. But the acronym collision with software as a service is a little bit troublesome, especially sometimes when you’re explaining things to other people. Other than that, I think it’s a great name.

What’s your favorite SAAS Committee?

I think my favorite is Internal Affairs, and the reason is because I think in clubs like this, the things that you learn are very important, and the projects that you work on are very important. But at the end of the day, I think a lot of these things, in theory, you could do on your own as well. Sort of the biggest takeaway that I feel like I have is just all the new people that I get to meet, and all the fun social activities that you get to do with everyone. So, I think getting to sort of contribute to that a little bit in Internal Affairs is something that I'm pretty appreciative of and something that I enjoy a lot. And I like to give credit to SAAS members, past and present, because I feel like the culture is really good, and it just makes contributing to social planning that much easier.

What would you say was your favorite SAAS semester?

Well, for me, this is an easy decision because this is only my second semester in SAAS. And because it's only been like halfway through, I have to default to spring 2021, and I feel pretty comfortable with defaulting to spring 2021 because it was a great semester. I think even though I was a new member, people were really open to just letting me into their social circles, so that was something that was super cool to me because it's not something that always happens. But there were a lot of fun times, like studying on Discord and getting to know people through online socials. I came to Berkeley for a month in like April, so I got to meet people in person as well. Overall, it was a really fun semester.

Why did you stay in SAAS? What made you decide to go for another semester?

I just stayed because I really want to win the Big/Little competition this year. Well, okay, jokes aside, it wasn't really even a consideration for me. Of course, I would stay because how can I just walk away from such an amazing group of people? I think that pretty much sums things up.

Has SAAS helped you with your career/professional development?

So I'm not going to cap for the sake of this interview, I don't think it did. But I think if I was a less foolish person as a freshman, and had just tried to join Career Exploration, and had been lucky enough to get in, I think that would have boosted my career quite a bit because I think a lot of that stats knowledge is so valuable when you're starting off. I wish I had learned a lot of it earlier. But, unfortunately, for me, I was a very foolish kid who did not join earlier.

When you say skills, just for the sake of being a little bit more explicit, what do you mean?

I think it’s everything that's mentioned in the CX curriculum, like learning the basics of statistics, like hypothesis testing, moving into things like some basic probability, linear regressions–all that I think set you up, future classes, or even just interviews really nicely.

How did you make friends with people in SAAS, and how did you meet them?

I met people by just showing up to online socials, and I think Discord study hours helped a ton. To be honest, I didn't really get any studying done, but it was still worthwhile because I got to just chat with a ton of really cool people and kind of get to know them a little bit. We played Hot Seat a lot that semester.. So people would divulge their secrets unless they were Ewen, who would just skip every question.

What is your fun fact?

I've never broken a bone, read or watched Harry Potter, or taken a stats class at Berkeley.

Favorite class?

CS70.

Favorite Berkeley memory?

I think in freshman year one time, we played Sardines on campus and it was fun. Sardines is a game where two people go to hide and people need to find them and join them. The last people to find them are the new hiders.

Favorite spot on campus more people should know about?

Big C at sunset. Nothing else really matters.

Favorite place to study?

MLK.

Prettiest building?

Soda.

Ugliest building?

Latimer.

Favorite bathroom?

The building next to MLK: Eshleman.

Favorite library?

East Asian, definitely.

Favorite restaurants?

Artichoke’s, Wiki Wiki, and Hawaiian BBQ.

Favorite boba shops?

Bomberman at UCha and Plentea.

Favorite professor?

Kannan Ramchandran for EE126 and EE229A.