Kishore Kumar
What's your year? Major? And hometown?
I'm a second year EECS major, and I'm from Chicago.
Why and how did you choose this major?
I chose EECS, because I guess I've always wanted to do computer science since even when I was a little kid. My first toy I had, back then I lived in the woods in Pennsylvania. So I didn't have like many toys or anything, I didn't have a TV, I had like this little talking globe thing. And it was pretty cool. Because it made me a geography nerd, to put it simply, because I could tell all the capitals, every country, and all this good stuff. And that was like a cool party trick I learned pretty early on. And also, they gave me a passion for geography. And that was basically a little computer back in the day. And so I really like that. So I just sort of wanted to continue with stuff like that. I like tinkering around with electronics and whatnot. And I guess I just like tinkering around the things in general, I used to modify my bikes and whatnot. But I feel like, especially with computers, I don't know if you're familiar with the term mechanical advantage, but basically it just gives you a lot of leverage. Basically mechanical advantage lets you, you have like a lever, and then you push down with a little force, but then the lever itself generates a lot of force based on torque and whatnot. And that's sort of what I feel is like going on in computer science, with just a little effort, you can make some really cool stuff that can have a big impact. And so that's probably why I chose EECS.
Oh, do you think you're more into the EE side or CS or you just like both?
I definitely prefer the CS side. But I guess I do like the EE side more than most people at the school do. Like a lot of people just absolutely hate EE and would never touch it. I am considering taking some EE upper divs. But just in general, there are just less of them at the school and just less useful these days. Because all of that stuff has been abstracted away.
What's a fun fact about yourself?
Hmm. Let me think about a fun fact I haven't used ad nauseum before. Obviously one fun fact that comes to mind is I broke both my arms while mountain biking, but I think that's already on the Instagram page. So let me find another one. Oh, my thumb is double jointed so I can do this. It's weird. I think yours might be double jointed actually, too. But mine just snaps like I don't have to move it, I don't know how to describe it.
Okay, what are some of your hobbies or interests?
Yeah, I like doing stuff outside. I would say going hiking, going biking, fishing, all that good stuff. It's a good way to just talk to people and it gets rid of the screens. I'm not a huge screen person, not into movies and such as much and people give me shit about it. But you know, it's whatever. I like doing stuff outside. Yeah, that's what most of my hobbies are in. I used to be into gaming a little bit back in the day, but I never was really serious about it and I went through smash but I never played league or anything.
I guess since you had some time on Berkeley's campus, did you ever do the Big C hike or the fire trails?
Yeah, I did. I actually have not done the fire trails. I was very disappointed about not doing it but hopefully, it'll happen soon.
Is there any entertainment that you are into? I guess not including movies?
I like watching cooking YouTube channels, like Binging with Babish. And all that good stuff. Chef John. Cause I'm always hungry. Because I'm not a very good cook in my apartment.
Do you just have to order takeout then?
We usually come with something, we figure something out. An avocado pasta dish.
What are some of your professional interests?
I'd say my main professional interests lie in the rounds of entrepreneurship and startups and whatnot, because I feel like I'm a pretty fast paced person. And so startups sort of reflect that. It's like you're working on a really interesting product that has the potential to have a lot of impact, like what I was talking about earlier. Your impact is much greater because you're in a smaller team. And then the team itself also has a much greater impact. And this goes back to the point of mechanical advantage, such a small team has such a large impact. Like, I never really liked the idea of working at a ginormous company, because your impact is so much smaller. And a team that's just as big as any team at a startup will just not have the same impact. Because instead of making a new app, you're just making a little dashboard. And so my, I'd say main professional interests lie in startups, and particularly in the realm of revolutionising, like finance or education or in any of these industries that are, I guess, outdated, especially in the United States.
Do you have any internship experience?
Yeah. So for the past year, I've been interning at this Berkeley SkyDeck startup called Squishy Robotics. And basically what they do is they create these robots that can be dropped from any height. And they're basically assistance to firefighters at the moment. Basically, you drop them from any height from a drone, and you can drop them into a dangerous scenario. So like, the classic use cases, let's say there's a tanker crash on the highway. And there's a gas leak or whatever. So you could send a firefighter down there to investigate the gas leak and take the readings of all the different metrics and whatnot. But that's obviously pretty risky. Because if there's an explosion, what if there's something we're not aware of downstream? So yeah, basically Squishy solves this problem of risking human lives by creating robots that can be dropped from any height so that you don't have to sacrifice a drone, but you just drop the robot itself down there, and it can take all these measurements for you instead. And so, yeah, pretty interesting use case. It's something I never really thought of. But yeah, it's been cool working with that team because I also had the chance to actually talk to the firefighters that use our products. And this is like being able to iterate on their feedback and see what's working, what hasn't been, really illuminating from a user experience standpoint, because that was something I didn't have much experience with. But working with that team and talking to the firefighters helped me sort of understand the development lifecycle that better. And in a way that lets me build better products.
Do you see yourself sticking with this for the rest of your college experience?
Most likely not, because it's a really, really small startup, there's less than five people like, I'm the only software engineer there. So probably something I wouldn't stick with, but it's just been really cool staying with the team. And for example, even this summer I'm not going to be with them. I'm interning at a different, I guess later-stage startup called Flexport this summer, which I'm excited about.
Do you know what you're gonna be doing with Flexport?
They haven't assigned me my team yet. But basically, what Flexport does is they're like a — how do I want to put this? Lowkey kinda forgot what they did. But it's like they do freight forwarding stuff. So basically, the freight forwarding industry is super outdated, because it's run by these giants from a long time ago. And so Flexport's trying to revolutionize it by creating dashboards and whatnot. And they do routing and all this good stuff. This is a really vague definition, because I forgot what they did. But like they do freight forwarding, basically.
Are there any other like campus involvements that you're doing?
Right now through the data science department, I'm working with the Wall Street Journal as like a data science intern. We're working on a named entity recognition model for analyzing names throughout a big corpus of news articles. Hopefully they'll be useful to journalists when they're writing articles and need to gather information.
How long have you been with them?
That actually just started so there hasn't been too much progress yet, but hopefully there'll be some more later.
How did you find out about SAAS and why did you join SAAS?
Honestly, I don't know how I found out about SAAS. Maybe it was through Facebook or something. But yeah, who knows? But I joined SAAS because — there are a few reasons. So I guess the first reason was I had prior experience in working with data science before through a research project I did, but it was all still pretty nebulous to me and all of my learnings had come from just searching the internet. So I had a pretty unsatisfactory knowledge in data science, like I wasn't satisfied with what I knew, because it's all random puzzle pieces but I didn't know how to put it together. So I was like, Career Exploration committee, seems interesting, seems like it might be a cool way to get a different and maybe more formal perspective on data science and applied stats. And I also knew as an EECS major, I probably wouldn't have as much of an opportunity to take these classes as other majors maybe would. And so I wanted to get that experience and see if maybe it was worth pursuing that path. So yeah, it was just sort of like, try something new and sort of solidify my knowledge in data science because I'd read online that at SAAS there's a lot of data science stuff. So I was like, yeah, it's pretty cool.
What did you learn? Or do in CX?
So last semester, what I learned in CX was just I guess to reiterate, data science from a more formal and, I guess, knowledgeable perspective. I learned in a way more continuous way than me looking things up on Google. It introduced some concepts to me that even if I had seen them before, I didn't understand the point of linear regression and whatnot. So it really just I guess, brought together a lot of things that were confusing, or just things that I didn't understand, like the theoretical underpinnings behind it; CX brought all these things together, really like put it in a nice package for me. And that's mostly what I learned from the lectures and whatnot in CX, but I guess just being part of CX, I also sort of learned what I wanted out of an organization and what I wanted to do going forward because just like talking to people in SAAS, I realized that there's a lot of different members here with rich experiences, and I really wanted to talk with them even more. And so that's sort of been what I've been trying to promote as CX director and just in general throughout the club. And so that was also one of my big learnings — how to make an organization good and close and all that good stuff.
So was that your main motivation for wanting to become CX director?
I saw that there was a ton of potential for CX in terms of academic and professional and social development, but the professional development was already pretty much covered by Brian and whatnot, the academic development was covered by ED. And so I really saw a lot of growth potential in the social aspect of CX because I will say that most of my socializing in SAAS first semester did not happen within CX and so that was something I sort of wanted to change. I want to make CX a committee where it'd be like a group of people who at the end of it would be able to reflect over experiences like bonding over CX and like having something more to remember from CX and really bond with each other over the stuff that CX does. So we have a family system now in CX and we have way more socials. We're doing a joint social with Ed this weekend for our first joint social and we've just been trying to encourage them to talk to each other and whatnot. We've been encouraging them to participate in our Facebook Messenger group.
Do you already see differences between last semester CX and this semester?
Yeah, definitely. I'd say that people in CX are just a bit more like memey with each other already? Or are more comfortable with each other. Like, after like our socials and whatnot. Like they start playing tricks on each other and whatnot and make confessions and stuff. It's cool seeing that, like last semester I don't think that would have happened, I still don't think I know most of the names of the people in CX. But I remember some of the people in CX last semester, like I know, you were in it, Renzo, Sofia, but there's like another half of CX I was just kind of missing. Yeah.
What's your proudest accomplishment in SAS?
Hmm. I mean, I don't have a ton of accomplishments yet, because it's only been less than a semester and a half. But I guess just running the socials and the CX mixer. People seem to have pretty good feedback about that. Like I said, it was cool and they enjoy getting to know each other. And actually, I made the website we use for the CX mixer, the We're Not Really Strangers online web app. So seeing that people liked it was pretty nice, seeing that I was able to create something that people enjoyed and brought them together.
So SAAS was the motivation for you to build the website?
Yeah, SAAS and other orgs, just because I heard about this game We're Not Really Strangers. It sounded cool, but I didn't want to buy the cards. So I was like, just make the web app and "steal" the cards.
Do you have any experiences of how SAAS has helped you with professional development? Specifically, have you learned any new skills, decided on a career path?
It's definitely encouraged me to explore data science more. And I'd say it's probably the reason I decided to pursue what I'm doing with the Wall Street Journal right now. From my career's perspective, I'd say seeing all the successful people in SAAS really motivated me to, I guess, try harder in my search for internships and whatnot. I guess it just motivated me to get started earlier. And sort of go for the opportunities that maybe I wouldn't have gone for earlier.
Do you have a favorite SAAS memory?
Hm. I mean, they're all pretty good. But I think maybe one of my favorites is just like working on CS 170 psets with the group last semester, the 170 group. That was cool, because that was my first time really meeting and talking to SAAS members for an extended period of time. And I still talk to all those people today. And so working with them, and just, I guess, hearing tea and being filled in as a little tiny CX member was just funny. Glad to be part of that.
How did you make friends with people in SAAS and how did you meet them?
Again, through the CS 170 study group that was honestly just a huge acceleration to my presence in SAAS, because I met Rachel and Jessica and Jai and all these people in the 170 study group. And those are obviously pretty prominent members in the group. So in the club, so that definitely helped a lot. And besides that, I think just being active in the socials, while it may have been slow at first, I think just continually showing up just makes people more open to talk and then you become friends with them. And then this semester, as CX director, again, I feel like it's, I guess, easier to meet more people when you're in a role like that, because you talk to the directors, and you talk to the CX members. And so you spend a lot more time on club stuff. So I think, yeah, just spending time on SAAS stuff is really what's helped me make a lot of friends here.
Of the three SAAS values of community, exploration, and mentorship, could you pick one and explain what it means to you?
I'll probably pick community because I feel like SAAS has a pretty good community. Because there's just a lot of different people from different majors and backgrounds and whatnot. And so talking to them is really cool. And just in general, the community is really supportive, it's chill, it never feels like the community's toxic or anything. And it's a community that really tries its best in general, just like bringing people together, IVP tries super hard to bring people together, which I appreciate. And everyone's like, again, super supportive, and works hard to make this place an even better community. And I think that's one of the ways in which I've seen SAAS grow since I first joined is that I think the sense of community here has definitely improved a lot and it's things have just become a lot more active. That's what I'm excited about going forward.
Do you have any personal visions for SAAS going forward? Like anything you want to do in the future?
Yeah! I guess tying it back into like community and whatnot. I definitely feel like there are still some ways in which I feel like more people could be involved in the SAAS community. Like there's still a side of SAAS that is somewhat inactive. Or there's some ways in which, I guess some things maybe don't work as well because of that. I don't know if you remember the big little reveal but some of that went kind of weird because half the bigs aren't there, half the littles aren't there, and so I feel like for improving that aspect of SAAS would be something that I'm interested in, really making SAAS more of a prominent part of people's experience here at Cal.
What is your favorite class at Berkeley?
It has to be CS 170. I feel like that class from a theoretical perspective is really satisfying. Because all the algorithms are pretty simple, but they do a lot of cool stuff. And it's really cool to see how these complex problems can be reduced to such simple problems. And the homeworks and the exams in that class really reinforced that, nothing was ever too complicated. And it was all really like, appeal to your intuition, which I thought was nice. And it's a good change, unlike other CS classes, which try to do brain teasers and whatnot. And then, uh, yeah, just in general, when something is also just a really useful class for I guess improving like your thinking skills, which is obviously really important for interviews and whatnot, being able to analyze a problem and come up with an algorithmic solution for it. So, yeah, overall, highly recommended class. Also, their course staff is really good.
Do you have a favorite professor on that note?
Okay, people don't like this answer, but honestly Hilfinger. Honestly, I felt like his lectures were very clear. He didn't add any fluff to them. He didn't try to pretend to be some crazy personality. It's just like, here's the stuff you need to know. And maybe interject some stuff he did from the 60s or whatever it was, it would just be funny, but he was always like, you stuck to the main point. And he was pretty transparent I feel like.
What's your favorite Berkeley memory?
There's no one particular thing that stands out, but it's just the, I guess, experience of being here. Which is a lot more memorable. It's just like talking to people, like staying up super late talking to people, going on really late night runs to Seniore's or whatever. And just getting food. It's just cool stuff like that, that brings you together with people. And you remember the people the most, I guess, probably wasn't a great answer. Because, again, I don't have a specific memory, but just hanging out with the people and learning more about them, which has always been super cool.
Do you have a favorite spot on campus that you think more people should know about?
Yes. Sutardja Dai Hall. It's so lit. Yeah, it's just a super clean hall. It's always such a good place to study cause it's not super quiet, like Main Stacks where you can't talk to anyone. But it's also not hella loud, like just being outside or being in Dwinelle or whatever. And it's not crowded like Moffitt. So it's the perfect balance of everything. Yeah, it's a nice place to study. And it's a brand new hall. And you can chat there if you want, or you can just grind there if you want. And sometimes there's free pizza. So we love that.
Is that your favorite place to study then?
Yeah, I got a lot of shit from my friends freshman year for always being there.
Why?
Because I would always rave about it, too. I'd be like, you guys should pull up. I really don't think there's anywhere else to be on campus.
Is there a prettiest building on campus that you enjoy?
I'm trying to remember all the buildings on campus because even though I've been on campus this semester, I literally just go to Sutardja Dai and back. I feel like that part of campus in general is just a good looking part of campus because it's like a mix of the older and the newer buildings. And honestly, I don't think Evans looks as bad as people say it does. I think it adds something nice.
What's the ugliest building? So is it not Evans?
Wurster. Wurster is actually disgusting.
Do you have a favorite bathroom to use on campus?
Sutardja Dai bathrooms. Because they're actually clean. It's amazing.
What's your favorite library on campus?
Hmm probably engineering library. A lot of fun times there studying for Math 53 with the guys or whatever. It was fun studying with them, because you can talk in that library. So yeah, it's like gooning around in there.
What's your favorite restaurant?
Hmm. I've been going to Pasta Bene a lot recently, because I live like right on top of it. And I guess my favorite restaurant from freshman year, probably like Thai Basil or something. I'm a sucker for Thai food. And Asian food in general. So yeah, it was always fire when I got it.
Do you have any restaurants that you had a bad experience with that you just hate?
That's a good question. Honestly, no, I feel like most restaurants I've had here I've just been like, okay, it was either good or it wasn't memorable, but nothing I remember being like, I'm never coming here again.
How was your Crossroads experience?
I could tell you all about it. I didn't know those counted. Yeah. Yeah, Croads is like, okay, I guess but like, one time there was like a fly in my sandwich, which was really gross. I never really went back there after that. And then Cafe 3. I lived in Unit 3 freshman year so I went to Cafe 3 a lot and it was also terrible. Like I just lived off of the shitty eggs they had because everything else is inedible.
What's your favorite boba shop? If you like boba?
Hmm. Honestly, I'm so basic when it comes to boba, this answer would give me so much shit. But my friend and I my freshman year, we would always go to Plentea. And that was it because we were too lazy and we got good deals at Plentea because we had like the glass bottle or whatever and it was close by. So we just went there and nowhere else.
Have you expanded your horizons since then?
Yeah, I've been to a few different boba shops but honestly I forgot all of their names because I only went there like once or twice.
Do you have any Berkeley horror stories, like something you did or somebody else did? Or over Zoom too.
Hmm. I mean, I do have horror stories but not ones that should be included on Instagram but I mean, just like the general stuff, like you're in lecture, and then a random person just comes into the lecture hall and starts screaming. Yeah, you haven't experienced that yet. But I'm sure you will at some point. And then, just like weird Zoom stories, like one time I was in EE16B discussion on Zoom, and then someone didn't turn the microphone off. And they were singing in a different language. Yeah, and they didn't notice for a few minutes. They were just singing and singing and singing.
What do you see yourself doing after you graduate? Do you have any postgraduate plans?
Yeah, so definitely. So I see a few different paths for myself. I almost certainly want to work at a startup. But I'm also semi interested in finance after talking to Brian, like some of those problems seem pretty cool. But I really do think working in a startup or an entrepreneurial setting is what I want to do, because again, it's just fast paced. And that's where you have the potential for the most growth and impact. And it's something that you can do when you're younger, because you have less to lose and you have more time on your hands.
Is there anything you would tell yourself? You're a sophomore, so would you tell your freshman self anything, like when you just entered college?
Yeah, probably just branch out and try new stuff. Because I was sort of lazy freshman year and I just talked to the people on my floor. I joined some clubs, but I didn't really do much with them. And yes, that's probably what I'll change is, I took like a ton of classes freshman year. So maybe instead of trying to take 20 units and all this weird stuff like doing research where you don't really meet people, actually just join more clubs instead. Because that's where a lot more interesting stuff happens.
Going back to talking about SkyDeck, what does a typical day of working on that look like?
Yeah, so there's no typical day, I'd say, in working in a SkyDeck startup like that, like Squishy Robotics. So over the summer, I worked full time. So I did work every day in the summer. And so that experience was just like, you would meet with the team like twice a day. And I was the only software engineer. You're sort of responsible for a lot of things, like you'd have to, again, work on the products that we were giving to the firefighters. Particularly, I was responsible for the graphical user interface that sort of bridges a connection between like the firefighters and the computer, and then controlling the robot and getting the readings and whatnot. So I was responsible for that. And that was like, there's a lot of work to be done in that system. Because as a start up, the code there is not exactly always in tip top shape. And things just need a lot of fixing in general, because you're taking something that was a mock up a few weeks ago, was like a minimum viable product a few weeks ago, and now you're trying to make it into something that's a lot better. So that's a lot of work. There's a lot of refactoring code and whatnot that you have to do. And just a lot of different technologies, you have to learn pretty quickly. And you're also responsible for putting out fires, because I was responsible for the actual computers that we sent to the firefighters. And so I had to be ready to troubleshoot. And there are a lot of surprising things I had to do. I'd actually open up the computers themselves and modify them, because we had to install special software and whatnot. And so, yeah, there's no particular specific routine during the day, it's really just like, you tried to get to all the stuff you need to do to advance the product. But again, you're also responsible for a lot of other things like meeting with the firefighters and addressing issues when they come up. Interesting, urgent issues.
Do you have a vision for this? Do you see this expanding to firefighters all over the country?
Yeah. So there are a few different ways I see Squishy Robotics expanding in the future. So they could continue to just work with firefighters. But I think another really interesting use case is maybe if they expand beyond firefighters doing something such as emergency deliveries to different personnel, different first responders, that could be like an interesting use case. Because right now, you'd have to deliver something by car or by ambulance or whatever. But if you can bypass that and you can fly equipment somewhere to a scenario where they really need it quickly. That I think is a really useful use case, because you can just control the drone and have the robot go down there. And since the robot can be dropped from any height safely, you can just include all these materials in the payload. So that's something I definitely am interested in seeing what they do in that regard. And then also just expanding the capabilities of the robot, maybe giving it the ability to lock which they have been working on. And more sensors, more useful information.