Let’s get started with your name, your year, your pronouns, your major(s) and/or minor, and your hometown.

My name is Kishore—I’m a second-year studying computer science and statistics. My pronouns are he/him. I’m from Pennington, New Jersey, which is 20 minutes from Princeton.

Please list your past and current committees in SAAS.

I joined in Spring 2022 in data consulting and then last semester in Fall 2022 I was data consulting project manager. Now I’m a data consulting project manager again!

Why did you choose to major in CS and Statistics?

I came in [to Berkeley] as data science, and then I took CS61A during my freshman fall. I think a lot of people on my floor were taking it too so it was a good class. It was a lot harder than anything I’d done before, but I feel like it was a pretty rewarding class. I liked computer science after that, so I was like, “Okay, if I’m taking the same classes [as the data science major], I might as well pick it up too.” So instead of doing data science, I just did computer science and statistics, so it’s a little bit more specialized in each thing. But it’s kind of all the same anyway.

What is a fun fact about yourself?

I would say that one thing is whenever I’m buying something, like let’s say I’m buying a laptop or a tablet—even smaller things like shoes or socks or just random stuff—I do a really stupidly big amount of research on it. I would just be watching YouTube videos or reviews, looking up different articles. I waste so much time looking at all these different things, and then buy it, and then hopefully it’s a good decision. I’m a pretty big overthinker, I would say. So yeah, I would say my fun fact is that when I buy something I do too much research about reviews! I go into a massive rabbit hole when I buy stuff. I don’t know if it’s worth the time.

Do you have any hobbies or interests?

One of my main hobbies is volleyball. I started playing back in the second half of high school. I play occasionally now just for fun. Before that I used to play soccer, too, so I liked watching the World Cup. I don’t get to follow soccer as much anymore, though. In terms of other interests, I’ve really gotten into poker a lot lately. I play poker a lot with my friends, and I want to get into it more. I also like trying new food places across Berkeley or wherever I am. I also watch anime, so that’s another one…my favorite is Attack on Titan. I’m looking forward to the new season!

What are your professional interests?

I think I want to go into data science or machine learning-type-of-thing. I’ve thought about other stuff, like software engineering, but I can’t really see myself doing that, so probably data science or machine learning Engineering.

Why are you interested in Machine Learning?

In high school, I liked AP Statistics—I thought it was cool how you can take some table of data that doesn’t look like much and turn it into a real result. I tried to get into that more, and I think through SAAS data consulting, for example, you can see how to apply [statistics] to so many different problems using the same skills. I really like the data consulting projects so far, so because of that I want to do similar stuff as a job.

What project are you on this semester?

This semester, I’m on the Numerator project, which is time series forecasting.

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

I honestly don’t remember too clearly, like I don’t remember if I went to tabling or not, but I do remember having a SAAS flier on my desk. [Laughs] I assume I got it at the table, but I’m not sure. After that, I looked at the flier, and thought it was cool. I applied to SAAS. Everybody I met seemed very welcoming, so I decided it would be a fun club to join.

You basically answered my next question, and I’m assuming you stayed in SAAS for the people. Do you want to elaborate on that?

It’s definitely the people. One thing with SAAS is that at first I was worried, since it’s a big club, it’s kind of hard to get to know people or meet them, but I think something that’s really nice is pretty much everybody in SAAS is very welcoming. If you just start talking to them, they’re very happy to get to know you or involve you in different things. As a new member, too, it’s really easy compared to other organizations to get to know a lot of people, because they’re all very open to it and inclusive of the new members.

What is your proudest accomplishment in SAAS?

My proudest accomplishment is probably my first semester as a project manager. In the beginning, I was very hesitant thinking that maybe it was too early or that I didn’t know enough, since there’s definitely a lot of people who know a lot more than I do. But, I was able to learn a lot along the way and keep everything organized for my team to finish the project successfully. It taught me that even though there will be people who know a lot more than you or have a lot more experience, you can still do a good job leading them by just trying to keep a clear goal for the team. And I think I did a pretty good job of that for my first time.

What does the SAAS value of mentorship mean to you?

In terms of SAAS, a lot of people are very good as mentors that I’ve met so far in the club. One example is my first project manager, Rishab—he was the project manager when I first joined data consulting. He, in general, past the project itself, has been a very big mentor to me, in terms of SAAS stuff and data consulting stuff. He guided me a lot through how to be a project manager. I could go to him with a lot of different questions, and he’d be very helpful when teaching me how to run stuff. Outside of [SAAS] too I ask him a lot about professional development. He’s not only a mentor in SAAS, but also professionally. Another example is my big, Jai. I always ask him random questions, and he’s always happy to help. Going back to the question, mentorship is basically just being there to support somebody not only within the club or just generally, but also professionally and socially.

Because you’re in leadership, what is your personal vision for SAAS going forward?

One thing I’d like to see in SAAS is a bit more transparency between committees. SAAS does a really good job of having all these different committees so that whatever interests you have, you’ll find something that you like, and it also brings everybody together. Even though we have different committees, there are still plenty of socials for everyone to know each other. Something I want to see going forward, though, is a bit more interaction between different committees. I feel like for people who don’t come to the whole-club socials—you might not necessarily get to know them. It would be nice to see more interaction with them at things like general meetings. I don’t know if this is going into too much detail, but when we go into recruitment, especially because I’m in leadership, I think it would be better to have directors from all committees to still know what’s going on with other committees. More transparency in terms of people joining SAAS based on the opinions of the whole club rather than committee-by-committee. More generally, overall, I think something SAAS does really well is have a super organized social system. I think you can get to know a lot of people really well. One thing I’d also like to see going forward is continuing to have more emphasis on Data Science, making sure that we have a stronger CX-to-IA-to-DC pipeline. It’d be really cool to give as many people as possible the chance to explore a full data science project, since a lot of people join SAAS looking to get into Data Science.

What’s a topic you could talk for hours about?

There’s definitely a couple different things. I like talking about TV shows or anime with people. I feel like if I have a common interest, I could talk for a really long time about literally anything related. If we both like a show, there’s so much to talk about—characters, the story, favorite stuff. I think this goes back to the rabbit hole thing, but whenever I get really into something. Like let’s say I’m looking for a tablet, and my friend is looking for a tablet too—we can talk for a really long time about what to look for, what to find.

Who is your favorite Attack on Titan character and why?

That’s a good question. It would have to be between two. Erwin is definitely one of my favorites for sure. Especially at the beginning, nobody else is the same leader. You don’t see a leader who’s that good in terms of inspiring people or taking control of a really bad situation. I don’t want to spoil anything, though! My other favorite character would probably be Eren. He’s the main character, but it’s really interesting to see how he changes throughout the entire show. In a show with a lot of plot twists, it’s super cool to see how he’s evolved as things go on. It’s hard to say without spoiling, but I always think for TV shows in general, it is cool to see when a character changes a lot because it keeps the story interesting, and you see what exactly made them change.

Please roast yourself.

[Laughs] What kind of question is that? Okay, well the default roast is that I’m short. But that’s not really interesting. I have a tendency to waste time—I overthink things a lot. I put so much effort into thinking about the smallest things, which is kind of stupid sometimes.

What has been your favorite class that you’ve taken?

Definitely Data 100. This class basically showed me that I would like Data Science. There is a really good balance of learning and application. I think it is really cool to learn the theory of something, and then immediately jump in with some data to actually run some methods for yourself. The classest teaches you how to do a lot of useful things and the basic theory behind them without going into too much detail. It is a really good introduction to data science and it showed me that I want to keep pursuing the field. If I ever end up being a TA for something, I would probably do it for Data 100.

I know you said you liked finding new places to eat in Berkeley, so what has been your favorite restaurant and your least favorite restaurant in Berkeley?

It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I really like Tasty Pot. I just get the lamb hot pot, but it’s really good. I don’t know if other people prefer the regular hot pot, but in this one they just give you everything. It tastes really good. I also like Kimchi Garden, which is a pretty good one that I go to often. For takeout, I like Gordito Amigos a lot, because it’s literally a minute away from my apartment. My favorite would be Tasty Pot and then my go-to would be Kimchi Garden and Gordito Amigos. Least favorite? I’ve definitely had some pretty bad experiences. There’s definitely a lot of overpriced places in Berkeley. Maybe this is not the worst, but it’s definitely disappointing. Tiger Lily, which is on Northside.