73 India Abroad
Dr Shwetak N Patel, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Electrical Engineering, University of Washington
INDIA ABROAD PERSON OF THE YEAR 2011
SPONSORED BY
PARESH GANDHI MacArthur Genius Shwetak N Patel, winner of the India Abroad Face Of The Future Award 2011, discusses how his motel owner parents enabled his pursuit of scientific discovery and the discovery of happiness in this fascinating interview with Arthur J Pais 74 India Abroad
Dr Shwetak N Patel with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, right. Patel is also a Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow
INDIA ABROAD PERSON OF THE YEAR
COURTESY: SHWETAK N PATEL 2011 f you are meeting Professor Matt ODonnell, dean, UWs Shwetak N Patel for the first College of Engineering, has called SPONSORED BY time, it is better you dont go to him an inspirational teacher and his lab. an innovator who understands the Unsuspecting visitors, even needs of the consumer. those who know he is 30, have stood October, travel (and his honeymoon in Bora His technology start-up on energy sensing, Ipuzzled wondering which of the young men in Bora), his work with school children and his Zensi, with colleagues from Duke and Georg- the room is the MacArthur Genius. Invariab- love for gardening. ia Tech, was acquired by Belkin International, ly, visitors head towards his graduate stu- Among Patels inventions is the Inc in 2010. dents. They look older than Patel does. Infrastructure Mediated Sensing, which can He was also named a Microsoft Research If he shaves off his beard and moustache, he detect noise on electrical systems to monitor Faculty fellow last year, which came with a no- is easily mistaken for a teen, says his wife Julie the energy usage of specific appliances and strings-attached grant of $200,000 for his Kientz, an assistant professor in the depart- electronics in homes. UW lab. ment of Human Centered Design & Enginee- The MacArthur citation pointed out that in For this and more, Seattle Magazine named ring and The Information School, and an addition to the resource conservation applica- Patel as one of its 100 most influential city cit- adjunct professor in computer science and tions of his sensor systems, he is also explor- izens. engineering at the University of Washington. ing their potential for home security or elder The genius, who has been on the invention Patel, a computer scientist and entrepre- care, as they serve the related function of path since he was 8, speaks about his work neur, best known for his work on developing sensing human activity and monitoring and more to India Abroad at his office in novel sensing solutions and ubiquitous com- movement. Seattle. puting, received the $500,000 MacArthur Tell us what has happened by way of work Fellowship last year. after the MacArthur Genius award. We could The fellowships honor talented individuals start with your typical work week. who have shown extraordinary originality and I am a professor. My primary job is to con- dedication in their creative pursuits and a duct research, advise graduate and under- marked capacity for self-direction. One of the youngest professors at Princeton, graduate students working on our research The 2011 class of 22 MacArthur Fellows mathematician extraordinaire, a musician of projects, and teach classes. A typical week is a included an evolutionary geneticist, a journal- unusual talent, Dr won the series of administrative meetings, staff meet- ist, two musicians, a poet, a biologist, an elder inaugural India Abroad Face of the Future ings and classes. Thats a very small part of rights lawyer and a European historian. Award 2008. what I do during the week. One of the most valued of awards in My day usually starts at 8 or 9 am. I come in, America, it has also been given to musicians, An astrophysicist exploring brave new worlds, I check in with my students in the lab. One of novelists, potters, filmmakers, scientists, aca- she pushes the frontiers of our knowledge, the things I really like doing is to be directly demics and magicians. The South Asians who constantly. It is the enchanting promise of involved with the work that the students are have received include sarod maestro Ustad Ali future achievements that India Abroad doing. Akbar Khan and Harvard professor and sur- recognized last year by conferring on My office is strategically located right across geon Dr Atul Gawande. Dr its Face of the from the lab so I can pop in and out all the Patel, one of the youngest geniuses at age Future Award 2009. time. My students may not like it, but I really 29, joined the University of Washington in enjoy it and I think they really appreciate it 2008 as an assistant professor in computer A pioneering innovator in social networking, he because Im really involved in what they do. science and engineering and electrical engi- built Foursquare, a community of 20 million So I have in my lab, every now and then, neering. people and counting across the world. We (meetings) just to brainstorm ideas to work on He told a university publication last year honored with the India projects. I have at least a half hour meeting that winning the MacArthur felt like winning Abroad Face of the Future Award 2010. every week with every single graduate stu- an intellectual lottery. He confessed he col- dent. lapsed to the floor when he received his early The other thing I do once a quarter is what morning call from the foundation in his I call a marathon meeting. I have a one to Seattle home. three hour meeting with each student where The Alabama-raised son of immigrant For being a technological genius; for developing we go into a lot more detail about what they motel owners gets this animated not only innovative sensor systems for improving daily want to do in life, what they want to do next while discussing his work, but also his vege- life; and for being a brilliant, young visionary. tarianism, the arrival of his first child in 75 India Abroad He has so much energy and its just so infectious Every time Im around him, I feel this sense of energy and enthusiasm Julie A Kientz on her husband
ho did the black magic, we asked Julie A Kientz, MacArthur WFellow Shwetak Patels wife. Well ..it kind of just happened, she said. We were both studying for a qualifying exam for the PhD (at Georgia Tech). It was a lot of work and we were both doing it at the same time. We were spending a lot of INDIA ABROAD time together and we realized Hey, we were more than just friends. An Assistant Professor in the department of Human Centered Design & Engineering and The Information School and Adjunct PERSON Assistant Professor in Computer Science & Engineering at the Unive- rsity of Washington, she works on the same campus as her husband in Seattle. OF THE YEAR She says she is interested in determining how novel computing applications can address important issues in health and education and evaluating those applications through long-term real world deploy- 2011 ment studies using a balance of qualitative and quantitative methods. Her most recent research involves the design and evaluation of com- SPONSORED BY puting technologies to support parents tracking the developmental progress and health of their newborn children, individuals with sleep disorders, and families with children with autism. Kientz received her PhD in Computer Science from the Georgia Inst- itute of Technology in 2008, under the advisement of Gregory Abowd (who was also Patels adviser), and her BS in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Toledo in 2002. On what fascinated her most about her future husband I think it was his enthusiasm. Hes always so excited about everything and he never really stops moving. You might get that impression of him even if you spend a lit- tle time with him. He thinks a lot, he moves a lot, he just has so much energy around him and its just so infectious. Dr Julie A Kientz So every time Im around him, I just feel this sense of energy and enthusiasm. This is even one of the things when I wrote my disserta- PARESH GANDHI tion; I dedicated it to his enthusiasm. ly grabbed a ring from my jewelry box to propose with. Little did he The couple is expecting their first baby in October. know, it was actually a toe ring! How romantic! On the cultural challenges in their relationship Shwetak told her he had wanted to propose close to Mount Rainier, so I wouldnt call it so much of a challenge as an adventure. that whenever she saw it from Seattle, she would always remember Im always learning new things and exposed to new things that I def- where they were engaged. initely didnt experience when I was growing up in the mid-West; The two had an Indian wedding first, followed by an American-style where there wasnt a lot of diversity where I grew up. I grew up in Ohio wedding. The ceremonies were held on a decommissioned ferry boat in a small town; we did not get a lot of exposure to different cultures. docked in a Seattle lake. Getting to know Shwetak and his family and their cultural differ- On some things her family found surprising in Shwetak in the begin- ences has been an adventure. ning Its been just one thing after another. Sometimes, its oh! Theres this He being vegetarian was very interesting with my family. Growing up great new Indian ceremony surrounding weddings that I just learned in the mid-West, it was pretty much a meat-and-potatoes culture. My about for the first time. Im kind of learning as we go along. mum has a number of recipes where she just puts bacon in or all sorts When we go to visit his relatives and Indians around the country, we of meats in the dish. So just educating them (her family) on his vege- get to know about different types of food that his family makes and dif- tarian lifestyle was an important thing. ferent rituals and customs. Its really been eye-opening and fun. Ive always been very sensitive to him being vegetarian. I dont eat On what her family said when they heard she was dating an Indian meat when Im with him and Ive kind of graduated from it for kind of When I first told them, they really didnt ask about him, but wanted health reasons. Im always educating them about Shwetaks specific a clarification as to what type of Indian. (Laughs.) dietary requirement; and yes, he is American like me, but he has these My brother lives in Montana and he thought Shwetak was native little different quirks about vegetarianism. American. Apart from knowing that he was from India, my family did- Another thing is that my mum was an English teacher. So, she real- nt know about different castes, different religions, different customs, ly loves a lot of the clichés and idioms from English culture like the pot different regions in India. calling the kettle black, killing two birds with one stone and those They had some stereotypes about who Indians are; they knew some sorts of idioms. doctors in Ohio who were Indians, and it was a learning process for my I realize that Shwetak didnt learn much of those idioms as I did family. They were pretty open. When they met Shwetak they realized when he was growing up. Often, he will take a lot of things that I say he was just like me in many ways. So, they just went past that (his and whats true of American culture and true of the English language background) and didnt seem to have any problem with it. that he didnt really pick up when he was growing up and then ask He proposed to her at a ski resort in January 2009, near Mount Why would the pot call the kettle black? Do the pots even talk? Rainier. The two sat down on the side of a slope overlooking Mount As an American growing up with American parents who have been Rainier. here for many generations, my experience with the English language is He then popped the question (he still had his snowboard gear on, so a bit different than that of Shwetaks who just didnt pick up similar there wasnt much kneeling involved). He didnt have the real ring yet, since his dad had just come back from India with it, so he had secret- 76 India Abroad
Dr Shwetak N Patel and his wife Dr Juile A Kientz on the Husky Stadium, Seattle, scoreboard, a recognition of the newest MacArthur Genius
INDIA ABROAD PERSON OF THE YEAR 2011
SPONSORED BY
COURTESY: SHWETAK N PATEL