Lakshmi

I decided to pursue PhD right after my undergraduate as I was passionate about research and wanted to explore it further. Doing PhD not just helped me start my research journey but also allowed me to explore new areas, challenge myself and develop into a holistic individual with in-depth knowledge in my field of research.

NUS School of Computing has a great research environment with world-class research being conducted in every walks of life. My thesis advisor, Prof Wong Lim Soon, is not just passionate about his research but is also a great guide and mentor. I chose NUS as it offered me a good research environment and a great academic mentor with a holistic graduate program.

I did my undergraduate in computational biology in NUS Faculty of Science. During my undergraduate, I did many modules across different disciplines to gain knowledge. Even though I did many research projects during my undergraduate journey, the research was very well-constructed and guided by the research mentor. However, in my PhD journey in Computer Science in NUS School of Computing, I enjoy the freedom to drive my own research and explore my research ideas. PhD experience is definitely more fun, hands-on and challenging than my undergraduate journey.

Making edible oils safe: Authentication and quality assurance of edible oil mixtures.
The thesis aims to analyse near infrared spectra (NIR) of various edible oil mixtures to authenticate its quality. Ensuring the quality of the edible oil mixtures is crucial to both the consumer’s health and business integrity as any deviation from the specified quality requirements, whether intentional or not, potentially could cause harmful health hazards.

I hope to positively impact the edible oil industry with my research. I am extremely passionate about transnational research and I hope that my research can change and improve the existing practices on authenticating and performing quality assurance.

During my graduate journey in NUS, I served as a radio producer and broadcaster in NUS Radio Pulze. It gave me the opportunity to make friends outside of my faculty and allowed me to take a break from research and enjoy myself doing what I do best, talk!

As part of my PhD journey, I was required to take a few graduate modules. Learning graduate level modules with hands on research project work while pursuing my own research was challenging and extremely rewarding. It gave me an insight into many aspects of computer science and allowed me to get inspired from many different professors in the university.

Pandemic hit the world during the second year of my graduate journey. The pandemic caused a major shift in my research routine as working from home became the norm. I missed the interaction, brainstorming sessions and discussions with fellow passionate researchers in my faculty. This caused a lag in my research pursuit. However, as the pandemic settled, I started to adapt myself to the new-normal and regrouped my strategy to continue my pursuit of research with a new-found energy.

NUS has a extremely vibrant campus life. There is always something for everyone. The various activities in NUS not only offers you an escape from work, it also gives you opportunities to take leadership roles and evolve into a more holistic person.

I did my undergraduate in computational biology in NUS. During the 3rd and 4th year, I took a few modules under Prof Wong Lim Soon as part of my undergraduate requirements. The experience I gained from these modules really sparked my interest in the field and induced me to pursue research. Hence, when I completed my undergraduate, I applied for PhD in NUS computing under under Prof Wong Lim Soon and successfully got admitted into the program.