Pramod Ganapathi

Brief background: I was a research assistant, specializing in algorithms, supervised by Prof. Rezaul Chowdhury. The state-of-the-art was that humans were discovering algorithms. My PhD work proves that computers can discover non-trivial algorithms. Before coming to Stony Brook, I worked as a Software Engineer at IBM, India. I received my Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Science from Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, India. 

Position description: I am the Founder and CEO of Learning is Beautiful. Ours will be the first company in the world to teach deep thinking and hardcore problem-solving on higher education topics through extremely simple and intuitive animated videos on a grand scale. Finally, after almost 10 years of dreaming, now I am able to follow my life's dream of building a great online educational company.

Structure of a typical day: Emailing. Phone calling. Meeting people. Networking. Reading 50+ pages of a personality development book. Deep thinking. Creating visions. Planning. Lots of problem-solving. Leading people. 

How did you find the job?: I did not find the job. The job (or the divine task) found me. Around 10 years ago, I realized that "learning" is the panacea that can solve almost all problems in our lives and the world. At that time, I had decided to build an online educational company to change the world. After PhD, I am simply following the algorithm to chase my dream and convert it into reality. 

Advice to other students: Learn, learn, and learn indefinitely. Learning starts with the willingness to learn and ends up in execution of the learned knowledge. You can achieve anything in the world with learning. Here is a simple exercise you can do. Learn (includes execution) from 10 great books on personality development in the next 1 year and see yourself time travel to 10 years into the future, of your maturity. 

Cannot thieves steal, cannot even King usurp,
Cannot siblings covet, not even heavy to carry,
As is spent, keeps on increasing continuously,
Wealth of Vidya (knowledge) is the supreme of all wealth.

- Sanskrit verse