ÿþ<html> <head><title>about me!</title> <META name="description" content =" About Arun 'Nayagam" <META name="keyword" content =" Arun, 'Nayagam, Avudainayagam " </head> <body bgcolor=d3b499 link=blue vlink=brown scroll=yes> <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor=brown width=100%><font color=white face=georgia size=+3> <b>Me!</b>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </tr> <tr><td bgcolor=d3b499> <font face=times size=4> Well, here's a little info about me....if you are reading this...GET A LIFE!!!<br><br> </font> <font face=times size=3> Anyways..<br> I was born in Madurai (psst...here's a piece of trivia...DeMorgan was also born in Madurai ...yeah yeah...the one who gave us DeMorgan's Law), the city of temples, in the southern part of India. Being born is the about the only thing I did in Madurai. I was brought up in Madras (now called Chennai) , a metropolitan city in south India. I lived in the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) campus my whole life (All 21 years before I came to Gainesville). Having two math professors for parents and living in one of the highest centres of technical learning can do weird things to a kid growing up. As you can imagine, living in an atmosphere that was conducive to learning was not really fun for me....as a kid...I used to hate(maybe hate is a strong word...) math 'coz that was one subject that received special attention at home...but all the work my parents forced on me...that is helping me now...you know...being a grad. student in the field of wireless comm. and stuff...anyways...getting back to my childhood...I was a big geek...nerd if you want to... growing up and as most kids getting good grades I pretended to be a cool kid when I was around friends...anyways...after high school, having actually gained an interest in Physics and Maths, I wanted to get into Engineering for my college degree. I failed getting into IIT (Chemistry as a test of a guy's intellect/apptitude in Engineering is not correct!!!... yeah u guessed right..i flunked the chem. exam miserably...hey what do u expect..i hated inorganic chemistry and lucky me, the IIT joint entrance examination of '96 was rich in questions concerning inorganic chemistry ...Some of questions went like : " what is the white salt left behind when you react 'Ammonium Bromamide' with ----" ....some of my answers went like:"who cares!..if u are getting a white residue, dont react the damn things" ) .<br> So I did the next best thing. I went across the street to Anna university. There, I spent 4 wonderful years in the school of Electronics and Communication Engineering. As a learning experience, it was great, though I hated the circuit side of my studies. Playing games over telephone lines was my first step into choosing a specialization. I started getting interested in the area of telecommunications and networking. I took a couple of electives and did an analysis of jitter in ATM networks handling self-similar traffic for my Bachelor's Thesis. Well after my Bachelor's , I started scoping the US for schools so I could continue my studies, took my GRE and applied to a couple of schools...came to UF because it was the only school that thought my qualifications merited some financial assistance. And so armed with a TA and a fellowship, I came to Gainesville. <br> In UF, I worked for Dr.Fang in the wireless networks lab and wrote my thesis on a device and energy aware routing(I call it DEAR...psst..the networking community loves abbreviations) protocol. But something did'nt just feel right. I did'nt feel really at home with the work I was doing. So I started looking for other avenues to continue my learning experience. In my 2nd semester of graduate study, I did a course on "Error Correction Coding"... and my interest was aroused. After that course, during the summer of 2001 I did an independent study with the professor to learn more about some coding techniques and I worked on Low Density Parity Check codes. After that, I was kind of hooked, this was an area I knew nothing about before spring 2001...and now I was really interested. Knowing that there was a rich learning cycle involved, I have started working towards my Doctoral degree in the field of coding. <br><br> <hr size=2 color=brown width=60% align=right> <div align=right> <font face=arial size=1><b> <a href=index.htm> Home </a>| <a href=research/resindex.htm> Research</a> |<a href=projindex.htm> Projects</a>| <a href=aboutme.htm>About me</a> | <a href=personal>Photos</a> | <a href=resume.htm>Resume</a> | <a href=software.htm>Software,tutorials and downloads </a> | <a href=personal>Personal</a> | <a href=contact>Contact</a> <br></b> </div> </td></tr> </table>