Saket Vora

I went out to the EE buildings this morning and attempted to meet some professors. I was able to introduce myself to Dr. Teresa Meng, a professor at the Integrated Circuits Laboratory. I wanted to meet Dr. Meng because she does research in analog circuits but she was also a co-founder of Atheros Communications, so she ‘gets’ technology entrepreneurship. I headed back to the apartment to grab a quick lunch then went off to get a bike.

A bike is a necessity on the Stanford campus. To get to the EE/CSC buildings (Packard, Hewlett, Paul Allen, and Gates), it is a solid 25-30 minute brisk walk from where I live in the Rains neighborhood (~1.2 miles). After lunch, I promptly went out and bought a bike. I paid a bit more than what I would have liked, but after seeing the hundreds of newly arriving undergraduates on my morning walk, I felt a sense of urgency. This bike is a commuter style bike that I think will work well around campus.

Back home, Dad has been pursuing a really good deal on a laptop so I’ll be getting a new one in maybe a month or so. It’s a Thinkpad T61. More on that when I get it.

I also got a chance to poke my head into Dr. Umran Inan’s office and say hello. He was on conference calls for much of the day. Dr. Inan is Nader’s research advisor and head of the famous VLF Group at Stanford.

I tagged along with Nader to a barbeque get-together at Studio 1 and got a chance to meet more new grad students. Met some people from IIT in India, Korea, Boston area, etc. One incoming EE grad student was very much along the same lines as me at how he was approaching the EE program and what he wanted to get out of Stanford.

Line was too long at the barbeque so ultimately Luke, Nader, and I went to a good mexican place on California for a late dinner.

My departmental orientation is on Thursday, from 7:45am to 5pm. Still need to get my classes finalized too.