From a Web Developer to a Research Graduate in Wireless Sensor Networks

A little bit of life and tech.

Ashish Yadav
Jul 27, 2017 · 4 min read

Backdrop

(Feb 2012–July 2017)

I used to work as a web developer in a successful company in Bangalore, India. Worked on web/mobile applications ranging from healthcare to food delivery and everything in between. Things were good and I was doing good. Being my first job, I picked up a lot of techno stuff quickly. My first project was on HTML-5 canvas then I moved to Python - scraping data off websites and PDFs. Did a little bit of PHP, WordPress, Grails, Android development, etc. and a lot of JavaScript of course. Then again moved back to Python developing APIs. Before leaving for good on 5th July this year, I finished two projects on Node.js.

Not much. But enough.

I was also handling deployment of web applications and web servers. Also, as a database administrator and sometimes a manager too. Being a small company this all was expected of me and I must say I did pretty well.

So what happened?

Things got monotonous. Boring. The challenges I used to enjoy became drudgery. The work hours became painfully frustrating. I no longer was interested in developing useless applications for people who were in the business just because they can. It was time to move on.

Behind the Scenes

My girlfriend and soon to be wife is pursuing her PhD at Univ. of California, studying protein folding . I always have had a plan to work abroad for a while but studying/research was never a part of that plan. I did get few promising offers from small startups and got through few rounds with big MNCs. But it was just not enough.

My safest option to join my fiance was a student visa. I’m very much interested in research from start so MS sounded like a good option. I don’t mind working as a research scholar during the course actually I’m looking forward to it but Teaching Assistant and to write exams is something I’m not really looking forward to. After all, working for almost 6 years molds your mindset in a way that I can’t explain here, or anywhere.

Action

I’ve got acceptance and funding from a pretty decent University and I’ll be joining this Fall which is like few weeks from now.

The Plot

I am enrolled in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a major research work in Wireless Sensors and networking. As you might have guessed already I have zero experience in this field.

I know how to

  • develop/deploy web/mobile applications,
  • scale/manage databases
  • web servers
  • build robust APIs
  • Blah..
  • and Blah.

But all this has almost nothing to do with Wireless Sensors and distributive networking.

The Plot Thickens

Things I’m hoping to grasp in next few months

  • Computer Networking Basics
  • Embedded Systems Basics
  • Wireless Sensors Basics
  • Motes — tiny piece of Hardware ?(remote sensor)
  • TinyOS — Operating System designed for low powered wireless devices like motes.
  • NesC — programming language used to build applications for the TinyOS platform. Network Embedded Systems C
  • Python for embedded programming
A Google search query.

Right now I want to do something that matters, and not care about the traction of THE next big photo app with that one filter which zillion other applications don’t have.

Tools

My MacBook Pro died recently and I’ve picked up a surface pro 4 because I thought it will be a cool device to take notes with.

A google search query.

I want to start from the basic so picked up a raspberry pie to understand the hardware software interactions. I’ll start creating small prototypes with it using different languages/tools and will try to share my experience and knowledge as I move to dedicated wireless sensors.

Things I would want once I move to the University:

  1. My girl by my side or somewhere nearby
  2. A monitor
  3. A mechanical Keyboard
  4. limitless ports and power for the motes and the pies
  5. A gaming machine (because why not?)
  6. finesse

Climax

I’m not a writer and I have a really bad grammar and I’m maybe socially awkward.

In a way, I shouldn’t be here typing stuff but got really inspired by

Quincy Larson and Suz Hinton

So I’m hoping to write more stories on tech, on my life as I transition from India to Unites States and from a Web Developer to Graduate Student.

Peace ✌️

Thanks to suhani nagpal

Ashish Yadav

Written by

Techie, Musician, Roamer!

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