My Unexpected AI Research Journey that Took Me Across Continents and Back

Stop worrying and Start Living!!

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It all started when I first learned that my university offers the chance to do my project from outside, I took it upon myself to carefully research and mail professors that I painstakingly found across the internet.

Maybe the universe noticed my efforts, out of 200 or so emails, 15 replied back among which there were professors whose life works spanned across from Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and Human-Computer Interaction.

While the universities from the University of Washington, University of Alberta, and the University of Sydney Australia being the most prominent ones.

I intended to do my Master’s in the US in the future, but because of that, the opportunity I was most proud of became my worst regret.

My most favored opportunity became my worst regret

As I mentioned, I intended to pursue a Master's in the US.

But I learned that if I go to the US now, they would give me a visa whose conditions state that I have to stay in my country for two years after the completion of my project, which means burying my Master’s dreams for at least 2 years.

Now that was something, neither I nor my parents would allow myself to do that.

To give better context, the opportunity I had to let go was working with a professor who was considered the father of Virtual Reality at The University of Washington.

Thankfully, I didn't act on impulse and thinking long term, I choose to go with The University of Technology Sydney where I worked on a high-impact research work project but I always wondered….

“ What if ? “

So, what's this “high-impact research project” you ask?

It was to decrease the number of shark attacks by using ML models that were mounted on Surveillance Drones.

This project bagged multiple awards like iAwards, Keynote from AWS, and a few more.

I even appeared in ABC Australia for a different reason.

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I wrote this article to highlight the already overused quote.

Everything happens for a reason

I will be honest and admit almost every night I used to wonder “what if” when I first landed in Australia…..

But towards the end of the journey, I wouldn’t trade it for the world!

I made lifelong friends, had experiences I would have never had otherwise, found my passion for writing, traveled quite a lot( Covid did not impact Australia as much as the rest of the world), and overall became a much better version of myself.

Again,

The stuff you feel bad about now might actually be a blessing in disguise.

Trust the universe and do what you can do best.

You’ll never know, so just live the best life you can possibly live.

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