A3D3 Postbac Orientation Program 2025-26

Tuesday 12 Aug 2025, 11:00 → 13:00 US/Pacific

Online via Zoom

Daniel Diaz (Univ. of California San Diego (US)), Elham Khoda (University of California San Diego (US)), Janina Dorin Hakenmueller (Duke University), Javier Mauricio Duarte (Univ. of California San Diego (US)), Noah Paladino (Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (US))

11:00 → 11:20 A3D3 Overview

Speaker: Javier Mauricio Duarte (Univ. of California San Diego (US))

A3D3 Overview

11:20 → 12:00 A3D3 Postbac Introductions

Please prepare 3-5 slides introducing yourself, your research project, your (current) career plans, and any other fun things you want to share!

Speakers: Bhavya Gupta (MIT), Ines Belkhodja (Caltech), Phoebe Andromeda (UW), Sharvari Tatachar (Georgia Tech)

Bhavya Gupta

Bhavya Gupta

Ines Belkhodja

Phoebe Andromeda

Phoebe Andromeda

Sharvari Tatachar

Sharvari Tatachar

12:00 → 13:00 Transitioning to Industry Panel Session

Panelists:

Phil Hebda is Senior Data Scientist at Roblox. He was previously at Pinterest and Netflix. He received a Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University.

Patrick McCormack is a AI/NLP Data Scientist at Fidelity. He received a Ph.D. in Physics from Berkeley and was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at MIT.

Brian Healy is a Data Scientist at RVO Health. He received a Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Johns Hopkins University and was a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Minnesota.

---

Questions:

What kinds of positions did you consider in your job search and why?
What are the most useful skills in your current job that you learned during your undergraduate career?
If you conducted research during your undergraduate career, how useful was that experience for your current position?
What do you wish you knew before you started applying to your current career?
Are there any skills you wish you had developed more before your current position?
How has work/life balance impacted your current career and career progression?
Where do you see your career progressing in the next 5 years?
What made you decide to go to graduate school?
What made you decide to go into industry rather than academia?
What surprises you most about working in industry?
What backgrounds (majors, previous careers, etc.) or skills does your company look for in hiring?

Speakers: Brian Healy, Philip Hebda (Princeton University (US)), William Patrick Mccormack (Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (US))