Siva Usha Mithra Sankrithi
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What he does:
- In addition to his full-time graduate study in Applied Mathematics at UW, Siva is also working at Lakeside High School, where he teaches calculus.
Math on the job:
- Siva received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, from the University of Washington, Spring, 2006.
- Everything Siva does between his two jobs has to do with math. In his graduate program, he takes graduates courses in mathematics, albeit a bit less theoretical. He hopes to have completed his Master's degree at the end of this year and wants to continue on to a PhD. He plans to focus on optimization, and perhaps work with a professor in the Mathematics Department.
- In his position as instructor at Lakeside, he credits his teaching success to his tutoring experiences at the Math Study Center, under the tutelage of Patrick Perkins, the Director of the Math Study Center. While working at the MSC, he learned effective methods of communication with calculus students and a lot of different approaches to solving interesting problems. He has also taken the best points of his professors to mold his teaching style so as to be the best teacher possible.
Siva's background:
- As a student at Lakeside himself, one of his math teachers, Mrs. Barinoff, who is now a colleage and mentor, was instrumental in his love for mathematics. Then at UW, Patrick Perkin's calculus classes really steered him into the math direction as opposed to engineering. Coming into the UW, he knew he would major in some sort of science or engineering, but it was the teaching of key faculty that really steered him into the study of Mathematics as a major. This and the complete lack of enjoyment in the entry level physics sequence that was so trivial mathematically.
Advice for students:
- Siva's advice to current students would be to make sure to choose the degree that fits you best. He initially thought that the comprehensive math degree was the right one, but then realized he is more interested in practical applications than pure theory, so switched to the standard option. It was the best decision he made, which led him to take the optimization series, Math 407, 408, and 409. Now he is planning to do his research in optimization and maybe even work with one of his former professors!