Jaishankar Sundararaman '08

Senior Director of Software Engineering, Google

As an engineering director at Google, I am responsible for the backend infrastructure and managing the security and compliance portfolio of products of Gmail and Google Chat. After finishing my undergraduate studies in India, I joined Virginia Tech in 2006 to pursue my master’s degree in computer science. 毕业后, I joined Google to work in the field of distributed systems, a field I am deeply passionate to this day. I live in the San Francisco Bay area with my wife and two boys, ages 10 and 6. We are avid travelers and we are re-starting our travel after the pandemic-induced pause.

How did the department equip you for the ‘real world’...
在博士的指导下. Godmar Back, I was introduced to re搜索 in the field of programming languages and file systems. This foundation provided me with strong system skills that came in handy when I joined Google and helped design the Gmail backend.

Being a Virginia Tech alumnus means...
霍基精神! I am proud to say that every Hokie I have met shared the spirit of trust and friendship. 我还记得4月16日, 2007, the day we lost many of our fellow Hokies, and took a stand against gun violence.

My fondest memory of my time in the department is...
I still remember the long nights I spent at the Corporate 研究 Center working on my master’s thesis with my fellow re搜索 mates, which is one of the best times of my life.

Being the ‘Outstanding Masters Student’ awardee was important to me because…
It helped me strengthen my conviction that hard work and perseverance pays off. I am thankful to the department for placing the trust in me and giving opportunities to assist with teaching and re搜索. This experience helped me grow both personally and professionally.

The work project/initiative that I’m most excited about is...
“The work is to dance between the fun and seriousness of the material” - Rick RubinRemote learning. Covid-19 has opened up doors to a new and exciting way of learning. Personally, I have enrolled myself in two new courses that I wouldn’t have done otherwise. 也就是说, we need to build better tools to mimic the classroom setting and the advantages of learning together as a group. Once we get there, the possibilities are endless!