About Adrian Scoica

Adrian Scoica is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge. He holds an MPhil in Advanced Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, a BSc in Computer Science from the Politechnica University of Bucharest, and has worked as a Software Engineer on i18n, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing problems at Google. His current research interests the application of novel Machine Learning techniques to Natural Language Processing problems, and in his spare time, he enjoys reading, studying foreign languages, and mountain hiking.

The World’s Most Active ACM Chapters Series in Video, Episode 1: UPES ACM Student Chapter, Uttarakhand, India

Working as Departments Chief for ACM XRDS Magazine over the past few years has put me in contact with talented individuals and interest groups ranging from California’s exuberant Silicon Valley to Indonesia’s remote tapestry of mountainous islands. During this process of dialogue and discovery, I was often humbled by my ever-growing awareness of the cultural and geographical diversity of the world’s Computer Science community, and how little I actually knew about Tech in other parts of the world.

“How is campus life in the Computer Science departments in Santiago, Chile?”

“Is Systems Programming taught better in Eastern Europe than in the US Midwest?”

“How much emphasis on Mathematics is there at HCI departments in Japan?”

“How do students organize departmental LAN parties to play Counter Strike in South Africa?”

“Which university has the best community for drone programming in India?”

There are all questions that my younger self could have never dreamed to crack. My horizon and preconceptions were constrained not only by my limited access to information and travel destinations, but also by my social sphere and the rigid official advertising facade put up by institutions in foreign lands and cultures.

Continue reading