Aliraza “Ali” Shinde is pretty far from home. That’s why it was important to him to find a campus where he felt like he could connect with people and find a community, and that is a big reason why he chose to come to Clemson.
A native of India, Shinde earned his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Atharva College of Engineering in Mumbai. After graduating, he worked as a system engineer for Infosys for two years before he decided to go to graduate school.
“I felt like I needed to make a change, and instead of just switching jobs, I thought why not continue my education and get some more experience because I can now relate real-world problems to the theory that is being taught,” he said.
He decided to come to Clemson and is now working towards a master’s degree in computer science.
“One thing I was looking for was a good campus and a good community, because that is very important when you are far from home. If you don’t have a good, engaging community, that can make things very difficult,” said Shinde.
Shinde is now in his second semester working for the Libraries’ Data Visualization Lab, where he helps students and faculty with data-related projects, everything from helping with data visualization projects to data extraction and data scraping and creating data sets. He said he wants more people to know that the lab is available to help with anything related to data and that their work is not limited to visualization projects.
“If you need help with anything and everything, we are there,” he said. “I don’t think there is a problem that we cannot solve.”
Outside of school and work, Shinde enjoys gaming, watching sports — especially soccer and football — playing badminton, and trying new foods.