Name: Sampashree Nayak
Job Title: Graduate Research Assistant
Where do you hail from:
I was born in a small coastal town named Bhadrak, in the state of Odisha, India. After my undergrad, I moved to Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India. I worked for three and half years at Caterpillar Inc. as an IT Analyst. After my marriage in 2015, I moved to Lincoln, Nebraska.
What is it they say you do:
I am a Graduate Research Assistant at CCFL, working on IT Support project under the guidance of my wonderful boss, Allison Jones.
My responsibilities are as follows:
1. Assisting all staff at CCFL with hardware, software and network related issues
2. Setting up, installing, or troubleshooting computers for the end users and maintaining the software packages using WPKG (server-based software packages deployed into windows computers without end user intervention).
Who are your early influences/who inspired you most:
My father is my role model. He is a Professor in Chemistry in an Indian university. His hard work, patience and dedication for his research influenced me the most. I still remember how happy I was when I saw my name in the Acknowledgement section of his PhD Thesis. Not only does he work hard in his scientific research, but also always maintained a perfect work-life balance to manage a big family and raise two girls with the support my mother.
What has been your greatest source of career satisfaction/ proudest achievement:
I come from a family rich in grad degrees: a PhD (my father), two Masters (my mother and sister). But, unlike my parents and sibling, I made the decision to end my formal education after my undergraduate and started working in an IT company. After I moved to United States, both my husband and father encouraged me to go to graduate school. So getting admission to master’s program at UNL along with a Graduate Research Assistant position is one of my proudest achievement so far in my life.
What has been an unexpected detour/ greatest frustration/disappointment:
Before I started my grad school here at UNL, I was voluntarily working in a lab in CB3. I got interested in different methods used for the study of human psychology. Therefore, I first got admitted to Quantitative, Qualitative & Psychometric Methods program in the Department of Educational Psychology. Being from a computer engineering background, the psychology concepts were alien to me. So I ultimately decided to switch to my core interest that is computer science and engineering.
What is your passion/what you are drawn to/what motivates you/where do you hope to be in five years:
After taking few computer security courses and getting to know about the importance of digital security at CCFL, I am now very much interested to pursue my research in the areas of computer security. I am currently working on my masters’ project that is based on cyber security. I plan to pursue my PhD in CSE specializing in Cyber Security.
Family life/hobbies /community involvement:
Back in India, I have a big traditional joint family of 16 members. I am living with my husband here in Lincoln. He is a PhD student in the department of Computer Science. His continuous guidance and encouragement, motivates me to stay one step ahead.
We have a nice community of people from my Indian home state who speak the same language (India has 23 official languages and many more unofficial languages). We celebrate our festivals and other events together either at Omaha or Lincoln. Being far away from our home, I don’t miss a chance to celebrate many of our traditional festivals.
My hobbies:
I enjoy dancing, group fitness (more specifically Zumba), exploring new places, foods and cultures.
The quotation I live my life by is...... “Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.