Siddhartha Pullannagari graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and will begin pursuing a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence at Columbia University this fall. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)
Siddhartha Pullannagari remembers feeling anxious as he left his hometown of Hyderabad, India, to fly to St. Louis in early January 2023.
It was his first time traveling to the United States, and this trip wasn’t for a one- or even two-week vacation. He was leaving his family and friends behind and flying more than 8,500 miles around the globe to begin his college journey at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.
“It was my own decision, so I knew, ‘OK, I’ve got to deal with it,’” he said, thinking back on what he did to tamp down his apprehension.
It didn’t help that his flight had been rescheduled, so that he had to depart Hyderabad more than 12 hours earlier than he’d planned. But Pullannagari was also excited for what was to come, and the people he met in St. Louis, beginning with Jessica Hylton, UMSL’s director of global students and experiences, helped quiet his nerves.
“Dr. Jessica was the first person I met when I landed in the U.S.,” he said. “She came and picked me up from the airport, and I was the first international student pickup. She basically took care of me.”
He also met other staff members in the UMSL Global office, along with students serving as UMSL Global Orientation Leaders, and they all did their best to make him feel at home. By the end of his first week, his fellow international students were all singing to him during orientation as he celebrated his 18th birthday.
After that, there really was no looking back for Pullannagari. He quickly made friends and settled into his new surroundings, getting involved with campus organizations, including the Indian Student Association; taking advantage of the chance to study abroad in Bremen, Germany, as part of a program organized by UMSL Global and the International Business Institute; and engaging in a series of research opportunities as he pursued his bachelor’s degree in computer science.
Last week, Pullannagari graduated cum laude in only 3½ years, and he will soon be bound for New York City, where in August he’ll begin taking classes in the newly launched Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence program at Columbia University.
Technology that has impact
Pullannagari had a clear direction for his academic pursuits when he came to UMSL. In fact, he chose to study in the United States because it provided him greater flexibility to choose his own degree program than he would’ve had back home.
He knew he wanted to study computer science with a goal of working in app development and perhaps one day launching his own business.
“The biggest motivation, for me, is to have an impact,” he said. “I guess that is what has been driving me to build products – just to see that impact in people’s life. It might be very small, but I just want to change something which makes their daily lives better.”
He believes technology offers an avenue to do just that.
UMSL has given Pullannagari the background he needs to accomplish his goals, whether through coursework on topics such as coding, data mining and machine learning, or in research opportunities he’s had in the Department of Computer Science with faculty members such as Associate Professor Badri Adhikari, Assistant Professor Azim Ahmadzadeh and Associate Professor Sharlee Climer as well as with Professor Chung Wong in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Center for Nanoscience.
“These research positions were basically a place to refine those skills or tools and learn a lot at the same time,” Pullannagari said.
Honing his skills outside the classroom
Some of the most valuable lessons Pullannagari gained over the past three and half years came away from campus, as he participated in hackathons around the country.
He remembers going to his first one, hosted by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, at T-REX in downtown St. Louis. He took the MetroLink from UMSL to get there, unsure of exactly what he would find at his destination.
“I didn’t have a team,” he said. “I didn’t have a lot of experience either, because I was a freshman. The only experience I had was a bit in Java and graphic design. I went in with no coding skills, and I was just pitching myself that, ‘OK, I want to join your team, and I would love to work on a team, etc, etc.’ Luckily, I found a team. We worked on our project, and we won third prize. My first hackathon.”
Pullannagari said the experience boosted his confidence and helped him get into more selective hackathons around the country. He’s participated in more than 20 such events during his time at UMSL, including at institutions such as Harvard, MIT, Princeton and the University of California, Berkeley.
“It is really cool to see how people fly from different places just to work on a project for 36 hours without sleep,” he said. “It’s amazing. In my opinion, those were the biggest learning opportunities for me, because, yes, what you learn in university is important. You get the structure, you get the tools. But I feel like these were the places where I could apply those tools right and build something meaningful with an impact. They basically provided me a platform where I could showcase my skills and also get better.”
The people he met tended to arrive with their own areas of experience, maybe in back-end coding, front-end engineering, software architecture or graphic design. But he appreciated how collegial they all were as they worked together to build an end-to-end product.
“You basically feel like you’ve found your community,” he said. “Because everybody has similar interests, and you’re in the same field. It was just easy to have conversations with anyone.”
Pullannagari used his experiences at various hackathons to assist fellow UMSL students as they worked to plan the annual UMSL Women’s Hackathon, with guidance from Assistant Teaching Professor Damon Walker, two years ago. Earlier this spring, he also took part in the event, and he and his teammates took home the People’s Choice Award for developing an offline application that could help prescreen patients for various symptoms. The relatively simple chat bot helps collect information and can suggest first aid steps or help connect users with different healthcare options. It was meant to help bridge the digital divide that can make accessing medical care a challenge, particularly in rural communities.
“This was my last Women’s Hackathon, and I was really excited,” he said. “It was my only chance to win a prize at home.”
Too good to pass up
Pullannagari wasn’t planning on going straight to graduate school after finishing his degree this spring. He had originally aimed to gain some work experience before resuming his studies.
He was looking at moving to either the East or West Coast depending on where he found the most opportunities.
“Basically, move to a city where I could find a community of like-minded people who are into tech and AI, specifically,” he said. “That was my main nonnegotiable point.”
He figured he’d also apply to some graduate programs to give himself more options depending on how the job search played out. He submitted applications at Boston University, Northeastern University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and at Columbia.
Pullannagari was accepted into several Master of Science in Computer Science programs, but he found it hard to pass up the chance to be part of the inaugural cohort in the Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence program at Columbia. The Ivy League program aligned with his particular interest in AI and also gave him the opportunity to choose his concentration in biomedical.
“On the entrepreneurship side, Columbia has a really good business school and really good connections with NYC startup houses or incubators,” he said.
He plans to move from St. Louis to New York in August, in time to begin orientation on Aug. 27. His first week of classes will come in September.
Pullannagari expects it to take a year and a half to finish his master’s degree and hasn’t ruled out pursuing a PhD after that.
“The other plan would be basically to find a job if something interests me,” he said. “The overall goal is basically to have a startup and have a business of my own.”
His time at UMSL has put him on that path.
“It was such a great experience,” Pullannagari said. “I just can’t put it in words. This was my first step, my first degree, and I don’t think I could have gotten a better start. Everything aligned together pretty well for me.”
