Student Spotlight: Anika Ramachandran (IEOR M.E.T. ’22)
What is your favorite part about IEOR at Berkeley?
One of the most unique aspects of IEOR at Berkeley is the community. I appreciate how closely knit and supportive all my peers in the major are of each other. In addition, the involvement and support of the staff and faculty is so special and appreciated. The people have made the events and experiences extremely memorable.
What are you doing after graduation?
I’ll be joining a startup called Nuro full-time after graduation. Currently, Nuro is working on self-driving vehicles for last mile delivery (for those who remember them, a bit like the kiwi bots but on the roads). My specific role will involve working on routing the vehicle, which will certainly involve applying a lot of my learnings from IEOR. I look forward to the work!
How has the IEOR program prepared you for life after Berkeley?
I’ve appreciated the breadth of the IEOR program which has given me so many toolsets to pull from not just for my work immediately after graduation but for in the future too. At Nuro itself, although it is a relatively smaller company in a relatively new field, everything from supply chain to manufacturing optimization will play a crucial role. I think it’s cool that despite a lot of IEOR being traditional, it is still very applicable to new tech and a wide variety of fields.
Any advice to current students?
I’d encourage my underclassmen peers to just follow their interests and have fun. It can sometimes be easy to feel pressured to do something just because others are doing it, but in my (albeit limited) experience, there are so many paths and options, your route could very well be something different— do what feels right to you.
Parting words?
It’s hard to fathom how quickly four years passed. My time at Berkeley will be remembered fondly and while I am sad to see this chapter closing, I’m excited to see what the future holds. Go bears!