(3/52) Ketki Kulkarni - 4 Feb 2024
“Am I just a token girl?”, she thought to herself, seated beside the Finnish Science minister, being the only woman research fellow at a table surrounded by distinguished male scholars from across the country. Raised in Muscat, Oman, Ketki Kulkarni’s story has been deeply influenced by her rich experiences living in multiple countries, including USA, Singapore, Finland, India, and Oman. Working at the intersection of academia and industry, Ketki is a research fellow at the HUMLOG Institute, a research organization at the esteemed Hankel School of Economics in Finland. She is a proud mother and one of the most humble people I’ve met recently.
Early Life
Ketki grew up in Muscat, Oman, enjoying a relaxed, peaceful life in the 90s, with a strong ambition to pursue a career in science, inspired by her parents’ successful careers. Faced with limited options for higher education, her family moved back to Pune, India after her high school. It is one of the joys of living abroad to connect with people from diverse backgrounds. We go out of our way to build relationships, show respect, and revel in celebrating cultural differences, from festivals to food alike. Having spent her entire childhood in an Islamic country, it came as a cultural shock to her when she found herself being ostracized for dressing differently and ridiculed for speaking fluent English in an English medium school in India. In India, a country celebrated for its diversity, people rush to label you based on your caste, color, and name without making any attempt to know the person behind it. Unable to make friends, Ketki felt overwhelmed and isolated in school, as opposed to the tight knit Indian community she was raised in Muscat.
To her fresh eyes, the lackluster in the Indian education system didn’t go unnoticed. She was disheartened and alarmed by how students invest conscious effort in showing disrespect and belittling their teachers in schools. The female teachers, in particular, are sexualized based on their clothes, hair, and physical appearance. This has been a common occurrence even at the most prestigious colleges in India, that produce some of the world’s leading scientists and engineers. One of the key reasons she decided against applying for faculty positions in India is because of her teaching experience during her PhD program at IIT Bombay. “Academic excellence cannot compensate for the lack of humility and basic respect towards others” – values she hopes can be absorbed living in other countries.
Undergraduate and Masters Studies
In the early 2000s, Ketki found herself drawn to linguistics along with her interest in engineering. The Internet was not as accessible at the time and limited by the life experiences of those around her, she joined the Bachelors in Electronics and Communication program at Cummins College of Engineering, Pune. By the end of her final year, Ketki had distinguished herself by winning the Infosys Sudha Murthy best all-rounder award, for her academic excellence and achievements in sports. But despite doing well academically, chip design and natural language processing didn’t speak to her. Confused about her next steps, she came across an interview with Indra Nooyi, the then CEO of PepsiCo. In a world dominated by male leaders, the powerful presence of this woman with a background in Industrial Engineering struck a chord with her.
In 2007, Ketki joined the master’s program in Industrial Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Her venture into Industrial Engineering turned out to be a good bet. The learning curve was steep as she became fascinated with simulation, modelling, and Operations Management. Ketki also met her future husband during this period. However, her graduation coincided with the tumultuous times of 2008 financial crisis, and Industrial Engineering was one of the sectors hardest hit. The few job opportunities available were predominantly offered to US citizens, forcing students to accept unpaid work in hopes of enhancing their resumes amidst fierce competition.
PhD Journey
After 6 months of fruitless job hunt and mounting bills, Ketki made a pivotal decision to apply for PhD positions. IIT Bombay was initially just a backup plan, urged by her father, who is an alumnus of the institution. She returned to India fully intending to go back to the US, but the 2 days she spent at IIT Bombay for her interview ended up being the decisive moment. The tight-knit community of faculty and students in the Industrial Engineering department, all working on intriguing problems, persuaded her enough to dedicate the next 5 years of her life there. Her PhD research centered on the use of simulation-based optimization for job shop scheduling problems. Her approach focused on using simulation to capture stochasticity and eliminate non-linearities in Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) problems, yielding a simplified linear model with a robust solution and better approximation. One of Ketki’s cherished moments from her PhD includes the late-night discussions with her colleagues during coffee breaks, deliberating over a different research problem each time. She believes that while a PhD might not be a way to earn a quick buck, and the time investment may seem disproportionate to the skills learned, it significantly sharpens one’s ability to pose the right questions, craft compelling stories, and effectively present one’s work. She advocates the pursuit of a PhD for those deeply passionate about research, with a strong proclivity for reading and writing, and a willingness to invest extra effort in unraveling complex problems.
Pursuing a career in science as a woman can present unique challenges. There aren’t many role models to begin with, and most women leaders in STEM don’t receive as much recognition as their male counterparts. Women are often discouraged from choosing fields that are traditionally male dominated. Ketki was the first woman to study full-time on campus and graduate with a PhD degree from the IEOR department at IIT Bombay. Before her, several women had dropped the course, and she often faced skepticism over whether her selection was merit-based or gender-based. Far too many people trivialized her PhD pursuit as either an avoidance of marital responsibilities or a temporary pause before motherhood. Such sentiments often extend to women constantly feeling pressurized to justify their achievements and questioning their worthiness upon any success. In my experience, there is a tendency to overlook the struggles women endure and the sacrifices they make, yet their success is frequently undermined by attributing it to the minority card. When she was invited to a luncheon with the Finnish Science Minister last year, Ketki found herself questioning her credibility, being the only woman researcher at the table. After a decade in the field, she’s striving to rise above these labels and rightfully claim her success. Her presence and recognition serve as a beacon for change, emphasizing the importance of female representation in all spheres.
Work Experience
After her successful internships at the General Electric and Xerox Research Centre India, Ketki was determined to build a career in the Operations Research industry. Following her PhD and with an eagerness to excel in her role, she joined the Operations Research team at Sabre Airlines in Bangalore, India. However, it was a turning point in her career when she decided to start a family and was faced with the stark reality of inadequate childcare facilities and maternity support at work. The long commute, late night meetings, and health issues related to pregnancy further compounded the difficulty of managing childcare on her own. Attracted by the promise of better childcare facilities and favorable work-life balance, her family decided to relocate to Singapore. Ketki joined the Fujitsu-SMU Urban Computing and Engineering Lab, where she played a significant role in developing the prototype for a decision-support tool for port operators in Singapore. Through her personal struggles, she highlighted the importance of quality childcare facilities for working mothers, an issue that affects many in their professional and personal lives.
For the past decade, Ketki has been working on fascinating optimization problems across different fields. Her latest research aims at building resilient transportation systems capable of operating effectively during disruptions. A pilot project within this theme is dedicated to delivering humanitarian aid to Ukraine, navigating the complex geopolitical and geographical constraints. At her previous position at Alto University, Finland, Ketki also led a collaborative research project with scholars from various Nordic countries. This joint effort was focused on studying Winter Navigation, with a focus on building intelligent ships engineered to break ice in the frozen sea around Finland, thereby facilitating a clear route for other vessels to enter. Ketki also serves as an executive committee member of the Finland India Network of Researchers and Academics, aiming to expand the network between Finnish and Indian researchers. The goal is also to expose the highly qualified researchers in India seeking challenging problems to the Scandinavian and Nordic research environment, thereby encouraging initiatives, and increasing visibility.
Ketki also advises graduate and undergraduate students in different capacities, a role she finds immensely rewarding and crucial for staying abreast in the field. Her stint leading a lecture series at the Universiti Kebangsaan, Malaysia, as part of a research exchange program, changed her outlook on teaching and ignited her passion for it. Soon, she wishes to start her own research group, to support her students financially, engage them with challenging problems, and generate impactful work, focusing on issues of national importance and environmental impact.
Conclusion
In our concluding conversation about the future of Operations Research, Ketki shared her hope that the Operations Research field retains its foundational strengths and that the students don’t succumb to the appeal of populist AI technologies, at the expense of acquiring the core knowledge of the discipline.
Navigating through the intricacies of challenges and triumphs, Ketki’s story had left me inspired and reminded me of the power of perseverance, the importance of representation, and the endless potential that lies within the pursuit of knowledge and equality. More than just a tale of achievement, her journey embodies the essence of staying true to one’s aspirations against all odds, inspiring not just women but all who dare to dream big and challenge the status quo.