Adilet Zhaxybay

Adilet is a 22-year-old student of the Nazarbayev University and native of Pavlodar. Thanks to the Internships grant of the Foundation Adilet did his research in the summer of 2015 in Professor Shachar Lovett’s lab, Computer Science and Engineering Department, University of California San Diego.

1. Why did you choose to pursue this field?
I have always been fascinated with programming – a mixture of mathematics and high technologies and it is so popular and promising in the modern world. So the choice of my specialty in the university was a simple question.

2. What was most difficult part of the competition for the internship grant?
The most difficult and interesting was the second interview of the contest. It takes place in person in a group of other applicants for the grant, and, as far as I know, the content of it changes every year. During my interview I had to be quick in thinking, keep up and respond to constantly changing tasks, work in a team and, of course, I had to prove myself. All this at a very fast pace and under the supervision of the foundation’s employees.

3. Any memorable experience that happened during the internship in the US?
Besides working at the University, over the summer I managed to go to Los Angeles and San Francisco and visited the famous Silicon Valley. There I visited the offices of the largest technological companies in the world – Google and Facebook. I was also able to visit the neighboring Mexico. These trips incredibly expanded my horizons and certainly had not been boring! Of course, all of this was in addition to the scientific work during the internship, the importance of which for me is difficult to overestimate. I worked on the challenges of recovering invalid or incomplete data. 

4. How would you describe the impact of the internship on you personally?
Upon returning, I realized that these three months affected me to evolve as a person. I strengthened my scientific knowledge and learnt a lot of new things, improved my English and I also began to better understand other cultures and countries (not only the USA) and, of course, I met a great number of interesting people. I think all of this has impact on anyone regardless of what career he or she is pursuing.