I chose the Viterbi School for my PhD because it not only allowed me to work alongside some of the most brilliant scientist, but also puts me in a city where I am constantly seeing the application of my research field.

How welcoming and friendly a school of USC's caliber is. Often times when we think about places with very smart people, the image of students competing against each other vying for that number one spot is the first thing that comes to me. Here, you have smart people just as competitive, but people seem to be very welcoming and friendly.

My current research looks at building computational models of human emotion for a negotiation agent to reason about its opponent in a one on one real time negotiation scenario.

My advisor - just watching how he goes about figuring out problems and attacking research has made me appreciate the field and what we do that much more.

Go out with friends to different events and places, and work on side projects.

The weather.