Curtin Postgraduate Student provides computer programming lessons from basic to advanced level.

Find out more about Sujal

• Can you tell us about your first experience using a computer?

  Apart from using a computer to do the usual stuff like playing games and browsing the internet. I learned my first programming language (C) in my first-year Undergrad at Tribhuvan University. It was at that moment I realised the true potential of what we can do with computers and I have never stopped exploring that limit ever since.

• What is the technological evolution that has marked you most and what will be, in your eyes, a turning point in this field?

  Being an electronics engineer, the invention of semiconductors and gates is the one that amazes me and it's definitely the one thing that made everything possible that we take for granted these days. If you don't know what semiconductors and gates are, in simple terms, it is how the computer stores and manipulates the 1s and 0s. Everything you do and see on the computer is a result of storing and manipulating those 1s and 0s. If we didn't have semiconductors you won't have phones in your pocket and computers would still be in a huge room with air conditioning weighing tons.

• Explain your expertise, your interest in it and, more broadly, its importance in the computer world.

  I have interests in a varied field related to computing. I'm interested in bare metal which includes the CPU itself, the architecture and how it enables the software layer and gives us the ability to do things that we do as a programmer not knowing how everything is taken care of underneath. If programming is like driving a car, you can drive a car without knowing what's happening under the hood. But when you know what's happening under the hood you can supercharge your driving. If you know how your engine works you can drive in the most efficient way possible or you can drive in a way to use maximum thrust. That's what I find most interesting. On the other end, I am a data analyst by profession and I love working with big data sets from multiple sources and combining them to solve business problems.

• Do so-called 'visionaries', such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg inspire you or do you have other role models?

  Individuals don't inspire me but the work and technological advancement that we get to see every single day inspire me. If you think of where AI and ML was a decade ago and how accessible and ubiquitous it now amazes me. The self-driving car was a fiction a few years back and it's almost a norm now. The technology that enables that like computer vision, Lidar sensor and the computing power required to make those decisions in a split-second is just amazing. You don't need to look up to any individual as a role model just look around you, the change is happening right now and you would want to be a part of it.

• What would you say to an uncomfortable person in front of a screen who says that "IT is too complicated"?

  It's true IT is complicated but it's a part of everyone's life now. The whole point of IT is to make your life simpler, look at all the electronic appliances you have in your home, what's their purpose? If you find anything (not just IT) too complicated, try to start small. Don't overwhelm yourself. You won't be designing AI chips or building programs on day 1. Take your time to start by first understanding the basics, concepts and history. And then try to move and try new things. At the end of the day, Rome wasn't built in a day, it takes time and the same applies to your learning journey. Be patient but have the perseverance to get through any difficulties and keep your motivation, IT isn't that complicated for those who try.

• What are your other passions, related or non-related to computers?

  I love tutoring, and that's the reason I'm on this platform. Sharing the knowledge I have and being able to help someone who is struggling makes me happy. Other than that, I like sports and travelling.