Mohamed Sayed (Suadi Arabia) and Sivaram Krishnan (India) joined the family of Master-plus-Program in SS2001 and SS2002 resp. They are both working under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Schaback. The purpose of this interview is to compare the common and different point of views of the two students. The interviews have been done at different time points without their knowledge that they will be asked the same questions. They are both charachterized by simplicity and friendly personality.

• A short biography.

Sayed: I am born on the 13th of January, 1977 in Khartoum, Sudan. When I was four years old, my family and me moved to Oman. After one year my father and me moved to Sudan and then to KSA. During my university undergraduate studies I went back to Sudan and graduated from the University of Africa in April 2000 after studying four years in the Institute of Pure and Applied Sciences.
Krishnan: I am born in Kerala, India on the 15th August 1978. I completed undergraduate studies in Mahatma Gandhi University and worked as mathematics teacher for around one and half a year. I arrived Germany in Summer 2002.

Siva singing happily an Indian song before entering the Hainberg Observatory.

• Tell me about a funny event happened with you.

Sayed: On the first day I was in Göttingen, I had nothing to eat or to drink, and I wanted to go somewhere to buy. Of course I don't know supermarkets where one can buy cheap foods and my knowledge of German language was almost nothing. When I was searching for somewhere to eat, I found an Italian restaurant and entered there. I ordered a pizza and a bottle of water. After the server brought them, I was worried about the water. I saw bubbles in water and I thought that may be it is some alcoholic product which is forbidden for us to drink. I spent 10 minutes looking around the bottle shaking it, and then I decided to drink. Finally I realized that it is mixed with gas.
Krishnan: There have been a lot of funny events that have taken place in the past few years. But I am finding it difficult to recollect any specific one. May be I can quote one from my recent skiing experience. It was my first time on skis, and I was falling around all over the place, eating snow, while a bunch of really small kids, with there tiny skis were just gliding across me with extreme ease. I seem to remember this event now and then it brings a small smile on to my face each time.

Siva and Mohamed eating a traditional Arabic food "falafel" in a Lebanese snack.


 
• What is your favorite color and what does it reflect in your personality?

Sayed: I like green very much because it presents the nature and I feel happy in nature.
Krishnan: If I have a favourite colour that should be yellow because it has been my lucky colour.

Siva and Mohamed in "Weihnachtsmarkt".

• What situations make you lose your temper?

Sayed: When I have an appointment with someone, I do my best to be on time. But unfortunately happens  sometimes that some of my friends don't respect my appointment and that makes me angry.
Krishnan: I usually get angry but don't lose my temper. I try to control myself.

A group picture during Hasina Akter's birthday.


 
• Where do you want to be 5 years from now in your career?

Sayed: I would like to be teacher in my country. Sudan is a developing country and needs educated generation to advance. I think I can serve my country in this domain.
Krishnan: I would like to make some scientific research in a mathematical or computer institution.

Mohamed standing beside the symbolic "Gänseliesel". If he is not allowed to kiss her, he is allowed to stand beside her.

• If you could start your career again, what would you do differently?

Sayed: I would like to marry before I come to Germany.
Krishnan: Anything except mathematics. I would like to do something like phylosophy or psychology and actually I was thinking to do one of those, but then I have thought that may be I will not have a good future in these fields or I will not get a good job. But now I realize that I had a wrong decision and I would definitely prefer to do something else.

• Why did you choose University of Göttingen for your graduate education in mathematics?

Sayed: University of Göttingen is very famous in the field of science and specially mathematics, and there are many famous mathematicians who had graduated from this University. Göttingen is like my second home and I feel very comfortable here to work and study.
Krishnan: At the time I was applying to the universities abroad like in the USA or in Germany and at the mean time to the University of Göttingen, I got a quick acceptance from this university. I have heard about Göttingen and the famous people studied there. So I thought that I don't have to wait to the universities in the USA since I had to wait 6 months due to the semester system there and I hoped that Göttingen will satisfy my needs.

Left: Siva celebrating his 25th birthday. Right: Mohamed standing in front of the old city hall.

• What is your opinion about Prof. Dr. R. Schaback as a supervisor?

Sayed: Prof. Schaback is a very kind, helpful, and intelligent person. It is very easy to deal with him with his humour personality. Mathematics is a very tough subject, but he always tries to present it in a smooth way. When first time I talked with him, I realized that he is a very intelligent person and I should be careful with him. I started working with him since March 2002 after one year I have been in Göttingen.
Krishnan: My opinion is very good about Prof. Dr. Schaback. One of the best things took place in Göttingen is that I knew this person and I decided to work with him. He is always very helpful  cooperative and tries to bring the best out of me. I am always taking the lectures in English with him and that's the second thing I like.

Siva trying to learn iceskating but...


 
• What courses (college/graduate school) did you find most satisfying? Least satisfying? Why?

Sayed: I found most satisfying courses Numerical I (Prof. Schaback) and Numerical Linear Algebra (Prof. Werner), because they were both taught very well and they are related into my field of specialization. And the least satisfying course is the Number Theory for special reason. It was held in German and the exercise sheets were in German. So my problem was somehow related to the language rather than to mathematics itself.
Krishnan: My first semester was very hectic. I took a lot of courses including the German language course. But the course that I really liked it was "Image Processing" done by Prof. Klette, and that was something very different and helpful. It was a new field and it was taught in English.

A memory picture during Hasina's birthday in 'Mohatma Gandhi' dormitory


 
• What would you say you learned from your college/graduate school experiences that you see being carried over to your life today?

Sayed: I learned many things like to be accurate and to be able observe things from different angles.
Krishnan: Probably the only thing that I learned from my school experience is that I was never hard working and I used to study only at the time before the day of the exams and I used to get just enough marks to pass and now I realize the importance of studying more regularly and be systematic with my studies. Siva (vegeterian) eating a typical vegeterian German food at Razmig's room.
 
• Do you prefer working alone or in groups?

Sayed: I would prefer working in groups because we can help each other and gain from their experience. And sometimes happens that I couldn't understand and it may happen that I have to spend weeks to understand it, but when working in group, others can help me. So I will be able to save time.
Krishnan: That depends a lot on the subject that we are dealing with it. If the subject would be something difficult, I would definitely like to work in group. If it is something which is not beyond my understanding, I would prefer working alone.

During the Christmas meeting of Master-plus-Program in Mr. Jones.


 
• You have been a student in Master-plus-Program since SS 2001 (Sayed) /SS2002 (Krishnan). What is your experience with it? Did you have any problem during your studies?

Sayed: Well. Master-plus-Program is a very nice program and it gave me a big opportunity to study in Germany. The only problem is that sometimes we need some undergraduate courses to be held in English. However, it is not the Program's fault since these are undergraduate courses. This problem is solvable through reading introductory books which are available for free in the various libraries of the Faculty or the University Library.
Krishnan: I think that there are a lot of problems in the Program and it needs a lot of improvement. It is about 5 years to start the Program and it has started to improve. Personally I had problems with it because it is more concentrated on pure mathematics courses and my interest is on applied mathematics and that causes me a lot of problems at the beginning. Fortunately, I got a lot of courses in English in applied mathematics in the first semester and I didn't have problems like others had. For example I am doing my thesis with Prof. Schaback and my field is the computational geometry and that is something that Prof. Schaback knows it but it is not his field of interest and his group is working on different topic. But he was kind enough to accept me and give me a topic that is related to the topic that his group is working on. On the other hand Prof. Kress is working on tomography and he has his own group working on it and so on each professor is working on a field and has his own group. But if a student is interested to do his thesis in applied mathematics and his interest is something different than those fields then he may be in trouble to find the exact group to go in. And the other problem is that I didn't know that these are the main fields have been working on in the university. Probably that is something that I am disappointed about. If I knew that there won't be courses in computational geaometry, I wouldn't have come here. But anyway now it is working well with me.

Mohamed and Razmig eating an Arabic lunch.


 
• Still talking about the Master-plus-Program what is your opinion about its organization? Do you think that it is advancing since you came here? Do you suggest anything to improve it?

Sayed: I would like to say that the Program is advancing for sure day by day and there is very big difference between the first day I came to Göttingen and today. It is getting better organization throughout the time. When first I came here, there were just few students and when we wanted a course held in German to be shifted into English, we were asking the lecturer to shift it but there would be only 1 or 2 students who want to shift it to English and then the lecturer will reject the idea for sure. Year after year the number increased, our group became bigger, and we were able to shift courses from German to English. Second thing, I didn't know what to do to get the Master degree. There was no proper guidance. But now we see that there are all the information available for the students through the Newsletter.
Krishnan: I think it is the worst thing in the Program. The organization is very bad. Some of the professors don't even know it. Then the requirements to get the degree is something also strange. The requirement of certificate in pure mathematics or computer programming knowledge which I don't undertsand it why do we need it. It would be good if in the website is mentioned that the knowledge of German language would be helpful. Because one needs sometimes to attend lectures in German to get a certificate in pure mathematics otherwise it would be very difficult for someone whose interest is in applied mathematics to get the certificate because the courses held in English in pure mathematics are very advanced.

After playing bowling, Master-plus-Program students and the coordinator ,Mr. H. Kriete, waiting for the bus.

• Is there anything you would like to add?

Sayed: I would like to advise the new students to learn the German language before they start their studies, because that can solve a lot of problems. It would be better if they attend for 4 to 6 months German language course and afterwards they will be able to attend lectures held in German.
Krishnan: The good thing happened after I came to Germany is that I am living in a nice city Göttingen where people are nice.

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