Prof. Dr. Laxmi P. Gewali
Department of Computer Science
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA

A veteran of more than 60 research papers Dr. Laxmi P. Gewali is currently working as a professor of computer science at University of Nevada, USA. Dr. Laxmi, who was born in Thorga, Gulmi started his career in Computer Science when he completed his M.Sc. in computer science from University of Texas, USA in 1982 and then a Phd from the same university in 1989.

Research works carried out by Dr. Laxmi have been taken as reference by many other researchers who are working on Algorithm Development, Robot Motion Planning, Computational Geometry, Data Compression and Mobile Computing. He was voted to serve on the editorial board of the prestigious journal – IEEE Transactions on Computers.

Many students who did Phd/Masters under Dr. Laxmi’s supervision are working in world’s top technology companies like Intel, Cisco, Wall Street etc.

Dr. Laxmi has a huge contribution in establishing the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology at Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur. The project was sponsored by UNDP and US government.

We put him couple of questions. Following are the excerpts of the conversation we had with him:

Talking about education system what radical change do you think we need to bring in our education system in compare to one in the US?

Without any doubt, Nepali students have the great potential to obtain a quality education comparable to tier-one institutes in USA. Some ten-plus-two schools in Kathmandu are doing a superb job in initiating high quality education. Unfortunately, these institutes (top 30 pc) are located only within the Kathmandu valley. Even the so-called regional universities (Pokhara University and Purbanchal University) are floating their campuses in Kathmandu Valley – this will defeat the very purpose of regional institutes. I strongly believe that each development region of Nepal should have a “Center of Excellence” for undergraduate education supported both by the government and the private sector. Quite a few medical colleges have cropped up outside Kathmandu in recent years. While they are providing needed medical education, they charge hefty fees and a large percentage of the students are from foreign countries. Nepal needs quality regional undergraduate institutes spanning all aspects of technical, medical, and liberal arts education. Initiating centers of excellence in all fourteen zones may not be feasible at this time. Perhaps they should start with three experimental center of excellence in selected regional headquarters. Prime Minister Nehru in India was instrumental in establishing Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in five different regions in India. The long term effect of IITs in the development of India is phenomenal. Almost all successful hi-tech entrepreneurs in India (and NRIs) had their undergraduate education in IITs. Building quality education takes time and it should be done with appropriate planning and vision.

When you first came out of Nepal in search of better career, you must indeed have gone through great deal of hardships. Would you like to share with us some of those moments?

I certainly had to face some difficulties and challenges when I first started my technical career in USA. My first full time job at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of Texas Instruments at Dallas, Texas, was very demanding. I was working with a technical team to develop algorithms for planning routes for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. I learned there how to use long hours productively and how to design tangible products under peer pressure and dead-lines. I also started to understand and respect my own limitations.

With all your experience you have garnered so far, how would you define ‘Life’ and ‘Success’?

Life is an opportunity to be useful and productive. Goals are not fixed entities – they are rather moving targets. We should continue to head toward the target. Success is a continuing journey with clear vision – accepted with respect all ups, downs, and bumps on the way.

What sort of contributions do you think should the successful Nepalese living abroad make towards development of our country?

We may be Non Resident Nepali (NRN), but we still can contribute significantly to the development of Nepal. I was impressed by the following quotation from an Indian government official. “India gives great values to the contributions made by NRIs. India’s freedom struggle was lead by Mahatma Gandhi, who was a NRI from South Africa.”

At present the economy of Nepal is nurtured by the remittances from non resident Nepalese, mostly from the Middle East and South East Asia. It would be great if NRNs who have settled in the west could start adopting villages by providing sanitation, adult-education, and basic health care. Even small contributions can trigger significant change in remote villages in Nepal.

Following is the list of Grants and Awards Dr. Laxmi has received so far:

-Fullbright Scholarship, 1980-1982.
-Mahendra Vidya Bhusan, Nepal, 1973
-Research Grant from Cray Research Inc USA, 1991 (Algorithm Development for Shape Decomposition)
-Research Grants from the US Department of Energy, 1996, 1997, 1998(Geometric Algorithms for Fluid Flow)
-Recognition Award from the Association of Programming Machinery (ACM), USA, 1996.
-UNLV Distinguished Teaching Award (Highest Teaching Award in the entire University), USA, 1999.
-Lambda Chi Alpha Faculty Excellence Award, UNLV, 2000.
-Research Grant from BONN Corporation. 2002-2004.(for developing algorithms for planning trajectories for unmanned aerial vehicles)
-Fulbright Grant from US Department of State, 2003-2005(for setting up BSc and MSc Curriculum in Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu Nepal, 2003-2005.)

We should be all proud of this Nepalese son. We take this opportunity to include him as a member of 'Nepalese Hall of Brain'.