Daily Lobo: How long have you been going to UNM?
Stephan Falke: Close to five years now, which means I'm going to be done pretty soon.
DL: Where did you go before here?
SF: I got the Master's Degree over in Germany at RWTH Aachen (University).
DL: Where is that?
SF: Aachen, which is about 50 miles west of Cologne, and then I came to UNM to get a Ph.D. here.
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DL: How would you compare the university in Germany to doing the grad program out here?
SF: It's quite different. UNM is more like high school, I would say. It's more like a school than a university, in the sense that universities in Germany are. (German universities) have more freedoms. You have to motivate yourself more when you're there. Professors don't even care as much if you do your homework and things like that.
DL: Would you say that's a good thing?
SF: I like the German way better, actually.
DL: Yeah?
SF: Yeah. If you stay motivated enough to do it, it's nice to have more freedoms.
DL: Well, why did you decide to attend the UNM grad program?
SF: I wanted to work with this one professor, who is a professor over in the computer science department.
DL: How had you heard of him? What's his name?
SF: He is quite reputed. His name is Deepak Kapur . if you read the articles and try to stay in touch with what's going on . you'll know about him.
DL: So, you work with him?
SF: He's my advisor. I do my dissertation work with him.
DL: What are you doing your dissertation on?
SF: My dissertation is on program verification, where you try to make sure the computer program is actually doing what it's supposed to. You want to make sure that the program is always producing a result, and not looping forever. .
DL: When do you finish up your dissertation?
SF: Probably in September.
DL: What are your plans post-graduation?
SF: I'm actually going to move back to Germany and go job hunting there.
