“What I’m learning here is that bringing different cultures together is wonderful”
Sometimes, you just have to take your chances as they come, a bit like Claudia who never imagined she would consider New York as her new home. Born in Palmi, a municipality in the metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria in Italy, she studied Computer Science for both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Cosenza. It was through university projects that she became interested in parallel and distributed computing, topics that she decided to further explore by doing a PhD in Parallel and Distributed Programming Models in Turin. In her second year, she had the opportunity to do an internship at IBM Research, a major IT company in New York State where she worked on Big Data Analytics and from which, during her final year, she received an important job offer.
“A lot of things came together at the right time. I didn’t even know these company internships existed, let alone in America. It was the last of a thousand thoughts, and it happened”.
From never having thought about leaving Italy, Claudia moved to New York State in 2017. Moving there was not a great cultural shock as she lives in the most diverse and European part of the state, which is so big that you can drive for six hours straight without ever leaving it. To be free to go wherever you want in the US, a driving licence is essential – “it’s a nation that travels by road” – but that does not apply to New York City (NYC), which she describes as a world apart and worth visiting at least once in a lifetime. In the US national research centres are often built in very isolated places for security reasons, like hers, even if she feels lucky to work and live just half an hour from NYC. There, one of the offices where she sometimes works is located right in front of Eataly, where she makes sure to enjoy a real Italian coffee break. At IBM Research, she works on Cloud Computing for AI (Artificial Intelligence) and to all those things related to the middleware. “Cloud and AI are currently the most important technological developments”, and she works on machines and software, on creating platforms and optimising useful tools to help customers use AI. For the past two years, she has also been conducting applied research to ensure that customers always have access to the latest advancements and currently, she is interested in providing advanced systems in the field of Telemetry Observability. An area of study that aims to provide full visibility of what is happening on machines to anyone using them.
“From the hardware to the user chatting with the AI, there are infinite things that can go wrong. And the more you look, the more things happen”.
There is a huge amount of work behind AI, “the person using ChatGPT only sees the tip of the iceberg”, and this is exactly what excites, amuses and intrigues her the most. Moreover, in a collaboration with Stonybrook University, they are trying to build models to forecast future disasters based on Telemetry collected from hardware and software.
In the US, “living without a job is impossible”, both economically and legally. IBM initially sponsored a temporary visiting researcher visa for her, which she had to renew each year, living in fear that for whatever reason she would not qualify. Working as a researcher in an IT company, the only way to apply for a visa or green card – a permanent visa – is as an outstanding researcher whose work could move the US forward. Something, which has to be proven. Over the years, she has thought about what she should do to demonstrate her contribution to research such as continuously publishing top-notch papers, attending conferences or being on their Programme Committee, and reviewing articles.
“The renewal process is a tremendous stress. Your life is focused on what needs to be done to qualify for a visa that will expire after one year”.
A concern that increased exponentially when applying for the green card. A complicated process for which the help of lawyers is essential to gather all what she has done so far, and to write the report in which she explains her research and its impact. She had to ask for letters of reference and the whole thing was submitted to the Immigration Office. “Going through the whole application process is mentally painful”, she considered giving up. But after a year and thousands of dollars, she turned out to be a good candidate.
“Now that I’ve got my green card, a gigantic amount of stress has gone away for good. Now I can work without the fear of having to leave”.
Today, Claudia considers herself privileged because, although the visa application process is difficult for everyone, her Italian nationality has allowed her to join waiting lists that are faster than those for other countries such as India or China for which, it takes years.
“I am now an immigrant, and I better understand the state of mind of people from outside going to Italy and the mental stress of thinking about having to leave”.
Another important consideration in the US is health insurance, which is expensive and depends on one’s employment contract. Very little is free, and even with a good health insurance like hers, it is easy to spend several thousand dollars on visits. In the US, however, bureaucratic procedures are generally very complex. She is still concerned about making mistakes and it becomes a collective effort to understand them together with colleagues and friends in the same situation, “an experience that makes you humble”. In addition, she has noticed that in their regard, and in her, US people are very welcoming. It may be because of the absence of the initial language barrier present in Italy, or for the familiarity with different accents, but they always do everything to make those who have just arrived feel at home.
“What I’m learning here is that bringing different cultures together is wonderful”.
Plus, as an Italian, she receives a preferential treatment due to the curiosity and immense affection that people have for Italy, especially Italian Americans. “They have a sense of identity that we don’t have, they really feel it” and, from her point of view, it is very beautiful. She misses the little things that are typical of Italian living, such as having coffee at the counter as well as the Italian food that she does not differentiate anymore between North and South, it is all delicious.
At the moment, because of the amount of funding, her research activity cannot be compared to university research in either the US or Italy. Moreover, she does not think she could do the same work in Italy. Claudia has now adapted to the American lifestyle and feels very fortunate for what life has given her which, she would never have imagined before.