Comic author discusses work on graduate students
Zohaib Ahmad
Issue date: 2/27/09 Section: News
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Cham is the author of "Piled Higher and Deeper," a comic strip about life in a university.
"All the comics were about undergraduates. There needed to be one about the pressures and hardships of graduate life," Cham said.
Cham said it's a way of bringing graduate students together. He said graduate life can be isolating and students need other people to relate with.
"I invite people to read comics to get a sense of what getting your Ph.D. is like and how they are not the only people going through ups and downs," Cham said.
Sara Ansaloni, Ph.D. candidate in molecular biology and president of the Graduate Student Association, invited Cham to Drexel.
"I invited Jorge because I think his Ph.D. comics are very smart and funny and appreciated by graduate students," Ansaloni said.
Ansaloni mentioned the hectic life graduate students have.
"The obstacles and things you have to do [as a graduate student] seem unbearable. You will get depressed sooner or later," Ansaloni said.
She also said these comics can provide graduate students the knowledge that their situation is a shared situation.
"This is a way to detach from your problems in graduate school and be able to take a step back and laugh about it," Ansaloni said.
According to Cham, the comic and its corresponding web site have become popular, especially among the graduate student community.
Cham studied robotics in graduate school and has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford university. He was also a full-time instructor and researcher at the California Institute of Technology from 2003 to 2005.
Now, Cham spends his time drawing comics, visiting schools, and managing the web site for the comic.
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