Cooper Sigrist '25PhD
Cooper Sigrist ‘20BS, a fourth-year computer science PhD student at Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) from Medway, MA, runs down the hallways of the Lederle Graduate Research Center. It’s the weekend before spring semester begins and Sigrist is proudly representing the red team in the second annual OlympCICS, a four-day student-run extravaganza for graduate students that’s all about competition, fun, and free food. Most importantly, the OlympCICS offer a way for grad students to blow off some steam, take a break, and relax and recharge.
Last year, Sigrist was master of the ceremonies for the games, leading other graduate students in a takeover of the Computer Science buildings. When he isn’t competing for gold, he works in the SOLAR (Sustainability, Optimization, Learning, and Algorithms Research) Lab at UMass Amherst learning augmented algorithms for green energy. Sigrist also teaches Machine Learning at CICS.
1. How did you come to spearhead the first OlympCICS, and what does the OlympCICS mean to graduate students/to you personally?
I had been really active in the social committee for CICS grads doing movie nights, tennis, abd a hackathon thing, so I guess I was a well-enough known entity — probably from my aggressive emailing. When Erik Learned-Miller wanted to create an Olympics-themed event based on one he experienced during his time at MIT, he asked me to run it. It’s a really good way to meet people and have some good, ol' fashioned fun. Most of us are a bit lost in work and classes to bother with relationships or ‘fun,’ but I think this event is engaging enough to drive some of us to try it out. I had a blast both years and made some new friends I've been hanging out with every day since. This year's event actually lined up with some bad news about a paper I'm working on, and the event really helped me stay in a good mood about it all.
2. How do the OlympCICS build and foster a community?
[I’d describe the OlympCICS as a] cavalcade of competitions, both mental and physical, which aim to form a strong community. The events keep everyone on their toes. By the second annual OlympCICS, my team — the red team, the best team — were a fully cohesive group, and I must admit that, for all their (numerous) flaws, the blue team also was getting along really well. We haven't been able to really get the entire department involved yet, but we're getting there bit by bit.
3. What are some challenges you face regarding mental health as a graduate student?
I think they are a bit different for everyone, but for me, I would say the top three are: first, the difficulty of the work—the research, the classes, and even the teaching are all very real challenges nearly every day. With each of these, you are held to a very high standard, and failing to meet that standard can be met with severe consequences. Worse yet, you have to balance each of these.
Second, the stationary lifestyle: obviously we all spend a lot of time indoors, motionless, and generally silent. It's a bit difficult to live like that.
Finally, having to be in charge of your own life and work. Having just come out of undergrad, most of us are used to being told exactly what to do and when to do it, but in grad school, we have to be in charge of all of it ourselves, and very suddenly. I found this to be overwhelming and when things got rough, I had to figure out how to get out of the rut myself.
4. How do you prioritize your mental health while managing the demands of graduate studies?
To be honest, I think it’s actually impossible to always prioritize mental health as a grad student, but you can definitely make it a bit less horrible. I've personally been making sure that I do a lot of sports (swimming, tennis, etc.), getting food with friends, going to events (like OlympCICS, wow!), and just generally having a good time. I've also gotten into the habit of making sure I have a day off that I don't ever feel bad about taking off — I don't think about all the work I could be doing, instead I just enjoy my time off.