An Ohio State graduate student was found dead Wednesday in an apartment swimming pool in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Hari Sugavanam, 24, was found at the bottom of the pool by friends after he had been missing for a few hours and was declared dead at the scene, according to a local media report.
Sugavanam was living in California while working for DaimlerChrysler as an intern for the summer. He was planning to return for autumn quarter and finish his master’s degree in geodesy, an interdisciplinary science which uses spaceborne and airborne remotely-sensed and ground-based measurements to study the shape of the Earth. He also worked as a graduate research assistant.
He started working on his master’s at OSU in autumn of 2001, said Irene Tesfai, an administrator with the Department of Civil Engineering and Geodetic Science. He earned a bachelor of engineering at the India Institute of Technology in Bombay before attending OSU.
Harsh Vangani, a first year master’s student in geodesy, said Sugavanam was dedicated to his studies.
“He was a very sincere guy, very sincere about his studies,” he said. “He always went to class.”
Christopher Jekeli, professor of civil environmental engineering and geodesy, also said he was a good student.
“He was an excellent student and he certainly will be missed,” he said.
Vangani said Sugavanam helped him out when they were both attending India Institute of Technology. Sugavanam was a year ahead of Vangani.
“He was the one who came to pick me up at the airport and he let me sleep at his home for a couple of weeks,” he said.
Vangani said he talked to Sugavanam earlier in August.
“He told me he was having the best time of his life there because he was enjoying his internship in California,” he said.
