Rasika Kumar is an engineer at Google and an Associate Director at Abhinaya Dance Company of Silicon Valley.

We were curious to find out her story and how she came to combine her twin passions – science and dance and pursue them with equal dedication.  Kumar grew up in a home surrounded by science, dance and music. Her  father is a hardware engineer and her mother is an educator and dancer, who founded Abhinaya Dance Company.

We had lots of questions for Kumar. How did her parents influence and mentor her? When did she develop an interest in math and science? Did she have challenges doing her math homework at high school? How did she decide to study computer science at MIT? What does she have to give up to keep her twin interests in science and dance?  Was she ever torn about giving up one for the other?  Tune in to find out the answers to these questions and more.

This interview is part of our TV series on Women in Science and Tech sponsored by Zoho Corp.