I have known Pratik over 3 years now, first when he joined us as an intern and then as a full time colleague since Sept 2013. In my experience of over 10 years in the software development business, I have found that people are usually specialists (more depth than breadth) or generalists (more breadth than depth), but Pratik is one of those rare persons who combines both breadth and depth. Specially when it comes to computers, operating systems, programming languages and data structures. Not only is he strong in the theory but also has skills to read manuals and install and play with complex technology.
I think this quality will set him apart as a researcher in Computer Science in whichever field he chooses to pursue. At Web Notes, Pratik manages our infrastructure and builds tools for deployment of our product. Our company publishes a cloud based ERP system based on Maria DB and Python and Pratik has been instrumental in making its architecture extremely efficient and robust based on the latest available tools in the open source domain. We manage close to a thousand customer instances in single server that has been setup by Pratik. He has also devised a migration system that migrates databases to different versions seamlessly with minimum disruption or down time. The product is also open source and Pratik has build an installer cum virtual environment that can be used by anyone wanting to try it out on standard Linux distributions.
Being a Penn State Alum (MS IE '03) I have not doubt that Pratik will be a great asset to the Computer Science program as a graduate student. For Pratik, experiencing the scale and culture of the University life in the United States will be an life changing event that will help him to be productive in his career and open up new possibilities.
ps. As a non-native English speaker, Pratik understands and speaks excellent English.