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| Author | SHA1 | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| bbe51f52d6 |
313
Gemfile.lock
313
Gemfile.lock
@ -1,252 +1,119 @@
|
||||
GEM
|
||||
remote: https://rubygems.org/
|
||||
specs:
|
||||
activesupport (6.0.3.2)
|
||||
concurrent-ruby (~> 1.0, >= 1.0.2)
|
||||
i18n (>= 0.7, < 2)
|
||||
activesupport (4.2.6)
|
||||
i18n (~> 0.7)
|
||||
json (~> 1.7, >= 1.7.7)
|
||||
minitest (~> 5.1)
|
||||
thread_safe (~> 0.3, >= 0.3.4)
|
||||
tzinfo (~> 1.1)
|
||||
zeitwerk (~> 2.2, >= 2.2.2)
|
||||
addressable (2.7.0)
|
||||
public_suffix (>= 2.0.2, < 5.0)
|
||||
addressable (2.4.0)
|
||||
coffee-script (2.4.1)
|
||||
coffee-script-source
|
||||
execjs
|
||||
coffee-script-source (1.11.1)
|
||||
colorator (1.1.0)
|
||||
commonmarker (0.17.13)
|
||||
ruby-enum (~> 0.5)
|
||||
concurrent-ruby (1.1.7)
|
||||
dnsruby (1.61.4)
|
||||
simpleidn (~> 0.1)
|
||||
em-websocket (0.5.1)
|
||||
eventmachine (>= 0.12.9)
|
||||
http_parser.rb (~> 0.6.0)
|
||||
ethon (0.12.0)
|
||||
coffee-script-source (1.10.0)
|
||||
colorator (0.1)
|
||||
ethon (0.9.0)
|
||||
ffi (>= 1.3.0)
|
||||
eventmachine (1.2.7)
|
||||
execjs (2.7.0)
|
||||
faraday (1.0.1)
|
||||
faraday (0.9.2)
|
||||
multipart-post (>= 1.2, < 3)
|
||||
ffi (1.13.1)
|
||||
forwardable-extended (2.6.0)
|
||||
gemoji (3.0.1)
|
||||
github-pages (207)
|
||||
github-pages-health-check (= 1.16.1)
|
||||
jekyll (= 3.9.0)
|
||||
jekyll-avatar (= 0.7.0)
|
||||
jekyll-coffeescript (= 1.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-commonmark-ghpages (= 0.1.6)
|
||||
jekyll-default-layout (= 0.1.4)
|
||||
jekyll-feed (= 0.13.0)
|
||||
jekyll-gist (= 1.5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-github-metadata (= 2.13.0)
|
||||
jekyll-mentions (= 1.5.1)
|
||||
jekyll-optional-front-matter (= 0.3.2)
|
||||
ffi (1.9.10)
|
||||
gemoji (2.1.0)
|
||||
github-pages (80)
|
||||
github-pages-health-check (= 1.1.0)
|
||||
jekyll (= 3.1.6)
|
||||
jekyll-coffeescript (= 1.0.1)
|
||||
jekyll-feed (= 0.5.1)
|
||||
jekyll-gist (= 1.4.0)
|
||||
jekyll-github-metadata (= 1.11.1)
|
||||
jekyll-mentions (= 1.1.2)
|
||||
jekyll-paginate (= 1.1.0)
|
||||
jekyll-readme-index (= 0.3.0)
|
||||
jekyll-redirect-from (= 0.15.0)
|
||||
jekyll-relative-links (= 0.6.1)
|
||||
jekyll-remote-theme (= 0.4.1)
|
||||
jekyll-sass-converter (= 1.5.2)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (= 2.6.1)
|
||||
jekyll-sitemap (= 1.4.0)
|
||||
jekyll-swiss (= 1.0.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-architect (= 0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-cayman (= 0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-dinky (= 0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-hacker (= 0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-leap-day (= 0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-merlot (= 0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-midnight (= 0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-minimal (= 0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-modernist (= 0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-primer (= 0.5.4)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-slate (= 0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-tactile (= 0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-time-machine (= 0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-titles-from-headings (= 0.5.3)
|
||||
jemoji (= 0.11.1)
|
||||
kramdown (= 2.3.0)
|
||||
kramdown-parser-gfm (= 1.1.0)
|
||||
liquid (= 4.0.3)
|
||||
jekyll-redirect-from (= 0.10.0)
|
||||
jekyll-sass-converter (= 1.3.0)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (= 1.4.0)
|
||||
jekyll-sitemap (= 0.10.0)
|
||||
jemoji (= 0.6.2)
|
||||
kramdown (= 1.10.0)
|
||||
liquid (= 3.0.6)
|
||||
listen (= 3.0.6)
|
||||
mercenary (~> 0.3)
|
||||
minima (= 2.5.1)
|
||||
nokogiri (>= 1.10.4, < 2.0)
|
||||
rouge (= 3.19.0)
|
||||
rouge (= 1.10.1)
|
||||
terminal-table (~> 1.4)
|
||||
github-pages-health-check (1.16.1)
|
||||
github-pages-health-check (1.1.0)
|
||||
addressable (~> 2.3)
|
||||
dnsruby (~> 1.60)
|
||||
net-dns (~> 0.8)
|
||||
octokit (~> 4.0)
|
||||
public_suffix (~> 3.0)
|
||||
typhoeus (~> 1.3)
|
||||
html-pipeline (2.14.0)
|
||||
activesupport (>= 2)
|
||||
public_suffix (~> 1.4)
|
||||
typhoeus (~> 0.7)
|
||||
html-pipeline (2.4.1)
|
||||
activesupport (>= 2, < 5)
|
||||
nokogiri (>= 1.4)
|
||||
http_parser.rb (0.6.0)
|
||||
i18n (0.9.5)
|
||||
concurrent-ruby (~> 1.0)
|
||||
jekyll (3.9.0)
|
||||
addressable (~> 2.4)
|
||||
colorator (~> 1.0)
|
||||
em-websocket (~> 0.5)
|
||||
i18n (~> 0.7)
|
||||
i18n (0.7.0)
|
||||
jekyll (3.1.6)
|
||||
colorator (~> 0.1)
|
||||
jekyll-sass-converter (~> 1.0)
|
||||
jekyll-watch (~> 2.0)
|
||||
kramdown (>= 1.17, < 3)
|
||||
liquid (~> 4.0)
|
||||
jekyll-watch (~> 1.1)
|
||||
kramdown (~> 1.3)
|
||||
liquid (~> 3.0)
|
||||
mercenary (~> 0.3.3)
|
||||
pathutil (~> 0.9)
|
||||
rouge (>= 1.7, < 4)
|
||||
rouge (~> 1.7)
|
||||
safe_yaml (~> 1.0)
|
||||
jekyll-avatar (0.7.0)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.0, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-coffeescript (1.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll-coffeescript (1.0.1)
|
||||
coffee-script (~> 2.2)
|
||||
coffee-script-source (~> 1.11.1)
|
||||
jekyll-commonmark (1.3.1)
|
||||
commonmarker (~> 0.14)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.7, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-commonmark-ghpages (0.1.6)
|
||||
commonmarker (~> 0.17.6)
|
||||
jekyll-commonmark (~> 1.2)
|
||||
rouge (>= 2.0, < 4.0)
|
||||
jekyll-default-layout (0.1.4)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.0)
|
||||
jekyll-feed (0.13.0)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.7, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-gist (1.5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-feed (0.5.1)
|
||||
jekyll-gist (1.4.0)
|
||||
octokit (~> 4.2)
|
||||
jekyll-github-metadata (2.13.0)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.4, < 5.0)
|
||||
octokit (~> 4.0, != 4.4.0)
|
||||
jekyll-mentions (1.5.1)
|
||||
jekyll-github-metadata (1.11.1)
|
||||
octokit (~> 4.0)
|
||||
jekyll-mentions (1.1.2)
|
||||
html-pipeline (~> 2.3)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.7, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-optional-front-matter (0.3.2)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.0, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.0)
|
||||
jekyll-paginate (1.1.0)
|
||||
jekyll-readme-index (0.3.0)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.0, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-redirect-from (0.15.0)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.3, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-relative-links (0.6.1)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.3, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-remote-theme (0.4.1)
|
||||
addressable (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.5, < 5.0)
|
||||
rubyzip (>= 1.3.0)
|
||||
jekyll-sass-converter (1.5.2)
|
||||
sass (~> 3.4)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (2.6.1)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.3, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-sitemap (1.4.0)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.7, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-swiss (1.0.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-architect (0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.5)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-cayman (0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.5)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-dinky (0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.5)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-hacker (0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.5)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-leap-day (0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.5)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-merlot (0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.5)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-midnight (0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.5)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-minimal (0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.5)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-modernist (0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.5)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-primer (0.5.4)
|
||||
jekyll (> 3.5, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-github-metadata (~> 2.9)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-slate (0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.5)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-tactile (0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.5)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-theme-time-machine (0.1.1)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.5)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-titles-from-headings (0.5.3)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.3, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-watch (2.2.1)
|
||||
listen (~> 3.0)
|
||||
jemoji (0.11.1)
|
||||
gemoji (~> 3.0)
|
||||
jekyll-redirect-from (0.10.0)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 2.0)
|
||||
jekyll-sass-converter (1.3.0)
|
||||
sass (~> 3.2)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (1.4.0)
|
||||
jekyll (~> 3.0)
|
||||
jekyll-sitemap (0.10.0)
|
||||
jekyll-watch (1.4.0)
|
||||
listen (~> 3.0, < 3.1)
|
||||
jemoji (0.6.2)
|
||||
gemoji (~> 2.0)
|
||||
html-pipeline (~> 2.2)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.0, < 5.0)
|
||||
kramdown (2.3.0)
|
||||
rexml
|
||||
kramdown-parser-gfm (1.1.0)
|
||||
kramdown (~> 2.0)
|
||||
liquid (4.0.3)
|
||||
listen (3.2.1)
|
||||
rb-fsevent (~> 0.10, >= 0.10.3)
|
||||
rb-inotify (~> 0.9, >= 0.9.10)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.0)
|
||||
json (1.8.3)
|
||||
kramdown (1.10.0)
|
||||
liquid (3.0.6)
|
||||
listen (3.0.6)
|
||||
rb-fsevent (>= 0.9.3)
|
||||
rb-inotify (>= 0.9.7)
|
||||
mercenary (0.3.6)
|
||||
mini_portile2 (2.4.0)
|
||||
minima (2.5.1)
|
||||
jekyll (>= 3.5, < 5.0)
|
||||
jekyll-feed (~> 0.9)
|
||||
jekyll-seo-tag (~> 2.1)
|
||||
minitest (5.14.2)
|
||||
multipart-post (2.1.1)
|
||||
nokogiri (1.10.10)
|
||||
mini_portile2 (~> 2.4.0)
|
||||
octokit (4.18.0)
|
||||
faraday (>= 0.9)
|
||||
sawyer (~> 0.8.0, >= 0.5.3)
|
||||
pathutil (0.16.2)
|
||||
forwardable-extended (~> 2.6)
|
||||
public_suffix (3.1.1)
|
||||
rb-fsevent (0.10.4)
|
||||
rb-inotify (0.10.1)
|
||||
ffi (~> 1.0)
|
||||
rexml (3.2.4)
|
||||
rouge (3.19.0)
|
||||
ruby-enum (0.8.0)
|
||||
i18n
|
||||
rubyzip (2.3.0)
|
||||
safe_yaml (1.0.5)
|
||||
sass (3.7.4)
|
||||
sass-listen (~> 4.0.0)
|
||||
sass-listen (4.0.0)
|
||||
rb-fsevent (~> 0.9, >= 0.9.4)
|
||||
rb-inotify (~> 0.9, >= 0.9.7)
|
||||
sawyer (0.8.2)
|
||||
addressable (>= 2.3.5)
|
||||
faraday (> 0.8, < 2.0)
|
||||
simpleidn (0.1.1)
|
||||
unf (~> 0.1.4)
|
||||
terminal-table (1.8.0)
|
||||
unicode-display_width (~> 1.1, >= 1.1.1)
|
||||
thread_safe (0.3.6)
|
||||
typhoeus (1.4.0)
|
||||
ethon (>= 0.9.0)
|
||||
tzinfo (1.2.7)
|
||||
mini_portile2 (2.0.0)
|
||||
minitest (5.9.0)
|
||||
multipart-post (2.0.0)
|
||||
net-dns (0.8.0)
|
||||
nokogiri (1.6.7.2)
|
||||
mini_portile2 (~> 2.0.0.rc2)
|
||||
octokit (4.3.0)
|
||||
sawyer (~> 0.7.0, >= 0.5.3)
|
||||
public_suffix (1.5.3)
|
||||
rb-fsevent (0.9.7)
|
||||
rb-inotify (0.9.7)
|
||||
ffi (>= 0.5.0)
|
||||
rouge (1.10.1)
|
||||
safe_yaml (1.0.4)
|
||||
sass (3.4.22)
|
||||
sawyer (0.7.0)
|
||||
addressable (>= 2.3.5, < 2.5)
|
||||
faraday (~> 0.8, < 0.10)
|
||||
terminal-table (1.5.2)
|
||||
thread_safe (0.3.5)
|
||||
typhoeus (0.8.0)
|
||||
ethon (>= 0.8.0)
|
||||
tzinfo (1.2.2)
|
||||
thread_safe (~> 0.1)
|
||||
unf (0.1.4)
|
||||
unf_ext
|
||||
unf_ext (0.0.7.7)
|
||||
unicode-display_width (1.7.0)
|
||||
zeitwerk (2.4.0)
|
||||
|
||||
PLATFORMS
|
||||
ruby
|
||||
@ -255,4 +122,4 @@ DEPENDENCIES
|
||||
github-pages
|
||||
|
||||
BUNDLED WITH
|
||||
2.1.4
|
||||
1.13.0.rc.1
|
||||
|
||||
@ -24,10 +24,8 @@
|
||||
title: Guest Comentary
|
||||
- name: editorial
|
||||
title: Editorial
|
||||
- name: tech
|
||||
title: Tech
|
||||
- name: filtercoffee
|
||||
title: Filter Coffee
|
||||
- name: tech
|
||||
title: Tech
|
||||
subcategories:
|
||||
- name: career
|
||||
title: Career
|
||||
@ -55,5 +53,3 @@
|
||||
title: Summer 2018
|
||||
- name: summer2019
|
||||
title: Summer 2019
|
||||
- name: summer2020
|
||||
title: Summer 2020
|
||||
|
||||
@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ almostfamous: Almost Famous
|
||||
phekingnews: Pheking News
|
||||
guestcomentary: Guest Comentary
|
||||
tech: Tech
|
||||
filtercoffee: Filter Coffee
|
||||
career: Career
|
||||
sac: SAC
|
||||
editorial: Editorial
|
||||
@ -20,5 +19,4 @@ summer2016: Summer 2016
|
||||
summer2017: Summer 2017
|
||||
summer2018: Summer 2018
|
||||
summer2019: Summer 2019
|
||||
summer2020: Summer 2020
|
||||
memoirs: Memoirs
|
||||
|
||||
@ -10,4 +10,3 @@ new_articles:
|
||||
- sac
|
||||
- career
|
||||
- cultural
|
||||
- filtercoffee
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,73 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: American Express"
|
||||
image: amex1.jpg
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Manan Jain"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: "During my first 2 years, I had worked on various webD projects as a member of SDSLabs. I also got to explore software development as a GSoC intern right after my 2nd year. So when American Express arrived looking for ‘Software Engineer’, I decided to sit for the test."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
> During my first 2 years, I had worked on various webD projects as a member of SDSLabs. I also got to explore software development as a GSoC intern right after my 2nd year. So when American Express arrived looking for ‘Software Engineer’, I decided to sit for the test.
|
||||
> AmEx was one of the earliest companies that came to offer summer internships to pre-final year students.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
Students from all the branches are eligible to sit for the test. A part of the reason I ended up choosing AmEx was my branch (Chemical). Although I am not aware of the exact cut-off, a CGPA > 7.5 should be fine.
|
||||
|
||||
**Online Round:** <br>
|
||||
This round comprised of 20 MCQ questions which were to be solved in 35 minutes. You don’t really need to prepare for it as the questions were doable and tested basic Mathematical Aptitude, Data Interpretation and Non-Verbal Reasoning. Just ensure that you don’t commit silly mistakes in this particular section as there is a strict cut-off. Around 15 people were shortlisted for the next round.
|
||||
|
||||
**Technical Round:** <br>
|
||||
It began with me giving a brief description of myself (which was the most uncomfortable, if not the toughest, part of the process). Thereafter, the discussion revolved around the projects I had done. I was asked to explain the logical aspect and the architecture of a couple of them. I was also asked about the improvements that can be made to them at a superficial level.
|
||||
It was followed by questions pertaining to Probability and Statistics. The round concluded with a prolonged discussion on the practical application of Statistics to real-world problems.
|
||||
|
||||
The idea behind this round is to analyze your ability to understand a problem and then propose a way to solve it. In my case, the problems were loosely based on web/software development projects I had done. So it is important to be thorough with the projects you list down on your resume.
|
||||
|
||||
**Technical Round + HR:** <br>
|
||||
The interview began with me listing down my strengths/weaknesses (second most uncomfortable part). I was given a couple of puzzles to solve which was followed by a guesstimate question. The interviewer encouraged me to come up with different approaches to the problem. The latter part comprised of more HR-esque questions (interests and goals). The round, somehow, concluded on a philosophical discussion.
|
||||
|
||||
**Tip 1** : Be prepared for a “Why should we hire you” question.<br>
|
||||
**Tip 2** : Try to ask a follow up question at the end of the interview. If you don’t have one, conjure one up during the interview, as I did.
|
||||
|
||||
Given the nature of my interviews, I was expecting my role to be software/development oriented. However, I was assigned the role of a Data Analyst, which was quite surprising.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:50%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Most of the AmEx interns, including me, were allocated the Gurgaon office while the others got the Bangalore one. The Gurgaon office seats over 6000 employees distributed across the 3 major divisions -
|
||||
Enterprise and Digital Analytics (EDA), Credit and Fraud Risk (CFR) and Technology.
|
||||
I was a part of the Membership Rewards team from EDA with my profile being that of a Data Analyst.
|
||||
|
||||
My building was part of the One Horizon Center which gives you all the corporate vibes you would want from your office. AmEx has an open workspace culture. So all the employees, be it a senior manager or a director or just an intern, share the same space. This is one of the things I liked the most as in addition to watching and learning from your senior leaders, you can seek help with ease. The office timings are pretty flexible but I’d still recommend aligning your work hours with your team/project members (to make the most of the internship).
|
||||
|
||||
**Note:** The workspaces on the lower floors have been laid out quite creatively. Also from the higher floors you get an amazing view of the skyscrapers around and the nearby golf course. So, try to take a trip around the office as soon as possible. I found a massaging chair on our last day.
|
||||
|
||||
The responsibility of delivering a project is given to smaller groups of 2-3 members and each person works on multiple projects. Most of us received our individual project’s description a week before the joining date. Once we were there, all the interns were assigned a mentor to assist during the project.
|
||||
|
||||
So my team, i.e. Membership Rewards, worked around the Reward Points a customer receives on using the Amrican Express credit card for various transactions.
|
||||
My project was to analyze and answer- <br>
|
||||
* Why were the customers calling up the Customer Care when most of the things were available on the website? <br>
|
||||
* Who were these customers? <br>
|
||||
|
||||
Different models were devised to form sort of a journey for each customer and identify the problem areas. They were identified in terms of the information available on the website and also its UX. Most of the work was done in HQL (fancy SQL) and SAS. The models I leveraged were written in Python. So it would be good for you to have a basic understanding of SQL and Python as they were also being used by most of the other teams as well. The most encouraging aspect about working there was that I was trusted with a project which was to be presented to other business partners. In turn, it would be fair to say that interns there are treated like regular employees. However, you are also expected to deliver in an equal measure.
|
||||
|
||||
The best thing about AmEx has to be the people there. On the first day itself we got to interact with the senior leaders of the company, who were really welcoming. The Director and the VP of my team got really involved in the work I was doing and we used to have regular brain-storming sessions. Also, the team members really looked out for each other and were quite helpful. I had a great time discussing everything and anything over lunch with my team.
|
||||
The HR people also made some efforts to arrange sessions with top executives from India and the US offices.
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing up and key takeaways:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:60%"}
|
||||
I had been involved in development before but AmEx gave me an opportunity to explore the field of Data Analytics. The internship was an amazing learning experience not just in terms of the flavour of the corporate world that I got, but also in terms of the insightful discussions I had with some really smart people. During one of the meetings, my VP said “You can teach a person to code for the project, but you cannot teach them to care about the project”. That basically sums up the values that powers this company.
|
||||
|
||||
Even after a lot of deliberation, I still haven't made up mind as to what I'll be doing after these 4 years.
|
||||
|
||||
I am glad I was able to contribute by bringing a fresh perspective to the table. The most important thing that I have learnt is that at the end of the day, the value and quality you attach to your work defines you. So whatever you do, give it your best shot.
|
||||
|
||||
Some final tips:
|
||||
1. Try to pitch in new ideas/methods for your project.
|
||||
2. Interact with the people as much as possible. They are obviously more experienced and it’ll definitely develop your social skills.
|
||||
3. Look at this internship as a golden opportunity and make the most of it in every way possible.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,86 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Reckitt Benckiser"
|
||||
image: rb4.png
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Suyash Singh"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'As a student of chemical engineering in IIT Roorkee, the options to get a core intern are very limited, Majority of the students do their third year internships in non-core domains (mostly software and data science) and are then placed in similar fields a year later.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
As a student of chemical engineering in IIT Roorkee, the options to get a core intern are very limited, Majority of the students do their third year internships in non-core domains (mostly software and data science) and are then placed in similar fields a year later. With such demotivating stats and me personally not trying enough to build interest in chemical engineering (which happens with most of us), I had no plans (or rather hopes) to get an on-campus internship in a core company.
|
||||
During my campus life, I was mostly involved in management profiles (including Convener, Thomso-2018), but during my 2nd year Summer break, I took a chance, or rather two, to explore chemical engineering. I did two internships, one in a management profile (Business operations in particular) and the second one in a paint manufacturing company. I got both these internship offers through LinkedIn. I suggest all sophomores to use this great platform as effectively as possible.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
So it was the latter internship which instigated me to pursuing Chemical Engineering as a career choice. But mostly, it was the prevalent hype of Reckitt Benckiser (RB), being a Day 1 Company that comes in the same slot as ITC, and of course the fancy stipend they offered, that I eventually applied for this company.
|
||||
|
||||
**Criteria for applying:** <br>
|
||||
Reckitt Benckiser (RB) opens for Chemical, P&I, Metallurgy and Biotechnology. For their internship program, they do a basic resume shortlisting (there is no CG cut-off but a 7.5+ CG with an overall decent resume seems to do the trick). The CG clearly stops playing any part after this, as there were interns with a CG of 7.8 to 9.2 from other IITs, mine being the lowest of them.
|
||||
|
||||
**Group Discussions:** <br>
|
||||
This is followed by a Group Discussion which usually involves discussion on new product development under already existing brands, presented to us in the form of a case challenge. A thorough reading of the presentation that they present before the GD, is preparation enough for the group discussion.
|
||||
|
||||
**Tip**: Reading time allotted before the GD starts is quite less, so just going through the keywords and understanding the deliverables expected out of the case given to us, helps to start first and perform better in the discussion.
|
||||
|
||||
**Technical Round + HR:** <br>
|
||||
The only other round after the GD is the personal interview; the interview is a mix of technical and HR. Some preparation on any particular core topic (branch related) does help in moving the discussion in the right direction. In my case the discussion moved to the detailed technical part of my previous internship (the one in a paint manufacturing company). There was also a long discussion about comparing my work experience as Thomso Convener and sitting here for an R&D intern. But just being truthful and portraying your learnings from each of your previous work experience helps to move the discussion to an encouraging and desired side.
|
||||
The HR part of the interview involves discussion on what your expectations from the company are. Some knowledge of RB’s brands can help you a lot here as well.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## WORK
|
||||
|
||||
**Profile and location:** <br>
|
||||
Summer interns from various IITs are sent to the Gurgaon R&D facility. This is among the only 7 global R&D category centres for RB. It handles R&D for a 12.5 Billion GBP company, so trust me when I say this, working here does make a lot of difference!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Aim of the internship:** <br>
|
||||
All interns are given live market relevant projects, which are categorised mainly into two parts: New Product Development (NPD) and Existing product development (EPD). We are given full freedom to lead the project in our own way and to use the R&D facilities necessary to shape our project. I personally got the opportunity to work on Lizol Floor Cleaner. My project involved formulating a Lizol with some given specifications according to the need in the South Asian Market and recent technological trends, globally. So, my project involved a lot of research as well as Lab work, making samples and trial batches of new Lizol formulation.
|
||||
Second phase of my project involved Cost Optimisation and new claim study which gave me an opportunity to interact with the marketing, regulatory and various other corporate teams of RB. This not only helped me to understand the origin of my project but also provided me with a broader business perspective of FMCG companies at a global level.
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
RB being an MNC (present in 60+ countries), it provides enormous opportunities to interact with RB employees across the globe if you need project related assistance.
|
||||
One of my co-interns got a project, which demanded connecting with RB employees from various teams in different countries, so he was mostly on US Skype calls late in the evening (that was an experience in itself!)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Work Culture:** <br>
|
||||
If I compare it with my previous intern (the one in the business operations), nobody here was in a rush, and it’s quite contrasting to the picture I had in my mind of the corporate world. The best thing about RB has to be the people here. On the first day itself we had a pizza party with the senior leadership team of the company, who were really welcoming and interactive. The official work hours are 9AM- 5PM, 5 days a week and nobody expects you to stay or work beyond that (although you have the freedom to stay till late evening, as I did sometimes till 9pm), which is pretty comfortable, considering how much some other companies expect an intern to work. People are pretty relaxed and as long as you achieve your deliverables, nobody would put any pressure on you. If anything, there are days when it gets a little too relaxed and you have absolutely nothing to do as your batches are under study.
|
||||
RB has a future leadership program(FLP) through which they have been hiring engineers in the last few years, which means you will easily find a hierarchy of seniors from IITs which eases your opening up with the other senior members of the team.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:100%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:100%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
## The Place
|
||||
|
||||
One plus point of working in RB is that there’s a mess which serves awesome lunch. Just like in labs, RB experiments a lot with food too and we get so much variety to eat!
|
||||
(P.S: For Non-Veg lovers: We get Chicken every day, except on Tuesdays*)
|
||||
As about the city, Gurgaon is synonymous to pubs and fresh brewery at Sector 29 and Cyber Hub.
|
||||
RB was kind enough to provide us a 2 week hotel just outside the Sector 29 market, which compelled us to try every pub in the complex.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing Up
|
||||
|
||||
As a company, instead of just expecting you to do what you are told, RB expects the interns to challenge them and provide a fresh perspective to their approach and thoughts, and I’m glad my work was appreciated and recognized because of the off-stream approach I followed.
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
Overall, the experience at RB gave me a perspective of what R&D means in FMCG world, which I would term as ‘Business pro R&D’.
|
||||
After exploring diverse fields in 3 years of my college life, these 2 months’ experience at RB gave me a much needed direction to restructure my thoughts regarding my career, and to decide what’s best for me after graduation.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Few Tips for the Students interested:** <br>
|
||||
|
||||
* Read about the brands under RB.
|
||||
|
||||
* Brush up your core subjects a little before going for the interview.
|
||||
|
||||
* Prepare the HR questions really well; you should have clarity of thought while answering those.
|
||||
|
||||
* Once you get there, make the most of it by networking with people.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,62 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Bold and Beautiful"
|
||||
image: nikunj1.png
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Nikunj Gupta"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'For a person who has never been abroad, a foreign research internship provides an inexplicable opportunity to get his feet outside of India and gain some insights as an intern while travelling places you like. And that’s exactly why I ended up applying for a foreign research internship.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
For a person who has never been abroad, a foreign research internship provides an inexplicable opportunity to get his feet outside of India and gain some insights as an intern while travelling places you like. And that’s exactly why I ended up applying for a foreign research internship.
|
||||
|
||||
## Getting There:
|
||||
|
||||
My journey starts last year in August post-GSoC (Google Summer of Code) completion results. I wanted to do a foreign internship taking inspiration from the articles I read and the people I met. But I was skeptical about applying to STE||AR GROUP, Center for Computation Technology (CCT), LSU which happened to be my GSoC mentor’s university. The primary reason being my backward thinking, that a lower ranked university might not provide me with enough research opportunities. Or that I might end up wasting my time working on something I’m not interested in. In hindsight, I had forgotten all the interesting topics I learned thanks to the project (which was tagged as “hard”, and my mentor had almost no faith in the project completion). So, I started looking for universities like every friend of mine did and throwing random emails, showing interest in their work and how I could help with my prior experience, to professors expecting replies. I got replies from IST Austria and MIT (I applied seriously to 4 universities, so I was glad by getting a reply from 2). Unfortunately, the prof at MIT was going out for a 2-year vacation and decided not to take me in. The prof at IST Austria showed interest in my work. I had applied to IST Austria for a winter internship, so the professor demanded more time. I had to obviate from taking IST as my summer preference, again due to the same thinking. Finally, I applied to LSU for the winter internship to which my mentor happily agreed. Unfortunately, the USA visa takes 3+ months and I was simply out of time. I had to, therefore, settle for a research internship at IITR during winters. By the time winter vacation hit, I met a few people who got me rid of my plagued thinking, and I finally threw in a casual email asking if there’s an internship opportunity available at LSU.
|
||||
This time my mentor made sure that all the paperwork was done on time. And that’s how I ended up at LSU.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## The Work:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
My research internship lies in a niche subdomain of Parallel and Distributed Computing, a paradigm of distributed computing also known as Asynchronous Many Task (AMT) systems. My advisor was the same person who mentored me during my GSoC project. Prof. Hartmut Kaiser is a well known person within the AMT community for his work on HPX. He is also a voting member of the ISO C++ committee.
|
||||
One of the best parts about the internship was my power to choose any project to work on. I chose to work on the project “Resiliency in HPX” (HPX being an AMT runtime system). It was to add fault tolerance to the HPX runtime system for supercomputers that would appear in the next decade with exaflops range (or as we like to call it, the extreme scale computing domain), the details of which are mundane to the generic audience. My advisor gave me complete responsibility for the project and therefore, I was supposed to write code for the complete architecture and formulate the final report as well. Working hours were flexible. As long as I could show progress and get results, my advisor had no issues with me taking a leave or leaving early. This charade was soon taken over when I started working and realized that I will have to work late hours to get the work done. Initially, I remember working on weekends to complete the work that I had to do. But soon, the project became relevant and work eased out. This is when I started exploring places on the weekends. I made friends and did trips outside of Baton Rouge.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## The Cultural Shocks:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Being from Delhi, I had lived a metropolitan life and I did not expect any cultural shocks. I did face a few shocks, one of which being over friendly strangers. If you’re in India and you randomly say “Hi” or nod your head as a gesture, the other person will probably think that you’re in your correct state. It’s completely different in the states, where I had random conversations with strangers based on what was written on their t-shirt! Next shock was what we people tend to call out as 1st World Problems. I always thought of it as jokes, never did I know it was literally the case here. What came as a surprise was the rising vegan culture. Finding vegetarian food is not difficult provided you decide to go vegan and drop the dairy contents as well. The food itself was also not as bland as I expected. It was actually good and I appreciated a lot of the dishes I ate.
|
||||
|
||||
Another key difference that I found here was how people treat each other within the group. People here call others on a first name basis. That meant that I was calling people doing their PhDs or Post Docs or even professors by their first name which is next to impossible to observe in India. Also, I was never treated as an undergraduate trying his hands on research. I was treated with the utmost respect and my work was valued.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Home and Office:
|
||||
I got a whole office room to myself which is something that I did not expect as an intern. I was given access to the STE||AR GROUP’s home brewed cluster “Rostam”. I was given a workstation grade computer to work with. The workstation I worked on was the fastest personal computer that I had worked on. It was a dual socket machine and had 2 Xeon CPUs with 64 GB RAM and a powerful Nvidia RTX 2080 graphics card. Apparently, the specs were considered old by my advisor who constantly advised me to work on the cluster!
|
||||
|
||||
I rented a fully furnished studio apartment from the recommendation of my advisor. This meant that I had to take care of the food, laundry, and cleaning by myself. With no experience of cooking whatsoever, I tried making the simplest of Indian dishes using online recipes or video calling my parents. It was the first time I valued mess food and probably the last time as well. With some practice, I was able to make some simple dishes perfectly and learned French dishes from one of my colleagues.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Visiting places:
|
||||
|
||||
If you join the STE||AR GROUP with the intent to visit places in the USA, you will be heartbroken to hear that Louisiana is in the middle of nowhere. All the lovely places you’ve heard of namely New York, Miami, Orlando, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc. are thousands of miles away. And to add a cherry on the top, Bus services in the USA are horrible. To the extent that I decided to buy flight tickets to places once I experienced the buses. New Orleans was the first city I visited. The city of Jazz so to say will never get you bored if you’re a music enthusiast. Amongst others, I visited Atlanta (Georgia), Houston (Texas), Austin (Texas) and plan to visit New York before I return.
|
||||
Baton Rouge itself is a fun place to live in for a couple of months doing an internship. It’s not the most dynamic city you will come across, but you will be amazed to see what the city has to offer!
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Key Takeaways
|
||||
|
||||
The most lovely thing about my group is culture and group dynamics. The group is integrated well with the industry so the work carried in the group has a direct impact on the software people use. Contributing to such a group opens up new boundaries all together in terms of research work and industry exposure. Some key takeaways from my experience would be:<br>
|
||||
|
||||
* Apply early if you’re applying to USA without enrolling yourself in a program. Visa times are surprisingly high.
|
||||
|
||||
* Do NOT judge a research group by the rank of the University. If the work they’ve been doing interests you, go ahead and shoot them an email.
|
||||
|
||||
* Do not shoot hundreds of emails. Try to find professors or research group that align with your interest. Writing 3-4 good emails will have more probability of you ending up with an internship than sending hundreds of them with similar content.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,57 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Schlumberger "
|
||||
image: layan1.png
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Layan Kaushik"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'The idea of exploring different core engineering fields has always excited me. I had already experienced a research project based internship after my 2nd year. So, a leap into the corporate sector was what I sought for since the beginning of my third year.'
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The idea of exploring different core engineering fields has always excited me. I had already experienced a research project based internship after my 2nd year. So, a leap into the corporate sector was what I sought for since the beginning of my third year.
|
||||
|
||||
## Schlumberger, what about it?
|
||||
|
||||
Schlumberger is the only Oil & Gas services company (read core engineering) that visits our campus and recruits (offering decent package) from almost all departments. In India, they have their bases located at Mumbai, Barmer, Pune (IT segment) and Kakinada - which is where I pursued my internship. The management of the entire Indian East Coast, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and North East India is administered from Kakinada.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
Although the notice for internship at Schlumberger came early September, but the shortlisting and interview process got delayed and finally took place the following year in the month of April. Due to this delay, the recruitment process was cut short to two rounds - the first being resume shortlisting and followed by a personal interview. They prefer candidates with a decent CGPA (>7) who also have performed reasonably well in co-curricular activities, possess good soft skills and have held various positions of responsibilities throughout their career. A peak in any two of the above mentioned skills and a decent display in the rest can help you grab an internship at Schlumberger. During the personal interview round, few technical questions related to basic engineering knowledge may be asked but more emphasis is given to classic interview questions (‘about yourself’, ‘strengths and weaknesses’, ‘why should we hire you?’, and ‘why Schlumberger?’) to test one’s soft skills.
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
|
||||
Previously, the duration of the Internship used to be 4 weeks but this year onwards it has been extended to 7 weeks. Similar to previous internship programmes, all interns at Schlumberger had to attend a 3-day induction programme at Nerul base, Navi Mumbai. There we were introduced to the Oil & Gas Industry and given an extensive demonstration of various safety instructions required to follow religiously while carrying out any job at the workstation.
|
||||
For the rest of the days, we were sent to our allotted locations and segments. I was assigned to the Completions Segment at Schlumberger’s Kakinada base in Andhra Pradesh. On arrival at Kakinada, I was introduced to my team and was assigned a mentor who briefed me about the project. I was working with another intern from IIT Delhi throughout the period of the internship. The project assigned to us was quite simple. The Completions segment recently won a huge ONGC contract, therefore, the segment area was doubled. We were asked to perform 5S lean management method and later develop a layout of the proposed area in accordance with its workflow. More stress was given to learning the oil and gas industry and the tools used in the Completion segment’s work.
|
||||
Apart from this, we were sent to Reliance workshop to get a first-hand experience of how jobs are practically done and also to get our hands dirty. These workshop visits became an everyday affair, which helped us understand the ins and outs of the segment and attain a sense of belonging.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Life at Schlumberger
|
||||
|
||||
As stated in the previous few dairies, Schlumberger functions like a relentless well-oiled machine. Employees work round the clock depending on the task assigned. They have a strict ideology of doing the job correctly the first time, hence the pressure on every employee is tremendous. Moreover, they have a stringent HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) policy: working without a proper PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) or driving without the seatbelt fastened can put your job at risk. However, Schlumberger has a very friendly work culture, where help and guidance are always available from fellow employees. The lively atmosphere along with the music which is played in the workshop gives a positive vibe to the workplace. Moreover, frequent movie nights and parties with the team made my stay a little more fun.
|
||||
Schlumberger also provides luxury accommodation for all interns and the Schlumberger base is equipped with ample facilities for leisure activities such as Table Tennis, Gym, Squash courts and rooms for those who want to take a power nap during office hours. Meals and travel are all taken care of quite efficiently and as per requirements.
|
||||
|
||||
## Location
|
||||
|
||||
Kakinada is a small remote industrial city in the eastern coast of India. The weather during my stay was pleasant as monsoon came in early. A recently constructed multiplex made my life more convenient as I could enjoy a few of my favourite food outlets and did not miss out on any of the latest movie releases. The nearest city, Vishakhapatam is a 4-hour drive North from Kakinada but none of the interns could visit as it required prior consent from the management of Schlumberger which made life beyond Kakinada non-existent.
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing up and key takeaways
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The work assigned to an intern is quite basic as more emphasis is given on getting accustomed to the Schlumberger work culture and its lifestyle. One can easily find an excellent peer group with whom he or she can discuss and share things of interest. It was lovely to see the employees make efforts to help all the interns fit in and make everyone feel like home.
|
||||
Few tips for people gunning for it:
|
||||
|
||||
* Be thorough with what you’ve written on your resume.
|
||||
|
||||
* Practice the basic interview questions, preferably give mock interviews.
|
||||
|
||||
* Build your resume while you can.
|
||||
|
||||
* Be calm and confident during the interview.
|
||||
|
||||
* Feel free to contact me for any further questions!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,77 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Harvard"
|
||||
image: aarush1.png
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Aarush Gupta"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'TL; DR: I spent 11 weeks at Harvard as a part of my summer internship. I had a great time there and the internship would go a long way in helping me with my career. Below, I will try to summarize my experience there, as well as share how I landed the internship.'
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
**TL; DR**: I spent 11 weeks at Harvard as a part of my summer internship. I had a great time there and the internship would go a long way in helping me with my career. Below, I will try to summarize my experience there, as well as share how I landed the internship.
|
||||
|
||||
## Before Applying
|
||||
|
||||
I worked on a couple of Deep Learning projects with professors at my department during my second year and a remote collaboration last summer. Consequently, I had a fair idea of what research constituted of and what I could expect from an academic internship. It gives you the freedom to choose a problem that interests you, try out your ideas and work at your own pace. There are deadlines, but they are scattered and more relaxed than what you would find in the corporate world. But most of the on-campus internships offer the role of a software developer. Therefore, I opted out of the on-campus internship season and applied for a research internship instead.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
The most common method of applying for a research internship is by emailing professors. With a research paper from last summer’s project, I was pretty sure that I would get an internship easily. But that did not happen. I emailed around 15 professors (after going through their work and writing customized emails to each one of them) from around July till November but did not get a single reply. So, if you don’t get any replies, don’t be disheartened and keep trying. It is all a part of the process. Honestly, it also depends a lot on your luck. I have seen people getting an internship after their first email, and people who did not get any offer until near the end of the academic year.
|
||||
|
||||
I also started looking for other options on the way. I applied to Naver Labs, a South Korean AI industrial research lab, and got through. But I had a preference for an academic research internship instead, so I kept on applying to various research labs. I also applied to various internship programs such as Mitacs, Summer@EPFL, ISTernship Summer Program, etc. without any luck. I expected this because my CGPA was not up to the mark. Until March, I just had an industrial research internship offer. Shortly after that, I was shortlisted for the SN Bose Scholars Program. For those of you who don’t know, it is a scholarship program to support Indian students for an internship in the United States. The scholarship includes a stipend of $2500, airfare and health insurance. Out of around 1500 applications, only 50 get through in the end. Each department from the participating institutes nominates two students for the program. Applications without nominations are not accepted. Following the nomination, the applicants are required to fill in an online application, submit their CV, statement of purpose, research statement, and some supporting documents. Based on the applications, students are short-listed and are required to find a mentor in the United States. Having a mentor beforehand also works. The program organizers also help you to reach out to mentors from previous years. Once you get a mentor, the rest of the proceedings follow (getting the award and offer letters, the visa application, etc.). After being short-listed, I selected around 6 prospective mentors from different universities and shot them emails. I got a reply shortly from 4 of them asking to schedule an interview. I gave the interview for Harvard first and got through. What did they ask in the interview for Harvard? I just gave a presentation on my research paper and answered some related questions. That’s it! I also got an offer from the University of Southern California, where I was supposed to work on Natural Language Processing.
|
||||
|
||||
So, in the end, I had three internship offers, viz. from Naver Labs in South Korea, the University of Southern California, and Harvard University. Having a preference for academia, I chose Harvard over Naver Labs. Also, I was more inclined towards working in Computer Vision rather than Natural Language Processing and therefore, I went ahead with Harvard instead of USC.
|
||||
|
||||
In retrospect, I think that the SN Bose program lays more emphasis on the research profile of the applicants rather than their CGPA only. In my opinion, CGPA is actually not a good criterion for gauging someone’s research calibre. But that’s the way it is. A piece of advice, if you have a low CGPA, you are in for a tough fight. But you’ll get through :).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## The Institute
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Harvard University is the oldest higher education institution in the United States. Situated in Cambridge, MA, it is an Ivy League college and has the highest annual endowment in the world for an educational institution (around $40 billion). It is famous for the business, law, medical and engineering schools as well for its notable alumni, including Barack Obama, Franklin Roosevelt, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Natalie Portman.
|
||||
|
||||
## Project
|
||||
|
||||
My internship was a part of the Connectomics project, broadly involving the segmentation and analysis of brain scans obtained by electron microscopy (EM). The overall objective is to develop 3D maps of connections in the human brain to help in neuroscience. How so? There are many diseases and disorders that are attributed to “wrong wiring” somewhere in the brain. With interactive models of neuron wirings, neuroscientists can better understand these diseases and possibly arrive at a cure. The project further aims to improve the understanding of how the human brain actually works, how memories are stored and so on.
|
||||
|
||||
Multiple research groups at Harvard have been working in collaboration on this project for about ten years now. The reason why it's taking such a long time is the staggering amount of data associated with a single human brain. To give you an idea, it takes around 100 terabytes (roughly 100000 gigabytes) just to record all the connections in a salt grain-sized block of the brain! One of the tasks associated with this project is to detect mitochondria in neurons automatically. It turns out that mitochondria are very different in shape from what was taught to us in high school. Instead of the globular structure that you might remember from your high school biology textbook, mitochondria look something like this:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The conventional methods used for medical image segmentation fail for such non-convex morphologies. Another problem is that a large number of mitochondria are in contact with each other, making the problem more difficult. During my internship, I worked on developing and testing neural network architectures which take into account these priors and give better results than the standard methods.
|
||||
|
||||
## Work and Academics
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The work environment at the lab is very accommodating. On paper, the interns are expected to work for around 40 hours a week. But that is flexible and largely depends on the amount of work on your hands. There are no specific timings to work, and the labs can be accessed anytime using a Harvard ID. People usually come in at around 10 in the morning, leave by around 5 or 6 in the evening and don’t work on weekends. Group meetings and lunches are held every week to catch up on work-related stuff or for chitchat. One thing that I really love about Harvard is that there are plenty of computing resources here. I could easily train multiple models at the same time, with each one being trained on 8 Graphical Processing Units (GPUs)!
|
||||
|
||||
Harvard has an exceptional research output and the people here work hard, no doubt. But they also take time out of their schedules for recreation and hobbies. There is a foosball table and a grand piano just outside my lab. I see people playing foosball or just trying out a new piece of music on the piano almost every day. There are a few people who play the piano really well, and it’s a delight to work with soothing tones playing in the background. The point is that they pursue their interests, be it academic or otherwise, passionately.
|
||||
|
||||
With MIT at a walking distance from Harvard, researchers from both the institutes collaborate regularly and students of one institute can attend courses at the other. Also, for the undergraduate program at Harvard (and at many other universities), students have three semesters to decide upon a major, unlike the universities in India where you have to choose a major at the time of admission. Both the institutes also allow students to take up multiple majors and minors (instead of one, as is the case at IITR) during their course of study. One of my friends at MIT is majoring in Physics and Philosophy, with minors in Maths and Music!
|
||||
|
||||
## The City
|
||||
|
||||
Boston, named after a small town in England, is a great city except for the erratic weather, which was a total bummer initially. It is a thriving port city with economic bases in finance, business services, biotechnology, and information technology. Thanks to multiple colleges and universities in the city, Boston has around 2000 start-ups. With a lot to explore, the weekends were usually packed. Various events, such as art walks, food festivals, and concerts, were organized from time to time. Other times, I would just hang out with some friends at MIT at one of its fraternities, Alpha Delta Phi, playing Cards Against Humanity. I also attended the orientation program organized for Bose and Khorana Scholars at the University of Chicago and visited New York recently.
|
||||
|
||||
Housing is expensive in Boston with the city having one of the highest costs of living in the United States. I rented an apartment with four other interns at Harvard from India, which eased things financially. The apartment was about 20 minutes away from the campus. I usually commuted by bus, which was quite convenient and affordable.
|
||||
|
||||
There is a wide variety of food to try out here. You can try out the local dishes such as the Boston Cream Pie and the New England Clam Chowder or experiment with other cuisines like Japanese, Korean, Thai, Lebanese, Mexican, etc. The Indian cuisine being on the spicier side, I initially found most of the food here rather bland. So, during the first month, we would cook Indian food almost daily at the apartment. Slowly, you get used to it and ease into the different cuisines.
|
||||
|
||||
Almost every department at Harvard has a cafeteria serving decent and affordable food. Each meal costs about 8 dollars. If you want to shell out a little more, you can go to nearby restaurants or cafes at Harvard Square, the historic centre of Cambridge. You can have pizza, burritos, waffles, gelato, burgers, salads, souvlaki, and whatnot. The list is endless. Although if you are a vegetarian, you might have to struggle a bit finding vegetarian options.
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing Up
|
||||
|
||||
Getting a research internship is difficult but has its own perks. You meet a lot of new people from different countries, experience a new culture, and learn a lot of new things. If you work dedicatedly, you can expect a strong recommendation letter from your mentor (which is useful
|
||||
for higher studies and even for getting a job) and a publication depending on how your project progresses. In my opinion, it’s worth the extra effort. If you get a chance, I’d strongly recommend going for a foreign research internship at least once during your undergrad at IIT Roorkee.
|
||||
|
||||
Cheers!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,49 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "There was a sense of infinity about those days, like they will last forever"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
image: ruhela.jpg
|
||||
category: memoirs
|
||||
author: "Utkarsh Ruhela"
|
||||
excerpt: "You've left that room, that place, that safe haven. Do you feel anything? Do you feel different? Are you really oblivious to the fact that you will never be at that place where you spent 1500 days of your life?"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
You've left that room, that place, that safe haven. Do you feel anything? Do you feel different? Are you really oblivious to the fact that you will never be at that place where you spent 1500 days of your life? There was a sense of infinity about those days, like they will last forever.
|
||||
|
||||
You don’t miss your college perpetually like you miss your lover. No, it is sporadic. One moment you see a colonial structure resembling the James Thomason building and your mind drifts away; you sigh. Not of pain or missing, but the melancholy and a sweet ache that you might never get to run on that trail. Or go on those lavish South Indian meals on your bike.
|
||||
|
||||
That's why it has taken me more than a couple of months to pen this retrospective piece down. It is anti-climatic really, I haven't been missing college all that much, maybe it will dawn upon me slowly.
|
||||
|
||||
As I ponder upon my experiences, I wonder if I have performed upto the "mark". I slowly realised that the “mark” changes with time, as you move and grow through this time-space curve, so does your sense of purpose.
|
||||
|
||||
Gradually those Solani canal trails started calling me for another 5k run, the mighty Himalayas calling me to trek them, my friends calling me to show up for another short quiz session. In my own room, there was oblivion of The Anathema and vigour of The Who and Nirvana. Reading Seth or Dostoevsky after a session of recreation. Or, in my more lucid moments I had Paul Kalanithi or Herman Hesse with the cheapest and best Americano I have had. I tried to understand life through the lens of these eccentric experiences. My sense of purpose for a while was to experience everything that Roorkee and college had to offer.
|
||||
|
||||
Throughout my college life, a major white noise was that of seeking of validation for myself. I tried seeking it everywhere, in some academic subjects, in my discipline, in my meditation. No accolade, no achievement, no grade, no lover could satisfy that hollowness in long-term.
|
||||
|
||||
Since graduation, there's a sudden gong of mortality, of that finiteness of things. Those five years were magical. School to college transition was just a kink, to more fun times, to more independence. When you are in college, you have this infinite reservoir of energy and will. You're full of explosive optimism, looking forward to a life full of possibilities.
|
||||
|
||||
I used this mantra, whenever I was anxious or concerned about an issue, I would question if it would matter after 5 years. Because the things which are not under your control have a poetic sense of justifying themselves in the hindsight.
|
||||
|
||||
Funny how we were going to conquer the world just a couple of years ago, now we merely seek to find a place in this absurd (?) world. Has the definition of conquer changed or have we? Are we settling for less? Or have we learnt that Ozymandias fell too?
|
||||
|
||||
Here comes the sermon now.
|
||||
|
||||
There’s no grandiosity in your existence. Many existentialists have offered a similar thought. There’s no grandiosity, there are no perfect moments, there’s just plain human existence. All your problems are just humane, which are not going to go away after achieving that star-studded internship, placement, or PhD offer. Your life will still stay the same. All those thoughts will be still there after a fleeting moment of distraction due to exhilaration from your achievements. It all sounds gloomy so far, but people who know me personally would know that things aren’t bad for me. I have tried taking this outlook and morph into something positive, acting in “good faith” as Sartre would point out. Existentialists describe bad faith as phenomenon in which human beings, under pressure from social forces, adopt false values and disown their innate freedom, hence acting inauthentically. In essence, one must find their own sense of purpose.
|
||||
|
||||
All the productivity you require out of yourself stems from a sense of purpose, be it the JEE exam you took, or the course you aced at in college. That sense of purpose, even of temporary nature, lets you gather that will and do something. I know a part of my sense of purpose lies in learning different sports, languages, understanding humanity and nature more minutely. But, these are peripherals, as my friend coined this term for these interests. I am still to get to the crux of it. Or, I might find out there is no crux, the peripherals are all there is. The point is, we must explore and search for this meaning for ourselves.
|
||||
|
||||
Eventually you must realise that whatever you did was the best you could manage to do in those circumstances. So fret not for you are always putting in your best.
|
||||
|
||||
On a lighter note. Ten things the author recommends to try while in Roorkee (disclaimer— author might or might not have done all of this):
|
||||
|
||||
1. Trek the hell out of Uttarakhand, Himachal too if possible. Start with Chandrashila or Triund. Warning: Do not go to Gaumukh-Tapovan glacier in your trainer shoes, you might just fall off of a crevasse.
|
||||
1. Solani road stretches serenely till Bahadrabad, one should cycle along that stretch. It is a forty five kilometre cycle ride that will be etched in your memory forever.
|
||||
1. Try noting down every detail of your life in a journal for at least a week.
|
||||
1. There's a bridge connecting old Roorkee to Civil Lines area, which goes to the Cemetery. Visit both the places. Maybe take your girlfriend there (refer to disclaimer above) .
|
||||
1. Find friends in your seniors and juniors. Friends being the operative word. Don't create rigid hierarchies when dealing with human beings.
|
||||
1. Try going to the football field at night with your friends and run a 100meters dash in an inebriated state. Watch the sunrise too, it's a hell of a view from there.
|
||||
1. Play as much sports as you can. Also, you will never find an avenue better than sports to make friends.
|
||||
1. Try living your life in frugality for a week or a month. Save all the money and spend it on one meal. Just for kicks, you know.
|
||||
1. Attend as many SPIC MACAY concerts and institute lecture series as you can.
|
||||
1. Learn swimming if you don't know yet, and dive from the 10 meters diving platform. Also, go touch the bottom of the 20 feet(?) pool. The pressure down there is ethereal.
|
||||
1. Live.
|
||||
@ -1,80 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Goldman Sachs"
|
||||
image: "abhishek-kumar-1.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Abhishek Kumar"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'Goldman is probably one of those Day 1 firms that people across all the branches aspire to work for.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Goldman is probably one of those Day 1 firms that people across all the branches aspire to work for. This might be because of my prejudice or a small and biased sample space, but even while preparing, Goldman was the firm most of us targeted. All this buzz around GS made me apply for it.
|
||||
|
||||
## Criteria For Applying
|
||||
|
||||
JEE ALL is the eligibility criterion and that’s all they demand of you on paper, after that it’s about your cleverness, talent and preparation. Goldman shortlists all those who apply for an online test irrespective of your cgpa, branch etc.
|
||||
|
||||
## Online Test
|
||||
|
||||
The test is extremely crucial in the selection process (Your test score isn't only a standard to qualify for the interview, it is also taken into consideration while making the final decision, so make sure you give your best). The questions or the weightage of different streams seem to vary every year,I’ll try to give you a flavour of it:
|
||||
|
||||
**Coding section:** We had just one coding question whereas some IITs had two.The question appeared big and the story around it made it seem like it was tough but it was a straightforward question based on Hashmap.
|
||||
|
||||
**Computer Science Section:** This is a comprehension based section that checks your basic knowledge of data structures and operating systems. I felt one could answer it without any previous knowledge and just by going through the passage but a couple of beginner articles from geeksforgeeks should be good for you.
|
||||
|
||||
**Probability:** A lot of folks especially from the non circuital branches rely heavily or sometimes entirely on this section. This section had 8-10 questions of probability. You don’t have to do good in all the sections to get shortlisted, exceptional performance even in one section sometimes gets you a call for the interview but keep in mind that a huge number of people will solve 8 out of the 10 problems of probability, So evaluate your chances accordingly.
|
||||
|
||||
Sometimes, they have a section on machine learning as well, but last time, they had just two basic questions from ML which were in the computer science section itself.
|
||||
Balance your time properly, don’t spend your entire time coding only one problem nor leave it untouched because you were flirting with probability throughout.
|
||||
|
||||
## The Interview
|
||||
|
||||
Each division of Goldman that visits the campus, prepares its own rank list depending on a combination of questions from that test. And based on these lists, you can be shortlisted for one or more divisions. The count of interview rounds you have depends on how many divisions selected you in their lists.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Four division visited Roorkee last year. Risk, Technology, Securities and GIR(Global Investment Research). I was shortlisted for all the four and had almost continuous 7-8 hours of grilling interviews. It’s not this harsh for everyone, I have friends who made it through after a couple of rounds as well. The questions in the interview will be mostly from competitive programming or probability. Make sure you are thorough with whatever is included in your resume. I had an entire hour of interview on machine learning because my areas of interest mentioned it. Don’t unnecessarily write stuff to fill your resume or to make it look big. Sometimes, you may experience that the interviewer is asking stuff that you have no knowledge of, he may encourage you to think about it. Do not hesitate to try such questions, they are asked purely with the intention of judging your approach and not your knowledge or the correctness of your answer.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Almost all the rounds have a very similar structure. It starts with ‘tell us something about yourself’, a couple of questions of competitive programming, something from your resume or a question from probability and ends with “Do you have something to ask from us?”. I don’t really know if it matters but people recommend to ask something and so I did.
|
||||
|
||||
“Tell us about yourself” is the section that can be used to play around a little. Tell them something about yourself that might have relevance to the interviewer and he may end up discussing that rather than a random question which might not click for you at that time. This doesn’t always work but you don’t lose anything by trying. 2 out of my 8 rounds were based on Java,OOP and RXJava, because I had brought up my second year’s internship where I worked on these(Preparing your resume accordingly can do this trick as well). But it’s up to you to decide if you really have a strong suite that may interest the interviewer or whether you are good at solving these problems there.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
|
||||
### Project
|
||||
|
||||
There is a wide spectrum of work or the areas that Goldman offers but what you will be working on is not in your hand nor do you have any way of finding it. Approximately a month after your selection, you’ll get a mail that will have your division, this can help you get a rough idea of what work you are going to get. I was asked in the final round which division I wanted to work with (It was probably because I was interviewed for multiple divisions), but honestly, I had no idea of what each division does. You will not know till the interview the divisions which are visiting Roorkee so I don’t think this helps much.All I said was that I want something on the intersection of tech and finance and probably all of their division except technology fits this.
|
||||
|
||||
My team worked on core systems and there was not much of finance except having the chance of interacting with people who are good at it. There is not much that I can disclose about my work because of a non-disclosure that I have signed and the fact that Goldman takes it very seriously.I’ll try to give you an abstract of the nature of work. There were a couple of projects that I worked on. In the first one I was expected to research on a new database design,prototype and deploy a scalable real time database design for their data on which they carried out a huge number of calculations everyday (I am not sure if I can write what these calculations are for), this project was expected to save a couple of thousand computing hours for them. Second one was mostly around debugging a complicated platform that they already had. It took a lot more memory in a few scenarios than expected and crashed, I had to find the component that caused it and identify its origin.
|
||||
|
||||
### Work Culture
|
||||
|
||||
This is something that is not uniform across Goldman and depends heavily on your team. But one thing is constant: You will have work to do.
|
||||
|
||||
My team didn’t have any timing as such. Everyone had their own set of deliverables and they spent time accordingly .You don’t really have to report to anyone everyday or every week for that matter. There will be times when you can walk in at 12 and leave at 7 but there will also be times when you stay till 2 AM, it's about how you manage your work and how much of it you want to do during your internship. The best part(may not be true for all teams), I had absolute autonomy on my project.
|
||||
|
||||
It is not that you get free from work if you finish your project early. I remember someone saying, “We are never out of work at Goldman”. But no one would push you to work more or tell you that you are expected to do more, except during your mid term review when your manager gives you feedback on how you have been doing so far. You will definitely be judged for your work though(Your PPO’s decision is mainly based on this).
|
||||
|
||||
The best part about Goldman is its flat organization. You can walk up to anyone without an appointment and have a chat. Your manager isn't always right just because of his seniority. You and your views are valued equally. Obviously, this is the way it is intended to be and there may be scenarios where this may not be true but luckily I had a supercool manager in this respect as well.
|
||||
|
||||
The biggest perk that you can probably take away as mentioned by some really senior leader during our orientation is, “You work with a set of really smart and passionate people and the more you network, the more you can take away from here”. Your life can get really dull and hectic in Goldman in some time if you are missing out on this part. Goldman organizes a couple of networking sessions for the interns with senior employees of the firms(Free lunch would be what you can look up to, if you don’t like talking).
|
||||
|
||||
Goldman also takes you out on a day for Community TeamWork. This is with the motive to give back to the society and understand the diversity that this world has. I was taken to a wildlife hospital where we painted and cleaned cages/shelters of monkeys, parrots, bears, deers in which they are kept during their treatment.There is an intern party that the company sponsors other than numerous others that your team takes you out for(Team dependent again, you gotta be lucky).
|
||||
|
||||
Towards the end,you have a poster presentation(expo) kind of event where you showcase/present your work to entire division(It happens in the Risk Division, not sure of others).This is a chance for you to get noticed by the Managing Directors and other senior leaders and make a good mark . Trust me, your two months of hard work is on one side and the visibility that you get on this day is on the other. You can and should definitely aim to shine out among everyone.
|
||||
|
||||
### Place
|
||||
|
||||
Goldman has shifted to a new office this year. This office is crazy and has amazing things to fall in love with. More than anything else; the monitor. You have a giant beast, a huge curved monitor, a super fancy lift,recreation room, gym, adjustable desk(You can stand and work) to mention a few. And, Bangalore is too famous for me to say anything (Very bad traffic :P).
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing Up
|
||||
|
||||
Generalising anything would be tough about Goldman, because be it work or culture, its extremely diverse across different teams. But Goldman has a set of principles that it follows extremely seriously and expects you to do the same. It is a brilliant place for those who don’t limit their work to their desk and to whose who may want to explore the finance world but stay connected to technology at the same time.
|
||||
|
||||
To those who want to work with cutting edge technology and are sure about it, you may want to reconsider this option.
|
||||
|
||||
You should stay connected with friends from other IITs, there will be around a week’s gap in the recruitment. So you may get a rough idea of the question paper pattern from them.
|
||||
|
||||
**Note:** Since Goldman Sachs doesn't allow any pictures of the premises to be take, these images were procured from the internet.
|
||||
@ -1,44 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Brandenburg Technical University"
|
||||
image: "harsh1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Harsh Dabariya"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'The internship season starts with the advent of autumn semester accompanying a stressful atmosphere. But as this went on, it became smooth, fun and a great learning experience for me. So, here’s a journey of me landing myself a research internship and the knowledge gained during this period.'
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The internship season starts with the advent of autumn semester accompanying a stressful atmosphere. But as this went on, it became smooth, fun and a great learning experience for me. So, here’s a journey of me landing myself a research internship and the knowledge gained during this period.
|
||||
Making it there:
|
||||
|
||||
As my third year started, I was quite sure that work in the mechanical core sector is what I would love to do during my internship. But still, I wasn’t quite sure as to which amongst a core industry and a research internship to go forward with. I had some experience of a research intern due to one performed after my second year and also knew a bit about the core industries through various seniors.
|
||||
Having secured a decent CGPA and some research experience, I decided to try for both the fields. The first to come up was ITC, followed by BAJAJ, and I applied for both only to be rejected later. In ITC, I couldn’t make it to the interview round, but for BAJAJ, I got to the interview stage but wasn’t selected. During this time, I was also looking for a research internship abroad. There are various research internship programs available most of which offer scholarship like DAAD-WISE, MITACS, NTU-India connect, SN Bose, etc. The number of such programs is increasing year by year, and we get notified about these by the international relation cell of IITR. But, the essential source of me knowing about these programs was my seniors. I applied for DAAD-WISE, MITACS, NTU-India connect and was selected for the DAAD-WISE scholarship.
|
||||
MITACS offers a wide range of projects running in various Canadian institutes. From there, you need to select seven projects in order of priority along with your curriculum vitae (CV), transcripts, and Statement of Purpose (SOP). The professor you choose and your SOP are the significant factors on which your selection is dependent.
|
||||
DAAD-WISE program targets undergraduate (pre-final year) students who aim to do a research internship at a publicly-funded German higher education institution or a research institute. For applying, you need to have an offer letter from a German institute, which is the most time-consuming part of the application process. So, starting to mail the professors early may provide you a better opportunity. Your mail consists of a cover letter along with your CV, both of which should be appealing and depict your true potential. Your cover letter should be written explicitly according to the research interests of the professor, which shows that you have a decent idea about their work and requirements. Also, while preparing your CV, keep in mind to lay more focus on the academic aspects with a clear picture of the research you have performed. Your areas of interest should be per the professor’s requirements. The most important factor during this phase is to remain patient. There would be several instances when your mails are not even read but never lose patience until the end.
|
||||
Although a CGPA requirement of 8.5 is required for application, after analysing the previous results, students below a CGPA of 9 have very less chances of getting through. A mistake that I committed during my application was me directly mailing to the professors. The professors usually are very busy to reply to your mails so, prefer sending mail to their lab assistants or PhDs. Nearly after 15 mails, I got two positive and four negative replies. So, at last, I was able to get a WISE scholarship for my research at Brandenburg Technical University.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Work:
|
||||
|
||||
Brandenburg Technical University is a renowned technical university (especially for its mechanical engineering) in the Brandenburg state with two campuses in Cottbus and Senftenberg. My lab, i.e., engineering mechanics and machine dynamics, is located on the Senftenberg campus.
|
||||
My research project comprised of both experimental and theoretical portions. Initially certain tensile, cyclic tests were performed on polymers at variable environmental conditions. Then a theoretical study on the behaviour of viscoplastic materials was done, and a material model was developed in MATLAB for a 1D response. The results obtained from the experiments were compared with those derived from the MATLAB model. In the end, I was expected to develop a 3D viscoplastic material model that correctly depicts the behaviour of polymers, and I was lucky enough to complete the task within the time boundation. I was grateful that the work was exciting and had proper help in case of a problem. The job was not very demanding but required sincerity and patience.
|
||||
During this, I learnt a great deal of MATLAB along with obtaining a lot of information about viscoplastic materials and how they are becoming the next big thing in mechanics. Experimental work made me well versed with UTM machine and infrared camera used for catching the temperature variations during testing. One thing that I observed was the great deal of professionalism and sincerity that people in Germany possess. Despite this, people were also accommodating and caring. I usually reported my progress to one of the PhDs (assigned to me by the professor) and sometimes, the professor. The professor usually visited the lab once a week and discussed about the project and the other stuff as well, which was very comforting.
|
||||
There were no fixed working hours, but I usually remained in the lab from 10 am to 5 pm. Also, it was a five day week, so I could easily go on trips on weekends, which I most others were doing in Senftenberg. I used to have lunch with the other lab members in which the professor also joined us sometimes. This helped me in adjusting better and also increased the joy of living and working in Germany.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## The Place:
|
||||
|
||||
Senftenberg is a town in southern Brandenburg, Germany, capital of the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district. It was located in the eastern part of Germany which is considered as the not-so prosperous part of Germany. It does not have a huge population or many big buildings, but its beauty lies in the natural environment, which makes it quite and calm. I resided in a student dormitory, which was close to the university and some of the supermarkets, making life very comfortable. Initially, in May, it was quite cold out here but became warmer in June, making it a familiar condition.
|
||||
|
||||
## Travelling around:
|
||||
|
||||
The best part of being in Europe was having a Schengen visa and getting to visit almost every European country. This was supported by an excellent public transport system which helped me to explore not only Germany and other countries as well. I saw various aspects of life during this— best represented by the Berlin wall separating two sides. They are named the same but have substantial differences in culture and standard of living. I was able to visit Hungary, Amsterdam, and Italy, with each country having a distinct flavour and culture. But one thing was the same everywhere, the people and their helpfulness. Travelling made me much more confident and somewhat improved my decision making.
|
||||
|
||||
## TAKEAWAYS:
|
||||
|
||||
This internship was one of the best experiences of my life and added much to my personality. Living on your own for three months makes you more independent and maybe more efficient.
|
||||
At last, I want to say if you are willing to get yourself a research internship or even want to try research, this is your best possible chance. So, put in all your effort in preparing your cover letters, CVs, and SOPs. Also, CGPA does matter, so always try to maintain a decent CGPA. And luckily, if you get a research internship, still maintain a proper balance between work and leisure. This may provide a good recommendation, further helping in strengthening your CV and getting an MS or Ph.D. opportunity.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,51 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Flipkart Design"
|
||||
image: "nipun1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Nipun Vashishta"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: '
|
||||
A week after I joined Flipkart as a design intern, I entered a conference room where the user research team was sharing their insights on a study they conducted for the next hundred million users, who are not the usual tech-savvy users, consumers that are not part of the millennials or Gen-Z demographic.'
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
A week after I joined Flipkart as a design intern, I entered a conference room where the user research team was sharing their insights on a study they conducted for the next hundred million users, who are not the usual tech-savvy users, consumers that are not part of the millennials or Gen-Z demographic. To understand why they do not shop online, the team conducted a year long study on a single emotion - Trust. I was overwhelmed by the amount of effort the whole team puts in to understand a single human emotion out of the dozen emotions which stopped them from shopping online. I knew at that time that the organisation is pursuing design at its core. I knew at that moment that I would get to learn and work with a lot of brilliant minds in the upcoming three months.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## How I joined Flipkart
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I joined Flipkart in the Product Design team for the summers through an on-campus internship. I was never the ‘on-campus intern’ guy in college, since there are a very few companies which come to campus to hire designers. But in the past 3-4 years, design culture in IIT-R has seen exponential growth, and designers working in the industry have also noticed this trend about ‘Roorkee Design’ so a few companies have started to hire on-campus as well. I initially applied at Flipkart for an internship off-campus, they considered my case and took it forward. I waited for a month (not that unusual when you are applying off-campus) to know the status of my application and eventually lost hope of ever hearing back. But one day I got a call from a IIT-R alum who is working at Flipkart as a Product Designer. He told me that the management has decided to come to campus for hiring, given the large number of applications from IIT-R for both full time and intern roles. The hiring process started just a few days before end-term examination (to all those who get sad if they do not get an intern in the peak intern season when all companies come to campus - please sit back, do your work and have some patience), the whole process took almost two weeks. They shortlisted students based on their portfolios and the shortlisted candidates were given a design assignment that they were supposed to do in a limited time. On the basis of design submissions, they picked two students from our campus. There was a small informal interview after that, and we were in!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Wait, what is Product Design?
|
||||
|
||||
The role ‘Product Design’ might seem a little ambiguous to some. And it is not their fault, since it is a constantly evolving field. Have you noticed how you experience different emotions when you are using Instagram as opposed to when you’re scrolling through Facebook? If yes, than the designers have done their jobs well. Product design at tech-organisations is more inclined towards digital product design or designing experience for a product with digital touchpoints. It is about understanding the needs and constraints of users, business, and technology, which then forms the basis for designing an optimal experience for potential consumers of the product. If you want to pursue design as a career, start looking for the ‘why’ in everything, in every app you use from Snapchat to Linkedin. Think about why Snapchat looks the way it does. Why are you met with a camera when you open it? Try going through as many design books and articles as possible,since there isn’t really anyone on campus to teach and acquaint you with the industry standards. Try working on a real or concept project in collaboration with developers or people with business ideas in the campus. Or just look around and take a second to notice all the problems around you then pick one and think of what you can do for it.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Work and experience
|
||||
|
||||
Coming back to my internship experience, Flipkart Bangalore HQ has around 10,000 employees, and there are numerous teams to handle each and every part of Flipkart. I was working in the Product Design team under UAG (User Acquisition and Growth) segment of Flipkart. I was assigned in the user engagement and retention pod with a mentor and a manager for any help that I needed, and also an HR buddy whose role in my whole internship is still questionable except handling my relocation brilliantly.
|
||||
|
||||
My project at Flipkart was to design an end to end experience for one segment of Flipkart Travel which involved online ticket booking (I cannot tell you the specifics of the project because it has not been launched yet). Week one started with understanding first how Flipkart functions, what different products we have and how we are to approach design for different projects in a different manner. So during my first week there, most of my time was spent on ‘1 on 1 interviews’ with my peers and seniors, it taught me a lot about different design processes people use in the industry for different types of projects. At an organisation like Flipkart, it becomes essential to understand business and practical aspects of your design too. If you create a design that does not make profits but it has a good experience then it is no good for anyone. Then I started to understand how the travel industry works and what kind of people actually come to book a ticket online, what are their intents, what are their goals, how do they behave, how they see things. Before designing any product, it is really important to know everything about the people that you are designing for and the industry around it. If somebody asks you why you have used list-view instead of grid-view in your designs, you should have a good justification behind it, and that only comes when you know your product inside-out. I tried a few methods like ‘Survey Form’ to Flipkart customers to understand the demographics and traits of the users we are aiming at, and got really interesting insights out of it. ‘Competitor Analysis’ to know the current industry standards and use them to cut down time on research that has already been done. ‘1:1 interviews’ and ‘Recall sessions’ with users to know what problems they are facing in the current systems in place. ‘Card sorting’ to prioritise and group different elements in my designs. All these practices were relevant to my project and helped me, but it is not necessary to use these for each project. Every project at Flipkart has its own requirements and according to that you create your process.
|
||||
|
||||
By the end of my two month journey, My designs were done and ready for approval and feedback by the design team, iterating on the same, followed by approvals and feedback by the directors and senior directors of the company before the whole thing could be handed over to the developers, who would then push it into production. Being a designer, your job isn’t done when the designs are. You have to align all the stakeholder teams on the same page as you and your design research, to be in the loop with developers when they are developing your ideas, make sure that what you designed and what went live matches, it is not at all a desk job and is actually quite fun.
|
||||
|
||||
Coming to the fun part/work-life balance/work culture, whatever you associate it with. Flipkart is one of those huge corporates that still have a start-up-y vibe to their work environment (except when you have to take approvals, or when you have to manage your calendar everyday, or when you spend more time in meetings than actually working) But jokes apart, they have a really good working culture, it is fast-paced, you face new challenges on an individual and organisation level everyday. They don’t force you to work, or even come to office (unlimited work from home, yes) as long as you can keep up with deadlines. On day one I was asked what my expectations were, instead of forcing their expectations on me. During my induction, they took to me warehouses to see how a product actually arrives at your doorstep. I had so many formal and informal outings with the team in two and a half months that it wasn’t easy to keep track.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing up the summers
|
||||
|
||||
Flipkart design has a very strong design team as of now with almost 30 people, and one of the best user-research teams in India too. For anyone who wants to learn about design research and conduct it by going to ground should try aiming for user researcher roles. For designers who are more inclined towards creating experiences hand to hand with business, go for product design role. For both of these roles you will need some hands on experience with a few college-time design projects. Projects which are not just designing screens but also involve social, business, human and tech aspects. Collaborate a lot, work a lot, practice a lot, observe a lot.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,55 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Germany: DAAD"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
image: kashish1.png
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
author: "Kashish Garg"
|
||||
excerpt: "Start of the third year is a confusing time - everyone is talking about the internship they want to land. With the amount of money offered in each of them and other pros and pros, it starts to get a little tense as time proceeds. One thing that is usually discussed id if one should pursue a research internship at all. In this article, I will explain why I did a research internship and what benefits it had on me."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Start of the third year is a confusing time - everyone is talking about the internship they want to land. With the amount of money offered in each of them and other pros and pros, it starts to get a little tense as time proceeds. One thing that is usually discussed id if one should pursue a research internship at all. In this article, I will explain why I did a research internship and what benefits it had on me.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there
|
||||
In the beginning, I was not sure whether I wanted to pursue a research internship at all. Having done one research internship already in my second year summers, I wanted to explore the possibility of working in a core related company. I was sure that I wouldn’t do a coding related intern since my knowledge there was pretty much zero.
|
||||
|
||||
During the intern season, I applied for ITC and Bajaj, only to be rejected by both. During this, I decided to go for a research intern, DAAD WISE to be specific. The only reason at the beginning was the possibility to explore Europe for two and a half months on someone else’s money. For DAAD, I mailed around 20 professors, getting a negative response from around 5, and positive from 2. I got the offer letter from both of them and eventually, ended up applying for an Intern at Rostock University.
|
||||
|
||||
Although there are a lot of funded foreign internship programs, I applied only for DAAD, Mitacs, and NTU-India Connect. I didn’t get selected for Mitacs but did manage to get both DAAD WISE scholarship and NTU-India Connect. The central dilemma I faced was choosing between these two. On one side, it was one of the top-ranked institutes in the world, and on the other, it was the name of DAAD and the amount of money. I chose the latter because I didn’t want to spend money out of my pocket while doing an internship. Also, the project offered at Rostock sounded more interesting to me.
|
||||
|
||||
If you are looking for DAAD WISE, the main hurdle you have to cross is getting an offer letter from a German university. For that, you should start at the earliest as it gets a bit tense when you are not receiving any replies. Starting in August-end should be good enough. Also, take care in writing the cover letter and try not to make it sound generic. Attach your resume to the mail and a project report of any project or internship that you might have done. For resume, it is an excellent option to build it online on ShareLaTex. Also, do mention that you are looking for funding from DAAD and would not require any funding from their side.
|
||||
|
||||
After you are selected, the only thing you have to worry about is booking the air tickets, finding accommodation and getting the VISA. The VISA part is straightforward once you have the scholarship.
|
||||
|
||||
## Life in Rostock
|
||||
Rostock is located in the eastern part of Germany, which is usually considered to be a lot cheaper than the western side. But, if you are looking to stay only for three odd months, it gets hard to find affordable accommodation. The best option that is available is the studentenwerk hostels. They are pretty cheap and would be located close to the university. However, in my case, studentenwerk Rostock didn’t allow a stay of fewer than six months, and hence, I had to look for other options. There is a website called wg-gesucht, which is an excellent portal for finding shared accommodation in Europe. Although there are a lot of scammers on the site, you can be safe by not agreeing to pay anything in advance. I used that, and after a lot of requests, I finally found an affordable accommodation, the only problem was it was 3 km from the workplace. I had an option to use the tram for getting there, but I decided to walk both to save money and explore the city. Also, my accommodation was located close to the harbor, so it was nice to go out for a walk in the evening or on weekends.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Eating outside is expensive, and I had to cook for myself, starting with simple things like an omelette to more complex ones. I did lunch at the university canteen which offers a lot of variety and an excellent student discount. The work culture in Germany is of five days a week, Friday and Saturday evenings are usually spent partying at a club or drinking beer. The surroundings are spotless, and people follow the traffic rules religiously, and there is no honking on roads, which makes walking all the more enjoyable. My flatmate was a German, and so, I got to know a lot of things about German culture from him. One of these was how to open a beer bottle with a water bottle or a spoon. Just a bit of advice, It’s a good option to carry some food items like daal and spices by yourself from India. It can be costly in Germany and sometimes hard to find even. I also took some packets of Maggi as it helps when you don’t want to cook. For other stuff, it’s good to see some Indians already living there, by joining a Facebook group called Indians in Germany. They can advise you more on what to bring by yourself and what can you get there only.
|
||||
|
||||
## Traveling in Europe
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
It is difficult to explain in words how much I enjoyed living and traveling around Europe. The Schengen Visa allows you to visit 26 countries, which is more than one can explore. In all, I visited three other countries apart from Germany (Rostock, Berlin, and Hamburg) which were Netherlands (Amsterdam), Hungary (Budapest) and Italy (Venice, Florence, and Rome). Traveling was expensive, but it was an excellent option to buy a bus pass called interflix. Using that, you can go to any city on the bus five times just for 100 euros. And the buses here are equipped with on-board toilets and free Wi-Fi, so long journeys are not that troublesome. For staying, hostel culture is prevalent in Europe where you can find affordable accommodation in a mixed dorm room. Here, you can meet a lot of new people from different parts of the world. I shared rooms with people from Italy, New Zealand, America, England, and Russia during my travels. Also, the people here are quite friendly and courteous, and you will always find people who can speak English, so communication is not a big problem. Although, I’d advice to download German dictionary offline and the language of any country you plan to visit.
|
||||
|
||||
Watching the fireworks show while enjoying a cruise ride in Budapest was one of the best experiences for me, so was roaming around in the streets of Florence. Also, trying different cuisines in Europe is a pleasant experience. In particular, the Italian Pizza and gelato. Public transportation in Europe is excellent and so, traveling around in different parts of the city is easy. Overall, this is the most beautiful part of a foreign research internship.
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Having done research internship both in India and Germany, I’d say that the experience has been a lot different than I’d imagine. People here pursue research because they want to and take it professionally. They work quite seriously on weekdays during the working hours and enjoy as much on weekends. For me, I was usually in the office from 10 to 3 or 4, due to the light workload. My main project was related to Energy planning, which involved reading about the renewable energy scenario in Germany, Mecklenburg vorpommern in particular and learning new software for the same. Based on an existing model of the Hanseatic city of Rostock, I extended the model to include the whole of Mecklenburg- Vorpommern. For a part of the project, I also had to learn a bit of python, which was both fun and also an enriching experience. I learned to use Pandas in python to refine data. The refined data was then used to plot graphs to compare simulation and experimental data. It taught me the value of coding in research. I used to have lunch with my guide and other Ph.D. guys, which was an excellent place to talk and make new friends. Overall, more than just technical knowledge, it was an enriching experience for me comprising of both new learnings and fun.
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing it up
|
||||
As this was the first time I was traveling to a foreign country, the experience was bound to be remarkable. I followed traffic rules religiously like I never did before, had to learn to eat with a knife and fork.
|
||||
|
||||
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and you can never travel like this except when you are a student. Apart from the knowledge you gain, the life you live for these two-three months will live with you forever as memories. Also, for getting a foreign research internship, having a good cover letter is a must. Try to send personalized emails to each professor and work on your SOP (Statement of purpose). Also, your C.G.P.A. does matter, so try to keep it up. Also, people here seem to have a lot of expectations from a DAAD scholar, so try to do some work while also taking out time to travel.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,40 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: DAAD"
|
||||
image: tanya1.png
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Tanya Ratra"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'In this article, I have tried to summarise my internship experience in short and mainly focused on the "making it there" section. For all those who wish to score a research internship, I hope this article gives you a good starting point.'
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
In this article, I have tried to summarise my internship experience in short and mainly focused on the "making it there" section. For all those who wish to score a research internship, I hope this article gives you a good starting point.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making It There
|
||||
|
||||
To be honest I was not trying to get a foreign research internship as I had done one in my sophomore year. I wished to do a foreign industrial intern in an ideal case as in a foreign internship, apart from learning technical skills you also hone your interpersonal skills and learn to see things from a different perspective. I was only applying for research internship programs as a back-up. However, not finding something suitable in industries landed me up in this internship.
|
||||
|
||||
I had applied to various programmes like DAAD, MITACS, SN BOSE, NTU-India Connect, ANU-FRT and 2-3 more, I guess :p. I will be writing another article soon for the
|
||||
applying procedure and making a suitable SOP, However, I will try to cover all the major points for applying to DAAD here.
|
||||
|
||||
So, In DAAD-WISE program you first need to have an invitation letter from any german professor before applying to the program. Hence you need to start with emailing the professor. I searched for the QS ranking of the universities in Germany and then searched for profiles of professor in catalysis as I had prior experience in the same. For students who don't have prior research experience, I would still encourage you all to apply for different programs as I didn't have any research project in my sophomore year but still made it to the University of Tokyo Research Internship Program. The only thing that is required is a proper presentation. You need to present yourself as a dedicated and sincere student who is interested in the topic the prof is pursuing.
|
||||
|
||||
Coming back to DAAD, in the mailing procedure, I had sent 10 emails in top 2-3 universities of Germany. I got an acceptance from Humboldt University and TU Berlin and I chose the former as I liked the project more. Also, I was lucky enough to get a reply this early. Don’t hesitate to write more emails if you are not getting a reply. The trick is to write more personalised emails, just don't copy-paste the same mail for every professor. I generally use to write 3 paragraphs in a mail and dedicate one to the work of the professor and the rest two remained the same in every mail. Write the email in such a way that the professor gets to know that you have read his papers and are truly interested in his work. Further, follow-ups play a very important role. I got both the acceptance mails on follow-ups, therefore schedule them wisely.
|
||||
|
||||
Once you have the invitation letter you require one recommendation letter and an SOP for applying. In DAAD-WISE program, C.G.P.A also plays an important role. Again, to be brutally honest, you require something above 9.3 or so to get selected. However, other programmes don't look at the grade-point that much and I too believe that C.G.P.A is not the right criteria to judge someone’s research calibre.
|
||||
|
||||
## Work and the Place
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
My work here at the Lab is to develop a photocatalyst for CO2 reduction. The lab timings are chill; 9-5, five days a week. You will be asked to leave the lab by five because being an undergrad you are not allowed in the lab alone. Hence you have enough time to roam around and explore the city. As every foreign internship, another common perk is travelling. Further, in Europe, inter-country travel is cheaper than intercity travel. Consequently, you can travel 2-3 different countries during the weekend :p. Besides, talking specifically about Berlin, It is well known for its nightlife. So if you are a party person like me you won’t even know where your weekends passed. So, I would recommend DAAD-WISE for students who want to have a taste of research or for those who love exploring new places and cultures. The difference I felt in the research culture in Germany was that I was not just doing experimental things but was also developing scientific reasoning to improvise my project.
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing Up
|
||||
|
||||
On the whole, I would say I absolutely enjoyed my stay in Germany; working in lab, travelling and obviously the weekend parties!! One last thing that I want to say is related to the on-campus internship period, Everyone has some expectations from themselves and what they want to do. I just want to advice all the juniors from my experience that, please don't panic or be disheartened if things don't go as you would want them to. Just be patient and do your best and trust me, hard-work does pay at the end. I hope you all have a lovely experience in getting your coveted internship!!
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,88 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Carnegie Mellon University"
|
||||
image: "dakshit1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Dakshit Agrawal"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'My attempt to summarize the mind-boggling journey I have had in the past year, from being in for the long haul while applying for research internships, finally landing one at the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University via the SN Bose Scholarship, to having a fruitful and joyous summer in the States.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
My attempt to summarize the mind-boggling journey I have had in the past year, from being in for the long haul while applying for research internships, finally landing one at the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University via the SN Bose Scholarship, to having a fruitful and joyous summer in the States.
|
||||
|
||||
## Scenario Before August 2018:
|
||||
|
||||
I started reading about AI and deep learning seriously during the summer after my first year in college. Some research projects under professors at IIT-R during the following semester helped me develop an idea of how a research problem is formulated and approached. With this experience, I was able to convince professors at ETS Montreal to be my advisors during the summer after my second year. We submitted our research work to the EmotiW 2018 challenge, and surprisingly, ranked 4th among all participants. The awesome benefit though? A paper published in ICMI 2018 as a result of our novel approach in the challenge.
|
||||
|
||||
It’s that summer which turned around my internship plans. How? Two things:
|
||||
|
||||
The experience during the summers helped me realize that research in Deep Learning was the primary thing I wanted to do, specifically I wanted to improve certain aspects for a better application to real-world scenarios.
|
||||
Having a research paper made me believe that I should be getting a lot of opportunities to work in some of the big colleges (totally not true as I found out later).
|
||||
|
||||
## Landing that Internship:
|
||||
|
||||
The top 5 Department Rankers of CSE get a direct offer from Adobe Research, which is a pretty sweet deal given that you don’t have to go through nerve-wracking days and nights during the internship season giving tests and interviews (believe me, it takes its toll, unless you get an offer in the first week). Most of the other on-campus internship profiles are software engineering based. After consulting with seniors about their experiences, I just didn’t believe I would be able to do the work that I wanted to do and hence opted out of the internship season itself, banking on my previous summer research experience to land me an internship at a good research lab. Little did I know that I was in for a long run of applications.<br>
|
||||
|
||||
A tip I got from my seniors was to start early in emailing professors regarding internship opportunities. So, from August to December, I kept on emailing professors at various labs, sending well-curated and specific emails, as well as applying to numerous research programs. In January, I got an email that I had been “provisionally” shortlisted as an SN Bose Scholar, meaning I would get a scholarship if I found an advisor in a US university research lab. Backing up a bit: the SN Bose scholarship was a two-stage process. Firstly, around September, I was nominated by my department (only 2 from each department could apply to the program). The research experience I had played a major role in the nomination. Having a good CG definitely helps, but I believe it shouldn’t be a strong criterion if your research experience is great. After getting nominated, I applied to the SN Bose program in October and was one of the 50 students selected out of the 1500 odd applicants in India. The SN Bose scholarship provides $2500 as scholarship money, flight tickets as well as reimbursement of the health insurance (a necessity in the US). In short, I now had the funding but needed a research lab to go to. You would think that my summers would be sorted in a week, but it took another 2 months to finally find someone who agreed to have me over for the summers. But it was sure worth the wait, since I got a research internship offer at the Machine Learning Department at CMU, the #1 ranked school for that department in the world. There were many learnings from the 7-8 months of applying to various research labs of which some of the important ones I list down:
|
||||
|
||||
1. Apply to places that actually interest you, else you might waste your whole summer intern hoping you had gone somewhere else.
|
||||
|
||||
2. Be specific, to-the-point and polite in your emails, but don’t dwell too long in drafting one. A little blunt here, but if a professor is searching for an intern, they’ll show interest; if not, there won’t be a reply. It’s as simple as that.
|
||||
|
||||
3. Install Mailtracker to at least give you the satisfaction that your email has been read (or misery that you got rejected besides the prof reading it, half-full half-empty scenario). However, make sure that you leave no evidence that you’re using it. Professors do deem it as off-putting if they receive a mail with Mailtracker.
|
||||
|
||||
4. Don’t be hesitant or judgemental of applying to lower-ranked universities. You need to get rid of the mentality that “ranking of college > research lab”. It works the other way around in research.
|
||||
|
||||
5. Just hang in there. You’ll spend lots of hours sending emails. You will hardly get a response. I am talking about 5-6 replies from 45-50 well-curated emails. Even most of those will be negative, but the prof was kind enough to reply. Some people get lucky, and have their summer plans sorted by November. Some don’t, and have their plans sorted out by May. But if you persevere, you’ll get through. :)
|
||||
|
||||
## Work Experience:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
To start with, the US probably has the most stringent and longest visa process, and it takes nearly 2 months to get the J-1 visa. Thankfully, I was able to get it in time and was in Pittsburgh by May 14. Carnegie Mellon University is world-renowned in Computer Science, and its Machine Learning Department is ranked #1 in the world. My advisor was Katerina Fragkiadaki, whose current work was primarily to find a good 3D scene representation for embodied agents to use, and using that representation on various computer vision and reinforcement learning tasks. Her lab had found a viable way to learn 3D scene representations from multiple 2D images. Why 3D? They gave a much better understanding of the scene, especially when some of the objects in question were occluded by others in 2D images.<br>
|
||||
|
||||
For Actor-Critic based algorithms of reinforcement learning, you need a large sample pool of steps (an action taken by an agent in the simulation) and rewards (score the agent gets for taking that action, the more the better). These samples were being collected on the CPU via Mujoco (a standard simulation environment for RL), which is pretty slow. Shifting the sampling process to the GPU would make things a heck lot faster.<br>
|
||||
|
||||
So, there I was shifting all of the agent step and reward calculations, as well as the 2D image inputs for generating the 3D representations, onto a fairly new simulator called Nvidia FleX, which ran solely on the GPU and whose only resources to refer to were the documentation and source code. The work was way out of my comfort zone, having to deal with C++ code and reading through the source code of the inner workings of a simulator. I did expect a much more deep learning centric work, but I trained just one neural network during the whole internship. Most of the time, I was scavenging for solutions through the source code, and it wasn’t easy at all. But working on a simulator gave me experience and confidence of being able to create a new environment in Nvidia FleX, and also a more general understanding of what RL algorithms require from simulators. <br>
|
||||
|
||||
The atmosphere of the place, however, was quite relaxed, with extremely flexible work hours. People solely care about the work getting done by a certain deadline, although that was also flexible for me as I was working on something completely new. The workplace is pretty open, with lots of areas for discussions where you can just write on the wall (and erase it afterwards :P). There are lounges where you can get coffee and free snacks, and sit around to chat with someone about almost anything, since there is such a large diversity of people in the department, as well as the college in general. People respect your personal space, allowing you to work literally at any place. Just walking around the campus, you can see people sitting on the grass, benches or big chairs with their laptops and notebooks.
|
||||
|
||||
## Getting Used to the Differences in Culture:
|
||||
|
||||
Staying alone in a foreign land is daunting, and to tell the truth, I was a bit anxious. But I was fortunate to get an awesome roommate, who made my months in the States go by so quickly. My apartment was nearly 2 km from CMU. Unlike in India where we can have maids, you’re off on your own to get everything done. That meant I had to clean my apartment, do the laundry, wash the dishes, but most importantly, cook by myself. I tried my hand at cooking for the first time. With time, we were able to make pretty decent food (definitely not like my mom, but surely better than the hostel messes). Cooking was pretty fun, not to mention annoying people (which some of my friends would attest to :P) as well as shocking them (especially family members) via WhatsApp status updates.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Before coming to the US, I was told that being a vegetarian would be difficult to get by. It turns out there is a large Indian and Asian contingent at CMU (around 70-80% during the summer), and so, Indian and vegetarian options were available much more frequently than expected. Another nice feature of most of the regular food places was the option to customize or build your meal (like a Subway, but for Italian, Mexican, Indian, Burgers, and whatnot).
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The American culture is very different, with trust and openness very important virtues. People thank the bus driver, apologize for obstructing your way, are open and blunt with their views. The most shocking thing for me was paying with my credit card without any authentication, except for inserting the card, and a signature at some bigger places. That’s the level of trust there.
|
||||
|
||||
## Sightseeing and Activities:
|
||||
|
||||
Pittsburgh is much cheaper compared to some of the other cities in the US, and your CMU ID card gives you access to all the sports facilities and library of CMU, and even free rides on the public transport. The summers arrive pretty late in the US compared to India (around July), and it rains pretty spontaneously in Pittsburgh. The weather is still pretty pleasant during May and June, getting a bit hot during July, although it’s nothing compared to the scorching 40 C back in India. There are many places to go around in Pittsburgh, and I never left an opportunity to spend my weekends in sightseeing along with my roommate. There were some really memorable experiences, like the casino (coming back from -$1 to earn $70), go-karting at 60 kph, going on a sight-seeing cruise, frantically searching and figuring out clues to get out of an escape room just in time, watching a baseball game with enthusiastic home fans or riding up the Duquesne Incline to see the city of Pittsburgh from above at dusk. But the most unique experience for me would have to be axe throwing. You read that right. Literally, throw axes at targets (flashback to Jason Mamoa throwing axes with a beer cup in the other hand). I got to admit, it was pretty scary at first, despite it being completely safe. Slowly the nerves eased out and became pretty fun in the end. If anyone of you have an opportunity to try it out, I recommend doing it.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I was also fortunate to be able to visit Chicago, Washington DC, New York City, St. Louis, San Jose, San Francisco, and Los Angeles (I know, it’s a LOT of traveling for a 2-month internship). But the best part of all of these places was the people I got to interact and connect with. There was an orientation session held for SN Bose Scholars (and Khorana, a similar program) in Chicago, and that was where I got to interact with a lot of students from various colleges and disciplines in India. You definitely won’t get a better chance to network with so many people, and will even find some people to accompany you for later trips.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing Up
|
||||
|
||||
The major takeaway for me was that research isn’t always as sugar-coated and straight-forward as it was in my previous summer with ETS Montreal, that you have got to stumble and explore a lot before you make some progress, especially when you don’t know how to proceed. Having clarity and a record of explored directions helps a lot in these situations.
|
||||
But if you ask me now, if opting out of the internship season, if waiting for 8 months with my hope rising from each email notification just to see it crushed by a reject or unrelated matter, if I would go through it all again to experience what I did during the summers, I would say definitely, because hey,
|
||||
|
||||
1. interacting with so many people and making new friends
|
||||
2. getting to know a new culture
|
||||
3. sightseeing
|
||||
4. achieving a more complete sense of what research entails
|
||||
was worth every single moment.
|
||||
|
||||
So don’t be afraid to take that risk and go after what you want to do! Internships are for exploring your options after college, and unless you don’t put yourself out of your comfort zone, you’ll be robbing yourself of that chance to find what motivates you and what your limits are. Mind you, this doesn’t mean that you apply without any experience or work to show. :P
|
||||
|
||||
Cheers!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,67 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries:Redseer Consulting Ltd"
|
||||
image: "dhruv1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Dhruv Singh"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'Redseer Consulting Ltd is a boutique firm in the field of research based management and strategy consulting.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Redseer Consulting Ltd is a boutique firm in the field of research based management and strategy consulting.A boutique is a classification of the firms based on their scale of operations, as they focus on a limited number of services. Unlike major consulting firms, boutique firms are highly specialized rather than offering general consulting services.
|
||||
The firm sits neatly between two worlds, research and consulting. In some ways, it is like IMRB, a market research survey firm. In other ways, it is like a McKinsey or a Bain & Co, where it consults startups on entry strategy into new markets, new business verticals, growth strategy, cost reduction and the evergreen bestseller—generic trends.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there:
|
||||
|
||||
As a fresher, I always knew I was never going to find interest in Chemical core subjects and I knew I always had a thing for business.**I have always believed that you don’t have to do something because the rest of the world is doing it, that will make you quit in some time, you only do something once you know you have the curiosity and zeal to do the thing for the next fifteen years**. I did try my hand at web development, design and data analytics in my freshman year but I could never find the perfect blend of things that I knew I loved to do. That curiosity led me into joining E-Cell and that’s where I got to learn more about the various facets of the startup and business ecosystem. I got to know about roles with a mixture of various conventional roles.
|
||||
|
||||
My first internship was at a startup named Wheelstreet. I was a “Business Development Intern”, and worked towards making new expansion strategies and designing marketing campaigns for them. It was here that I knew that business and strategy was my thing. I liked data analytics as well, so my second internship was that of an “Operations Analyst” at a startup named 1mg in the medical e-commerce space. Here I worked on optimising the processes involved in the supply chain and logistics of medicines by working on sets of data and implementing the strategies. My target was to significantly reduce the error percentage and the Turn Around Time(TAT) of delivery. I really loved that I was able to take data driven steps to improve their business and make an impact. I met a lot of alumni throughout both of my internships and got to realise that my interests align with the world of consultancy. I met a consultant from Bain and he explained to me what kind of work consultants do and what is expected from a consultant in big corporates. That is when I thought it might be a perfect idea to try a hand at consulting.
|
||||
|
||||
When my third year started, I was inclined towards Consulting, Business Analytics & Product Management and I was also aware of the need to apply off campus for the same, as a majority of the companies visiting campus for internship don’t offer roles with these profiles. Having networked with a lot of alumni and startups since I was part of the campus groups that majorly dealt with them, I began reaching out to people on LinkedIn and my personal connections and sought guidance so that I could further filter down on the aforementioned fields. People are usually more helpful on LinkedIn if you ask for general career advice. An alumnus who has been through the same phase is more likely to help, than the conventional method of mass messaging for referrals opted by students. This way you can easily connect personally with the person and the chances that he might refer you somewhere increase multifold.
|
||||
|
||||
I started preparing in November(conventionally, you can safely start applying by February-March) and finalised my CV/Resume and Cover Letter by the end of November. Now, the first step was building a well-rounded and attractive LinkedIn profile. After building one, I started connecting to a lot of 2nd degree connections who are currently pursuing the fields I was interested in. For those who are new to LinkedIn, 2nd degree connections are people who are connected to your 1st degree connections. You'll see a 2nd degree icon next to their name in search results and on their profile. I used to send a template message to each one of them. For example, if I’m reaching out to someone in a consulting firm, my message went like this-“Hello Sir/Ma’am, I’m currently a 3rd-year undergrad at IIT Roorkee. I have a deep interest in management consulting and strategy oriented roles. Your mentorship could be vital for me to pursue my interests. Could you please guide me in the right direction? It would be great to connect over call sometime.” My conversion rate was significantly higher than what people get when they blatantly ask someone for a referral.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
So, after talking to a lot of people, I narrowed down to Strategy & Consulting roles as an optimal career choice for me to pursue for the Summers of 2019. I had made an excel sheet of the companies I was targeting and in a couple of weeks, I had connected to a lot of alumni, HRs and executives of those companies.
|
||||
|
||||
This approach got me interviews with a handful of companies and startups with a variable tradeoff between quality of work & the quality of firm. I ended up choosing Redseer since I knew a couple of alumni here and that gave me added assurance of quality of work. My interview process involved a lot of emphasis on guesstimates and case studies.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The office is based out of Bengaluru. My internship was that of a “Business Analyst”, wherein I worked directly under an Associate Consultant and one of the Directors was assigned to me as my mentor throughout the internship. I was lucky enough to work on multiple projects throughout my internship. I’ll be explaining each one of the projects and my involvement and responsibilities in the same. Redseer has a vertical work structure with a lot of emphasis on the entrepreneurial environment of work and a lot depends on your sense of ownership in any project. There are a lot of people from Tier-1 colleges on every level and that really helped me in mixing up with people and led me towards building strong professional and personal connections. The work hours were typically 9:30AM to 6:30PM but most of the times people used to stretch because of the demanding nature of work.
|
||||
|
||||
I was initially assigned to two projects, the first was an internal project. Our goal was to build a portal where Redseer clients & employees can login and view business metrics, consumer data etc. for industries which are tracked on a monthly basis. The user shall have the liberty to set customized search criterion for convenience, comparison and better visualization of specific e-commerce industries. I had to record the statistics of major e-tailing players on a set of 17 key parameters employing benchmarking techniques to understand current outlook of e-tailing industry for 2 years. My work also involved basics of Product Management and SQL. I had Amit Anand, another intern from IIT Roorkee with me who worked on the end to end development part.
|
||||
|
||||
The second project was for a fund which was looking to evaluate a certain target firm in the B2B E-commerce space for potential assessment. So, we were supposed to do Commercial Due Diligence(CDD) for the same. For those of you who are not familiar with it, Commercial Due Diligence is the process a corporation or private equity firm undertakes to gauge a company's commercial attractiveness. Unlike financial due diligence, which focuses solely on the financial health of the company, commercial due diligence provides a full overview of the target's internal and external environment. I had to assess the B2B E-commerce market landscape of India, analysing the online penetration with focus on Industrial supplies, assessing the competitive landscape in the B2B E-commerce market and business model of key players. I had to perform performance benchmarking of the ‘target firm’ in terms of business model, unit economics and key metrics. Along with this, we had to perform a future assessment of the ecosystem and emerging business models. This project was an overall test of my abilities and it was an enriching experience to get to work on a CDD as an intern and understanding the whole B2B E-commerce market scenario. One of the best bits of work you could get as an intern in consulting.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
After completing work on one of the projects, I was staffed on an international project for one of the largest global investment companies which was looking for companies in the Indonesian E-commerce space to include in its portfolio. So we had to assess the whole B2C E-commerce landscape in Indonesia. Understanding consumer sentiment, logistical issues, growth drivers & unit economics in Indonesia were some of the key challenges in the project. So, a few of the employees flew to Indonesia to take IDIs(In-Depth Interviews). After conducting consumer and seller surveys on a large scale, we managed to understand the market structure and segmentation and estimated the total addressable market along with the future scope in the E-Tailing, digital goods and B2B market in Indonesia. This project gave me an end-to-end in depth overview of the Indonesian E-commerce market and also added a new perspective as to how international projects are carried out at such a scale.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Now, for the final phase of my internship, I was inducted as a member of the Redseer advisory team for leading Private Equity firms/Venture Capitalists.
|
||||
The team was responsible for demystifying the E-commerce, logistics(3PL & Captive) & Digital Payments landscape in India. This helped me understand the roots of the logistics space in India and realise what the growth drivers are and geometrical segmentation is by conducting competitive benchmarking of the 7 major players in logistics. It helped me understand what the growth drivers are while analysing the performances of the various horizontals, verticals and super verticals in the ecosystem. Also, breaking down the E-commerce market helped me realise who the market leaders are and where the future of E-Tailing in India is headed.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing up and key takeaways:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The learnings were many be it interacting with clients, getting exposure to the industry, going on the ground or being within close doors and thinking about structuring the problem at hand. But some that particularly left me spellbound were:
|
||||
|
||||
**Story-lining**: I learnt the art of conveying a presentation in the form of a story, highlighting key takeaways for each slide. This ensured I had the attention of my audience and conveyed my point in a crisp and precise way.
|
||||
|
||||
**Elevator Pitch**: I understood the importance of having an answer ready at all times. Whether it was an update I had to give in a case team meeting or an explanation when the client questioned my hypothesis, I ensured I was well prepared and had an answer at hand. It was greatly valued and reflected my confidence and hard work.
|
||||
|
||||
**Over-communication**: It was always better to communicate the minutest detail which I felt could be important to the team. It was a trade-off to being precise but it ensured the team didn’t get any surprises at a later stage.
|
||||
|
||||
**Deliverable-Oriented Approach**: A good consultant always prefers to be “accurate enough” than to be “precisely accurate”. As a consultant, you’ll make decisions like this frequently, which is why interviewers screen out candidates who are uncomfortable with “accurate enough” since you cannot take a prolonged time going for preciseness when you could have saved a ton of money and time with an accurate enough answer that would work for the client.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Over the almost three months, I worked at Redseer, the amount of learning and experience I gained was tremendous. I worked with a lot of people and on a lot of exciting projects where I was able to find out my weaknesses and strong points and work towards being a better professional. Most of all, *one should always be able to make a concrete decision around his/her career path after an internship* and I was able to derive one for me.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,80 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: ITC Limited"
|
||||
image: "aneja1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Mohit Aneja"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'I was allotted a project in the Paperboards and Speciality Papers (PSPD) division of ITC. The projects given to the KITES interns are quite versatile, from highly technical projects related to your branch to research work in a completely different domain.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Where & What: What I worked on during the intern?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I was allotted a project in the Paperboards and Speciality Papers (PSPD) division of ITC. The projects given to the KITES interns are quite versatile, from highly technical projects related to your branch to research work in a completely different domain. One of my co-interns from Mechanical Engineering was given a project on safety. My project was more on the technical side - based on heat and mass transfer, and performance assessment of cooling towers and heat exchangers. The objectives of the project were:
|
||||
|
||||
**i)** To assess the performance of cooling towers and heat exchangers in Utilities and Soda Recovery Section and to increase the efficiency of heat exchangers by 5%.<br>
|
||||
|
||||
**ii)** To reduce the freshwater consumption as makeup water by 20%.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The scope of the project was a total of 6 cooling towers and 6 heat exchangers inside the plant. I had to visit all the cooling towers and observe any visual flaws during the operation and compare it with the benchmark practices. My work included talking to a lot of people to understand the operation of the cooling towers and corresponding condensers, research work to look for new technologies, analyzing the data obtained, thinking and brainstorming on new ideas to save water and increase efficiency. I was given enough freedom to take my project in whatever direction I wanted to - which I used to explore new technology in the field. I got an experimental set-up fabricated based off of a research paper with the help of engineers in the plant. The plant engineers are highly eager to implement any good idea in order to improve the operations in the plant.
|
||||
Before applying: Where/how did you get the idea of interning there?
|
||||
ITC is one of the first companies to visit the campus but I did not have any plans to seriously sit for the process. I had a decent CGPA so I thought of giving it a shot. I had an altogether different view of the interview process (assuming it to be one of the toughest technical interviews on campus) but this myth was busted only in my own interview!
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there:
|
||||
The process starts with a lengthy ‘Mind Over Matter’ form consisting of around 6-7 essay type questions focusing on your personality, followed by resume shortlisting. Generally, people with higher CGPA are given preference while shortlisting. Not only this, having something unique on your resume will help you getting shortlisted. It doesn’t matter if the previous work done isn’t related to what ITC does. My previous internships were based on Python development in Options trading, and basic level research work in alternative finance.
|
||||
After this, a psychometric test is conducted to check if the values of the candidate align with that of the company. The psychometric test consists of about 35 questions, with 20 unique questions and the rest being a repetition, but in a different form/language. They want to test your consistency in answering the questions about yourself. There is no right answer to those questions. Just be consistent with your answers throughout the test.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Group Discussion:
|
||||
|
||||
This is followed by a GD round - with groups of 9-10 people each. You are handed a case study written on a paper and given 20 minutes to discuss and arrive at a conclusion. The time limit is strict and they will ask you to leave immediately after the time is over, whether or not your group arrived at a conclusion or not. Try to make logical arguments in this round. Don’t speak just to speak. It may backfire if someone counters your statement with a good argument. Don’t keep mum during the whole round either, which will surely remove you from the process. Listen carefully when others are speaking and find the right time to speak and agree to / counter the points that other people make. It will show that you are a good listener and you’re not just waiting to blabber your own points. Initiating the discussion by quickly reading the case study is always a plus. Only 2-3 people make it to the interview rounds after the group discussion.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Technical round + HR:
|
||||
|
||||
At last, two PI rounds are conducted. The first one is a lengthy round - with discussion on your favorite subject, fundamental questions on that subject. After this, you are asked a few questions based on your answers to questions in the Mind Over Matter form. Basic HR questions are also asked in this round. If you make it to the final round - which is mostly taken by people from the HR team of some division of ITC, you will be asked questions as to why you prefer ITC over other companies, your motive for joining and other HR questions. I was asked one technical question on heat exchangers in this round as well.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Turns out, the whole procedure is not about how technically sound you are when it comes to your branch subjects but it is more about aligning with the values of the company, and your seriousness in the previous internships/projects. Basically, the company doesn’t expect you to know anything beforehand because the projects are so diverse in nature that it will require you to study the subject from scratch during the internship. Hence they want someone who can grasp things quickly, can get things done - by convincing others and by taking the lead.
|
||||
Tip: A lot of questions are asked based on your resume, so be very precise and clear about what you’re writing in your resume. It would be good if you can prepare one subject of your choice before the interviews (just be very clear with the fundamentals - don’t dive into the technicalities of the subject). Also, prepare a 30 second and 1 minute summary of yourself for the “Tell me about yourself” question thrown at you as soon as you enter the interview room.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## About the Place:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The PSPD division has 4 plants - Bhadrachalam, Kovai, Tribeni and Bollaram. Interns are generally sent to the Bhadrachalam since it is the biggest unit in terms of the size of operations. It is a remote town in Telangana, 6 hours from Hyderabad city via train. The factory consists of 7 humongous paper machines having lengths of about 300-400 metres each. This adds to the walking that you’d need to do to move from one part of the plant to the other.
|
||||
|
||||
## Project Description:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The aim of the project was to assess the performance of cooling towers and to increase the efficiency of heat exchangers, and to save freshwater in the cooling towers - so work was to be done in a lot of different domains. The project required a fair bit of knowledge of heat and mass transfer principles, site visits, data analysis on Excel, chemistry of corrosion and scaling, research work to look for new technologies in the field, and management in terms of following up with a lot of people simultaneously (for data collection, process understanding, lab tests, machine visits, meetings).
|
||||
It would be good if you’re well familiar with Excel and PowerPoint. You may have to use Minitab and Statistical Quality Control techniques depending on the type of project. Learning the basics beforehand will help, although a formal workshop is conducted during the orientation session, before the internship, in the month of April.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Work Environment:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The work hours, officially, are 8:30 AM-5:30 PM but the interns rarely adhere to the schedule. Most of the times, we went to the plant during the office hours only since we had to meet a lot of people in the plant. At some point during the intern, when my work was only restricted to researching for new methods, I worked from my room. On an average you’d work 8-10 hours per day, but it extends depending on the proximity of the reviews with your guide and mentor. (as is the case with MTEs and ETEs in college). The sad part is that you have to work 6 days a week. The one day break is not sufficient to travel to any good places nearby. Most of the Sundays were underutilized by either sleeping the whole day or by visits to the local market. This was not the case for all the divisions, though- some other interns got a lot of chances to travel to beautiful places around their locations (especially the Bangalore peeps).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The people in the company (and the mill) are amazing to talk to, very supportive. Since a lot of help is required from the plant engineers related to your project, their supportive attitude makes them easily approachable. You may face a language barrier while communicating with some of the operators in the plant but even they know enough English for you to get your message across.
|
||||
You are allotted a guide and a mentor for the project. Both of them have some knowledge in the domain of the project and will help you to the best possible extent. You can easily approach your guide for any help on a daily basis and the mentor every week. Building a good rapport with both of them will help you tremendously.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The interns are well taken care of. The company provides for the accommodation and the food during the whole stay. The accommodation is in a decent guest house, with a dining hall which serves majorly South Indian food, although you can get custom dishes prepared, apart from the regular menu. The weather is something to hate about the place. It is extremely humid (owing to Godavari River nearby and steam releases in the plant) and hot during the months of May and June with temperatures reaching 48 degrees.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing up and Key Takeaways:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Overall, the two months of internship at ITC were the best two months in terms of learning. It added immensely to my pool of knowledge by enhancing my people skills, technical skills and management skills. The work culture at the company will definitely add professionalism to your work ethics. It is astonishing to see that even the simplest of decisions are taken with a lot of brainstorming, since each and every decision ultimately impacts the company’s profits. Not only the internship, the KITES orientation session in Bangalore is one of the best experiences one can have. The stay, the food and the level at which the interactions happen at the orientation is surely going to leave you spellbound.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Basically, the company expects the intern to look at the operations from a different perspective and suggest new and innovative solutions to the existing problems. The experience of KITES interns can vary significantly depending on which division they were allotted. The project work may be overwhelming at times but talking to your guide and mentor will surely give you a definite direction. Practicing for GDs with your batchmates will help you do better in the actual GDs. Read about the different divisions of ITC and the overall hierarchy before going to the interviews. All the best!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,86 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: HSBC "
|
||||
image: anant1.png
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Anant Tayal"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'The beginning is the most important part of the work. Let’s start with something depressing and end on a happier note.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
'The beginning is the most important part of the work. Let’s start with something depressing and end on a happier note.'<br>
|
||||
I think the above lines well summarize my hunt for what you call a ‘good’ internship. By the end of the summer of my second year, like any other sophomore student of the Department of Chemical Engineering, I was all set and excited to sit for ITC, RB, AmEx, and Schlumberger in the internship season. Who knew that things were just about to take a turn?
|
||||
|
||||
I had a good time at the Centre for Analytical Finance at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad (My 2nd year summer internship). I enjoyed my work over there on trading strategies, building valuation models, and studying Corporate Finance. It was a pleasant experience, indeed. How did I land there? So, for the first two years of my college life, I was majorly involved in fest and event organization, what you call good for management profiles. I was part of the core teams of Cognizance and TEDxIITRoorkee. It is something that I’m really proud of, but I had started getting the feeling that I also need to learn something, gain some skills and acquire technical knowledge. Mathematics and numbers have always fascinated me. I had some exposure to Economics because of the elective course offered in the second year. So, I started dropping emails to professors at IIMs and ISB, who were working in this domain. Luckily, I got acceptances from both, and chose the latter one, because of the project there being more related to analytics, something I ardently wished to get a good hands-on experience on!
|
||||
|
||||
By the time my ISB internship was over, I started to ponder if this was the field I wanted to explore more, provided my deep interest in Mathematics. To be honest, I was really confused. From the first year, we have grown up seeing examples of “machau” seniors getting placed at ITC, Schlumberger, Goldman Sachs etc, and with the ever-increasing coding culture of IITR, I had three-spiked fork in front of me - Prepare for core companies (I felt I had a good chance with a decent CGPA and profile), start competitive coding and sit for software roles, or choose the path I recently started liking by learning more of Finance.
|
||||
|
||||
By the time I returned to the campus, most of my friends were into competitive coding, and here I was, all directionless, thinking what to start with. So I started talking to my seniors, friends, and family members I trust, and believe to be my well-wishers. Some of them said things like: Anant kaha ye sab karega, coding kar, August tak on-campus intern lagegi, meri guarantee. Some said, Anant, try kr skta hai, boht time hai, nahi hua to kuch na kuch to kr h lenge. I spent nearly 10 sleepless nights, thinking about what to do, alongside preparing for core, doing a bit of competitive coding, and general aptitude puzzles. I knew then that it could not go ahead the same way and crossing the fork had become the need of the hour. That’s when I met one of the seniors in our library, motivating me, pushing me hard to study finance and explore the field without taking unnecessary pressure. Certainly Lord ‘Ram’ for this ‘Hanuman’. I still remember his words “Tu padh, teri acchi intern me lagvaunga”. I feel myself lucky to have such seniors, friends and family members who were always there for me. After sitting half-heartedly for some companies, I finally decided to study Finance seriously, and go for it in full throttle. I dropped any hope of getting an on-campus internship for the role I was looking for. That was when HSBC came, the first time to recruit interns from IITs. With prior experience of work at ISB, I knew this was a golden opportunity for me.
|
||||
|
||||
## How did I prepare?
|
||||
|
||||
HSBC came in the first week of September, and roughly I had about 10-12 days for the preparation.
|
||||
|
||||
In the job description, it was mentioned that they were looking for someone with good analytical skills, strong mathematical background (Probability & Statistics), and basic programming skills (C++ or Python).
|
||||
|
||||
I made sure that I’m well prepared with the concepts of Probability and Statistics (Expectation, Random Variables, Bayes Theorem, Conditional Probability, Different type of Distributions (Normal, Poisson, Lognormal etc), Central Limit Theorem and Hypothesis Testing).
|
||||
For Quant roles in firms like HSBC, JPMC, GS I feel one should also be thorough with the concepts of Engineering Mathematics- Calculus (Taylor series, Beta-Gamma functions, Line Integral, Solving PDEs), Matrices (Eigenvalues, Eigen Vectors, Rank of a Matrix), and Vector Calculus. So I revised the content of MAN-001 & 002 courses taught in the first year, and also went through Permutation and Combination from JEE syllabus.
|
||||
|
||||
I feel Probability, Statistics, P&C, Calculus, Matrices and general aptitude puzzles (from GeeksforGeeks and InterviewBit ) are the ones which will help you ace the interview. Apart from this, they are looking for basic programming skills in C++ and Python (Basic Data Structures-- Array, Linked list). So make sure you are well prepared on these fronts.
|
||||
|
||||
For all those who are afraid of coding, or don’t want to code like me until 2nd year, let me share my experience with you: I learnt it during my ISB intern, when I was asked to code in Python, that it’s just a tool to express what you think or strategise, just like a poet expressing his emotions by writing. It’s inevitable. When you are doing complex, lengthy calculations you have to use it. You can’t do it manually. You have to code your algorithm or what you call ‘strategy’. So it is better to start off with writing basic codes. It’ll help you in the long run. Maybe it’s like Inorganic Chemistry of the JEE Syllabus. You have to study, to excel at some point.
|
||||
|
||||
Last but not the least about the preparation part, you should be well aware of every word you write in your resume. Be well prepared with the projects you have done in the past because you will be grilled on them.
|
||||
|
||||
Preparation strategy can be unique to every individual, I feel. I think what helps is taking the ball in your court, and playing on your strengths alongside what company is looking for. This is the trick always.
|
||||
|
||||
## Procedure:
|
||||
|
||||
We didn’t have a screening test (procedural variations may be expected). There was a resume shortlisting round, followed by 2-3 rounds of interview. The resume shortlisting made it pretty clear that they were looking for students who have an interest in Mathematics, Data-Science, Data-Analysis and Business Problem solving (students who have demonstrated the same through an intern or project).
|
||||
|
||||
So a CGPA above 7, a decent profile, justifying your interest in any of the above field should get you through the resume-shortlisting. 25 students were shortlisted from our batch for the interviews.
|
||||
|
||||
First-round was what we call the ‘Technical-Round’, and was about questions from the topics I mentioned above to prepare (along with puzzles), and about how well you have understood your previous projects. 10 students were shortlisted after this round.
|
||||
|
||||
The second-round was Technical + HR. It consisted of questions on my project at ISB, how would I improvise on that project, and then the questions on my campus life. “What have you done in the past two years?” and routine HR questions- “Tell us something about yourself”, “Where do you see yourself 5 years down the line?”, “You are from Chemical Engineering Department, why do you want to work for our bank?”. The fact that the panel made me comfortable, from the very beginning, I feel, is the reason that I was able to answer those questions fluently. Prepare these basic questions well. You don’t want to spoil all your hard work by approaching these questions in a wrong way, right!
|
||||
|
||||
After all the grilling, three students were finally selected. We were also given a CHAPO at The Rustic House. It all ended on a happier note, isn’t it!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## HSBC and My Experience Over There:
|
||||
|
||||
## About HSBC:
|
||||
|
||||
I was excited. Yes, I was going to work for a multinational bank, which has a glorious history of over 150 years, and is the largest in terms of market value in Europe (by 2018).
|
||||
|
||||
Little did I know, that the first ATM in India was set up by HSBC. Also the fact that you need to have an astonishing minimum balance of INR 1.5 Lakh, to open a bank account with HSBC. With all these facts, perks of a healthy stipend and free accommodation for 14 days in a lavish hotel, I was all set for the summers.
|
||||
|
||||
HSBC is organised within four business groups namely, Commercial Banking, Global Banking & Markets, Retail Banking & Wealth Management, and Global Private Banking. I worked for Global Banking and Markets Front Office, Bangalore.
|
||||
|
||||
## Work and Learning:
|
||||
|
||||
We were a total of 14 interns from 4 different IITs and were assigned projects divided broadly into 3 asset classes: Equities, Fixed Income (FI), and Foreign Exchange (FX). I was a part of the FX-Overlay team. HSBC is one of the biggest interbank players and market makers in the USD/INR market. I was assigned a project directly from the London office. In fact, all of us were assigned projects from different global hubs: London, New York, and Hong Kong.
|
||||
|
||||
For all you should know, FX-Overlay desk deals with hedging the currency risk of a portfolio, which a global investor holds, with the assets denominated in the foreign currency. I was engaged in a mix of analytical work and coding/prototyping. I developed a backtesting tool for the hedging strategy that HSBC uses for its clients. I’m bound by the compliance issues that HSBC takes very seriously, not to disclose anything about the project, but I can definitely say that the project I worked on was intellectually challenging & exciting. Initially, it was a bit difficult to grasp the concepts, but it all ended on a happier note when I finally developed the backtesting tool in Python.
|
||||
|
||||
## Fun:
|
||||
|
||||
Coming to the fun part, Bangalore's nightlife is happening and LIT, I must say. All the interns were invited for a “Cocktail Dinner” at one of the most sumptuous cafes in Bangalore. There, we could ask for anything, as much as we wanted to. (I meant snacks of course :P)
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Culture:
|
||||
|
||||
On the first day, my mentor said: Dekh hum 2.5 logo k team hai. 2 me, 0.5 tu. The journey from this to introducing me to one of his colleagues as his deputy boss (on a lighter note, of course), I think we connected really well. I had a fantastic learning experience, and will always cherish the time I spent with my team, mentor and co-interns. HSBC has a policy of open-desk culture, no cabins. You can easily reach out to anyone, and ask for guidance. I was in touch with people having worked for HSBC for more than 25 years and were at senior most positions in the organization.
|
||||
|
||||
We all talk about organizations being loyal, caring to their employees, and a healthy work culture. Just once incident, that I’ll preserve with me for a lifetime. So, I went to the office on one of the weekends. (Nobody asked me to :p). AC of the floor was shut down because no one was there. I asked the staff team if they could do something about it. A guy brought a table fan, from the first floor to the fifth floor for me.
|
||||
|
||||
HSBC, you have been special in many ways. From taking care of me to boosting my confidence that I can do anything. I’ll always be thankful to you :)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## One Final Advice:
|
||||
|
||||
I know that the internship season can be stressful, too much, sometimes. The two main reasons behind that, which I feel, are lack of patience & awareness and The Peer Pressure. If you can get yourself on terms with these two, you are already halfway down, I feel. Please don’t panic, if you don’t land somewhere in the first week or month maybe. There are enough opportunities for all of us. Just be aware of what you are expecting out of this internship season, prepare in one direction sincerely, be focused, have patience, don’t get influenced by what others are doing. Have confidence and faith in yourself and you will come off with flying colours :)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,74 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: ITC Limited"
|
||||
image: "shivani1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Shivani Singh"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'I spent my Summer’19 interning with ITC Ltd., a multi-business Indian enterprise. Having tried my hands on fields of research in chemical engineering at IISc Bangalore and management at IIM Ahmedabad, I was pretty sure that research was not something which could keep up my interest for a long enough time to pursue it as a career option.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
I spent my Summer’19 interning with ITC Ltd., a multi-business Indian enterprise. Having tried my hands on fields of research in chemical engineering at IISc Bangalore and management at IIM Ahmedabad, I was pretty sure that research was not something which could keep up my interest for a long enough time to pursue it as a career option.I wanted something which could be more tangible in terms of results of my efforts. Led by this motivation, I was very clear during the internship season of the companies I was going to apply for, consequently landing an internship in ITC Ltd.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there:
|
||||
|
||||
## About the program:
|
||||
I was selected under ITC’s Summer Internship Programme- “Knowledge, Initiative & Talent Excellence Series” popularly known as KITES. The programme is specifically designed to provide the interns with a platform to learn, experience and manage real life business situations. The interns are recruited from the premier technical institutes of the country for a period of 8 weeks where their novel perspective to a business problem is utilised for extracting the best from them.
|
||||
|
||||
## Application Process:
|
||||
The application process started in early August when ITC came on campus through TPO for hiring summer interns. Last year the branches eligible were Chemical, Electrical, ECE, Mechanical and Production & Industrial. The complete process is summarized as under:
|
||||
|
||||
**1. Online Application**: Interested students are required to apply through an online portal where a form is required to be filled. The form essentially requires details from your resume and some essay type questions to be answered mentioning your goals and motivation to join ITC.
|
||||
|
||||
**2. Shortlisting**: Based on the form filled, a shortlist is issued for the psychometric test. The information that you fill in this form is reassessed at various stages from your personality test to the point then you actually join one of the divisions of ITC and serves as a medium for the company (and especially your guides and mentors) to know you.
|
||||
|
||||
**3. Psychometric Test**: This test is designed to evaluate your intelligence, personality and decision making skills through some situational questions. The aim is to check if you are a good fit for the company’s work environment or not. The rejection rate at this stage is negligible and you will pass through unless you decide to deliberately screw it up.
|
||||
|
||||
**4. Group Discussion**: The students selected from the psychometric test are divided in groups of 7-8 for the group discussion round. This stage of the selection procedure is designed to judge your people handling and convincing skills. The discussion revolves around solving a case which is given to you in hardcopy after you enter the room. The reading time given to you is about 5 minutes, hence, you need to be really quick in grasping the essence of the problem and coming up with logical arguments. The problems may range from discussing upcoming business strategy for a product or simply just discussing the best course of action after an accident. These case problems do not require any prior preparation but you are expected to be logically sound in your arguments and be able to convince your audience for the same. The number of students selected from a GD is not fixed and may range from 1-4 per GD.
|
||||
|
||||
**5. Personal Interview**: From around 68 students who participated in GD rounds last year, 20 students were selected for the final personal interview round. This is the last stage of the selection procedure and in my opinion the most interesting one, the reason you’ll get to know in the following paragraphs:
|
||||
|
||||
**a. Technical Round:** This round is aimed to test your technical competency with respect to your engineering knowledge but does not strictly sticks to the plan, it happens often that the HR would pop up a question related to your goals and plans, so be ready to keep jumping between these two domains in your mind. It starts with the interviewers asking you questions from your favourite subjects which you are asked to mention. Hence, it is advisable to prepare at least 2 subjects from your curriculum. The questions are from the very basics of the subject, so don’t worry if you are not a master in it. I prepared for Heat Transfer and was asked to derive the formula for ‘Log Mean Temperature Difference’, those who have studied must know this concept is fairly easy. The interviewer can also go into the details of your projects or internships mentioned in the resume, so do give a read to any reports that you might have made or in general the work that you might have done. Though this round is named as the technical round but the decision of you getting the internship or not is more or less finalised here only.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**b. HR Round:** This round is basically an interaction between the student and some senior officials from the company who are interested in knowing your interest in working with them. Again, don’t just expect HR questions in the interview. If the person is intrigued by some specific point in your resume, you can be taken into the technical realms of the business from this very moment which was the case with me. I was asked about the temperature profile of tobacco in processing and its importance in terms of the product quality. You are not expected to know everything when such questions may be thrown at you, what is important is the approach you take to understand and arrive at a solution.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Mind Over Matter Orientation Program
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Before getting us to work in some of the harsh places in the country, ITC treated us well with a 2 days 5-star stay in its luxury collection hotel ITC Windsor in Bangalore. This orientation program was a stepping stone for us to transition from theoretical knowledge to a mindset for real business problems and technical tools to handle them. These 2 days had rigorous sessions scheduled to equip us with all the skills required for pursuing and emerging successful from the upcoming 2 months long internship. The orientation also gave us the opportunity to meet the interns selected from other institutes of the country and break the ice as this 2-day long event concluded with a cocktail party hosted by ITC for all the incoming interns.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
With a diversified portfolio in FMCG, Paperboards, Hotels, Packaging, Agri-business and Information Technology, ITC offers a wide range of opportunities for the interns. The allotment procedure where the interns are selected to intern in one of the divisions of ITC is purely based on our past experience, internships and projects, and unfortunately we do not have a choice here. Surely, the KITES summer internship program is a platform to learn and experience working in a corporate environment but the projects allotted to the interns have serious business significance and hence, each intern is considered as an integral part of their company during this period. This is how KITES differs from any of the projects or internships that you might have done earlier (at least in my case).
|
||||
|
||||
The project brief was received around a month prior to the commencement of the internship. It was a detailed explanation of my project, the objectives, the deliverables expected and prior readings required. Guides and mentors were also allotted at this stage.
|
||||
My project was based on process optimisation and standardisation of encapsulated flavour used in cigarettes. It majorly involved risk assessment of product defects, analysis based on feasibility of solutions and identification of scope for improvements in the process in terms of time and money while maintaining product integrity. I was also required to design a tech-enabled traceability system for capsule manufacturing.
|
||||
The projects can be from any domains of production, engineering, process excellence and environment, health & safety. One can even expect project in the area of machine learning and artificial intelligence depending upon the requirements in the divisions.
|
||||
|
||||
The work culture at ITC was very different than what I had experienced in my past interns. Here I had the liberty to experiment anything new to solve the problems and deliver results. While I had the factory workers to help me throughout the project, I also had to take care that the production line is not getting affected in any way.
|
||||
It has been a characteristic of the KITES projects that they are a bit vague in their definition for the sake that the intern can find his/her own way forward without getting affected by the opinions or the work that has already been done in the area. This makes it challenging and interesting at the same time. The entire internship period was a bit bumpy for me where I had my lows when I was completely aimless as to where should I proceed, and my highs where I validated solutions and got results. This was also complemented with the pressure to complete the deliverables within the stipulated 8 weeks. Since, ITC has factories at various locations in India, you may also be required to travel to different plants to get insights from various technologies used there. In entirety, KITES internship is drafted to evaluate the intern in terms of his/her approach to solve a problem, technical intellect, people handling skills, professionalism and the extent to which the person is ready to go for getting resources relevant to your project. Though it may get frustrating at times, but the experience is truly worth it.
|
||||
|
||||
The locations that ITC offers are not quite pleasant, one can expect locations like Munger, Bhadrachalam, Kapurthala (which even I wasn’t aware of) where the only human interaction you have is with the people in the plant. Fortunately, my location was ITD (Indian Tobacco Division) Bangalore. Though, the factory was around 30 km from the main city (Koramangala to be precise) but I was able to spend my weekends in the city. The accommodation provided to us compensated the stress we brought back from work. It was a beautiful villa with a canopy of shady trees and serene open space.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing it up
|
||||
KITES summer internship is all about extracting the best from the best! Your hard work, innovative viewpoint and unique technical solutions to business problems are the factors deciding your success in this endeavor. To say the least, you are groomed to become industry ready in these 2 months with all sorts of challenges thrown at you, be it dealing with vendors for negotiations or a particular technical glitch in the machine.
|
||||
Important to mention, if you are expecting a 9-5 desk job with no jerks and jolts, ITC is not a place for you. For the students aiming for ITC:
|
||||
|
||||
**1.** Be clear about your motivation to join ITC, this is what matters the most.<br>
|
||||
**2.** Glance through your core subjects a bit to prepare for the technical round.<br>
|
||||
**3.** Though not strictly required,but you can go through some problems asked in case interviews just to create a pace for solving them. (Do this only if you have time)<br>
|
||||
**4.** It’s better to read about some initiatives of ITC for the HR round, it’s always appreciable if you can back your motivation with some examples.<br>
|
||||
**5.** Through each and every stage of the selection procedure, be extremely confident!
|
||||
|
||||
That’s all you require to go through :)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,52 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: ITC Limited"
|
||||
image: "bagla1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Anirudh Bagla"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'The best thing about ITC is that you work on a real problem faced by the company, you suggest changes and they are implemented immediately and you are given freedom to explore the problem as much as you can'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## FEW TIPS FOR ITC
|
||||
* ITC repeats its GD problems, don’t be overconfident, do practice this with your friends
|
||||
* Have a good and interesting introduction prepared
|
||||
* Know how to explain at least 2 projects in your resume and be aware of the slightest technical thing that is involved in those projects. And if you make it technical enough, you might get rid of questions from your course. By this you become the person driving the conversation.
|
||||
* Make sure that you have a convincing reason to join ITC even after the intern
|
||||
|
||||
## LOCATION AND DIVISION
|
||||
|
||||
ITC has around 100+ factories spread over 60 locations in India. Sadly these locations are not something one admires to work at. They are mostly tier 3 cities and if not they are located in the outskirts of big cities. If you are lucky enough you can find non factory locations in head offices, but I personally believe if you want to make the most from this intern, work in a factory.
|
||||
|
||||
I was allotted FBD (Foods Business Division) and to be very clear each division at ITC works differently, it's like working in a different company all together. As far as FBD is concerned it is still in expansion phase and has new factories coming almost every year. In foods my location was at the dairy plant of munger district of Bihar.
|
||||
|
||||
Before you feel pity for me I visited Patna, Kolkata, Bangalore (twice) and even travelled in Business class and no matter how poor the infrastructure of the city is ITC makes sure that you have stay of life in that city. My stay was arranged at ITC park and it had all the facilities from swimming pool to club and as far as Dry state is concerned there is nothing stopping an IITian (wink wink)
|
||||
|
||||
## PROJECT
|
||||
|
||||
The best thing about ITC is that you work on a real problem faced by the company, you suggest changes and they are implemented immediately and you are given freedom to explore the problem as much as you can (I will come to this one later).
|
||||
|
||||
Around 2 months prior to joining in May, ITC arranges a 3 days program to help us with how to approach and work during the internship. They teach us basic data analysis tools and all the non- technical stuff we might need during our project. Apart from this we are not expected to know any software or other things, but we might have to learn it during the internship (not in detail but to the point you can understand someone else's work on it).
|
||||
|
||||
Coming to my project, ITC entered in pouch milk packing last year only. My project was to reduce market complaints in pouch milk packets. This included improving machine’s performance, inspection techniques and even out of the box ideas of how to prevent fake complaints. I was given this project about a week before joining and it was made very clear that the only criteria of success is actual reduction in complaints (since this data goes directly
|
||||
to head office, tempering results was also not possible). Currently there was about 0.2% complaints which i had to reduce further.
|
||||
|
||||
## WORK CULTURE
|
||||
|
||||
I was given individual project (this means I had absolute freedom on how I want to proceed) and assigned a guide who was my contact point during the internship and a buddy (for any informal help, mostly newly joined managers from IITs). It is a 24/7 running factory and working hours are 9am to 6pm, 6 days a week (so i got one day to enjoy the astonishing night life at munger). But since I was on a project this timeline didn’t matter at all, in fact after the first week, I hardly worked according to this. Sometimes I had to go to at night shift to observe/implement changes, sometimes early morning and sometimes on Sundays as well. To compensate i took leaves during weekdays whenever i found workload was less.
|
||||
|
||||
My guide was the production manager of the factory, and he was responsible for any help that I need for my project. Most interns found their guides to be their boss and have limited interaction with them, but mine case was a bit different. He used to call me for dinner (He’s a great chef), organized parties at his home and even at the office. At the same time he gave me free hand on whatever I wanted to implement (considering the risks though). Since he was the production manager he was quite busy and sometimes wasn’t able to give time to my project, in such situations we met post work and discuss (benefits of small town).
|
||||
|
||||
Since I didn't have any knowledge of the dairy industry and the technology used, I requested to visit other factories of ITC and even managed to arrange a visit factories of some more established players in the market. This is the freedom that I mentioned earlier. I just had to give a valid reason and ITC arranges rest. Whether it is visiting a vendor in Kolkata, or visit the original manufacturers of the machine in Pune.
|
||||
|
||||
Since they provide you with such facilities they expect work from you, to check the progress I had a mid review separately with Divisional Head and the CEO. Finally in the end my progress was reviewed by each level for which I had to make a presentation and one only get a chance to present further if he gets recommended. I got the recommendation to present in front of DMC (Decision Making Committee) at the Bangalore Head Office.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## SUMMING UP
|
||||
|
||||
You will have friends who go to wonderful places for interns and you are stuck in a tier 3 city of a dry state. Frankly this makes it a bit difficult. But this is an experience of life, most of us will end up working in a corporate and for me it was too big a gamble to make this decision without having a taste of life here.
|
||||
|
||||
At the same time this project not only tested my technical skills but almost everything I learnt in my life. I dealt with people from Blue collar workers (aasan nhi tha) to Factory manager, I followed a truck secretly to investigate drivers activity, I even worked till 5 in the morning and sometimes on Sundays as well. It was a hell of a task.
|
||||
All this plus the hefty stipend makes it worth interning at ITC !
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,51 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries:Deutsche Sport Hochschule"
|
||||
image: "muju1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Utkarsh Mujumdar"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'My summer internship was in the capacity of a research associate at the Department of Exercise Training, Computer Science & Informatics at the Deutsche Sporthochschule (German Sport University), Köln.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
My summer internship was in the capacity of a research associate at the Department of Exercise Training, Computer Science & Informatics at the Deutsche Sporthochschule (German Sport University), Köln. My main task was to assist a Ph.D. student with his main research project, but I was open to contributing my time towards any other project that I liked. I ended up working on two projects during my time at the university, one in football and the other in basketball.
|
||||
|
||||
## Getting There
|
||||
|
||||
I know it might sound a bit surprising as to how a metallurgy undergrad ended up at a sports research institute, so I feel that some background is necessary before I go into the specifics of getting there. I have been exploring the field of sports analytics for the past year now and it involves using statistical and computational techniques to make sense out of data collected in a sports context. The insights gained can be useful for performance analysis, monetization policies in the betting markets, marketing, and fan management. Being an avid football fan, the performance analysis side fascinated me the most and I was lucky enough to get two relevant opportunities gaining experience in the performance analysis of football using data prior to this internship.
|
||||
|
||||
After the completion of my second internship in the month of January of this year, I started applying to various universities and companies dealing with sports data. This included sports science departments, computer science/informatics departments with a sports focussed research group as well as sports-specific research universities like the German Sport University and Loughborough University. I went with the standard method of emailing professors with customized emails highlighting my experience and the kind of projects I could contribute to as part of the internship. Since I was looking for a very specific interdisciplinary branch of research, I could only find about 30-odd opportunities to apply for. I was lucky enough to get a response from the German Sport University in March. I had received no replies from other places that I had applied to which is usually the case when you are applying for a foreign internship. Luck plays its part in such scenarios. One has to keep in mind that professors and research labs receive a lot of emails around this time period, so you have to keep your patience and keep trying.
|
||||
|
||||
The project that was offered to me seemed really exciting and was way better than what I had expected while applying. But the University let me know from the start that the internship will be unpaid as they had a policy of only paying Master’s/Ph.D. students. I was left with a tough choice because despite the considerable finances involved in a self-funded intern, working on such a project was probably going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Fortunately, my parents agreed to fund my stay in Germany and I was all set.
|
||||
|
||||
## Workplace & Culture
|
||||
|
||||
The working hours were very relaxed with people coming in around 10 in the morning and leaving around 4. As everyone is working on long-term projects with no stress of short term deadlines, one is allowed the freedom to work at their own pace. Everyone at the department joins for lunch in the day and the culture is very warm and inclusive for new people. Due to the presence of a fair number of international students at the department, the operative language is English which worked out well for me.
|
||||
|
||||
## The University
|
||||
|
||||
Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln is the only sport-specific university in Germany. They have various educational offerings at the bachelors and masters level. But the most important aspect is the research that is done in the 9 different ‘Institutes’ or departments at the University, ranging from physiology, psychology to biomechanics and informatics in sports. The University has a plethora of training areas covering a range of sports. There are special training grounds intended for the collection of training data for research studies as well. There are highly sophisticated technical pieces of equipment being used to record data, which was really interesting to see.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## The Work
|
||||
|
||||
As mentioned before, I was designated to help a Ph.D. student with their research work. The main aim of the research project was to quantify exploratory behavior in football players to determine the tactical creativity being exhibited by them. I was tasked with the handling of spatio-temporal tracking data obtained from training matches and then modeling the data based on a known equation from previous literature. So my first week comprised of going through the literature and understanding the different theoretical aspects of the research question at hand. After two weeks, I found myself intrigued by another project which was based on the aspect of free-throw accuracy in professional basketball. A co-intern of mine came up with the idea of the project and we started working on it together. The results from preliminary tests seemed to be very promising and after reporting them to the head of the department, we were told to start working on a manuscript describing our findings. This was the first time that I was involved in the process of writing a paper, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. By the end of my internship, we had the final manuscript sent for review to a reputed Sports Science Journal and the review process is ongoing right now. All aspects of my work presented themselves with different kinds of exposure. I ended up working with big data, helped conduct a data collection session in football, learned how to write a research paper and a lot more. Although my internship lasted only 8 weeks, I believe I learned a lot more than what I expected in this short time.
|
||||
|
||||
## The City
|
||||
|
||||
Located in the west of Germany in the North Rhine-Westphalia state, Köln is the fourth most populous city in the country. The Rhine river flows through the heart of the city with the Köln Dom Cathedral overlooking it. I spent a lot of evenings watching the sunset by the river, with the area being lively and happening during summer evenings. One has to try the bread at the local bakeries, locally brewed Kölsch and döner kebabs while in Köln. The weather during my stay was really pleasant apart from a few days when there was a heatwave going through Europe. The city is bustling with students because of the presence of the biggest university in the whole country, along with multiple other colleges. The location of the city helps in the fact that many prominent tourist locations in Western Europe are just an overnight bus ride away. I ended up visiting multiple cities in and around the area including Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome.
|
||||
|
||||
## Accommodation
|
||||
|
||||
Many universities in Germany don’t have their own hostels as there are in our college. All students have to look for their own place to stay. I was lucky enough to get a room at one of the government-operated student hostels in the city. This helped me save a significant amount of money and also put me in touch with some of the students who helped me with any problems I faced during my stay. Getting to the University was a convenient 20 mins tram ride for me, with the tram station being 5 mins away from my hostel.
|
||||
|
||||
## Summary
|
||||
|
||||
A foreign internship presents you with the opportunity of delving into a different culture and experiencing life in a different country, apart from the whole academic/professional experience. My professional experience was thoroughly fruitful and I gained good exposure, as this was my first foray into the world of applied research. It also provided me the opportunity of traveling around and seeing places that I had only seen in movies or read about in books, in many ways an exhilarating experience. For all these reasons, I would strongly recommend anyone to try out a foreign internship because of the added element of cultural exposure.
|
||||
|
||||
I would also suggest people use internships as opportunities to explore new avenues and not put too much onus on the trivial aspects of stipend and monetary benefits. It is the perfect way to gauge your likings or dislikings towards a certain profession or field of work. Utilizing these chances judiciously might help you with the bigger decisions to be made in your final years and even further ahead.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,64 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Sorbonne University- Paris"
|
||||
image: "gupta1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Tryaksh Gupta"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'First of all, don’t worry if you don’t get an intern from the campus.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
First of all, don’t worry if you don’t get an intern from the campus. Yes! I am among those who got rejected from every company for which I applied in Campus. This article summaries my stay for 10 weeks at Sorbonne University-Paris during my Summer Research Internship. Ofcourse! I had a great time and will try to share my experience in the best way I can and I hope that you take something away from this.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Before August 2018
|
||||
|
||||
I had no as such research experience before this internship. Before the internship season started, I had been working for 1 year in Team KNOx, IIT Roorkee where I had gained knowledge in Computational Solid Mechanics( specifically Finite Element Modelling). I had a complete report prepared for all the stuff that I did during my 2nd Year( I seriously urge you to do so!). By the end of my 2nd year, I was sure of one thing in my mind- No coding! Hence, I was looking for an intern in the core of mechanical engineering.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it There
|
||||
|
||||
With no research papers and previous research experience, I opted to sit for the campus internship session 2018. So here’s my journey!
|
||||
|
||||
I applied for almost all the core companies for my branch (Mechanical) that visited our campus - ITC, Robert Bosch, Tata Steel,Jindal Steel and JSW. To be frank, I was able to make through the resume shortlist and online test of the most of the companies, but I faced difficulty in getting through GD(Group Discussion) and interview round because of my inability to speak fluently and confidently in English.
|
||||
|
||||
Also, there are few companies that visit the campus for the core subject. Hence, the opportunities were limited. I didn't lose my hopes and kept searching for options in my field of interest. I searched for the options in Research Field. I didn’t try for DAAD (because it demands high CGPA). I applied for MITACS(Canada) and NTHU-Taiwan. In mitacs,I got my application under consideration which gave me some positive hopes of being selected. But I didn’t have any luck here either. I was left only with the option of Charpak Scholarship(France). With the series of hard luck, I tried my final call here. I talked to my senior who had an internship in France in the same field(Computational Solid Mechanics) that I was interested in. I emailed 4 professors working in this field and got a positive reply from 2 of them(Trust me, I didn’t expect that luck). One of them was not ready to fund me but he provided me with the acceptance letter that I needed for my application in Charpak Lab Scholarship. Unfortunately, I was not able to get through it( Not only a high CGPA but also serious research background matters for Charpak!). The other professor (from Sorbonne University) was ready to fund me after the Skype interview. I had an interview with the latter for almost 1 hour ending with the happiest lines by him I could ever listen to “ It would be pride for us if you join our research group” . The funding from the university was sufficient to cover my all expenses during my stay and travel in Paris,France. I pursued my interests and didn’t lose my hopes even though there were few opportunities. I shall expect the same from everyone who reads this.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Adding to this, If you are aiming for DAAD, you will have to start pretty soon - I think around August-September should be good. For Charpak, you can start mailing professors by November-December. There is no limit to the number of emails you can send. I have known friends who have sent more than a hundred before getting a positive response. Care must be taken to not spam each and every professor you find out about with the same mail. Take some time to select a professor and write him a personalised mail in coherence with your interests.
|
||||
The generally accepted format for your mail is something like this - your cover letter (the mail you write), and with it attached your resume (with a detailed description of your projects), a report on the project(s) you have done (Trust me,this really increases your chances), and a letter of recommendation (optional). No need to use your IITR resume. You can easily create a personalised Resume on LaTeX.
|
||||
|
||||
## Project and Lab
|
||||
|
||||
My internship lasted for about 10 weeks in CNRS lab-Institut Jean Le Rond D’Alembert at Sorbonne University-Paris. I was offered a project in the field of Finite Element Method in Computational Fracture Mechanics(Very coherent to my interest and previous work). My professor had a very good experience in the past with the Indian Students(particularly from IITs). So he had great expectations from me. He provided me the project of his most important client from Nuclear Industry (Framatome) to analyse the sample from a nuclear reactor that was failing during its usage in the Nuclear Plant(Quite Critical though!). Well! It’s the nuclear industry and they demanded rigorous analysis report on the cause of the failure. I was not alone in this project. I had a guide( very kind hearted personality!) who took care of all the experimental data and letting me to focus on the computational Finite Element Analysis. I was asked to predict the fracture resistance( Measure for the toughness of Metallic Alloy) using Cohesive Zone Modelling from the data I had from Experiments.
|
||||
The people at the lab are very helping and kind hearted. Timings are flexible and were usually from 10am to 7pm(depending on the work!) .Thanks to my professor who helped me a lot to go through the Visa process after one rejection from the French Embassy and also being very receptive during my entire internship.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Major Learnings
|
||||
|
||||
The most important thing I learnt in my internship is the importance of pursuing your passion without fearing the scope in general. This helped me to sit all day long in the lab seriously focused into my work. The project demanded the input of almost all of my previous knowledge in Finite Element Analysis and a lot of calculations. Also, I learnt the importance of having the knowledge of at least one Coding language( preferably Matlab or Python) to avoid tedious Excel calculations. Besides these, I was given my personal Cluster with a RAM of 256 GB( Yes! You read it Correct- 256Gb) with which I was able to carry out my calculations precisely on the scale of microns without wastage of time. I also learnt various fancy machines used in the research of Fracture Mechanics, namely- Profilometer and UTM. This research experience also helped me to strengthen my intentions to pursue higher studies abroad in the same field.
|
||||
|
||||
## The City and Culture
|
||||
|
||||
‘The City of Lights’, ‘The City of Romance’, ‘The Culinary capital of the world’, ‘The fashion City’, all these are just names Paris, France is known by. Paris is one of the most amazing places you will ever visit. There are so many phenomenal things to see and do you’ll never get bored. Eiffel Tower- The most important Landmark has always amazed me and the night view is even stunning. I was lucky enough to be present at the Eiffel Tower on the French National Day( Bastille Day). It was probably the best night of my life as the entire sky around the Eiffel tower was filled with fireworks and heavenly joy.
|
||||
|
||||
The Arc De Triomphe and Versailles are some of Paris’ other famous landmarks. The Arc De Triomphe is a 164 ft. arch. It honors all the soldiers who have fought for France, particularly during Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign. There are tons of museums in Paris, Louvre being the best. Outside this museum is a substantial glass pyramid. Inside there are heaps exhibits including artifacts from Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci is also displayed there. Remember! Weekends at Paris are Lit and every weekend night is like a festival for Parisians because they are partying and lazy in work(True Observation!)
|
||||
|
||||
Being a Photographer, Europe is ideal for the shutterbug in me. France gives amazing benefits to students - reduced fares for every attraction, free entry at museums, a part of your travel expenses are covered, and much more. It is very easy to visit nearby countries (one Visa works for almost all countries in the EU) and there are plenty of deals you get for Bus/Train journeys. I chose Flixbus for my travel within Europe. Since I lost my passport 20 days after my arrival into France, I was able to make through only 3 countries apart from France- namely Netherlands(Amsterdam), Belgium( Brussels, Bruges) and Monaco( Tiny but Amazing!). Besides these, there are a lot of cities within France that I visited and were worth the money- namely Nice, Lyon, Marseille.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Takeaways!
|
||||
|
||||
Apart from all the massive technical knowledge I imbibed, I learned how to survive through the toughest times and be careful with my things while traveling because I was robbed of my bag(with Passport, Camera gear and Mobile Phone). Now I feel more bold and confident in my decisions with enhanced communication skills. I guarantee that you will definitely learn a lot and also get good recommendations if you wish to apply for Masters. Keeping aside the immense amount of knowledge you will gain from the experience, how often does one get to live for 2 months in Europe, that too off of someone else’s money?
|
||||
For any queries or additional information regarding how to apply, feel free to contact me! All the Best!!!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
P.S. (Important) : CGPA does matters even if you have a good research background, so please take care of it!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,48 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: WORLDQUANT"
|
||||
image: "shandilya1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Ishan Shandilya"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'It has been almost a year since I read Aditya Chaturvedi’s summer intern diary on his experience with Edelweiss, and that turned out to be my first footsteps in the intriguing world of Finance.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
It has been almost a year since I read Aditya Chaturvedi’s summer intern diary on his experience with Edelweiss, and that turned out to be my first footsteps in the intriguing world of Finance. So, I would suggest the readers to go through his blog from last year’s collection of diaries before you proceed, you may extract some really invaluable gyan about the world of finance and… probably about life as well :D
|
||||
|
||||
## My Story
|
||||
|
||||
Before going into the specifics about my internship or “quantitative finance” I would like to take you through the story of digging out my area of interest from the deep cave of diverse opportunities that are available in this pious campus of ours!
|
||||
|
||||
I entered my second year with a zeal to find my interest, a deteriorating enthusiasm for my majors Chemical Engineering and with a guilt of spending my summers with a controller in hand and celebrating goals I scored ( in FIFA :p ) more proudly than Cristiano Ronaldo himself ( well, I am still proud of it! ). So, I asked some of my seniors and started doing some standard courses in the field of Machine Learning. I liked reading Watch Out’s summer intern diaries a lot and one day I came across Aditya’s blog. He was talking about “quantitative finance” and I read the wikipedia page which mentioned: Mathematical finance, also known as quantitative finance and financial mathematics, is a field of applied mathematics, concerned with mathematical modeling of financial markets. I had always loved the “intuitive yet so counter-intuitive” world of mathematics but had no particular interest in the complex and boring (yes that was me then!) financial markets. I pinged him on Facebook and got a reply a fortnight later, talked about his internship and Finance in general, he suggested me some courses and websites to get an overview about the financial markets, to which I was very reluctant as all I cared about was “MATHS”! Still, I read some blogs and saw some videos and to my surprise I found them really interesting. Then, blogs from top Football journalists got replaced with those Finance literatures in my google news feed and in those days you could find me glued into my cell phone throughout the lectures, asking Investopedia the meaning of terms like “Debt”, “Equity”, “Arbitrage” and what not. It was the first time that I got a feeling of doing something just because I really liked it and without being influenced by the crowd around me. So, I decided to shift my complete focus towards Finance to explore it further. Aditya helped me a lot with everything, every small doubt which I had, I ran to his doorstep, and he never turned me down. He kept on motivating me to read more and his passion about learning finance was second to none. The thing which still gives me goosebumps is the fact that he invested hours in me helping with my silly doubts and giving me some gyan from his book of life experiences just like a responsible elder brother in his final year while all of his batch mates were busy preparing for the placement season.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Overview of “Quant Finance”
|
||||
|
||||
By now you might have got an idea about the prerequisites of working in this industry: An undying curiosity about Financial Markets and a stronghold on Mathematics. To clear a very common misconception, Probability and Statistics is not the only field of maths which plays a strong role but if
|
||||
you come to areas such as derivative pricing, calculus can literally rip you off! As an engineering student it is difficult to get into a finance role but there are certain online platforms (Websim and Quantopian are the most popular ones) which can help you check if your interest lies in this area and if that is the case, you can build a very strong skill set. If you are interested in doing some courses which are relevant, you can always feel free to ping me!
|
||||
|
||||
## Process of Selection
|
||||
|
||||
WorldQuant recruits on-campus interns only from IIT Bombay, Delhi and Kanpur for pre-final year students. I was still in my second year and my selection was through an off-campus drive which I have described below.
|
||||
I came across the Research Consultant Program of WorldQuant LLC, a US-based hedge fund. I will give you a brief introduction about their program before I proceed further. WorldQuant’s business model is trading “Long-Short Equity Models” called alphas, back tested on historical data (don’t worry if you didn’t understand what I just said, you are not even expected to, try to google it out if you need some insights about it, not a specific requirement for this blog though!). They have created “Websim” which is a very user-friendly platform where begineers like you and me can test our own ideas and see if they work in the equity market. I got really intrigued at this prospect and started exploring their platform further. WorldQuant was soon about to host the IIT Roorkee Alphathon ( think of it as a marathon of making alphas as the name suggests ) and there were cash prizes and internship opportunities for the top scorers. I took part in the contest which was 20 day long and ended on the 31st of December. These alphathons were conducted in other IITs and BITS as well. I had a decent score in the alphathon and got a call for the interview. There were two rounds, the first one was a technical interview, taken by one of the researchers at WorldQuant, where I was asked some technical questions related to the platform, a few standard puzzles and was also asked to explain some of my trading strategies. The interview was fairly good and I got a call for the final HR round. I had received my offer letter a week after the interview and then there was a background check process which took almost a month.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## The Internship Experience
|
||||
|
||||
Coming to the internship experience, I can’t really go into the project details specifically as WorldQuant has some strict rules and regulations for the same. The fact which amazed me completely was that WorldQuant never really made me feel that I was an intern which is very rare among firms of such stature. I had one to one interactions with each and every member of the firm, at least in my division, throughout the vertical hierarchy system and across the globe. As far as the technical skills are concerned, I got hands on experience with the most cutting-edge technology which is currently used in the world of Quantitative Research and I worked on projects which were meant to be implemented globally by the firm. Another key highlight was the chance to showcase my creativity and ideas with complete independence, this was possible because of the individualistic yet so supportive work environment of the firm. I wasn’t supposed to follow some formal dress code or a strict working hour system, I had access to all the tools 24/7 and my work was all that mattered. Most importantly, WorldQuant provided me a very supportive environment where I could discuss all my problems without any hesitation, which indeed helped me perform well and learn better!
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing up and Key Takeaways
|
||||
|
||||
I had a different selection process as most firms take off-campus interns through Linkedin. If you want to know the most efficient procedure of landing an internship in the quantitative finance industry using Linkedin, please go through Aditya Chaturvedi’s blog on his internship with Edelweiss from last year’s collection of intern diaries about which I mentioned in the beginning, you can also have a look at Ram Bansal’s blog from last year’s set of diaries to learn about targeting internships through Linkedin, in general.
|
||||
|
||||
The internship made me realize that with quantitative finance it is the hands-on experience with the practical world which matters more than the literature we read and study as far as the process of learning and gaining knowledge is concerned. All the informal chats with seniors across the firm provided me with a clearer vision of the industry. This also helped me realize that I still have a lot to learn before entering the competitive world of quantitative finance, and this was my most important takeaway from the internship.
|
||||
|
||||
I paid a special emphasis on the “story” part to showcase the importance of knowing your interest and having the courage of believing in it. I also want to highlight that through this whole process starting from fighting for a top place in the college alphathon to successfully finishing my internship at WorldQuant, I have learnt the importance of positive team work more than anything else. I always had seniors to provide me support on all aspects be it technical doubts or some personal problem, friends with whom I could discuss the working of financial markets and … well various other things :p. When you sit down and tinker for a while keeping all the rush of our daily lives aside, you will realize that these are the things which matter the most!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,92 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries:Australian National University"
|
||||
image: "jat1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Akash Jat"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'Hello everyone! I am Akash Kharita , A 3rd year undergraduate in geophysical technology , Earth Sciences ,IIT Roorkee. I spent my summers working at the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I have a lot to share about this memorable journey.'
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Hello everyone! I am Akash Kharita , A 3rd year undergraduate in geophysical technology , Earth Sciences ,IIT Roorkee. I spent my summers working at the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I have a lot to share about this memorable journey.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making It There
|
||||
It all started last year, being a motivated student I really wanted to do something in the planetary geosciences field. I had worked on a project in summers in my department, So I started shooting mails to professors around November - December, I emailed to around 100 professors, out of which I received a reply from 5-6 professors. Even their replies said that they didn’t have enough funding or time. Although demotivating, I kept trying and still got no result. One day while I was searching through the opportunities that Australian National University provides, I found out that there is a scheme known as ‘Future Research Talent Travel Awards’ for Indian students which seeks excellent students from India and provides funding. But it is a very tedious job to apply to the aforementioned scheme .
|
||||
There are two methods to apply for this scheme, either you have to be nominated by your department (there are only two nominations per department ) or you can mail the corresponding professor, discuss your research proposal and interests with them and if they agree, have an interview with them and then get accepted by their Head of Department. Since I was just in second year at that time and already two students were nominated by my department, I choose the latter path. I searched the staff directory of ANU, found the professor, whose research interests matched mine and mailed him about my interests and also sent him a research proposal. He enquired about me with my professor here and asked me to send me my resume, then he took an interview. He was impressed by my credentials and made a request to his HOD for accepting me.
|
||||
|
||||
The HOD accepted me and I got mail from their manager that I have become a FRT Scholar. That’s how it all started.
|
||||
A contingent of 50 Scholars were selected from India under this scheme for doing research in various departments in ANU . There were a lot of fun programs scheduled for us as a part of this scheme.
|
||||
So in December I was all set for attending ANU in summers and started preparing meticulously to align myself to the latest research in the field.
|
||||
In the meantime, I had to apply for a passport, which took me a month, thanks to Indian bureaucracy.
|
||||
And then I applied for a visa. To procure a visa, you need to show various support letters and funding letters, all of which were provided at the time by our manager at ANU. I finally got visa after 21 days of online applications and booked my tickets for Canberra in March.
|
||||
|
||||
## Getting There
|
||||
I booked tickets with Singapore airlines, I was very excited as well as equally nervous, as I had never travelled on a flight before. So basically everything was a first for me, my first air travel, first Singapore airlines flight,and my first time working under a foreign professor. So I boarded the flight from Delhi to Singapore. When I landed in Singapore, I was amazed by the charm and vastness of the airport. As I had a 2 hour layover there, I explored all around the airport and was thrilled to see the kind of decorations they had. After that I boarded the flight to Sydney, I had a bus transfer to another terminal at Sydney airport (yeah ,time to upload instagram stories :) ), the bus was really amazing, climate controlled and even had a toilet! The weather at Sydney was fairly sunny, which was obvious due to its closeness to sea. Then I took a domestic flight to Canberra and reached the Canberra Airport around 11 in the night. The weather in Canberra was very cold for which I was prepared as I knew it was winter there in southern hemisphere and I was advised to bring a lot of woolen clothes by our manager. So the moment I stepped out of plane , I was thrilled and decided that I will make the most of this internship .
|
||||
By that time, my phone had discharged and I needed to contact my roommates who had arrived earlier. I took a taxi, the taxi driver was Indian and he helped me to contact them. I finally reached my room which was on the 10th floor of my apartment.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## About My Accommodation
|
||||
There was a Whatsapp group consisting of all the members of this contingent and our Manager and some previous year scholars. Thanks to them for providing continuous guidance about everything from visa application to accommodation. Everyone began to search for accommodation in early April. I found a group of 3 scholars searching for 4th person to share their accommodation, I prefer to live in a group because it is safe and cheaper option as well.
|
||||
In this way a group of 4 formed and we began to search and discuss various accommodations from Airbnb and fortunately we found a very nice and luxurious apartment suitable to our budget. We immediately booked it for two months.
|
||||
The benefits of this accommodation were the following -
|
||||
|
||||
**1.** It was reasonably priced
|
||||
|
||||
**2.** Very close to the city centre
|
||||
|
||||
**3.** About 1.5 km walk to my department
|
||||
|
||||
**4.** Scenic view of Parliament ,Mount Ainslie and Lake Burley Griffin from the balcony
|
||||
|
||||
**5.** Free cleaning service,wifi,swimming pool, gym
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## The Work
|
||||
I met my Professor the next day and received a very warm welcome from my department. I was given an ID card, office room, access to all stationary items and a lot of chocolates. Then he showed me around the labs while discussing what work we had to do.
|
||||
I was amazed by the amount of new instrumentation they had. I began my work on the next day on analyzing Lunar Sample brought during Apollo 16 mission. I was thrilled to touch the rock sample that was once brought by astronauts from the moon.
|
||||
My work involved some image processing, i.e. to smoothen the previous image and make its resolution better, I used MATLAB for that. Then I performed a series of instrumentation on the sample to analyze it in every way possible, our main goal was to understand the origin, the thermodynamic conditions under which our sample crystallised using mineralogical and petrological data. I learnt the operation of many instruments like EPMA , SEM and most importantly SHRIMP. All my lab expenses were covered by my supervisor. I was very enthusiastic at work, I always had a target to complete my work without any delay. I attended a lot of seminars on planetary sciences and got myself acquainted with the very thriving research environment developing there. My supervisor Dr. Marc Norman guided me through every stage of internship and we had a discussion on coffee table about the latest developments in planetary sciences.
|
||||
At the end, I submitted my report and am expecting my paper to get published by next year.
|
||||
I was awarded FRT certificate from Nobel Laureate and Vice Chancellor of ANU, Dr. Brian Schmidt , it was like a dream come true to talk to him and receiving an award from him.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
.
|
||||
## The Fun Part
|
||||
I travelled a lot around Canberra and Sydney, which was a 3 hour bus ride from Canberra. In Canberra, I visited the National Parliament, National War Memorial, National Museum of Australia, Australian Botanical Gardens, Mount Ainslie, Zoological Park and Telstra Tower.
|
||||
Each place had a different blend of information and excitement. Night View from the Telstra Tower was breathtaking.
|
||||
I made a lot of Australian friends who were very friendly. I remember walking 10s of kilometers to explore the city at night and just asking someone for was sufficient to get back to my apartment.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Lake Burley Griffin, artificially prepared lake was one of the best places to hangout on weekend.
|
||||
The best part was to spot the kangaroos randomly hopping out of nowhere from the side gardens.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Sydney: The Emerald City
|
||||
We had planned a 3 day tour to Sydney. When we reached there, our first point of observation was Watson Bay, I was awestruck by it’s beauty and the view from there.
|
||||
We did a lot of photography there and then went to the Harbour bridge where I was completely awestruck by how amazing that was. There was a vivid Sydney festival going on, for which the city was fully decorated with pink lights due to which the night view of the city was out of this world. The most beautiful thing was to catch a ferry from circular quay and enjoy the view of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House in one frame. The next day we bought a city pass to explore four tourist sites -Sea life Aquarium, Sydney Tower , Madame Tussauds Museum and The Zoological Park.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The Sea Life Aquarium was the best aquarium I had seen, I saw a wide variety of fish, turtles ,octopuses. I saw the penguins which were kept in an artificially cooled seperate hall. I saw dangerous sharks swimming above my head, (yes by this time we reached the deepest point ) While returning we saw many sea rocks and plants that were found in different parts of the world.
|
||||
Later we went to Sydney Tower and the view of the whole city was mesmerizing.
|
||||
|
||||
On the third and last day we went to Manly Beach, Bondi Beach and the world famous Bondi- Coogee Walk. Beaches were very beautiful, we played around, ventured a few metres into the sea and then sunbathed. I wished time to freeze at that moment.
|
||||
Overall it was very amazing and a once in a lifetime experience.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Advice to Fellow students
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Never stop trying, I got a C.G.P.A of 6.5 in my 1st Sem, but by the end of 3rd Sem, I converted it into 8.8. CGPA although not the only criteria, plays an important role in securing research internship.
|
||||
Discover your passion.
|
||||
Many students just want to go abroad and spend their summers there without caring about their passion,this should not be the case. For you, the priority should be your work and your desire to learn, then come other things.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,61 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: GIST,South Korea"
|
||||
image: "kps1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Kunal Pratap Singh"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'This summers I interned at the Computer Vision Lab, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea. Given my GPA(marginally above 7) getting a research internship in a specific field(Deep Learning in my case) can get tricky but believe me, it’s worth giving a shot.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
This summers I interned at the Computer Vision Lab, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea. Given my GPA(marginally above 7) getting a research internship in a specific field(Deep Learning in my case) can get tricky but believe me, it’s worth giving a shot. My interest in Deep Learning was partly inspired by the Deep Learning Book discussion sessions which were organized by Paper Discussion Group(now known as Vision & Language Group/VLG) a group that was initiated by some of my department’s seniors. It was through their advice that I ended up not sitting for campus internships and go all out for a research internship. This proved to be one of the best decisions I took in my college life and all I can say is I’m utterly thankful to them for suggesting me to do so. Although I stopped attending those meetings after my seniors graduated but for juniors who are interested in trying out Machine Learning should definitely consider joining VLG sessions.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
The usual ways of getting a research internship are either you get into an already existing research program (MITACS, DAAD, SURF-Caltech, NTU India Connect) or contacting professors directly. These programs usually have a GPA criteria which is near about 8 so I wasn’t eligible for any of them. I went through with emailing professors and also contacting PhDs and postdoctoral researchers through LinkedIn about possible internship positions. The latter helps because PhDs, postdocs and even some professors are active on LinkedIn and can give honest feedback if one’s profile is well suited for the lab and also inform about any such openings available at the first place. This in turn hastens up the process of shortlisting labs and professors to target.
|
||||
|
||||
From August to November I emailed a bunch of professors, but didn’t find any success. Parallel to this, in order to strengthen my profile I took up a winter research internship at the Video Analytics Lab, IISc Bangalore and ended up publishing a research paper in a renowned conference through that project. In January, I started applying again, and the research paper seemed to do the trick. I got an offer from Rapid Object Search Lab, Nanyang Technological University(NTU), Singapore. In the interview I was just asked to give a presentation about my previous work and was grilled some very basic machine learning questions. I had another offer from University at Buffalo, State University of New York(UB), the selection process to this involved preparing a presentation on the professor’s research paper that I had mentioned in my email and suggest ways to improve that.
|
||||
|
||||
My last offer which I eventually took was from GIST, South Korea. I came in touch with the professor in August on LinkedIn, and had decided to work on a remote collaboration, but I couldn’t keep up with my courses, so I had to drop that. But I kept in touch with the professor discussing research ideas and somewhere around March I inquired about a summer internship opportunity and he agreed to offer me one. The reason for choosing GIST over bigger and better renowned institutions as NTU and UB was that the research topic aligned the most with my interests and the familiarity with the professor.
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
GIST is part of the government funded tech institutions system in South Korea, it is somewhat similar to what we have in India for IITs. So most of the research funding comes from the government and but also has strong ties with the industry. My lab is part of the Institute of Integrated Technology and the EECS Department.
|
||||
|
||||
My project is in the field of Deep Learning and Computer Vision. Specifically I’m working on the intersection of Neural Architecture Search and Binary Neural Networks. Neural Architecture Search is somewhat related to the term AutoML by Google where the goal is to have a single algorithm for finding architectures according to the accuracy and memory requirements for a given task(say image classification). Binary Neural Networks are a class of networks which have weights and activations as binary bits instead of floating point numbers. The project is still ongoing and I’m going to continue it as a foreign BTP here at GIST itself.
|
||||
|
||||
I’m working on this project with a South Korean undergrad. The aim of the internship is to publish our work in a top tier conference and also design a directly deployable version of the algorithm for the government institution funding the project. Work hours at the lab are flexible, and a GIST ID card can be used to access the lab and other places anytime of the day. As long as the work is being done, there were no defined hours or compulsions about coming to the lab on weekdays, let alone weekends. I prefer working in the lab, where you can actively discuss ideas with other students as well as the professor which helps you get a better understanding of the field.
|
||||
The other labmates, who are mostly Masters or PhD students, are very nice and helpful and the same goes for the professor. All the projects including mine are personally mentored by the Professor and we have weekly meetings to discuss the progress and further plan of action. Other than discussions the professor likes having frequent chats which can range from very random chatter like how much he liked 3 Idiots to giving a perspective on academic and industry oriented research, pros and cons of a PhD and similar stuff. All in all, the work environment is relaxed and yet so productive at the same time.
|
||||
|
||||
## What’s to love about the place?
|
||||
|
||||
One thing that struck me the most was the niceness of people towards foreigners. Most South Korean people don’t hesitate much before going out of their way to help a stranger despite the language barrier. Other than that if you’re a fried chicken lover, South Korea is the place to be. As per my fellow labmate, Korea has more fried chicken places than the no of McDonald’s in the entire world. The weather is pleasant, neither too hot nor too cold. My institute is in Gwangju, but I also had the chance to visit Seoul for a conference.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Key Takeaways:
|
||||
|
||||
I had done a research internship in the past but this internship helped me build a project from scratch and not just coding things for my mentor, which helped me gauge my interest towards independent research. This internship helped me solidify my interest in Deep Learning and gave me a broader perspective towards future options. Also the entire experience of leaving campus internships and exploring a lot of off campus possibilities gave me a sense of confidence that leaving campus opportunities for something that would be more beneficial for me in the long run isn’t that career threatening as some of my peers made it sound and the experience was worth giving a try.
|
||||
|
||||
Also I’ve opted for extending this internship as a foreign BTP, which is one of the many academic reforms that were introduced last year. I’ll be shifting the two PECs that I was supposed to take in my 4-1 to my 4-2, and pursue the course BTP-1 in a foreign institute(ie. GIST in my case). I would be evaluated based on my research output and my BTP reports that I would submit to my advisor at the end of the semester. Anyone who is planning to pursue higher studies after college should consider making use of this reform, it would be immensely helpful for your application. For the exact administrative procedures, consider contacting the academic section.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Tips:
|
||||
|
||||
In my not so humble opinion, barely seeing the GPA when the department’s curriculum is not at all related to the research topic is utter foolishness but I guess that’s how most of the academic institutions work and it isn’t changing anytime soon. Although, I strongly recommend to maintain a decent CGPA, but just in case you couldn’t, you can expect a question in almost all your interviews that why do you have bad grades and the best way is to prove that you’ve put your time in developing some skillset which would aid your research.
|
||||
|
||||
For freshers’ and sophomores who would be currently wondering of what field of interest they would like to pursue, don’t rule out research with the myth that it has something to do with being good at academics.
|
||||
|
||||
Make sure you interact and connect with as many people as you can during your internship, it gives you a broader perspective of options available beyond what you might already know through your IITR seniors or peers.
|
||||
|
||||
Getting a research internship is a bit testing, but the experience is definitely worth giving a try. During your hunt for one, be patient and trying weighing more on realistic opportunities and give
|
||||
them your best shot instead of random shots in the dark at anything and everything.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Good luck and hope you make the most out of your summers!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,72 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "HPAIR"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Atharva Shukla"
|
||||
category: career
|
||||
image: hpair1.png
|
||||
excerpt: 'HPAIR, (The Harvard College Project for Asian and International Relations) is a non-profit organization founded to create a forum for exchange of knowledge between students and young professionals.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## HPAIR
|
||||
|
||||
HPAIR, (The Harvard College Project for Asian and International Relations) is a non-profit organization founded to create a forum for exchange of knowledge between students and young professionals, and to facilitate discussion about the most important economic, political and social issues faced by Asia. Established in 1991 it places special focus on promoting long-term relationships among future leaders and connects them with current leaders in the world.
|
||||
|
||||
HPAIR provides the delegates with different tracks to choose from; this years’ tracks include : art, media and culture, energy and environment stability, entrepreneurship and technology, global markets and economy, governance and geopolitics, social policy and justice.
|
||||
|
||||
The crux of this conference lies embedded in its Impact Challenges. These are case- study styled competitions formulated in partnership with leading organizations. The delegates are encouraged to brainstorm together and come up with solutions for some of the biggest issues currently plaguing Asia. This has, in the past, helped spark the formation of start-ups, and led to the students landing exciting internships in the above mentioned fields, with organizations such as Deloitte. The attendees try to understand problems and discuss possible solutions through various plenary sessions, panels, and informative seminars. These seminars are delivered by eminent personalities from various fields, invited to foster mentorship, networking, and guidance opportunities for delegates, some of whom include Kevin Rudd, the former Prime Minister of Australia; Ban Ki-moon, the former Secretary General of the United Nations and Frank Friedman, current COO of Deloitte Global.
|
||||
|
||||
A great learning curve is what awaits any student attending the conference but this is made difficult by the steep registration prices and the high costs incurred. A partial or a full scholarship is awarded to students in order to lessen this financial burden but the number of these are limited to 50. The conference quality in exchange for the amount of money being invested might not be appreciated by everyone who is a part of it.
|
||||
|
||||
## OPPORTUNITIES
|
||||
|
||||
This conference provides one with a unique and rare opportunity to grace the lawns of a university better than our own , an alternative if you despise a 4 hour road trip to Delhi.
|
||||
|
||||
It is the perfect opportunity of increasing the reach of your network by making new connections. It will help you meet people from different geographies and cultures and understand the roots of their academic and professional brilliance in addition to having the opportunity to interact with eminent speakers. This interaction provides you with the opportunity to often realise how a method being applied by someone in their own problems can be modified for yours. Opportunities to be a part of projects already being done by people or leveraging the expertise of people in various fields for your own projects are some of the most important reasons to be a part of such a conference.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
HPAIR currently holds two annual conferences that bring together international students and eminent individuals in the fields of academia, politics and business - the Harvard Conference and the Asia Conference.
|
||||
|
||||
<u>The Harvard Conference</u> was started in 2008 and is held within the confines of the Harvard University Campus where around 300 students and professionals convene to explore the pertinent issues surrounding the Asian region.
|
||||
|
||||
<u>The Asian Conference</u> was started in 1992 and is a 5 day program held more fittingly in an Asian city. It looks to integrate the contents of the academic and business world, hence benefitting the enthusiastic delegates by helping them gain a broader perspective on issues spanning multiple areas.
|
||||
|
||||
The Harvard conference is said to be more coveted. The Asian conference is longer, but both the conferences don't differ by much.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Eligibility
|
||||
|
||||
Current undergraduate students, graduate students, and young professionals are eligible to apply as delegates. In addition, recent college graduates who obtained an undergraduate or graduate degree in the past 5 years, are eligible to apply for HPAIR conferences.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## APPLICATION PROCEDURE
|
||||
|
||||
**1. Delegate Application:**
|
||||
Fill out and submit the Delegate Application at [https://my.hpair.org](https://my.hpair.org){: style="text-decoration:underline"} before the appropriate deadline. The application is made up of -
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**1)** Questions whose answers should reflect how your solutions make a difference and should highlight what you will bring to the conference and help in finding better solutions to the already existing problems. Connecting it to the world around you will give you an edge.
|
||||
|
||||
**2)** A resume with special emphasis on your interpersonal skills, highlighting your community projects if any.
|
||||
|
||||
**3)** A short 400 word essay.
|
||||
|
||||
Applicants hear 4-6 days after the deadline of their application round whether they have been selected for an interview.
|
||||
|
||||
**2. Interview-**
|
||||
|
||||
Delegates who make it past the first stage of the application are offered a 15-20 minute interview with an HPAIR staff member. The interview is taken over skype or some other video calling platform. It will focus on the applicant’s reasons for attending the conference, their academic and/or professional experiences and their critical thinking ability. The questions revolve around the things already written by the delegate in the application, it is more on the tracks of a conversation rather than an interview.
|
||||
|
||||
The most important takeaway from any such conference is undoubtedly the interaction and networking opportunities. HPAIR takes good care of this with the help of small panel sizes, and giving delegates enough time to ask the speakers questions, and interact with other delegates. The conference staff might come off as a little hostile but organizing an event of this scale and pulling it off remains commendable nonetheless. The interaction is focused more towards other delegates rather than with cooperates (World Business Dialogue has a more professional feel to it.)
|
||||
|
||||
HPAIR has the name of a prestigious university associated with it which helps in attracting the most talented people from different walks of life across the world. A truly remarkable experience lies ahead for those who seek to learn.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,85 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: HONDA Y-E-S"
|
||||
image: "honda1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Alok Gupta"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'At the beginning of internship season, I was very sure that I had to get an internship in core sector. So I started applying to companies like ITC, Bajaj, KPIT but unfortunately couldn’t get through the final interviews.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
At the beginning of internship season, I was very sure that I had to get an internship in core sector. So I started applying to companies like ITC, Bajaj, KPIT but unfortunately couldn’t get through the final interviews. Now when I look back I feel that it happened for my own good, as later, I got to know about the HONDA Y-E-S award through TPO and applied for it. After a 3 month long selection process, I was able to receive this prestigious award which helped me bag an internship at Kyoto University, Japan. With my experience of internship drive, I would say getting a desired internship is a matter of luck, but you can definitely boost up your chances by being organized & consistent in mailing and being aware of what all opportunities that you have. Luck favours the brave!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## About Honda Y-E-S award
|
||||
|
||||
Honda Young Engineer and Scientist’s a.k.a. Y-E-S award is an initiative of Honda Foundation to give recognition and to encourage Engineers from developing countries to pursue research in the field of eco-technology. Under this program, Honda Cars India Ltd. conducts the selection process in India by visiting 6 major IITs to choose 14 students currently in their third year of B.Tech/IDD. The beginning of application process will be notified by TPO so stay updated with the notifications.
|
||||
|
||||
## Selection Process
|
||||
|
||||
There are three stages apart from initial shortlisting based on eligibility criteria of minimum CGPA.
|
||||
In the FIRST stage, you will be asked to write an essay on a topic which will be disclosed during the test. It’ll be somewhat related to eco-tech so you can brush up a bit by skimming certain current affairs or reading articles related to the same. This stage will test your general awareness about the importance and applications of eco-technology. Try to be creative and factual in your essay rather than focusing on how many words you can put into it.
|
||||
In the SECOND stage, it is highly likely that you will be invited to Honda Cars India Ltd. Head office in Greater Noida for first round of interview. In this round, apart from basic resume based questions, you will be asked to propose innovative solutions to ongoing or upcoming problems related to environment and eco-technology.
|
||||
The candidates who successfully clear this stage will be given a biography of Soichiro Honda San, founder of Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
|
||||
After this, there will be a FINAL round of interview which will be taken by an eminent scientist. In our case it was Mr. Shirish S Garud, Director of TERI. During this interview, you will grilled on the basis of your resume and there will be extended discussions on various applications of technology and how your work relates with eco-tech. He also asked a generic question based on the biography so do give it a read.
|
||||
|
||||
After this in January, the results are announced and the winners are felicitated at a grand event along with and were awarded with a lavish monetary prize. You will be motivated to opt for Y-E-S Plus scholarship. Under Y-E-S Plus program, you will be provided substantial financial support if you manage to get an acceptance to an internship in a recognized Japanese University or Industry. You can also avail the Y-E-S Plus scholarship by going for masters instead of internship.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Luckily I was able to get through all these stages and eventually after a month long of mailing and a couple of rejections, I got an acceptance from Matsuno Mechatronics Lab at Kyoto University. I would like to thank our super senior Sonali Srijan, as her insights were really helpful at every stage of the selection process. Regarding mailing, I recommend to make your cover letter as personalized as possible w.r.t. the lab and try to sync timings with the targeted country because senior professors receive 100s of email every day! Make sure that your application must convey that you are interested to learn and that you have properly researched about the lab rather than just glorifying your achievements.
|
||||
|
||||
**Skype Interview:**- Sometimes Sensei might ask you for an interview before offering the internship like my Sensei did, but that is always advantageous for the student as you can become familiar with ongoing research work related to your area of interest. This will help you to bag a suitable project and to even prepare beforehand. in certain cases when the professor does not seem inclined to provide you an internship, you might actually convince him/her by an open personal discussion. So I will suggest, do propose the possibility of a skype interaction in your cover letter.
|
||||
|
||||
## About the Project
|
||||
|
||||
I never had any research experience before, so for me it was like entering into an altogether new arena. Honestly speaking, I was a bit nervous about the work culture in my lab due to the myths regarding Japanese work culture being ridiculously hectic :p. But as soon as I started working, everything turned out to be just fine. The work hours were flexible and all that mattered was my learning and progress.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
My project was to design, simulate and manufacture a robot (a quadruped robot leg) to conduct experiments and implement several bounding gait algorithms in order to validate my mentor’s latest research work. I was solely responsible for design and simulations so it was an intense yet exciting experience as I had to present my ideas in front of all lab members during weekly lab seminars. Everyone was very supportive and I received constructive suggestions which eventually helped me to hone my skills.
|
||||
Regular Lab seminars really helped me to capture the diversity in the field of robotics as researchers working in different verticals presented and discussed their work.
|
||||
|
||||
## About the Place
|
||||
|
||||
Japan is an outstandingly organized county. I did a lot of travelling covering the major cities like Tokyo, Nara, Osaka and Kyoto, where I stayed for 10 weeks. Kyoto is extremely beautiful and it beholds the essence of Imperial Japanese culture. There are numerous world heritage sites and at such close proximity that you can easily take a bike and cover most of the attractions. Not just Kyoto, infact every city in Japan boasts a sophisticated and exceptionally punctual transportation system. This made travelling very convenient and of course then you have the mighty Shinkansen!
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
One of the major best part of my internship was the amount of cultural exposure I got by interacting with people from diverse ethnic backgrounds and nationalities. I was amazed by Japanese etiquette and the way they communicate even with strangers.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Foooood! I absolutely loved it! Can’t really disclose what all I ate but definitely it was a roller coaster ride every time I tried anything new ;p. Which reminds me of Osaka and Tokyo and their gigantic entertainment parks!
|
||||
I also received great amount of help and support by Hardik Parwana, a IITK Alum who is pursuing MS in the same laboratory.
|
||||
|
||||
During the internship, Honda Foundation also organizes a Get-Together event where every Y-E-S awardee from all the countries present in Japan are invited. The event is held in Tokyo and numerous networking and fun activities are conducted so as to make you familiar with other members of Y-E-S community.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Advice to people gunning for it
|
||||
|
||||
The theme of the selection process revolves around eco-technology, so my advice to the potential candidates will be to be well aware of the pertaining challenges that we are facing/going to face and how we can implement eco-tech to provide a feasible alternative. Also ensure that if you have already been a part of a project/activity that was somewhat related to eco-tech, it must not go unnoticed. You will have to convince the interviewers at both the stages that you are research oriented and try not to boast or be unreal about your previous work.
|
||||
A crisp resume, smart preparation and some luck is all that is required to be a Y-E-S awardee.
|
||||
|
||||
## Key takeaways
|
||||
|
||||
Like any other foreign internship you will get to experience the lifestyle in a developed country but it will be significantly different from any western nation. Though you will definitely make friends with different nationalities and you will gain the vibes of being a cosmopolitan.
|
||||
Apart from that, you become a part of Global Y-E-S committee and you can even participate in various future global seminars that are conducted by Honda Foundation(HOF).
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
There are certain setbacks one of which is the language barrier because Japanese people are not well equipped with English. But this can be overcome by learning basic communication skills before-hand and of course Google Translate Zindabad! You just have to be curious enough.
|
||||
To sum up, I would say it was an amazing experience and HOF will support you in every stage right from getting an internship to arranging your accommodation. You might even get a recommendation from Sensei for continuing masters under MEXT scholarship if you perform productively.
|
||||
|
||||
Best of luck!
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,87 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Ashoka; Innovators for the Public"
|
||||
image: uday1.png
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Uday Singhal"
|
||||
excerpt: "Disclaimer: Ashoka and Ashoka University are two completely unrelated organisations. I was a part of Ashoka during summers. Don’t sweat it out, I’ll tell you what Ashoka is, and maybe a bit more. No, it's not a long read."
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
---
|
||||
**Disclaimer:** Ashoka and Ashoka University are two completely unrelated organisations. I was a part of Ashoka during summers. Don’t sweat it out, I’ll tell you what Ashoka is, and maybe a bit more. No, it's not a long read.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*“I want to work on a whole bunch of other things: Sustainability, Education, Healthcare and what not. Why should I keep on working for the LGBTQI rights?”*
|
||||
— Akkai Padmashali
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Akkai is empowering members of minority groups, such as sexual minorities (LGBTQI community) to become leaders; thereby creating a domain for discussions on issues of national importance to become more convergent.
|
||||
I was stirred with emotions when I heard it. The vision - that the cause for which she’s working should no longer remain a cause; the cause for which she’s working should no longer exploit anyone else; the cause for which she’s working should no longer demand any work; the norm
|
||||
around that cause shall change. Everyday at Ashoka, you’re exposed to dozens of such ideas that are nothing but strong, passionate and systems changing.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## But what is Ashoka?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Bill Drayton founded Ashoka in 1980 based on the idea that we need to look at the impact sector through a completely different lens: Just donating money to beneficiaries is not sustainable; we need to start looking at the beneficiaries as clients and hence, became the first person to coin the term - ‘Social Entrepreneurship’.
|
||||
Since 1980, Ashoka started identifying and supporting the world’s leading social entrepreneurs who have ideas for far-reaching social change. It started by first distilling their unique qualities and pioneering a rigorous global system for vetting and electing them to the Ashoka Fellowship. This is handled by the Venture Team; after electing these social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, the Fellowship Team engages with these fellows to strategically drive them towards maximising Social Impact. Other than this, Ashoka also engages with young people across the world with the belief that ‘Every child should practice Empathy’ and hence, enable ‘Everyone a Changemaker Movement’. Currently, Ashoka is the world’s largest network of Social Entrepreneurs and 6th largest Not-Profit organisation in the world.
|
||||
|
||||
The team in India Office is a small one but comprises of a very diverse set of people. There are individuals who have had experiences ranging from Journalism and Public Policy to Corporate Houses and Startups. There’s a lot of diversity in terms of Nationality as well; there were at least 7 interns who were from the USA, Germany and Egypt. It results in a really healthy workplace environment involving a lot of cultural exchange as well.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## How did I end up at Ashoka?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I’ll be fairly honest with why I applied to work at Ashoka, or impact sector for that matter. Since, my second year I was really drawn towards Consulting but we all know how easy it is to get a job at either of Mckinsey, BCG or Bain at IIT Roorkee.
|
||||
In the next couple of lines, I want to break some myths about consulting and how it is really different from any other roles (in terms of preparing yourself for getting a job). Let’s say, someone is really into UI-UX designing. Most obvious thing for him/ her to do is start preparing for it, intern as a designer at a couple of firms and get a job. Now, let’s say, someone really wants to be a Consultant. Interning at boutique consulting firms to prepare your profile doesn’t work; what works is, showing consistency in anything; differentiating yourself from all the other applicants.
|
||||
I spoke to a couple of alumni who were working as consultants in reputed firms. After, going through my resume they suggested me to start looking for socio-economic interns because there was a similar pattern in my resume. Plus, when I was working at a CSR Consultancy firm last summers, I really loved the immense feeling of gratitude I got by working. There was this emotion making me push that, “Come on Uday! You’re work is going to help 100s of women micro-entrepreneurs in Mumbai”
|
||||
|
||||
With these two thoughts, I started looking for an internship in the Impact Sector. <br>
|
||||
|
||||
*“How?”<br>
|
||||
“LinkedIn!”*
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
Networking is a lost art in Roorkee, majority of the people underestimate the power of social capital. First things first - update your LinkedIn profile; add a professional formal picture, update your experiences and start following people relevant to your field of interest. It’s much more than just sending connection request, increasing your connections and sending cold messages to everyone in your circle. Leverage the power of a very strong network that Roorkee has to offer, in the best manner possible. Honestly, it demands time; it’s boring and even frustrating at times; but, there is no alternative.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I reached out to someone at Ashoka India office on LinkedIn, highlighting my interest in working there along with my resume and the relevance it had with my past experiences (Internships, Inter-IITs, Competitions, Projects). He was kind enough to reciprocate to my message pretty fast and scheduled an interview. I had three rounds of interviews before I was finally offered a chance to work at Ashoka. The interview process wasn’t really difficult; it primarily revolved around three sections:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**1.** Who are you as an Individual?
|
||||
|
||||
**2.** Why did you choose to work in the Impact Sector?
|
||||
|
||||
**3.** Skillset requirement depending upon the team and project you’re being interviewed for
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## What did I do at Ashoka?
|
||||
|
||||
Ashoka is an extremely fluid organisation with a completely flat hierarchy (not just for the sake of it; as an intern you get to attend all the meetings, meet partners, funders and fellows); you get almost the similar kind of work and ownership as a Consultant who’s working there. There is no age discrimination at all, you’re actually pushed to do more and more.
|
||||
I was hired to work for the Partnership and Fundraising team where my job was to design a Product which was supposed to teach school students ‘Empathy’ through experiential learning while attaching a Fundraising aspect to it. I was given complete autonomy by my Manager to complete the project in however ways I want to. After the completion of Product Designing, I was also allowed to reach out to schools and sign a contract with them to launch it.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Other than this, I actively worked with the Venture team. It was one of the most exciting parts of my internship where the team’s role was to engage with the nominated candidates and assess if they qualify as potential ‘Ashoka Fellows’. During the process you engage with a candidate for approximately 60-80 hours; if the team finds the candidacy strong enough to take them to further processes, you get to go on a field visit where you do on ground Impact Assessment of the candidate’s work (while I’m writing this blog, I’m booking my flights to visit a candidate’s organisation in Orissa who’s working with the Adivasi Communities there). To sum it up, the work is around Impact Evaluation of leading social enterprises in different domains.
|
||||
After a month at Ashoka (first week of July), I was offered to be appointed as a Consultant to work an Ecosystem Mapping study in the field of Sustainable Livelihood for an external global partner. After our mapping, this partner is supposed to invest their money to maximise impact in the mentioned field. This project gave me an actual experience, of what Consulting is and also, provided me with an opportunity to interact with a lot of Ashoka Fellows in India and Bangladesh.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
At Ashoka, it’s all about how you want to position yourself and how much work you can take. I positioned myself to get an exposure of Consulting, Impact Evaluation, Entrepreneurship and Product Designing.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Is it even completed without some catchy Concluding Remarks?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*“What motivates you to wake up in the morning and go to work?”* <br>
|
||||
*“What excites you to do what you do? “*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
If the answer to the questions above is ‘money’, you probably have some thinking to do. If the answer to the questions above is, ‘I don’t know!’, it’s completely fine. ‘Internship’, I believe is the best opportunity to help you find answers to these questions. And trust me they are much more important than just having your ‘Summers Sorted’.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Things to do in Bangalore?
|
||||
**1.** Appreciating really good weather everyday <br>
|
||||
**2.** Whining about traffic ~~twice a day~~, every moment you step out<br>
|
||||
**3.** Good Beer<br>
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,70 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: HSBC; A Roller Coaster Ride"
|
||||
image: gaurav1.png
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Gaurav Singhal"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: '"Getting a good internship is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."'
|
||||
---
|
||||
*'Getting a good internship is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning'*<br>
|
||||
|
||||
-- My own version of Churchill’s saying aptly describes the approach everyone should keep in their mind while applying for internships in their career. I would be sharing the story of my internship, how I prepared, tried, failed, and finally got selected for HSBC as well as Mitacs Research Internship.
|
||||
|
||||
Before I begin, I would like to explicitly advise readers to take this as a source of motivation and use their individualistic approach for getting an internship. There is no predefined recipe for success and your hard work and skill-set is the only thing that is going to always stand by you. There are people who are good with technical knowledge, and some who are good at the ‘Indian Jugaad’, but the people who find a balance between the two are the ones who lead the race.
|
||||
|
||||
At the beginning of my penultimate year, my profile was Techno-managerial one. Technical - because I had worked on a diverse range of technical projects, did a research internship in SPARK, got an offer of a research internship in CFD from ETH Zurich and managerial because I was a part of the students' body of Tinkering Lab, member of the Organising Committee of Thomso and several other projects.
|
||||
|
||||
With these things in my portfolio, I was more inclined towards getting a Research Internship with DAAD or Mitacs. So, I started writing to a few German Professors, which is the preliminary step in applying for a DAAD Internship. For people interested in DAAD and Mitacs, my two cents would be to start applying as early as you can. It certainly gives a boost to your application because finding the right project under the right professor is one of the hurdles you are bound to cross. I started writing to professors by the end of July’18 and fortunately, got a reply from TU Berlin. For the e-mail part, make sure that your cover letter is unique and not copied directly from ‘Google baba’. Moreover, keep your research interests well aligned with those of the host professor. There is a lot of fish in the sea but only the golden one attracts the attention of the beholder and your cover letter certainly provides the required glitter in your application.
|
||||
|
||||
The Internship season started as soon as we came back to Roorkee in July’18. Swayed by the charm of those high stipend notices, I also applied to giant coding firms and banks— Goldman Sachs, ITC, Nutanix, but couldn’t get through. I was disheartened, for a moment, but had a firm belief that my hard work won’t go vain. A point worth keeping in mind is that one should always learn from their failures. Learn to figure out what went wrong during an interview or where exactly were you lacking in knowledge. What measures should be taken so that you don’t repeat those mistakes?
|
||||
|
||||
## How did I prepare?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
In the job description of HSBC, they needed students with excellent analytical skills, strong mathematical background (Probability & Statistics), and necessary programming skills (C++ or Python).
|
||||
These topics are vast, and you can never be 100% confident that you’ll be able to dodge every question that the interviewer shoots at you. It’s not unusual to have lows during such time, but working and learning constantly is definitely going to pull you through. For every sun that sets, there is a sun that rises.
|
||||
For Probability, I solved problems from Michael Baron and did a course of statistics from Coursera. For C++, I solved questions of InterviewBit and Geeks for Geeks. I revised the Numerical Methods course. N.M is one of my all-time favourite courses, and I’d advise all of you to review its notes for quant-based company interviews.
|
||||
Lastly, you should be thorough with every word you mention in your resume. Be it internships, projects or PORs. The interviewer will try to grill you on prospects of the work you have achieved in your internships or your projects to get an idea whether you actually worked on those or mentioned them just to fill up your resume.
|
||||
|
||||
## Selection Procedure
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
First-round was Resume-shortlisting, and when the list came out, I was delighted to see my name on the top. I believe they give equal weightage to your projects and internships and are looking for a mathematical and analytical mind. The second round was a technical one. It went on for about 50 minutes. They asked me questions regarding my internships, projects general problems on probability, puzzles, market opportunity questions, guesstimation and Complex Integration. They try to check how you hold up under stress, so try to be calm and give your best. Ten students were shortlisted after this round.
|
||||
Third-round was based on coding. They asked me about problems related to Data Structures and Algorithms. All they were concerned about was the approach you use in solving those problems. For an in-view, I would advise you to be loud and clear about whatever you are thinking. Let the interviewer experience the journey you took to reach the end of the problem from ground zero. This way, even if you get stuck somewhere, the interviewer can help you by pointing in the right direction.
|
||||
The fourth round was HR. Common HR-based questions like "Why do you want to join HSBC?", “Why should we hire you?”, "What differentiates you from other students?" "What are your Future Goals?" etc were the show stoppers. Be honest and try to have sample answers ready
|
||||
since mostly, the intent of HR questions of every company remains the same— they want to see your dedication to work and honest attitude while answering and obviously, excellent communication skills.
|
||||
Finally, three students were selected, and we were all given a ‘chapo’ at the Rustic House.
|
||||
|
||||
## Work Experience
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
"HSBC is a dream company for all those who want to pursue a career in quantitative research". Before going there, this was only a statement for me, but now, after completing the internship there, I can say this is the reality. In India, there are not many firms which can provide the opportunities that HSBC is offering. Initially, we were given a training programme of 7 days, which taught us different Financial terms and Asset Classes. Senior leaders of HSBC GBM gave all the lectures. It was a great learning experience, and we enjoyed the sessions. A sum total of 14 Interns from Top 6 IITs were selected and all were given independent projects to work upon, which were challenging and required an in-depth knowledge of Finance, Coding and Quantitative skills. All the projects were real-life live problems which needed to be solved in order to optimize Pricing algorithms and strategies enforced by the bank. Different interns were allocated different asset classes, which broadly can be classified into 3 types: Equities, Fixed Income (FI), and Foreign Exchange (FX). I was assigned a project from the London office and had a team of E-Risk Spot Foreign Exchange.
|
||||
To give you a general idea, FX E-Risk Foreign Exchange team of HSBC deals with electronic hedging of foreign exchange currency pairs and provides insights to Quant Traders like MTM PNLs, strategies caveats, pricing analytics etc. My project was a research-based one in which I needed to devise a Technical Indicator first and then code it in Python. So, It was a mixture of Finance, Coding and Quant. I can't disclose details regarding the project because of the compliance issues of HSBC, but it was an interesting project and I learnt immensely.
|
||||
|
||||
## Environment and Work Culture:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
One of the best things about HSBC is that people there are very approachable. You can talk to the Senior Most Management whenever you feel like and they have a pool of knowledge with a work experience of about 20 years. As my project was a complex one, I took guidance and help from my mentor, Pratyush and his whole team. All of them were ready to help whenever I faced a problem. In finance firms, there are times when you have to give in 12+ hours of work, but in HSBC there was never a compulsion from anyone in the team. People working for such long durations without fatigue shows the dedication that the HSBC team works with.
|
||||
Working hours were flexible, but we were expected to wear formals from Mon-Thu. For Friday, casuals were allowed. There was a big cafeteria and a co-working space in which you could relax. HSBC provides for one of the best learning platforms and culture, which anyone interested in finance can think of.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:50%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## MITACS:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The application forms for MITACS Internship are to be filled by September, generally. I had filled the form much before the application deadline, and also before HSBC came for an internship. A month after the results of HSBC came, I was selected for the Mitacs Research Internship at the University of Toronto. I consulted my seniors, parents and well-wishers to decide which path to choose. Since I already had research intern experience from sophomore year, I decided to gain corporate exposure in Finance so finally resolved the dilemma and chose HSBC for the summers.
|
||||
|
||||
**Points to be noted for MITACS:** Take your time to fill out the application form. The timeline provided by MITACS is broad enough to get your application reviewed by seniors/mentors in the field. Get in touch with the seniors who were selected in Mitacs and learn from their experiences. You will get a general idea of what the Canadian professors expect you to write in it.
|
||||
|
||||
## Concluding Points:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Interning at HSBC was once in a lifetime experience for me. We played various sports with our co-interns as well as the team during weekends. Bangalore is a city, which I feel is ideal for enjoyment. I went to almost every club in Bangalore. We even planned a trip to Ooty, which is like heaven on earth. On a finishing note, I can say that I made friends and memories for life.
|
||||
As I said in the beginning, you should take an internship as only the end of the beginning. Fight for it but never feel disheartened by the course of rejections which will come in your path because after all these failures, hard work will surely pay off and you will come out with flying colours.<br>
|
||||
|
||||
All the very best.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,69 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Microsoft "
|
||||
image: lakshya1.png
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Lakshya Kumawat"
|
||||
excerpt: 'So around March, most of my friends were having a blast with their on-campus interns while pre-final year designers like me struggled for opportunities.But that day my struggle came to an end. This is Lakshya Kumawat and I spent my third year summers interning as a UX Designer at Microsoft.'
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
So around March, most of my friends were having a blast with their on-campus interns while pre-final year designers like me struggled for opportunities.
|
||||
|
||||
But that day my struggle came to an end. This is Lakshya Kumawat and I spent my third year summers interning as a UX Designer at Microsoft.
|
||||
|
||||
## How I chose the company I wanted to dedicate my summers to:
|
||||
|
||||
My journey as a designer revved up once I entered my second year. Learning and practicing were the key motives of my life. And after my second year intern in a mid-level startup, I had made up my mind to apply to a big startup or a corporate, offering exposure and learning opportunities I wouldn't get working with small firms. Me and my friends started listing out good companies and collecting contact information so that we could apply in the future.
|
||||
|
||||
## How I applied:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
For an off campus intern, the only way to apply is by mail or LinkedIn. There is no constraint on when to apply, but the sooner the better. In my experience, the end of January through the first week of February is the best time to send in applications.
|
||||
|
||||
It's important to have connections. More often than not, an offer won't simply be handed to you. Opportunities need to be worked out by oneself. An active social and social-media life sure helps. Stay active on LinkedIn, connect to the people in your respective field, especially those working with the firms you're interested in.
|
||||
|
||||
In my case I got to know of the intern hiring going on at Microsoft from my seniors. I applied, mailed my resume to HR and a couple of weeks later, they wrote back saying they liked my work and scheduled a skype interview.
|
||||
|
||||
I had 3 technical interviews in 3 days and a basic HR round (not a typical HR round but some conversation on mail). In about a week, I had a confirmation mail with me. In all of this, perhaps the most important takeaway is that your work should be clear and well documented. I maintained a basic portfolio website (lakshya1297.github.io) which had well documented accounts of all my major work. This makes it easier for the interviewer to go through your work properly without missing anything as they usually only have so much time to go through each individual candidate's portfolio.
|
||||
|
||||
## What I worked on:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:50%;"}
|
||||
*Foundry Interns with mentors*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
*Intern Inauguration Day*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The program I was interning under was called “FOUNDRY”. Nine designers from all over India had been selected as summer interns. In this program there is a team of 4-5 people, of which one is a UX Designer, and then you have 3-4 Developers. Their aim is to understand the project and work together to finish the product in the two month time period. The projects were all pretty
|
||||
amazing but given the short deadline, it was important to plan out our timeline effectively and work as efficiently as possible .
|
||||
|
||||
My Project was under “Microsoft Teams”, which is a collaboration platform used by various big organisations. As a UX designer, my work was to understand the platform and leverage its functionalities to achieve the aim of the project. Doing research, converting it into valuable outcome and designing the screens was the main work I did there as a part of my Internship.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
*The Workspace*
|
||||
|
||||
I was assigned a mentor. So your internship mentor is supposed to be your best buddy cum manager for the duration of your stay there. They look after your daily work and any doubts you may have regarding the same
|
||||
. Then there's the manager, who is a senior designer in charge of evaluating your work and keeps track of your weekly or monthly updates. In my case, both were very supportive and it was awesome working with them.
|
||||
|
||||
Working hours weren't really rigid and we were free to even stay at the office if we felt like it. It was open 24 hours. Also there were “Nap Rooms” for catching up on rest and occasionally, quick naps. Also the cafeteria and lunch hall were the center of attraction for a foodie person like me. Fun and games like Xbox, TT, Cricket nets, Futsal, Foosball, Air Hockey, Pool etc. made my time there much more enjoyable.
|
||||
|
||||
Adding to all this fun we were provided with 5 star accommodations for the entirety of the internship period. For food we were given 200 rupees in our “Hungerbox” account which we can use to eat breakfast, lunch & dinner at Microsoft Office only.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
*The cafeteria*
|
||||
|
||||
The work culture at Microsoft is the best I have ever seen or heard of. Everyone around you is very nice and the folks there love to help in any way possible. There is a vertical hierarchy in the organization but it isn't really that prominent. PMs used to go out with us, and we had a lot of fun with the technical team. There was also this one time we boogie-woogied with the Director of Design, India. Looking back, the two months I spent at Microsoft feel like an ecstatically blissful album, with each page merrier than the last.
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing up and Key learnings
|
||||
|
||||
These were undisputedly the best summers I've ever had. All the friends I made, all the connections I made, all the fun I had. My plan worked out pretty well and also I completed my project which was very satisfying. I suggest everyone to plan things out in advance to grab big opportunities like this.
|
||||
|
||||
You never know when a little effort on your part could land you somewhere you never imagined.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
*The 9 UX designers*
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,53 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: CAFRAL"
|
||||
image: "muskan-gupta-1.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Muskan Gupta"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'A robust legal system promotes the smooth functioning of credit markets and subsequent economic growth. This insight was one of the main motivations behind the promulgation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016, a comprehensive law seeking to streamline, simplify and accelerate the process of bankruptcy resolution in India.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
A robust legal system promotes the smooth functioning of credit markets and subsequent economic growth. This insight was one of the main motivations behind the promulgation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016, a comprehensive law seeking to streamline, simplify and accelerate the process of bankruptcy resolution in India. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has played its role in the implementation of the IBC by initially referring several large corporate defaulters through the bankruptcy process and subsequently, through a circular dated February 12, 2018, harmonizing its framework for the resolution of distressed assets with the provisions of the IBC. With the goal of transforming the bank-borrower relationship in India, the circular emphasized the immediate recognition of default and swift action to resolve stressed assets.
|
||||
|
||||
My project was to study how these significant changes in the regulatory environment have affected the functioning of credit markets in India. Under this broad research programme, I worked on understanding the bank and borrower behaviour. In addition to the direct effect, I also worked on understanding the spillover effects of the bankruptcy reform on other segments of the credit markets. I also worked on understanding the stock market reaction when the Feb 12 circular was implemented using the capital asset pricing model.
|
||||
|
||||
## Getting There
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
After having explored the startup world in my first year-internship at ZestMoney, I wanted to try my hand at research and thus decided to go for internships at some renowned universities, think-tanks or Research divisions of Corporates. I started listing out where I would get such projects and then landed at the page of Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning(CAFRAL), Research Centre promoted by Reserve Bank of India, which had intern opening at the time.
|
||||
|
||||
CAFRAL keeps posting on its website whenever they have a requirement of interns. You will definitely find the internship portal open during the month of January-February which has a deadline of March, hiring interns for the months of May-June-July. You have to complete and submit a form before March which is available on their website for internships. The form requires you to submit your SOP, cover, past experience, technical skills, courses are taken and some other relevant details. Following the form submission, the shortlisted candidates are interviewed. I had two rounds of interview and a code submission to make followed by which I was granted the internship. I had also mailed the Research Directors directly, followed by follow-up emails which I believe helped in shortlisting of my resume.
|
||||
|
||||
I started following the Economic Times from my second semester and would look for financial jargons to learn more about them. This helped me gain some understanding of the sector. I further took some online courses and certifications to have strong foundations before actually entering the Financial world. It is better to have some coding experience as all my interviews asked me of my ability to code (mostly in python). Sound knowledge of Probability Statistics is also important to understand the concepts of Econometrics. So, along with theoretical knowledge, having technical knowledge is also very important.
|
||||
|
||||
I had started mailing and searching for opportunities from December (though I was a little late for some of the programs). It’s better to start compiling details of whoever you want to work under by mid-November, keep your resume ready and start mailing from early December (for India). It is the time when professors are making their summer plans and looking for interns to work on their projects. Keep sending follow-up emails. They actually help a lot as professors receive a huge number of mails so they tend to neglect or sometimes miss out on mails. Sending follow-up mails also shows that you are actually keen to work under them. Always keep in mind to send personalised emails to each and every professor you are mailing to, with a reference to their work(mentioning the reason why you wish to work under them, some personal reference helps.). This will make your application stand apart from hundreds of bulk mails they receive.
|
||||
|
||||
I had done some online courses and had taken two certifications from NISM which I believed would have boosted my resume. My prior experience with ZestMoney, a fin-tech startup also gave me an edge showing my interest and dedication to work in the industry.
|
||||
|
||||
Choosing between a project at ISB, Hyderabad and CAFRAL, RBI was quite difficult as both the opportunities had quite interesting projects and were paying equally. I consulted and discussed with a lot of my seniors, and also with people who had interned at both the places, and finally decided to go for CAFRAL, because of its corporate work environment and an opportunity to make excellent connections with people who are actually, directly involved in the world of Banking.
|
||||
|
||||
I personally made a lot of mistakes while mailing and application. I had sent the application for CAFRAL on the second-last day, that too on Sunday. This led to neglection of my application for a long time and only after many follow-ups was it brought into consideration. So always keep in mind to send out mailers on weekdays (avoid Fridays also) and at least 7-8 days prior to the deadline. Secondly, initially, I sent generalised emails to everyone which led to no response. I resent personalised emails then from a different Mail ID which garnered some response.
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL) is an independent body set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the backdrop of India’s evolving role in the global economy, in the financial services sector and its position in various international fora, and to develop into a world class global institution for research and learning in banking and finance.
|
||||
|
||||
CAFRAL’s research focus is on the areas of banking and finance. My project was at the intersecting domains of Banking, Macroeconomics, Public Policy and Financial Markets.
|
||||
|
||||
The work culture at CAFRAL was quite friendly. You can go anytime to any of the Research Director’s office and they will guide you with utmost importance. They will take you out for lunch along with Research Associates and would celebrate the farewells of people alongside everyone. Research Associates are your colleagues and show a very welcoming nature. They consider you to be a part of their family and you will soon find hanging out with them for lunch and parties. They will always be ready to help you and guide you in case you have stuck anywhere on your project. But CAFRAL requires you to be punctual in office in proper formals, and work for minimum of 8 hours for 5-days a week. Only in case of severe cases(like rains in Mumbai which are actually torturous as they leave you with no means of communication) are you allowed to be late for office or otherwise they will cut pay for the leave.
|
||||
|
||||
CAFRAL is a small family of RDs and RAs working together undertaking research useful to central banks, regulators and financial sector, conducting seminars, conferences and other learning programs that serve as a platform for exchange of high-level policy dialogues and collaborate with other institutions within the country and outside to promote research in areas of interest to the Centre.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Place
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
There are reasons to love and hate the city of dreams yet its loveable factors outweigh everything. Starting with the weather the rains bring along with them beautiful weather but also halted trains, crowded roads, and clogged roads. From amazing ‘Khao Galis’ to best night clubs Mumbai has everything to suit your needs as well as pockets. Spend some time at the famous beaches on weekends and sit alongside Marine Drive at night to enjoy a beautiful view of Mumbai City, they will make you forget every stress of your life.
|
||||
|
||||
I used to live with my cousin in Lower Parel so it was not a big issue for me, but it is actually very difficult to find a good PG at affordable prices, especially in South Bombay.
|
||||
@ -1,82 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: TOKYO GAS CO. LTD"
|
||||
image: "tokyo1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Ashish Kumar"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'Since the very beginning of my sophomore year, I had a dream of interning abroad but neither did I have a superb 9+ CGPA( In fact far below than that :P) nor did I have any interest towards research profile. Noticing the latest boom in the field of Machine Learning, I dived deep into this field and thus found my interest.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Since the very beginning of my sophomore year, I had a dream of interning abroad but neither did I have a superb 9+ CGPA( In fact far below than that :P) nor did I have any interest towards research profile. Noticing the latest boom in the field of Machine Learning, I dived deep into this field and thus found my interest. During the summer of 2018, I interned at Stockroom followed by the internship at Tokyo Gas in summer’19. Interning abroad has undeniable benefits. Work experience in an international setting stands out on your resume and gives you a definite boost in the job market. An internship abroad is also a great way to meet locals, immerse yourself in the culture, and can be an entry point for eventually working abroad.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Learning Data science and Machine Learning
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I started to learn data science at the end of my 3rd Semester. I started with Machine learning by Andrew NG on coursera. This course dealt with all the mathematical and theoretical aspects of machine learning. Parallelly I also learned the basics of coding in python. Once I was done with these two, I started reading blogs and solving some famous datasets on Kaggle. Even after these I felt that I was weak in the implementation part and thus moved to Machine Learning A to Z course on Udemy. Then I brushed my skills on dozens of datasets which boosted my confidence. To strengthen my statistics, I went through the Stats 110x course on edX. To study deep learning, I switched to Deep learning specialization on coursera which is set of 5 courses. It was simply the best. I continued reading blogs on deep learning and discussing tech projects with my friends. Blog reading and discussion played a crucial role in increasing my understanding of the subjects.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I got my internship at Tokyo Gas through a HR agency named Webstaff that visited IIT Roorkee campus for hiring in September 2018. Webstaff outsources our resumes to Japanese companies who are willing to hire tech interns generally in the field of Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Software Development.
|
||||
The application and selection process is generally a long one and requires a lot of patience. The CGPA cutoff was 7 for all branches except CSE followed by resume shortlisting. The selection process had 4 rounds.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**1.Coding Round-** Generally 2 coding questions and a few MCQs on Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Competitive programming, Web Development and SQL are asked. This, according to me, is the most important round. Even if you are applying for Machine learning profiles, sound knowledge of data structures and algorithm is a must. Keep in touch with your friends from other IITs so that you can get an insight into the types of questions being asked.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**2.Group Discussion-**The main aim of this round is to check how nicely you will be able to communicate in a foreign-land. The topic of the GD is very basic. In my case, it was related to freedom of speech on social media. It should be a cakewalk for someone who is able to put his views calmly and confidently.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**3.HR Interview-** In this round the interviewer checks how eager the candidate is to work in Japan. Basic HR interview preparation should be enough and knowledge of Japanese culture will be a bonus.
|
||||
After you clear all the above rounds, you are made to fill an online portal where you can update your skillset and projects along with your video resume. On the basis of your skills and projects, you are further shortlisted by the Japanese companies for a final interview.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**4.Final Interview-** I was shortlisted by Tokyo Gas. My interview was 20% tech and 80% HR. This percentage may vary on the company for which one has been shortlisted. Good resume know-how and the ability to explain projects clearly is a must.
|
||||
The biggest blunder that I made was focussing only on Machine Learning and not studying competitive programming. Most of the companies that visit our campus for Data Science and Machine Learning have competitive programming in their tests. Getting an on-campus internship offer solely on the basis of knowledge of Data science and Machine Learning is very tough.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Tokyo Gas is the largest natural gas utility in Japan and was founded in year 1885. Their business mainly deals with supply of city gas and electricity in the capital and neighbourhood areas. With a total of 17,000 employees, it is one of the gigantic companies of Japan. Here, I worked on 3 major projects. In my first project I had to predict LNG consumption of consumer companies for near future using machine learning techniques. This project was the first step towards the overall optimization of the filling process. In my second project, I had to predict energy trading prices in the energy sale market. Tokyo gas is involved in trading of electricity and the basic idea is similar to stock market trading. In my third project, I was given GPS, gas usage, water usage, electricity usage and air quality data of different customers and I had to analyse and give insights to the company regarding the daily activities and point out the trend and seasonality.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
My work there started at 9:00 and ended at 5:45 and the environment was very relaxed. It was so good that even working till 8 didn’t feel like a burden to me(Thanks to unlimited coffee supply). People in the office were very polite and helping. My data analytics team had the best Japanese brains with degrees even from MIT and Stanford.
|
||||
The people there were very helping. Once I was down with cold and took a day leave. My colleagues sent Indian food and sweets for me at my doorstep to recover. Such small incidences had a deep impact on me. Language was a major issue there. My team and HR planned a lot of events for me like Saake party, Barbeque party and Cruise trips so that I didn't feel left out.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## About the place
|
||||
|
||||
Most of my childhood was spent watching Shinchan, Doraemon and other Japanese anime. So, interning in Japan was like a dream come true for me. My office and apartment were located in a very posh area of Tokyo. Generally, the weekdays were busy but during weekends every second felt worth enjoying. Never in my life will I forget the gadget shops at Akihabara, beaches at Enoshima, dazzling lights from Tokyo skytree, clubbing at Roppongi, Cruise trip around the Tokyo Bay, Guinness record holder rides at FujiQ Highland and the heart throbbing view of Mount Fuji (Of course there were some sleepy weekends too).
|
||||
I tried a lot of Japanese dishes including Ramen, Soba noodles, Udon noodles, yakitori and of course sushi. They have a taste of their own and for sea food lovers, it’s a paradise.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Tokyo’s weather is very pleasant. The temperature during May and June varied generally from 15 to 30 degrees. One day, one of my Japanese colleagues almost had a heart attack when he googled the temperature of my hometown and it turned out to be 47 degrees.
|
||||
|
||||
## Accommodation
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
The accommodation I got was the best you can expect. I was provided a rented riverside apartment with great services like spa and lounge. The view from my room was mesmerizing.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing up
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Foreign industrial experience is very rare and the exposure teaches you a lot. Working with highly diligent people always motivates me to strive harder for better results. At multinational cities like Tokyo, you get to meet people from different parts of the world and learn from them. Working for a company like Tokyo-gas with a latge customer base and building product that can potentially influence millions was a life time experience for me.
|
||||
To all the juniors who are targeting foreign internship through Webstaff, I would suggest them to brush up their coding skills and pitch some good technical projects at the interview. Good Luck!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,64 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Queen’s University, Canada (MITACS)"
|
||||
image: "harsh-patel-1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Harsh Patel"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'I have tried to summarize my 12 week-long research experience at Queen’s University, Canada in which I explain the MITACS application procedure in detail and my major takeaways and experiences from my internship at Canada.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
I have tried to summarize my 12 week-long research experience at Queen’s University, Canada in which I explain the MITACS application procedure in detail and my major takeaways and experiences from my internship at Canada.
|
||||
|
||||
## Getting there
|
||||
|
||||
It all started back in my second year summers at IIT Gandhinagar, where I had interned in the field of Image Forensics (Computer Vision) which instigated my interest in the field and I considered choosing research as an option. After that internship, I got a basic understanding of what goes into research but still wanted to try my hands on a proper research internship. Of course, I wasn’t completely sure because I didn’t want to miss out on-campus internships as focusing only on getting a research internship is a huge risk if you opt-out of the campus internship process. Considering the fact that a very limited number of deep learning-based companies/startups visit the campus, the chances for me were less. Eventually, I got selected for Robert Bosch’s Deep learning division during Mid September.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Along with my on-campus preparations, I was constantly applying for Research Programs. I applied to a lot of programs including DAAD, SN Bose, Viterbi, MITACS and a few others. I got the invitation from a german professor but due to DAAD’s strict CGPA cut-off, I could not get the scholarship. These programs generally have their deadlines during the autumn semester. After 2-3 interviews, I got my selection mail from MITACS in the first week of January.
|
||||
|
||||
## About the program
|
||||
|
||||
MITACS Globalink is a Research Internship Program funded by MITACS Canada which invites undergraduate students from all around the globe to pursue research for 12 weeks in a Canadian university. It is open for the 3rd year and above students in India with a minimum CGPA of 7.5 (80 %). The amount of funding you receive is the highest among all the other programs (~ 8000 CAD). So, you can easily visit a lot of places in Canada and still save money. One of the major advantages of this program in comparison to other programs is that you can get a MITACS Graduate fellowship (~15000 CAD) for doing masters/PhD in Canada.
|
||||
|
||||
## Application procedure
|
||||
|
||||
The application portal of MITACS is simple where they ask your basic details. Then, you have to write your research rational (SOP), previous research internship experience, and a general description of your skillset in about 100 words each. Yes, you have to write your SOP in about 100 words only. So, be as precise as possible. You also have to submit 2 letters of recommendation from your professors/supervisors whom you have worked with along with your CV and transcripts. Lastly, you have to give 7 preferences of project/professor you want to work with, in your preference order. Seriously, that was the most difficult part. You are given a list of around 2500 projects from which you have to select only 7 and all 7 projects combined should be in at least 3 different Canadian provinces (states). The applications generally open in early August and the deadline is around mid-September.
|
||||
|
||||
The selection process is carried out in two phases. The applications of the students selected in the first phase are sent to the respective professors. During that time Phase-2 students are waitlisted and have to wait till the phase-1 process is over and then their profiles are sent. MITACS doesn’t reveal how they separate students, but based on previous interns and my experience, they shortlist you on the basis of overlap between your interests and the projects which you have chosen along with many other factors such as CGPA. Being waitlisted in the first stage is a big disadvantage as it might be possible that the professor of your choice has already selected someone else during phase-1. So, try to fill the projects with relevance to your previous work/experience so that you get selected in the first phase. After that, your profiles are sent to your respective professors. It solely depends on the professor to have an interview for selection or not. I had many friends who directly got the offer without a single interview and some who had as many as 5-7 interviews. I had 3 interviews for my different projects. Luckily, I got selected by the professor on my 1st preference. The interviews are easy and revolve around your previous projects/ internships from your resume along with a short discussion about the current project. Also, do show your interest for higher studies, professors prefer students who can extend their project in their masters/ PhD and work with them for a longer duration. The procedure after you receive the offer is straightforward and most of the cases students get their visa approved in 15-20 days due to the funding from MITACS.
|
||||
|
||||
## Queen's University
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Kingston is a small city on Lake Ontario located in the province of Ontario. A city far from the hustling life in large cities like Toronto and Montreal, it gives you a small-town vibe. There aren’t many exciting things to do in Kingston but it is a 3-hour ride to both Toronto and Montreal and 2-hour ride to the capital city (Ottawa). The Queen’s University was found in the mid 19th century, hence you can find a glimpse of the 19th-century British architecture in many departments. In fact, very few people know that Kingston was the first official capital of Canada.
|
||||
|
||||
Queen’s University has a quiet and relaxed atmosphere. Consider it a perfect place to spend your summers. Due to the small area and limited population, there won't be anything bustling around but instead, you can experience a countryside vibe far from the hectic and fast-paced life. You can spend your evenings in the Lake Ontario Park reading your favourite book and take a walk along the lake.
|
||||
|
||||
## Accomodation and Food
|
||||
|
||||
I stayed in a large house close to the downtown area with my friends. We got the entire house (6 bedrooms) to ourselves as houses are generally available on lease during the summers. I searched for accommodation through the Queen’s off-campus housing facebook group. Kijiji is also a good website to find accommodation in Canada.
|
||||
|
||||
The people in Canada are considered to be one of the nicest and most polite across the globe. It is very common to find people greeting you on the streets and engaging in conversations. There are a lot of places to eat out but believe me, after a few weeks, I was exhausted and decided to cook on my own. I had never made a dish on my own before. But eventually, I got better at it and I can say that now I can make a decent meal for myself. So, do carry some basic spices and utensils and learn some basic cooking techniques. For recipes, youtube is always there to the rescue!
|
||||
|
||||
## My project and Lab culture
|
||||
|
||||
The project which I was assigned was in the field of Computer Vision where I had to develop various models for the task of skeleton-based Human Action Recognition. As evident from the name, out of a given video involving a person doing some kind of activity, the task was to accurately predict real-time action. This type of work has its applications in security surveillance (identifying robbery, attack etc) and elderly homes/hospitals (for patient monitoring).
|
||||
|
||||
There were no fixed timings to work as long as you deliver/update with the progress of the project. My lab was primarily focussed towards Data Mining and Analytics but was shifting its focus towards modern deep learning applications. We had weekly group meetings every Wednesday where we had to present our progress or anything interesting paper/tech that you have read. My first month was focused on reading the state of the art papers in the field of Activity Recognition and preparing proper literature review which is further useful for final reports. Then in the subsequent months, I was involved in preprocessing the data. Believe me, most of the time you are involved in preprocessing and removing errors from your code, the actual time where you do the hyped deep learning stuff is actually very less. Further, I developed and tested two different LSTM and CNN based models for the task. As there is no physical experimentation required, each of us had a GPU enabled server, which we could use it from any place.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Roaming around
|
||||
|
||||
Considering the location of Kingston, you can easily have weekend plans to Toronto, Montreal and neighbouring cities. I mainly visited Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Niagara Falls and a Mountain trail near Kingston. The best of all the places were definitely Toronto and Niagara falls as I went there during the Canada Day Weekend. We were lucky enough to witness the Canada Day fireworks from the Niagara Falls on the boat. Canada Day celebrations in the centre of Toronto city (Eaton Square) gives you the vibe of an Indian Mela. Every person wearing Red and holding Canadian flags in their hand. One thing which I noticed is that people in Canada are a lot more patriotic towards their country, you can easily find big Canadian flags in their houses and public places. Of course, the cities in Ontario don’t offer the natural scenic beauty compared to Alberta and British Columbia but still, it is a great experience. One place which I do recommend visiting if you have time is Banff, Alberta and some parts of British Columbia where you will find the most scenic places on earth.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing up
|
||||
|
||||
A 12-week long research internship in a foreign land not only gives you a proper head start to your research career but also makes you realize the true meaning of living independently. Compared to our college lives, where most of the things are taken care of, you will have to manage most of the things including grocery, food, house along with your work on your own. One of my major takeaways from this internship is that you get out of your comfort zone and push yourselves to unknown territories. Believe me, it’s very difficult to get out of your comfort zone and break your normal flow of life but it makes you a much more independent person where you meet a lot of new people, roam around in an unknown country, cook your own food.
|
||||
|
||||
One of the NITs had 45 students selected this year for the program, compared to around 5-6 from our institute. So, I would encourage people to at least give it a try and apply for the MITACS program as it is definitely worth it in the end. Do give it a try!
|
||||
@ -1,72 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Grofers"
|
||||
image: "sourab-kumar-1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Sourab Kumar"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'Find a potential problem, go out there an extra mile and rectify it for best user experience.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
> “Find a potential problem, go out there an extra mile and rectify it for best user experience.”
|
||||
|
||||
Being someone who has been into Product Management for about six to seven months now, I prefer going step-by-step. So, let’s start from the very beginning.
|
||||
|
||||
### What is Product Management and how did I think of pursuing it?
|
||||
|
||||
By now, most of you must have Googled the term “Product Management” online and I think all of you will agree that different links pertaining to the topic provide different perspectives. The way I define it, might give you another perspective of the profile.
|
||||
|
||||
For me, Product Management is all about understanding the sentiment of the users, whether they are your customers or employees from different teams, and come up with a solution to every problem in a way that benefits all the concerned stakeholders.
|
||||
|
||||
After exploring almost half-a-dozen different work profiles during my sophomore year, I landed up with an intern at Udaan.com. While concluding it, I thought of working in a strategic role in an intersection of business, technology and design. I can say that was probably the time when I opened myself up to Product Management.
|
||||
|
||||
### The Application Phase
|
||||
|
||||
> “Whatsoever be the scenario, we always have a possibility to improve.”
|
||||
|
||||
As it turned out, I had an opportunity to improve exponentially. So, instead of testing my luck with the crowd-popular on-campus internship opportunities, I preferred to improve myself, through online courses and different books. With almost everyone in your peer group going for competitive coding, it isn’t easy not to get influenced and stick with what you want to do. But trust me, if you really enjoy something, you will find ways to get into that and improve.
|
||||
|
||||
I started my internship hunt in the last week of January. Not only my resume and cover letter but also the LinkedIn profile. The first month went completely into making my professional presence flawless to the very finest of details.
|
||||
|
||||
Tension is a common human emotion, right? Yeah, I was tense that I was really starting with my intern hunting now when most of the people around me were done with it. Yes, I committed a few mistakes. I applied for Jindal Stainless (Hisar) Limited(JHSL) and Reliance Industries Limited(RIL), even when I had no interest in the core sector. Against my expectations, I was selected for the interview round of the former in the beginning of February and for the latter at the end of March.
|
||||
|
||||
But by the time of the first on-campus interview, I had dropped 100 to 150 emails. Luckily, I got a Product Intern offer from Yatra.com. To add onto it, the interviewer of JSHL was my freshman year SMP Mentor. Making sure that I am not selected for the industry wasn’t a big deal after that point.
|
||||
|
||||
Things seem to be pretty chilled out, don’t they? But life had different plans for me in the magical bag of tricks.
|
||||
|
||||
In the first week of March(just a week after the mid-semester examinations), news of Yatra.com being acquired by Ebix Inc. was all over the internet. And one week down the line, I had an offer letter in my hand but it was clear that I will have to join the Operations Team instead of the Product Team. With this, I was down to square one again.
|
||||
|
||||
I was tagged to 10 to 15 LinkedIn posts daily. I received almost an equal number of mail IDs to apply to daily. Even most random branch alumni whom I never met came up to help with just a single LinkedIn message. It was actually then when I understood the importance of peers who kept motivating me during those days.
|
||||
|
||||
### The Selection Days
|
||||
|
||||
Receiving a call from the HR at Grofers after almost three weeks of applying was pretty much unexpected. But, I knew that this was it. This was the opportunity to make the months of hard work count.
|
||||
|
||||
An application form specially designed for understanding the Product perspective, and two rounds of interviews by PMs actually tested my product thinking and problem-solving abilities. Instead of calling them as interviews, I prefer calling them Buddy Sessions. I got a chance to improve even during the 20-25 minute interviews and yes, they were the people who preferred giving on-spot feedbacks instead of making an HR do it.
|
||||
|
||||
## The Intern Time
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Team and Location
|
||||
|
||||
Being the only Product Intern in the Bangalore office was pretty much unexpected. I landed working under the Supply Chain Product Team for the PO/VMS Segment. The team primarily worked towards managing the vendor side of the organization.
|
||||
|
||||
### Aim of the Internship
|
||||
|
||||
On the very first day, sitting next to the Senior Director, Product Management, I got some advice from him, “PM is like a game of cricket. Sitting outside, everyone feels it's easy to slam off a six. But you will know the actual difficulty when you walk to the center.”
|
||||
During that time, I worked on three projects. Whether it was about making a process, or it was about bringing different teams on-board or setting up deadlines, I was completely owning those projects. In a nutshell, I can say that I was completely spending times in the boots of a Product Manager.
|
||||
|
||||
My projects involved sanitizing the existing vendor-level values present in the system which directly improved the item availability. So as to strengthen our stand against the competitors, we worked upon automating the Purchase Order(PO) process to speed-up the involved process. During the same time, the PM team conceptualized the method of Cluster Delivery and eventual effects on the Business value.
|
||||
|
||||
## Work Culture
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Grofers Bangalore office has a Technology team of almost 100 people. And Grofers is definitely an awesome team to learn and grow. Working in a startup, we had no worries of timings. But being a part of such a team, we were pushed ahead of our limits to iterate and improve.
|
||||
|
||||
With Grofers, it was a perfect blend of work and enjoyment. At times, the teams stayed back till late night hours our of interest. Teams went out for lunch every second week. Unexpected outings were planned during weekends. To conclude it all, a designer used to call me “Roorkee” instead of my name.
|
||||
|
||||
## Final piece of advice
|
||||
|
||||
By now, you all would have understood that the internship days are pretty hectic. In my case, quite a few of my friends received offers from some big names of the corporate world. I know it gives a mixed feeling. Considering my case, I was quite happy for them but tensed at the same point-in-time. Based on the experience, I can only suggest you all to stay practical and understand both ends of the spectrum. Just stay focused on what you are aiming for.
|
||||
@ -1,77 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Edelweiss"
|
||||
image: "agrim1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Agrim Patodia"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'The Third-year, first semester marks the beginning of the internship season at IITR. Most of us have very little actual work exposure till that time and are hence unsure about what kind of work we would eventually like to do. I, too, was unsure about the exact kind of work I wanted to do after graduating, but I had narrowed it down to 2 major fields'
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Third-year, first semester marks the beginning of the internship season at IITR. Most of us have very little actual work exposure till that time and are hence unsure about what kind of work we would eventually like to do. I, too, was unsure about the exact kind of work I wanted to do after graduating, but I had narrowed it down to 2 major fields - FMCG product management (as a chemical engineering major, this would require both my core knowledge as well as managerial skills), and finance (an interest I had developed in my second year). After unsuccessful interviews and applications with the 2 major FMCG companies that came to our campus, RB and ITC, I decided to completely devote my time to improving my finance knowledge and eventually applying for a trading related internship in well known firms off-campus.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Applying and acceptance
|
||||
|
||||
Applying to companies off-campus is not an exact science. I, personally, just used LinkedIn. The major steps I’d recommend following are:
|
||||
|
||||
**1.** Shortlist companies that have divisions whose work pertains to the profile you are interested in. For me, it was quantitative finance/ algorithmic trading. (at least 15-20 companies)
|
||||
|
||||
**2.** Find HR employees working in THAT DIVISION (Important, since HRs probably receive a lot of requests daily, and most of them won’t bother forwarding your resume to the respective division.)
|
||||
<br> *or*<br>
|
||||
|
||||
Find alumni that are currently working in that company. BE SPECIFIC, so that they know exactly who within the company will be able to help you the best. Usually, they forward your request to the exact team. It's even better if you find an alum in your specific division of interest.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**3.** After steps 1 & 2, keep taking weekly/ fortnightly follow-ups, and wait until someone from the respective team contacts you for an interview. Or a rejection.
|
||||
|
||||
***Divisions/ hierarchies become important only in large, well established companies that work in many diverse businesses. One can probably ignore those for smaller-scale companies and startups.<br>
|
||||
**Making an excel sheet to keep track of the above helps.*
|
||||
|
||||
In my specific profile, the things which I knew, which eventually helped me in my interview are:
|
||||
|
||||
* Knowledge of basic market dynamics and financial instruments.<br>
|
||||
* Basic statistics. <br>
|
||||
* Intermediate level programming knowledge in python. (Most hedge funds work in C++ or python)<br>
|
||||
* Basic Machine Learning techniques.<br>
|
||||
|
||||
I started applying towards the end of January, and ended up receiving internship offers from Reliance Securities and Edelweiss by the month of May. Since Edelweiss has one of India’s most sophisticated trading desks, I chose to go with the latter.
|
||||
|
||||
## Location
|
||||
|
||||
Edelweiss’ trading desk is located in its head office in Kalina, Mumbai.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## The Office Setup
|
||||
|
||||
The trading floor consists of a number of teams, each carrying out a different type of trading, such as Quant trading, High Frequency trading, Vega trading, etc, along with a Risk team and a HR team. Each team is headed by a few experienced traders and operates independently. Different teams may operate in different market segments, and they formulate strategies specific to their frequency of trading and areas of operation. The floor as numerous TVs continuously running news from different channels. Multiple Bloomberg terminals are placed at convenient spots. The floor has no cubicles, only desks and separate areas for different teams.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Work Culture
|
||||
|
||||
Most of the day’s work happens during trading hours, i.e. 9 AM- 4PM. Individual traders and teams monitor their existing strategies and beta test new strategies. They keep a close eye on the news as well, which helps them gauge the existing market scenario so that they employ the most profitable strategies for that particular day. Everyone is extremely busy during these hours and the office remains silent during this time. After the market closes, the work for the day is mostly done, unless the team is brainstorming or researching a new strategy. A majority of the office leaves by around 5:30 - 6:00 PM.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## My Work
|
||||
|
||||
I worked in the High Frequency Trading (HFT) division. Over the course of my internship, I worked on 1 major project which involved constructing a profitable HFT strategy that operates using market microstructures. This was divided into 3 major stages:
|
||||
**1.** Creation of various tools for analysing the profitability and sustainability of any trading strategy using a variety of metrics and charts.
|
||||
**2.** Ideating a strategy by reading through different financial literature and taking inspiration from good research papers.
|
||||
**3.** Constructing the final strategy and tuning it to perform reliably in different market scenarios, as well as deciding a basket of similar stocks on which this strategy performs well.
|
||||
|
||||
I ended up creating an algorithm that trades in seconds across a number of stocks and takes advantage of volatile price movements.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing Up
|
||||
|
||||
Edelweiss does not believe in spoon-feeding. Help and support is offered to those who remain proactive. You will be expected to take ownership for both the good and bad work that you have done. Everyone is easily accessible, even the head of the trading division. I had personally met him twice during the course of my internship. A lot of the traders are IIT+IIM grads and are highly experienced, and won’t hesitate in giving you a lot of ‘gyaan’ on a variety of subjects. :p
|
||||
|
||||
Overall, my experience at Edelweiss gave me enough knowledge to make a well-educated decision about what I would like to do after my graduation and helped in cementing my desired career trajectory, at least for the foreseeable future.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,70 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Rephrase.ai"
|
||||
image: "rephrase-ai.png"
|
||||
author: "Joint Initiative of WatchOut! & E-Cell"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: 'Rephrase.ai is a tech start up of which Shivam Mangla, an alumnus of IIT Roorkee is a co-founder. It gives users the power of creating high-quality videos and animations of a person speaking with just text as input with the support of over 40 languages. E-cell, IIT Roorkee in collaboration with Watch Out!, had a conversation with Shivam, the excerpts of which are as follows.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Rephrase.ai is a tech start up of which Shivam Mangla, an alumnus of IIT Roorkee is a co-founder. It gives users the power of creating high-quality videos and animations of a person speaking with just text as input with the support of over 40 languages. (check out their website [https://rephrase.ai/](https://rephrase.ai/){: style="text-decoration:underline"}). E-cell, IIT Roorkee in collaboration with Watch Out!, had a conversation with Shivam, the excerpts of which are as follows.
|
||||
|
||||
**You had a perfectly secure and almost an ideal job at Facebook. So what motivated you to leave it and to come back to India?**
|
||||
|
||||
I belong to a family that has been doing business traditionally. This might’ve been a reason why I always wanted to have my own business. I’ve always loved scaling up the things I have worked on, which is not really possible after a certain extent in a salaried job, and hence I have always been reluctant to do it. And opposed to it, in a start-up, the sky's the limit. The harder you work, the more you achieve. And talking about homecoming, I think I’ve always wanted to work in India.
|
||||
|
||||
**What is your mantra of dealing with the fear of failure and the anxiety of difficult situations?**
|
||||
|
||||
While making a decision, I always imagine the worst-case scenario, and if I believe I can deal with it, then all is well. There is no ‘What if?’. I believe by staying positive, I can override of the obstacles. For me personally, the worst that can happen is my business failing completely, and still, I won’t have to worry about my financial security, because I believe I can return to my job anytime. So that’s one thing less to be anxious about.
|
||||
|
||||
**What are your greatest fears and how do you deal with them?**
|
||||
|
||||
I always try to stay optimistic and avoid thinking negative and so on a personal level, I don't have any substantial fear of anything. But as a professional, I do dread some situations like being unable to execute our plans or hiring the wrong people. At such times, my relations with my team helps, as we are always there for each other. Launching a startup is an extremely overwhelming task for an individual with its share of anxious moments. At such times, a strong team is required to cope up with all the inhibitions and fears.
|
||||
|
||||
**What was your initial Product?**
|
||||
|
||||
When we started working on our product, we had an idea that we can change the way Hollywood movies are dubbed into different languages. We wanted to improve the experience of lip-syncing so that it would look like the movie was shot in the dubbed language itself. Our experience at TechStars Accelerator helped us to develop the idea further and find cases where it is used in marketing and animation.
|
||||
|
||||
**What is your targeted customer segment?**
|
||||
We aim to help companies in promotions sector to help them send personalized videos instead of text in their emails using our tools and to create educational videos so that they are able to produce multimedia content by simply feeding written educational scripts to the digital platform.
|
||||
|
||||
**Does your company target individuals or is it mainly companies?**
|
||||
|
||||
We intend to target enterprises as providing this tool to an individual might lead to its misuse by them and lead to ethical and legal issues. This is in accordance with legal procedures that are needed to be followed.
|
||||
|
||||
**Where did you get in touch with your co-founders?**
|
||||
|
||||
I met Nisheeth in London, who was, at that time working for Google while I was working for Facebook. We had a lot of mutual friends, as some of my colleagues at Facebook knew Nisheeth from IIT Bombay.. Ashray was already Nisheeth’s friend from IIT Bombay. Nisheeth and Ashray were the cofounders of a startup named SoundRex as well. Thus, the team was formed
|
||||
|
||||
**What according to you is the ideal team size?**
|
||||
|
||||
I think that working alone is not so convenient and if there are five to six people making a decision gets too cumbersome. Hence two to four seems good, but then it is very subjective. For me, three works very well.
|
||||
|
||||
**How was your experience at Techstars?**
|
||||
|
||||
Techstars is a company with offices in the USA and London. Our initial idea was to match the lip movements of the actors with the dubbed speech which, I think, has a great scope in the film industry. Techstars has a concept of “mentor madness” which resembles to speed dating. Here we can meet a large number of mentors from around the globe for a certain amount of time. If they like your idea, you can connect with them later on. It was here that we realized that our idea could be taken to the next level. So, I think, experience at Techstars was quite rewarding.
|
||||
|
||||
**When do you think is the right time to launch a startup? Let us say I have an idea now, which is pretty much operation extensive. When should I start working on it, now or after graduation?**
|
||||
|
||||
NOW. As trite as it may sound, the right time is now. I believe, more often than not, you don’t stick with an idea throughout your life. So you will get to learn a lot if you start early. While working at Facebook, I got a poster that read ‘BEGIN ANYWHERE’. Initially, its meaning was lost to me, but eventually, I understood what it meant.
|
||||
|
||||
**How do you think one should promote a startup in college that is targeted towards college students?**
|
||||
|
||||
I think that it is pretty much dependent on what the idea is. Although as a start you can make a Facebook page and stick posters.
|
||||
|
||||
**Did you explore a lot of groups during your stay at the campus?**
|
||||
|
||||
I actually applied to almost every group. I was a designer at WatchOut! and I think I wasn't really good at it. I auditioned for Choreography Section twice and was meanly rejected in the interview round, and that too on my birthday (though I got selected in SDSlabs and MDG, which I guess makes up for this). So honestly speaking, for me, it was really fun out there, exploring things that is; and I would like to suggest that you should explore everything around you while you’re at the campus.
|
||||
|
||||
**What would you advice to students who want to pursue AI and Data Sciences? What path would you suggest to get familiar with the field?**
|
||||
|
||||
After graduating with an engineering degree, I know that it's not that easy to jump into AI/ML because companies ask for experience. A good hack is to look for good startups working in the field and gain some real-world experience. (Join Rephrase!). While in college, you can start learning things by reading stuff on the internet. The most important thing other than the right resources is the peer group you learn/work with, so choose carefully. Apart from that, there are tons of great resources available online - fast.ai, Coursera, deeplearning.ai, Et Cetra all these are great resources.
|
||||
|
||||
**What do you think is your biggest strength?**
|
||||
|
||||
Ashray was a convener of film club at IIT Bombay and has made short films in college; and has family and friends working in the industry, so he understands the pain points in the field and his business development experience from his previous startup directly helps here. Nisheeth is a genius, he visualizes mathematics like a wizard which is crucial for the kind of tech we are building. He has done his fair share of AI work previously at places like Samsung Korea. And I have experience of working in Computer Vision, AI. I’ve also built software at scale, both in college and at Facebook. The best thing I feel is that the strengths and experience of all three co-founders complement one another and all these pieces somehow just fit together beautifully for the company we're building.
|
||||
|
||||
**In your opinion, what are the critical skills a person should possess to launch a startup?**
|
||||
|
||||
Passion, as hackneyed it may sound is really necessary. If you are passionate about something, nothing’s gonna stop you. For being a good entrepreneur, you need to have the knack to spot opportunities around you and make full use of them. As a student, there are various courses you can get enrolled in to build up your business, one of them being the Startup School by Y-Combinator. There is always a wide repository that you can refer to, you just need to keep an eye open.
|
||||
@ -1,61 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: CeNSE (Center of Nanoscience and Engineering)"
|
||||
image: "naba-intern-1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Nabasindhu Das"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'The CeNSE (Center of Nanoscience and Engineering) was established in 2010 at Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, to pursue interdisciplinary research across several disciplines with a focus on nanoscale systems.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
|
||||
### The Institute
|
||||
|
||||
The CeNSE ( Center of Nanoscience and Engineering ) was established in 2010 at Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, to pursue interdisciplinary research across several disciplines with a focus on nanoscale systems. Current research topics include, but are not limited to nanoelectronics, MEMS/NEMS, nanomaterials and devices, photonics, nano-biotechnology, solar cells and computational nano-engineering. The centre has been built around two central facilities: **National Nanofabrication Centre (NNfC)** and the **Micro and Nano Characterization facility (MNCF)**. Both are national user facilities, i.e. they are accessible to outside academic and industrial users that include scientists from other departments in IISc DRDO, ISRO and other such scientific establishments in the country.
|
||||
|
||||
Supporting the central facilities are the MEMS and IC Packaging lab, the Computational Nanoengineering (CoNe) laboratory, Systems Lab, and 14 other functionally distinct laboratories managed by various research groups headed by a faculty members coming from a diverse background.
|
||||
|
||||
### Before applying
|
||||
|
||||
I had worked on two interrelated projects on the campus. The first one was related to fabrication of perovskite quantum dots in the chemistry department, a new generation zero dimensional photoluminescent material that has immense potential to be used in the field of light emitting devices and solar cells. The second one was in the field of interface dynamics of heterojunction organic solar cells in the electronics and communications department. Fiddling with the field of alternative solar cells, I wanted to expand my breadth and learn the skills that were prerequisite in the field. Further, working in a year and a half in the campus. I came face to face with few shortcomings that are unfortunate for an undergraduate student, especially if you are an experimentalist. They are mainly centered around the availability of the material characterization and other facilities in Institute Instrumentation center and other labs all over the campus.
|
||||
|
||||
### Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
As explained by the multiple research intern diaries before, the most popular and effective way to land a research internship is by writing curated emails to professors, research groups and at times, even to the PhDs or postdocs working in the labs. And if you are in the second year, and have a fairly low CG like me ( < 6.5 ), this remains the only effective option, striking out the options of research programs. I was fairly pessimistic about my chances but anyways, looking at my peers doing the same, started emailing professors in India. There are a few things that one must take care while mailing which helps to increase the acceptance chances.
|
||||
|
||||
1. Try to focus on your strengths. If you are a student with a high C.G and comparatively research output, that can be a selling point.
|
||||
|
||||
1. Try to highlight the skills that you possess and can make you a useful addition to the group. This includes courses that you have took and the projects you have done under some professor or tech group on the campus.
|
||||
|
||||
1. This is the most important that the mail should be highly professor centric. One of the best time saving ways that you can follow if you are doing some research project under some professor is to make small notes of the research papers that you are anyways studying during the literature review. If the papers are relatively new, in the last 5 years or so, you can be fairly sure that the professor is still working in that field. Write an email to the professor or Ph.D. that includes your observations combined with the possibilities that can be done. Make sure that you don’t include your current work in that if you don’t want to face the wrath of the in-campus professor you are working in.
|
||||
|
||||
1. Keep emailing and mailing, and if the offers come, fair and good, if they don’t you are only in second year are in one of the premier institutions in the country where you can develop your skills or kickstart a long project that is more likely to yield you research papers than a 2 month long internship.
|
||||
|
||||
I started mailing after the winter vacations to professors from IISC, IITs, IISERs and a couple of other research-centric institutes like TIFR, CSIR. Initially, I was met with plain rejections, unreplied emails or professors redirecting me to their research programs. A couple of weeks before the endsems, I got lucky and got acceptance from two professors, one from CenSE, IISC Bangalore and other from CSIR-CGRI Kolkata. The former being one of my initial targets and better prospects, other than having friends from the campus in Bangalore and IISC, was my final choice. The last advice: If you have a low CG and want to get in research, increase it, and if you can’t make sure that you don’t give up, keep mailing and doing research.
|
||||
|
||||
### The Institute
|
||||
|
||||
Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is one of the oldest, and the most prestigious research and educational institutions in India with departments researching specific areas. The Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE) was established in 2010 to pursue interdisciplinary research across several disciplines with a focus on nanoscale systems like MEMS/NEMS, nanomaterials and devices, photonics, nano-biotechnology, solar cells, and computational nano-engineering. The center has been built around two central facilities – The National Nanofabrication Centre (NNfC) and the Micro and Nano Characterization facility (MNCF). Both are national user facilities, i.e. they are accessible to outside academic and industrial users. Supporting the central facilities are the MEMS and IC Packaging lab, the Computational Nanoengineering (CoNe) laboratory, Systems Lab, and 14 other functionally distinct laboratories managed by various research groups.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
### The project
|
||||
|
||||
My project was a part of a larger project that was funded by the Government of India (GOI) and focussed on fabrication of low-cost GaAs solar cells on a multifilm substrate consisting of Germanium and Silicon. The entire duration of the complete project is a few couples of years with multiple research groups collaborating on the different aspects of the project. To give you a basic idea, GaAs solar cells are highly efficient, but due to their high cost, they are only used in intergalactic space. If their cost can be reduced, this will mark an important milestone in the undergoing solar revolution, with the rural areas in our country benefiting the most.
|
||||
|
||||
### Work and Environment
|
||||
|
||||
Its a known fact that Bangalore’s weather is the best out of all the metros, and if you couple it with IISc’s lush green campus, you are in for a perfect getaway from the summer heat that has plagued me all these years. My contribution to the project could be branched out in three parts:
|
||||
|
||||
1. Analyzing the XRD patterns to determine the crystallinity of the laser annealed germanium over silicon. Crystallinity is extremely important to allow charge carrier transport and I guess this is where my material science background was specifically of help to my mentor.
|
||||
|
||||
1. Designing a LabVIEW virtual instrument. After carrying out initial experiments, we had to carry out zig-zag motion of laser beam on the specimens. For this, linear stages were procured and they needed to be programmed with the help of LabVIEW which further attaches them to the rest of the fabrication apparatus.
|
||||
|
||||
1. Literature Review: Laser annealing of semiconductors is a fairly old field since the 1970s and extensive knowledge of its existing literature had to be known if we were to explain all our results and the one which was to follow.
|
||||
|
||||
The work environment was pretty chill and we could come and leave anytime we wanted to as long as we could show considerable progress in our reports, submitted once a week during group meetings. IISc is a premier research institution where you can attend lectures, seminars, and conferences which are happening every day at some of the other department. Other than giving you a good idea of where the research in the world is heading to, its free lunch, and possible networking hub with like-minded people. I used to do most my work in the M.Tech lounge where the other interns also used to sit, chit-chatting with them on Bean Bags, playing a game of Counter-Strike, or strolling around the campus in on rented bicycles. Bangalore being a metro city is too crowded, but if you go in the outskirts, you can go for short night treks to the hills and the monoliths that border the city. Pondicherry as the french seaside town is just a night drive away. Apart from that, if you want to enjoy it that conventional way, you can go to beautiful bookstores, breweries, and cafes and can attend quizzes and concerts.
|
||||
|
||||
### Summing Up
|
||||
|
||||
A research internship, especially in IISc in the second year was an eye-opening exercise for me. You get exposure to people who have been in the field for decades and get to learn the essential skills. Away from the noisy confused background of IIT, and being so close to what it actually is, it definitely does help to answer one’s question, if one wants to continue doing research or not. The biggest takeaway for me was the availability of XRD, SEM, etc. which takes a month or two to avail in Roorkee, but a day or maximum half a week in here. Talking to professors, even possible disputed Nobel Laureate and students from all over the country coupled with roaming in a city that is littered with gardens, history, and perennially beautiful weather was one of the few wholesome experiences I have had in my life!
|
||||
@ -1,99 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Cure.fit"
|
||||
image: "komal-curefit-2.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Komal Maheshwari"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'I spent my summers at Cure.fit, bangalore as a product design intern. In this article I’ll try to summarise my experience of the same.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Introduction
|
||||
|
||||
I spent my summers at Cure.fit, bangalore as a product design intern. In this article I’ll try to summarise my experience of the same.
|
||||
|
||||
## About the company
|
||||
|
||||
Cure.fit is a heath and fitness start-up. It was founded by Mukesh Bansal (ex-founder, Myntra) and Ankit Nagori (ex-chief business officer, Flipkart). Founded in 2016, it’s one of the fastest growing start-ups in the country today.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
My story of making it to Cure.fit consists of two parts:
|
||||
|
||||
1. Deciding to apply
|
||||
|
||||
1. Applying
|
||||
|
||||
The second part was fairly straight forward. The first part, however, was tougher. Let's start with the simpler bit.
|
||||
|
||||
### Applying:
|
||||
|
||||
Most startups don’t have a formal internship programme. There are only two ways to apply to a startup – email your resume to them or send a LinkedIn message to someone in that company who is working in your field of interest.
|
||||
|
||||
A typical email would consist of a cover letter, your resume and a link to your blog/dribble/github/LinkedIn or any other platform you chose to use for the purpose of documenting your projects.
|
||||
|
||||
A typical LinkedIn message would be shorter, crisper and less formal. It’s contents would vary according to your purpose. You could ask about the availability of internship opportunities, or about how you should go about approaching the company (who you should contact, what medium you should use), you could directly send your portfolio if you feel that it’s relevant for the person you’re communicating with and you can even text them to ask for general career related guidance.
|
||||
|
||||
Coming back to the application process, I sent emails to around 30 start-ups in India. Cure.fit was the first company to respond.
|
||||
I had a telephone interview which lasted for about 40 mins during which I was tested in basic problem solving. Towards the end of the interview I was told that I had cleared it and they invited me over for an internship at their Bangalore HQ.
|
||||
|
||||
Side note: Different start-ups have different ways of assessing candidates. Some give you assignments to solve—some have multiple interview rounds. Even the same company assesses different candidates differently. What start-ups basically try to gauge while assessing you is whether or not you fit into their “criteria" and they continue to test you until they are convinced one way or the other. The criteria, again, varies from company to company and can include anything from skill set to personality traits. Therefore, don't take rejection personally. It's a good idea to talk to someone who’s already worked there, it really helps in getting into the groove and understanding what the culture of the company is like and what they stand for. Also, before appearing for an interview, you should have a fairly good idea about their product, and your reason for applying to their company.
|
||||
|
||||
**Tips for the interview:**
|
||||
|
||||
1. Think out loud. Don't just give them the final answer. They are way more interested in how you arrived at that answer.
|
||||
|
||||
1. Don't fake it. It's not a good idea for two reasons :
|
||||
|
||||
1. They usually see through it.
|
||||
|
||||
1. It's a bad deal for both you and the company because at the end of it they will be stuck with someone they did not sign up for and you will always have to try to conform to that fake image they hired.
|
||||
|
||||
1. Don't be afraid to accept that you're wrong and be eager to learn. They are well aware of the fact that as an internship applicant you don't have one-fifth the knowledge or experience that their regular employees have. It is, therefore, really important to them that you're not stubborn about your solutions, are willing to accept your mistakes and are eager to learn because that way it'll be easier for them to teach you and in turn easier to get an output out of you.
|
||||
|
||||
### Deciding to apply
|
||||
|
||||
Now, this is the tricky part. Squaring in on a field you wish to intern in is, in my opinion, one of the toughest things you have to do in college (So many options—very little time! ) But it’s also kinda fun, like a rollercoaster ride makes you very queasy in the gut sometimes but gives you an exhilaration like nothing else all the other times.
|
||||
I won’t get into the details of my story for two simple reasons:
|
||||
|
||||
1. It’s long, complicated and boring.
|
||||
|
||||
1. It’s irrelevant. No two journeys are the same. And that’s the way it should be.
|
||||
|
||||
I will, however, share with you things that helped me:
|
||||
|
||||
1. Reading. Medium blogs, books, anything and everything. The book that had the most important role in this journey was Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. It taught me, among a lot of other things, how important a good design was to build a great product and how a great product can create a huge, life altering impact on the world.
|
||||
|
||||
1. Talking to people. Anybody and everybody. Whoever you find interesting or whoever you feel can help you answer questions that are bothering you. It doesn’t matter if you know them or not. Just text them and ask them out for coffee (Please be polite, make your intentions clear and don’t creep people out) or ask a common friend to introduce you and then, have a conversation. Don’t attack them with your questions but don’t be scared or ashamed to ask wherever you have doubts. In fact, Roorkee is a little like Hogwarts. Help will always be provided to those who ask for it.
|
||||
|
||||
## The Work
|
||||
|
||||
I worked on two main projects – one pertaining to product design and another one pertaining to product management (I had taken up the second one voluntarily)
|
||||
|
||||
The first project involved improving the existing user experience for an EMR (Electronic Medical Record) system for doctors. This project involved Visual design, UX design, user research and basic usability testing.
|
||||
|
||||
The second project didn’t involve as much ‘management’ as it involved brainstorming and research.
|
||||
|
||||
For those of you who don’t know, a product develops in stages (for a strictly digital product the stages are broadly- conceptualization, design and development. Other stages come in when the product also has operational and other requirements) and a product manager is a part of all these stages. It’s a myth that product managers only boss people around or only need to manage people. A product manager does everything from people management to minute design iterations. He or she basically responds to the need of the product at any given stage and in any possible way.
|
||||
|
||||
My product was in its conceptualization stage. The company had a faint idea that there existed a particular market need (can’t delve into specifics because it’s still in the works) and that there existed a possibility that they could cater to it and expand their user base in the process but they weren’t quite sure how feasible the whole idea was. My job was to figure out what exactly this market need was and how acute it was and what we could do in order to cater to it. In order to do this I conducted user research (basically, identified the categories of users that needed to be spoken to in order to gain insights, drafted a questionnaire for each category and then called them up individually) and had multiple brainstorming sessions with my mentor. This was probably the most interesting project I’ve ever worked on.
|
||||
|
||||
## The Work Culture
|
||||
|
||||
Cure.fit takes immense pride in its flat organisational structure. There are no bosses. Everyone is free to speak out. Curiosity is encouraged and openness to feedback is highly appreciated.
|
||||
|
||||
As an intern, I think the most rewarding aspect of the culture there was that I could go and talk to anyone, about anything and ask as many questions as I wanted. The cherry on the cake was that they were only too happy to help me and never made me feel like my questions were dumb or that my opinions were not as important as those of the employee sitting next to me and mentoring me.
|
||||
|
||||
There were also a lot of fun days. Especially the cricket match days during the World Cup. Everyone would take their laptops to the terrace garden and watch the match together on a huge screen and cheer for India while gorging on unlimited beer and food.
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing up
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:100%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
*The design team. They’d almost become family to me by the time I left.*
|
||||
|
||||
This was my first ever internship and I didn't really know what to expect but to be honest, I don’t think it could’ve gotten better than this. One piece of advice to anybody out there, especially the first and second years:
|
||||
|
||||
A lot of you may feel overwhelmed, intimidated even, by the sheer number of cryptically named career options out there. I know I was and still am. It’s never completely clear which profession entails what kind of work and whether or not that work will interest you. One very effective way to get a better understanding of what different corporate job profiles entail and how they come together to actually make organisations work is to intern with a start-up. As early on in your journey as possible. Most start-ups have a very flexible work environment. You are given immense autonomy, a lot more than most established companies. You can go around absorbing as much information as you want and volunteering for projects in different departments. It’s an extremely enriching experience.
|
||||
|
||||
That's all from my side. Please feel free to contact me in case of any questions. You can also ping me for a random conversation. A good conversation is always fun.
|
||||
@ -1,67 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Rakshak Foundation"
|
||||
image: "roshan-kumar-1.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Roshan Kumar"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'My Internship was in the field of Public policy research and I was working on the project “Happy Village (Mangal Gram)”. I got the opportunity to work with the Happiness Department, Govt of Madhya Pradesh which is the first of its kind in India.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Brief description of my project
|
||||
|
||||
My Internship was in the field of Public policy research and I was working on the project “Happy Village (Mangal Gram)”. I got the opportunity to work with the Happiness Department, Govt of Madhya Pradesh which is the first of its kind in India.
|
||||
|
||||
## About the Rakshak Foundation program
|
||||
|
||||
Rakshak Foundation is an organization based in California which helps in channeling the desire in you to make a positive impact in the lives of countless others. These are people you might never get to know in your lifetime. Rakshak provides insight into high-level issues, their interconnection and long term effects on society. You have a choice to submit a project proposal to start on something you want to change, work with a project which is in progress, or help with research on public policy issues. The vision of this organization can be summarized with a quote from former US President Franklin D Roosevelt, ‘We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.’
|
||||
|
||||
This Internship gives ample opportunities to students coming from diverse educational backgrounds. From my experience, I can tell you that, as an engineer, you’ll come across numerous instances where your technical knowledge will be required to derive a solution to the problems you come across.
|
||||
|
||||
The number of choices you get, and the domain you want to spend your next two months in, are limitless. From improving quality of life-infrastructure, traffic, pollution, and basic necessities, to improving accountability, efficiency, and transparency of public offices and to developing mobile applications, software & web applications for creative social applications, there are no limits.
|
||||
|
||||
In the program, you’ll be mentored by an IAS Officer or a person with equivalent caliber. In the end, if your work is good enough, you will get an opportunity to publish a journal on it.
|
||||
|
||||
## Application process
|
||||
|
||||
The selection process involves resume shortlisting and then 1 Interview round. For the Resume shortlisting, highlighting your contribution to public issues and your engagement with social activities will help you in clearing the first round. Unnat Bharat Abhiyan(UBA), National Service Scheme(NSS), Child Right & You(CRY) or any of your technical projects through which you made an impact on society will help you through this round. The second round can be seen as a micro version of the Civil Services interview round. I’ll substantiate further. Since this organization comes for on-campus internship in the 1st week of February, you’ll have enough time to zero-in on probable career choices you are going to pursue. It is extremely important to be specific about what you want from this internship opportunity and how you will utilize this experience further in your life. Reason being, Public policy research is quite different from regular Internship opportunities available on the campus. If you feel that working under bureaucrats in Government institutions on any public issue will help you in the near future, you are ready to go into the less traveled path. For improving your chances of selection, stress more on the preparation of the Interview round. In the interview, you will be asked about your opinion on the contemporary issues of India. Make sure you know the pros and cons of major government initiatives. Keep yourself updated regarding current affairs either through the newspaper or other sources. This will help you in forming opinions there.
|
||||
|
||||
## How I made it to there
|
||||
|
||||
Initially, I applied to some core companies like ITC, Reliance, BAJAJ, but couldn’t make it there. By November, after deliberating on my career plan, I decided to go with the Internship at Rakshak Foundation or BHEL. In the resume shortlisting, my activities at Unnat Bharat Abhiyan made up most of my portfolios apart from my DRDO internship. In the Interview round, apart from some common interview questions, I was asked these 7 questions:
|
||||
|
||||
1. Explain any 5 Government Plan/Scheme.
|
||||
|
||||
2. Which plan do you think will not give desirable results and what are some corrective actions to make it work?
|
||||
|
||||
3. What are the major issues of your state and what steps should be taken to address them?
|
||||
|
||||
4. Elaborate Ayushman Bharat Yojana.
|
||||
|
||||
5. Five pros and five cons of E-learning.
|
||||
|
||||
6. Three benefits of Dowry systems.
|
||||
|
||||
7. What do you expect from Rakshak Foundation Internship program and how it’ll help you in the future?
|
||||
|
||||
If you get selected in the Internship program, you’ll be asked to choose a project and prepare an action plan for its execution. This is the most critical decision in this Internship so make it wisely by deliberating on your strengths and weaknesses. You need to choose a project which you can put your brain into and are not a novice at because of two reasons. First being that you cannot always expect your mentor to be around in case you are stuck. He is an IAS officer and has a tight schedule. He’ll not be available to take your calls sometimes for a week. You need to make it through yourself. The second reason is that you are designing a policy/framework and presenting it to a person who has more than two decades of experience in it. You’ll let slip 2 months of golden experience out of your hand if you choose a project in which you are not a pro. The Mentor can’t and will not help you in that case due to lack of time. Moreover, if you want to implement your policies and test its efficacy, you will have the support of someone responsible for a District. You can take the help of the whole District Administration and Machinery to implement it.
|
||||
|
||||
## My field of research
|
||||
|
||||
My area of research was on Public Policy that would be used to make a Happy Village (Mangal Gram). The idea was envisioned by my mentor, Mr. Manohar Dubey, Commissioner of Sagar, Government of Madhya Pradesh. The project was divided into four parts. First I had to do a detailed study of tools/techniques used by Happiness Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh. Then I had to improve on the techniques to make it more relevant to the village scenario. The second part was to guide and help the team comprised of trained village youths in sensitizing the village residents about the tools and techniques to bring happiness and inner development in them by organizing Gram Sabha type meeting. The third part was to develop a community feeling among villagers by resolving their conflicts. The fourth part was to use the volunteerism attitude thus developed due to community feeling for citizen-driven development. The twist in the story came out when I got to know that Caste discrimination and Purdah system was prevalent in the villages in which I was trying to implement the policy designed.
|
||||
|
||||
The working hours were flexible but the timing of engagement was according to the need of the project. I had to dedicate 6 hours almost every day. Moreover, I was provided with a Government vehicle for the field visit. I was provided accommodation at the Circuit House of Chhatarpur and my neighbor was an SDM! There were frequent Administrative meetings of the SDM, DM, and Commissioners. Attending those meetings gave me opportunities to observe governance closely. Every morning, I used to deliberate on various issues of the project I was working on and several other things apart from that.
|
||||
|
||||
The best part of the experience was the 8 hour long ride with my mentor at the very end of my Internship period. We visited the best tourist spots in Bhopal. That 8 hours one-to-one conversation gave me a great insight into the mindset of a person who is so important for the country.
|
||||
|
||||
Talking about the place, Chhatarpur was once ruled by Maharaja Chhatrasal. One of my favorite movies ‘Bajirao Mastani’ is based on the love story of his daughter, Mastani. The Gulganj fort of Maharaja Chhatarsal is still well maintained. The epitome of art and sculpture, ‘Khajuraho Temple’ is not very far from this place.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:100%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
*With my Mentor IAS Manohar Dubey and the Happiness Department team.*
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing up and key takeaways
|
||||
|
||||
I got to understand the intricacies of public policies by performing a long study in one such field. It has helped me to broaden my horizons and gain a lot of perspective towards public policy and social issues. I learned many things about the legal and social aspects of governance. The Internship challenged my command on the soft skills as I had to interact with a diverse set of people, ranging from a villager to the Governor. Yes, I met with the Governor of Madhya Pradesh, Mrs. Anandiben Patel. After getting impressed with my work, my mentor gave me the opportunity to present my work to her. That was the best reward I could get.
|
||||
|
||||
In the end, I came out with a Journal and an experience worth cherishing.
|
||||
@ -1,41 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Institute Lecture : In Conversation with Professor Arnab Bhattacharya"
|
||||
image: arnab.jpg
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: 'Professor Arnab Bhattacharya is an accomplished physicist and researcher at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Professor Arnab Bhattacharya is an accomplished physicist and researcher at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He is well renowned for his social endeavors that tend to science outreach. On 23rd August, Prof. Arnab will deliver a lecture on the Periodic Table of Elements. Watch Out! decided to interview Prof. Arnab to converse about his research, his social outreach, his Institute Lecture and his time as an undergraduate at IITB.*
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
**Watch Out! :** You completed your B. Tech. from IITB, then did your PhD from Wisconsin-Madison. How did you actually become interested in your current research work? Also, could you give us some insights regarding your topic of research (III-Nitride semiconductors) and talk about your experience with the same?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Arnab :** Well, long story. I've meandered a long way before settling on what I wanted to do. I could have gone with the standard engineering branches like Electrical or Mechanical or Chemical etc after JEE, but I was fascinated by astronomy and astrophysics, so I finally took up Engineering Physics at IITB (Good decision in retrospect). Eventually I found what professional astrophysicists do a bit too mathematical (I suck at math) and disconnected from hands on stuff (like what one did in amateur astronomy). I slowly drifted towards microelectronics, as it was something i could relate to. During the pre-internet days there was no way of really knowing what one would find in grad school. I got a scholarship with the Physics Department at Wisconsin, but figured I didn't like anything in physics as such, so I moved over to work on semiconductor lasers with people in Electrical Engineering. So, I have a Physics PhD certificate, working in an electrical engineering lab, and my mentor was a chemical engineer. Two important learnings - the fun stuff is happening at the intersection between traditional disciplines, and it really doesn't matter what you do - a Ph.D. is an exercise in problem solving, you can apply that anywhere.
|
||||
|
||||
I had never worked on nitride semiconductors in grad school or as a postdoc. When I came back to India, initially I was keen to do the same semiconductor laser stuff I was familiar with. But these new materials were coming up and I decided I just HAD to get into it.... Thankfully I got enough support to set up the first GaN epitaxy lab in India. Then I've moved around a lot into different materials after that...
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
**Watch Out! :** You have been actively involved in the field of science outreach. Could you tell us what exactly science outreach is, and how you have been involved in it? Also, you pioneered “Chai and Why?”. What is this initiative? In what capacity can college students contribute in science outreach?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Arnab :** Ok, again I might ramble, but let me try. In India, there is a worrying disconnect between science and society. The role of curiosity-driven, basic research such as that done at research institutes like mine, (TIFR) is rarely appreciated. Unfortunately, the scientific community, though mainly publicly funded, hardly engages adequately with the public, with outreach being a public relations exercise rather than a platform for discussion. Even for members of the general public with an interest in science, there is no forum to interact with scientists and ask questions. “Science” is that difficult, boring but unfortunately compulsory school subject, where one memorizes facts to answer questions in an exam. School education does not convey the spirit of enquiry in science, and fails to present it as a way of understanding the world around us. Not surprisingly, many students drop science after high school. Science is often thought to be elitist, with scientists in ivory-tower research institutions. Hence I really felt I needed to do something about this.
|
||||
|
||||
I thought of adapting the well-known “Café Scientifique” format, where scientists chat with the public in an informal environment, to make it relevant in Mumbai. The word science itself was a problem – anything with science is perceived as being “not-for-me” by the public. To make it user-friendly, I thought of the name "Chai and Why?". I could luckily try this out (a six-month experiment!) at Mumbai's popular theatre venue, Prithvi Theatre and “Chai and Why?” was born in January 2009. The public response was phenomenal, we immediately went to a twice-a-month format (at a second mid-month venue) and in 2015 started an occasional 3rd venue. We’re still running without a break, now in year 11 with over 270+ successful sessions!
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
**Watch Out! :** IUPAC has declared 2019 as the International Year of The Periodic Table. Why is this so significant?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Arnab :** Short answer this time. Every culture throughout history has been keen to know what the world around them was made up of. From ‘Earth, Water, Air, FIre’, we've now gone to 118 elements in the periodic table. The Periodic Table is not just an icon of chemistry, it is an icon of science as a whole, so it is good we get to celebrate the journey that has led us here. (150 years since Mendeleev, completion of the 7th period elements etc.)
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
**Watch Out! :** What topics are you going to touch upon during your talk at IITR?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Arnab :** Two things - that there is no unique periodic table, and that the Periodic Table is universal - we find the same elements everywhere in the universe. So lots of "ChemHistory" stories with lots of Astronomy as well.
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
**Watch Out! :** Moving away from academics for a bit, what’s a crazy college story you’d like to tell us?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Arnab :** Most of the stuff will probably be censored.... My time at IITB was wilder than things are now.
|
||||
Let's see. I've done way too much "keeda" in IITB lingo - from convincing professors to let us go watch the sunset right in the middle of an end-sem exam, to stealing beds from other hostels (we had a large corner room in the hostel that was the unofficial "adda" for mugging or partying, but you couldn’t have 2 beds in your room - however that rule was applicable only for your own hostel inventory), to arranging booby trapped doors to dunk people in water.....
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
**Watch Out! :** We would like to know about your experience at TIFR, and the different opportunities it provides to students interested in research.
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Arnab :** TIFR works on everything from Astronomy to Zoology, literally A-Z, and there are world class labs working on cutting edge problems. It is a very different environment than almost any other similar national lab in India, for the historical ethos that pervades it, right from our fantastic art collection that greets you when you enter, to the most inspiring seashore.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,63 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Codess"
|
||||
image: "tina1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Tina Oberoi"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the Microsoft family via Codess. Initially, like many of you know, I was unaware of the opportunities available out there for empowering women. Codess is one of those amazing opportunities offered by Microsoft to students.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the Microsoft family via Codess. Initially, like many of you know, I was unaware of the opportunities available out there for empowering women. Codess is one of those amazing opportunities offered by Microsoft to students.
|
||||
|
||||
## What is Codess?
|
||||
Codess is a community for female coders by Microsoft, established to explore ways to promote gender diversity in the engineering field.
|
||||
|
||||
## How to be a part of Codess Family?
|
||||
The procedure involves one online coding round which involves three questions with different difficulty levels (1 easy, 1 medium, 1 hard). The candidates selected after the coding round are invited to attend a seminar held at the Microsoft campus, Hyderabad.
|
||||
In the first half of the day, there were a couple of leadership talks focusing on the idea: ‘Be the CEO of your idea’. We were shown a video of Tim Cook unveiling an iPhone which presented us with many insightful points about presenting ourselves. Over lunch, we interacted with a lot of leaders and students from different colleges. The main highlight of the event was the second half of the day in which we had a hackathon. We were divided into teams of 8-9 members and each team was assigned a mentor. In the 2-hour long hackathon, we were asked to come up with any technology idea and cover points like how the idea is to be implemented, what accomplishment is expected to be achieved through the idea, etc. The mentors assigned for each team shared the best practices, while the teams deliberated and discussed different approaches and came up with solutions. The mentors also assessed each of us on different skills (like confidence, knowledge of tech, team spirit, etc). After 2 hours of brainstorming, we had to present our ideas (keeping in mind what we were taught during the morning sessions) in front of the leaders. It was a great event as we came in teams to collaborate on new and innovative ideas and experienced how team spirit plays an important role in driving towards a goal and how everyone's participation makes it possible to achieve that goal. Although the winners of the hackathon were announced at the venue itself students selected for the internship were announced via mail after a few days.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Work Culture
|
||||
|
||||
After the orientation, each intern is assigned to a team and a project. The intern is assigned a mentor and a manager. The mentor is your go-to person, he is the one who has experience of the project and will be guiding you for the next two months.
|
||||
|
||||
## The Project I Worked On
|
||||
|
||||
I worked under the Azure Networking team. Azure Networking is further divided into various other smaller teams based on the products, services, and platforms they are responsible for.
|
||||
Second Year:
|
||||
In the second year, I interned in Foundry. I was under the AzureNetworking NetPerf Team.
|
||||
We were a team of 5 members(4 developers and 1 UX-Designer). Our project was named PEAS (Performance Evaluation As a Self-service). It aimed at providing a platform to monitor health to ensure the availability of their network solutions with automated monitoring and alerts.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
*I got a PIO (Pre-Internship offer after my internship in the second year)*
|
||||
|
||||
### Third-year:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I was assigned EAP (aka Elastic Autopilot)Team. In this process, I was assigned a mentor. I was glad that my project was not a POC and was something that will soon be in production. My work mainly focused on improving the overall monitoring and automation by reducing false alerts, thus reducing the load on ICMs and avoiding redundant manual efforts put in by the team as of now.
|
||||
|
||||
## The Overall Experience
|
||||
In the beginning, I was quite overwhelmed by my project, but eventually, you get a better understanding of it. The only important thing is that you put your issues on the table, ask for help if you need. Since I was the only intern in my team(in the third year), it took me a while to know the project, people and get comfortable with them. But the best part was, though you are assigned a mentor and he is responsible for resolving your issues, the other team members are also supportive. You just need to ask for help and everybody is always there to help you in the best possible way they can.
|
||||
There are no strict office timing schedules that you need to follow, but try to sync it with your daily scrums and also with your mentor’s office timings. There is no dress-code, wear anything you are comfortable in. There are various efforts put by the team to make you comfortable which include team outing and team lunches.
|
||||
We had team lunches at some very fancy places in Hyderabad (perks of a corporate life :-p)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
I was also given a farewell lunch on the last day of my internship.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Apart from your projects, Microsoft also has an annual entertaining event called “Unwind” where you have stand-ups and band performances. An “intern week” is also organised during the internship, where they have events like painting sessions, leadership talks, and others. Gladly, the overall corporate experience for me was fun and insightful.
|
||||
|
||||
## My Takeaways
|
||||
I really like the work culture Microsoft has adopted and the best part is that they have maintained this culture over the years without fail. If you want to learn about a particular team’s work, their plans for future projects or you want to discuss something about that particular field, the only thing you need is the will and the courage to ask and some people will help you irrespective of their positions, teams or experience. It does not matter if you know them or not, you just have to send a message and ask them if they could meet you for lunch or coffee to discuss that particular topic. They will be more than happy to do so. Believe me. I have tried and tested it.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,133 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Branch Change - Clearing the Mist"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
category: academics
|
||||
image: branch-change-1.jpg
|
||||
excerpt: "To be or not to be a BC"
|
||||
author: "Jayati Shrivastava, Divyam Goel, Arnab Mukherjee"
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
> To be or not to be a BC
|
||||
|
||||
The IITs are considered to be the most coveted institutions for undergraduate studies across the country. The fact that only around 1% of the candidates appearing in the entrance exam manage to secure a seat in these institutions is a testament to the quality of students that manage to get through.
|
||||
|
||||
But added to this is the disadvantage that your fate is left in the hands of that little amount of magic that you produce during the 6 hrs of one of the most difficult and strenuous examinations across the globe. The incredible load of expectations of all those who surround the examinee sometimes leads to blunders that can cost the candidate his/her dreams. However, the system itself provides the candidates with another chance to deem themselves worthy of their dreams, with the opportunity to change their branch in their freshman year.
|
||||
|
||||
In the oldest technical institute of the country, this opportunity presents itself at the end of the first semester. The best part about it? The students compete as equals with nothing but merit separating them from their dreams. That, and of course their JEE rank that comes back to haunt some of the candidates. Most of the freshmen find themselves struggling to strike that sweet spot of balance between exploring the plethora of opportunities that the campus has to offer and studying “hard enough” in order to have a better shot at changing the cards they were dealt with.
|
||||
|
||||
The main aim of this article is to dispel some of the myths that seem to surround the idea of changing your branch, make past year statistics easily accessible, and hopefully provide perspective with regards to the ideology behind the process.
|
||||
|
||||
## Rules and Regulations
|
||||
|
||||
The guidelines for the branch change procedure for the academic year 2018-19 can be found here: [https://channeli.in:8080/media/notices/pdfimages/BranchChangeNotice2019.png](https://channeli.in:8080/media/notices/pdfimages/BranchChangeNotice2019.png){: style="text-decoration:underline"}.
|
||||
|
||||
Key Takeaways:
|
||||
|
||||
1. The additional 10% seats “added” at the end of the semester are calculated using the original number of seats being offered by the department during the JoSAA counseling. Extra seats are also vacated if students from a department change their branches. (see next picture)
|
||||
|
||||
1. Grades are the only criteria on which preference is given to students. In the case of equal grades, the JEE Advanced rank will be the tiebreaker.
|
||||
|
||||
1. B.Arch students aren’t eligible
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
> “In India, we don’t choose our major but our major chooses us.”
|
||||
|
||||
Reflect on this for a second. Most of the students who enrolled in IIT Roorkee in any branch whatsoever did so without much research about what they were getting into. In fact, the research generally begins after the JEE ranks are out and your future has already been partially decided. Most of us are told to choose any available branch from the old IITs simply because of their reputation(sounds familiar?).
|
||||
|
||||
According to the modern-day convention, almost everyone seems to be aiming for the circuit branches without actually even knowing what the stream is all about.
|
||||
|
||||
But since we’re already here, how about adopting a different approach?
|
||||
|
||||
The first step in any life-changing decision is to identify why you think taking that decision means so much to you. Most of the candidates that think about changing their department do so citing the placement statistics of the previous years. While not the best way to make that decision, we don’t discourage you from going down that road. But what we certainly encourage you to do is to understand that now that you are on campus, you have the opportunity to talk to a vast variety of seniors, all of whom are working in various different fields. In doing so you enable yourself to make an informed decision of what you want to do, at least for the next few years if not eternity.
|
||||
|
||||
Citing the fact that a number of students look forward to the process, the rules and regulations for the same were considerably relaxed last year. Owing to this, the students now enjoy a much better chance to change their branch than they did prior to 2018. The following diagram shows the number of students that successfully changed their branch last year:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:100%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Adopting a Holistic Approach
|
||||
|
||||
Contrary to popular belief, being a traditional “ghissu” is not the key to changing your branch. For most of it, it is a journey in parallel to the one you embarked on when preparing for JEE but also a lot different in terms of the opportunity cost and final outcome.
|
||||
|
||||
Most candidates who give their everything towards the idea of a department change often make the same mistakes, the most major of them all being never actually stepping out of their rooms to explore what the campus has to offer. This decision either comes back to haunt them if they fail or becomes something that just falls into the pit of buried regrets if they are successful.
|
||||
|
||||
Adopting a holistic approach in getting through your time on campus is probably the best thing that you can do regardless of what your aspirations are. Devote yourself to your studies, the idea being to give your best but not to be bogged down if you’re unable to do so (this is where relative grading is most helpful). At the same time don’t disregard all the talks and lectures that the institute and the various campus groups organize.
|
||||
|
||||
The key is to manage your time exceptionally well and also to be persistent with your efforts towards the final goal (see the similarities yet?).
|
||||
|
||||
## How tough is it?
|
||||
|
||||
To put things into perspective, we now follow up with a diagram based on last years statistics. The numbers provided here are just to give the viewer an idea of what he/she needs to do in order to secure a branch change. It is important to note that these numbers do not form a standard basis and change each year according to the preferences of the candidates that year.
|
||||
|
||||
As mentioned earlier, the rules for this procedure have been considerably relaxed but even so the entry into the “much coveted” circuit branches(CSE, ECE, and EE) remains an uphill task. The required SGPA last year was as follows:
|
||||
|
||||
| Branch | Opening SG | Closing SG |
|
||||
|---|---|---|
|
||||
| CSE | 9.905 | 9.81 |
|
||||
| ECE | 9.714 | 9.619 |
|
||||
| EE | 9.667 | 9.381 |
|
||||
| MSM | 9.429 | 9.429 |
|
||||
| ME | 9.381 | 9.048 |
|
||||
| CE | 9.333 | 9.333 |
|
||||
| EPH | 9.286 | 8.714 |
|
||||
| CHE | 9.048 | 8.857 |
|
||||
| IN | 9 | 8.81 |
|
||||
| GPT | 8.714 | 7.81 |
|
||||
{:.mbtablestyle}
|
||||
|
||||
## Final Word of Advice
|
||||
|
||||
The truth is that changing your branch is by no means easy, but consistency and persistence go a long way in getting you what you want. It is important to remember that your college isn’t just here to provide you with quality education, being an IITian is a lot more than that. It’s about modeling yourself into a better individual, something that is only possible if you step out of your room and your comfort zones to experience the journey that is IIT-Roorkee. So although putting a semester into something that draws you as much as the idea of a branch change (and we know it does), it wouldn’t be the worst idea to allow yourself to indulge into the little joys of campus life as well.
|
||||
|
||||
## Hear it from them
|
||||
|
||||
> “What I followed was simple, I attended all the lectures, made notes and attempted all tutorials. Whenever I found any topic difficult, I read the textbooks referred by the professor. If I ever felt the need for additional resources for the common courses, I contacted students of other branches. Regular study and consistency is the key. It is important to understand that being completely absorbed in just studies will do no good, rather it will cause frustration. My simple advice to any aspirant is that be regular and sincere. If you ever feel stressed or bored, just knock on your friend's door.”
|
||||
|
||||
\- **Sparsh Gupta** (2nd Year, Branch Changer from EE to ECE)
|
||||
|
||||
***
|
||||
|
||||
> "The best advice that anyone can give you regarding changing your department is to stop thinking about it right up until the time you actually have to fill out the choices. I followed a similar approach but only after a set back in my mid sem examinations.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> In my experience, the most difficult part of getting my department changed was rising above all the years of spoon-feeding that we received when at school and our coaching centers. The teaching standards seemed to have dropped all of a sudden where the professors expected us to do nothing more but either rote learn the formulae or take the high road and not study at all.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> But in this process of discovering the right recipe to success, I ended up learning the true meaning of self-study. Do not let things get monotonous. You could study 8 hours a day and not get anywhere or study as many hours as you actually require and get to a place where you're more comfortable with yourself. Involving yourself in the other activities being carried out on the campus. DON'T MISS OUT. Believe me, when I say this, it will keep things interesting and if you play your cards right you might just be able to get your department changed."
|
||||
|
||||
\- **Divyam Goel** (2nd Year, Branch Changer from BT to ECE)
|
||||
|
||||
***
|
||||
|
||||
> "Early on I realized that the curriculum courses were not too demanding.The actual challenge was to stay focused through the hullabaloo around.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> The start of the semester sees many students excitedly entertaining the prospect of branch change, but the interest and the will to work hard fade over time. The lectures are tedious and waking up for the 8 am class may not seem worthwhile. You might not see immediate results of your efforts. Also, the sense of having too much to do in too little time never leaves, but you gradually get better at multitasking.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> My performance in the mid-semester exams was barely satisfactory and its easiest to give up when the odds in your favor "seem" so low. But if you truly, sincerely want something, you will keep trying and your efforts are sure to see you through."
|
||||
|
||||
\- **Jayati Shrivastava** (2nd Year, Branch Changer from PSE to EE)
|
||||
|
||||
***
|
||||
|
||||
> “Even while taking up chemical engineering, I had it churning at the back of my mind that I NEEDED to get into mechanical engineering; I had convinced myself that I was undoubtedly passionate about it. Turns out, after a couple of semesters into my new branch I am pursuing research in physics( which I am not entirely sure of either ). The moral here is that interests are extremely volatile and keep changing, and if you indeed are truly passionate about something, you’ll be able to do it regardless of your branch, even though it might be trickier in some cases.
|
||||
>
|
||||
> One thing you can do is to make full use of all the opportunities this campus has to offer. Never spoken in public before? Try debating. Never tried putting in ink the things that roam in your mind? Try writing for a magazine. Try making a website of your own and see if it interests you. Reach out to seniors for help. Roorkee can be a lot of fun if you manage your time here well and have some self-awareness."
|
||||
|
||||
\- **Sudhang Varshney** (3rd Year, Branch Changer from CH to ME)
|
||||
|
||||
***
|
||||
|
||||
> “You might not feel so good about the lectures. Don't worry, even I didn't. Self study will help you sail through. But I suggest that you should attend the lectures regularly and try to be attentive. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn’t. Also having a good attendance helps you in bunking classes before the mid-sem and end-sem exams to study. Complete the tut sheets on time and attend tutorials regularly to clear your doubts.Mostly the questions asked in exams are from the tut sheets.”
|
||||
|
||||
\- **Gurdeep Singh** (2nd Year, Branch Changer from EE to CSE)
|
||||
|
||||
***
|
||||
|
||||
> "Scoring a high SGPA is not difficult if someone completes the assignments in time and keeps up with whatever the professor is teaching in the class. Reference books give you confidence in the course. Match your class notes with the referred books to better understand topics you are not clear about. My mid-semester performance was just above average. At that moment, I could have concluded that branch change was not my cup of tea but my consistency and persistence paid off.”
|
||||
|
||||
\- **Nitish Aggrawal** (2nd Year, Branch Changer from MECH to EE)
|
||||
|
||||
***
|
||||
|
||||
> “Staying attentive to all the lectures throughout the semester is not possible, but try not to let the workload pile up for the end moment. Also, be serious about the CWS marks as they make quite a difference to your final score.”
|
||||
|
||||
\- **Radha Jayaraman** (2nd year, Branch Changer from PSE to CHEM)
|
||||
@ -1,49 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: GSoC at Zulip"
|
||||
image: "vaibhav-gsoc.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Vaibhav"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: "Google Summer of Code is a global program focused on introducing students to open source software development. Many open source organizations apply to the program. Then you apply by writing a proposal for a project in one of the selected orgs. I wrote a proposal for a project in Zulip (a team chat platform) and got selected."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
GSoC stands for Google Summer of Code. To quote [about page](http://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/about/){: style="text-decoration:underline"} of the GSoC website:
|
||||
|
||||
> “Google Summer of Code is a global program focused on introducing students to open source software development.”
|
||||
|
||||
Many open source organizations apply to the program. Then you apply by writing a proposal for a project in one of the selected orgs. If your proposal is accepted, Google awards you with a stipend for working full time for 3 months with that particular organization.
|
||||
|
||||
For more details on how the program works and how you can get selected, refer to this article -- [watchout.iitr.ac.in/2019/05/summer-diaries-gsoc](http://watchout.iitr.ac.in/2019/05/summer-diaries-gsoc){: style="text-decoration:underline"}.
|
||||
|
||||
I wrote a proposal for a project in [Zulip](http://zulipchat.com){: style="text-decoration:underline"} (a team chat platform) and got selected.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
In first year, I saw my seniors apply for the program. I tried but failed. Though the effort that I put into searching for an organization turned out to be helpful. I discovered Zulip and found the community to be welcoming and extremely helpful.
|
||||
|
||||
I started contributing to Zulip in December 2018. Searched for an issue that I could get started with easily as a new contributor and submitted a pull request for the same. All the issues on Github are appropriately labelled, so that really helped. By March I had around 40 commits on the main repository.
|
||||
|
||||
It's not just about how good your proposal is for getting selected. What matters more is how much you contribute to the organization. By contributions I mean submitting pull requests, opening issues, and even getting involved in the community.
|
||||
|
||||
If you want to apply for GSoC in future, you should pick an organisation based on your interests and then prioritise the one which has an active community. You really do get to learn a lot of things when working in such an environment.
|
||||
|
||||
## Work and culture
|
||||
|
||||
All the contributors were informed that the projects we'd be working on would be flexible and would change during the course of time. Unlike many other organisations, all the GSoC interns work on many different projects, even if some of them weren’t part of their proposal.
|
||||
|
||||
I like to have a bunch of different things to work on at the same time. On a regular basis, I work on a project that was mentioned in my proposal. Apart from that, I am frequently tagged in issues and PRs that need my attention.
|
||||
|
||||
Since it’s a remote internship, timings are flexible. Some (people from India) tend to work at night when people on the other side of the globe are awake, while some are awake during the Indian working hours. In any case it’s much better to fix a particular time to work.
|
||||
|
||||
My mentor regularly asks me what I have been working on. At Zulip, we have a dedicated stream on the chat called "checkins" where members post about what they're working on or even something that's happened in their lives. It's a nice way to be in touch with everyone :)
|
||||
|
||||
One really interesting thing is the planned discussions. These take place frequently and the topics vary from debugging to history of Zulip. Of Course they are knowledgeable. Everyone is involved and you get to hear a lot of interesting opinions.
|
||||
|
||||
Sometimes you face challenges but that’s where you ask the community. Everyone is extremely helpful. It hardly takes any time to resolve an issue that you face. Overall my experience here has been great.
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing up
|
||||
|
||||
GSoC is unlike other internships. Here, you're actually expected to deliver. You're treated the same way any other person working in the organization is. It's not hard to "crack" GSoC, you just need to find an organization that aligns with your interests (and hopefully it has an active community).
|
||||
|
||||
I've liked my time working at Zulip. If someone wants to contribute, feel free to reach me out. Of Course you can also leave a message on the [open chat](http://chat.zulip.org){: style="text-decoration:underline"}. Someone will definitely help you to get started with an issue that you find interesting. Or you could just give it a visit and get to know what Zulip is.
|
||||
@ -1,85 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Razorpay"
|
||||
image: "razor1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Divyanshu Tiwari"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'This year, I spent my summers interning at Razorpay as a full-stack designer where I spent the majority of my time designing and developing digital experiences.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
This year, I spent my summers interning at Razorpay as a full-stack designer where I spent the majority of my time designing and developing digital experiences.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
# Getting in
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Deciding to apply
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Towards the beginning of my 2nd year spring semester, I was completely clueless and didn't have any plans for my summers. I had the option of doing a Design internship as I'd been working with IMG as a designer, but the idea didn't feel that exciting at that point.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I got my hands dirty with design and development early on in my college life since I loved building stuff, especially because it involved my creativity and intellect. "Building" sounds like a really generic word. You can't really associate it with a particular job title. There are different job titles like those of a designer and a developer that work together to make something new, and that interested me as a whole, but the roles did not interest me individually.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
As the semester progressed I grew more restless with regard to my summers. My seniors at IMG advised me to go for a design internship in case I didn't have anything else to do. This way I'd not only get industry exposure but would also get to know whether I would like to pursue design further or not. And by the middle of the semester I had decided to go with this plan.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Preparing to apply
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I began by documenting all of the projects that I had done so far. I wrote case-studies on Medium about the applications that I had designed and uploaded the source code of my dev-related projects on GitHub. Next, I updated my LinkedIn profile and resume. Since I was aiming for a design internship, I specifically kept it design-focused. I was now ready to apply but I didn't have any company emails to begin with. Seniors couldn't help me much either, so I made my own list. You can do this too by:
|
||||
|
||||
* Going through the career pages of various startup websites
|
||||
|
||||
* Sending several LinkedIn connection requests to the people whose team you want to join. You can see their email once they accept your request. (Please don't spam people. Be polite, respectful and dignified in your approach)
|
||||
|
||||
* Contacting them on Twitter or similar social media platforms.
|
||||
|
||||
The first company I emailed was Razorpay and their design lead replied back a week later and scheduled my telephonic interview for a week later.
|
||||
|
||||
## The Interview
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
During the interview, I was asked to explain two of my major projects in detail. I was questioned on a number of design decisions that I had taken in those projects. It's really important for designers to back all of their decisions with logic (more on this later). You should always be able to answer the **whys**. Though I had applied for a Product Design internship, I was also questioned on my development skills, mainly HTML/CSS and JavaScript (since my resume mentioned that i had worked on development related projects too). Lastly, I was asked if I was interested in doing a full-stack design internship to which I replied positively. To assess my skills, I was given a small assignment to complete which I did and emailed. My internship was confirmed within two weeks. I kept sending emails to different startups and revised my cover-letter several times within this waiting period.
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Razorpay has a number of products to offer, and each product serves a different financial use-case. This variety makes it difficult for industries to understand which products are meant for their needs and which aren't. Hence, to tackle this problem we thought of an interactive section for the website's homepage that can help industries understand their needs and recommend appropriate product solutions.
|
||||
The main intent of this project was to increase our reach to different industries through our website by making it easier for them to understand what the organization had to offer.
|
||||
The project was executed in three stages: user research, design, and development. I used to have frequent discussions with my mentor each week on this project. I also pursued a few side projects with the front-end team while I was working on my main project just to keep myself from not getting bored with a single task.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Culture
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
People at Razorpay put an immense amount of trust in you and let you have complete freedom in terms of the way you want to work. You'll not only be made aware about your role in a project but also how you'll be impacting the entire organisation. This way, you know that your work is important and that you need to be responsible for it.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Razorpay maintains complete transparency. Any employee can know about anything going on within the organisation irrespective of their position or vertical. You are free to question anyone on anything related to the organisation. There have been a number of instances where I went up to random people within the organisation to learn more about their work and experiences. Razorpay follows an open office culture and there are no offices or cubicles. This helps in establishing a sense of visual transparency and equality. Even the CEOs had the same desk as us and not a cubicle.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
As an intern you are free to do anything. Not happy with Design? Switch to Front-end or maybe explore marketing. You can even work on a project of your choice in case you are not happy with your current project, or maybe start one on your own.
|
||||
The thing I love the most about it was the free food at all times of the day. Every day I used to have a bowl of Chocos, buttered toast and a glass of fruit juice for breakfast. Now I hate Chocos.
|
||||
|
||||
## Learnings
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Before I came to Razorpay, I used to practice what I call an intuition-led design process i.e. my design decisions were led by my intuition instead of explicit logic. Though my intuition was more or less good and my solutions okay-ish, this practice limited me in a number of ways:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
* I was only able to think of design solutions that were already in existence. Hence wherever I saw similar situations popping up I would simply apply solutions that I was already familiar with.
|
||||
|
||||
* I wasn't exactly able to back up my decisions with verbal logic. My intuition always gave me good enough solutions but none of it came out from a series of logical statements and conclusions that could be used to defend my solutions.
|
||||
|
||||
* This affected the uniqueness and originality of my solutions because to be able to come up with an original solution, you always need to go back to the fundamentals of a problem and work your way up from there.
|
||||
|
||||
I learned to ask "why" to every decision that I took. This prevented me from getting biased by my intuition and approach a problem from a logical perspective. I learned to constantly ask "why" to land upon a fundamental truth and work my way up from there in a series of logical steps to arrive at a solution that's optimized for a particular need. You can apply this model to any decision-making process.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Conclusion
|
||||
My time at Razorpay has made me more sure of my love towards "Building". I've realized that I would like to play multiple roles at my workplace and hence on my next internship I might want to work with an early-stage startup.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,50 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: University of Maryland, College Park"
|
||||
image: "mohit1.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Mohit Jain"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'I am currently doing a research intern at the University of Maryland, College Park. So far it has been 9 weeks since I have started. In this article I’ll try sharing with you my experience so far and how I got here.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I am currently doing a research intern at the University of Maryland, College Park. So far it has been 9 weeks since I have started. In this article I’ll try sharing with you my experience so far and how I got here.
|
||||
|
||||
## Before Applying
|
||||
|
||||
I started going through courses on deep learning during the first semester of my second year. The reason being that I had wanted to go for graduate studies and deep learning and A.I. seemed like an interesting direction to explore. Just reading is never enough, so I practically tried out some of the things I had learned and did some small pet projects. Along with this, I maintain a blog where I penned down what I was learning along the way: https://mohitjain.me/ (shameless self endorsement).
|
||||
What motivated me to apply for a research internship and masochistically suffer the pain of the ordeal, other than being interested in trying research, was that I wanted to land an internship without taking any help from the college (although the IIT tag does still end up helping you I believe) and the stringent resume verification process as done by the placement office where you cannot list any personal projects made me shy away from the whole internship process in the campus. Not condemning them or anything, I understand there is a trust issue with personal projects.
|
||||
|
||||
## Landing the Internship
|
||||
|
||||
My not so amazing grades made sure that I would not qualify for any research programs. So, all I was left with was emailing professors directly. I started emailing professors for working with them sometime in September 2018. I got a positive response sometime in April 2019 around end-term exams and it took another couple of months of being on the edge waiting for the VISA process to get done. I was finally able to start on the last week of June 2019!
|
||||
Not trying to be a kill-joy but the days of sending emails was gloomy. The shadows of the days gone by still haunt me. If you sit in the campus internship and have put in some effort preparing you’ll get an internship at least before the semester ends. So naturally, most of my friends had already landed one. After that everyone around was having fun: endless gaming nights, binge-watching movies and anything else enjoyable under the blessed sun. While I was cooped up in my room dreading the future. Not a fun situation to be in.
|
||||
Enough of the brooding, some advice that I can give from my experience:
|
||||
|
||||
Email each professor by writing an email specifically for them. No point writing a generic email and spamming every professor on the planet. You’ll end up not only hurting your own credibility but that of your institution as well. Doing this would result in you only sending one email a week or even longer but it's still better. Don’t listen to the banal advice which is thrown around that you have to email at least 100+ professors. Of course, quantity increases your odds of getting an acceptance but the quality is way more important. Out of all the generic emails I sent, I have gotten zero response. The emails where I actually framed the email specifically for the professor at least got me a rejection most of the time. Any response is better than nothing!
|
||||
Don’t use mail tracking services. It is just not worth it other than giving you false hope each time someone happens to read your email. And, if by chance the person you are sending email to notices that you are using a mail tracker would be very detrimental to your application.
|
||||
Don’t write an essay in your email. Keep your emails short but still, provide as much information as you can.
|
||||
Preservation is the key to trudging on this path. Just keep going and don’t lose hope. Although this doesn’t mean to blindly proceed. Judge your profile and see if you relevant projects or experiences to show. If not, take a break and work on something cool and then continue. This is what I did and the difference was vivid.
|
||||
Rant to your friends how unfair everyone is and people should at least reply to your email. Getting all this out of your chest every now and done can really help lighten the mood. I did it countless times.
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The University of Maryland, College Park has a huge 1,335-acres campus. So getting around can be quite time-consuming. However, the university runs free bus services through the campus and the city. College Park isn’t exactly an exciting city. There isn’t much to do. Since. Washington DC is nearby you can always easily go there to alleviate the boredom. My workplace is the recently opened Brenden Iribe Centre for Computer Science and Engineering. The building is gorgeous and made of glass funded by the co-founder of Oculus Brenden Iribe. My work is on video domain transfer using deep learning methods. Since the project has just started I don’t have many details on it. However, everything has been enjoyable and interesting. So far my work has involved going through many research papers to come up with new ideas to experiment on and running these experiments. Going through existing code on GitHub can sometimes become very boring and exhausting but is necessary to come up with new and better ideas. The lab has a large number of resources. A huge number of GPUs of different memories and compute capabilities along with a massive amount of RAM and storage. I don’t think I could ever exhaust them by myself!
|
||||
|
||||
## Living in the City
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
This is the first time I have lived so independently. Along with the internship so, many other tasks require your attention such as household chores and cooking that it sometimes gets tough to find any actual free time. Compared to living in India everything is very expensive. Unless you happen to own an oil well back home you don’t want to be eating out every day, leaving you with the only option to cook for yourself. The first time I have cooked is after coming here and it’s pretty fun but how I miss the mess food! On top of this having to budget the monthly expenses and saving up to pay for rent was challenging and I still find it quite difficult. Hopefully, things will get better.
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing Up
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Getting a research internship is difficult but has many benefits. It’s sort of like a Diabolical Nectar. There are risks but the returns are massive. You get to meet new people, experience new cultures and gain global exposure. Of course, if you are planning to go for graduate studies a research internship will play a huge role in your applications. If you are hoping for a research internship, I would advise you to dive right into the deep end and not vacillate between an on-campus internship and a research internship.
|
||||
Hope this article helped!
|
||||
|
||||
Adios!
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,63 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Harvard Medical School"
|
||||
image: "hms5.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Sourik Dey"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: 'Be an exception, not an example that has always been my motivation in life. To begin on that note, I have spent my summer in the Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School affiliated to Harvard University.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Be an exception, not an example that has always been my motivation in life. To begin on that note, I have spent my summer in the Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School affiliated to Harvard University. These 10 weeks were an enriching experience for me where I not only learnt many new techniques and developed my skill set but also learnt to love science for its uniqueness all over once again. This internship journey taught me many things, gave me some good friends, taught me humbleness and how to live a life full of happiness in this competitive world by loving what you do. It taught me to derive pleasure from the smallest success and how to overcome the biggest of failures with a positive mindset. So without further ado, I will elaborate on my journey in this article.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Before Applying:-
|
||||
|
||||
Internships are as important for the Master’s students as it is for the undergrads. There may be lots of difference between the visions of these two sections of our institute, but the journey of securing an internship brings all of them together. It is like a bridge between these two factions that bring them closer to each other. Just like the undergrads, I too was focussed on getting an internship in the summer during the first year of my course. As we have only two years in this institute, the time within which we have to complete our tasks here is comparatively less. So I was determined to give my best for this search. Although I had done three national internships during my Bachelor’s, at first I was a little confused about how to get a foreign internship. I did not know many people here with whom I could discuss about all these topics. However, fortunately I met a senior from the M.Sc Geology Department, Surjyendu Bhattacharjee, who was a talented individual and had gone to Caltech for his internship through S.N.Bose Scholars Program. He was a very helpful person and his vision really inspired me. From that day onwards, I decided to work hard not only for my academics but also for building up my internship experience in the upcoming summer.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it There:-
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
I had searched thoroughly the Internet, websites like Internshaala, Biotechnika,etc and found many internships but many of them had different restrictions, like you have be a undergrad, have an excellent CGPA, be in the second year of your study and likewise. Some of them had explicitly mentioned that Master’s students were not allowed to apply for the program. Still, I did not get demotivated and filtered my search and found 13 internships for which I could apply (including some where it was written that preference for the position would be given to the undergrad students). I prepared my statement of purpose, curriculum vitae, recommendation letters and no objection certificate from the concerned authorities. I had talked to different professors and they were willing to support my application. I would like to mention Prof Partha Roy and Prof Krishnan Mohan Poluri who had supported my endeavours throughout the year. On the other hand, I also started mailing professors who were working on the research field in which I was interested. I read some of their papers and the brief synopsis of their work and modified my Statement of purpose by giving it a professional look as much as possible. I had mailed around 35 professors around the globe who were working on different aspects of Synthetic Biology, ranging from developing genetic circuits, biofuels, targeted drug delivery, cancer treatment, reengineering microbes and studying neurodevelopmental processes using the complex network of circuits artificially developed. Before being accepted by my Professor at Harvard Medical School, I had three Skype meetings with the lab members, including him, and only after that they unanimously decided in favor of my application was I sent the offer letter. The day on which I received the offer letter will be one of the memorable days of my life. The postdoc mentor I was assigned was really impressed and told me in detail about the project that I would be working on during my internship. The project that I was given made me decide that this was the type of work that I was looking forward to do for my summer. Also to give a heads-up, I had an advantage in answering the questions asked to me because I had prior exposure to such kind of work during my previous internships.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## The Department:-
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Systems biology is the study of systems of biological components, which may be molecules, cells, organisms or entire species. Living systems are dynamic and complex, and their behavior may be hard to predict from the properties of individual parts. To study them, the researchers in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School use quantitative measurements of the behavior of groups of interacting components, systematic measurement technologies such as genomics, bioinformatics and proteomics, and mathematical and computational models to describe and predict dynamical behavior. Systems problems are emerging as central to all areas of biology and medicine. The research interests there include developmental biology, synthetic biology, and spatio-temporal distribution of cellular components, pharmacology and cellular decision making. So, decided it was a best fit for me.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Project:-
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
During my internship I was working on the growth patterns of Vibrio natriegens, which is becoming a model organism for fast growing bacteria with a reported doubling time of less than 10 minutes. I had to use a quantitative approach to characterize V.natrigens growth and physiology for the first part of my project. Then we had to optimize media and growth conditions with single-cell resolution using microfluidic chips, following which their growth was analyzed both at constant or changing conditions. For the latter part of the project, the work became more focussed and challenging for me. I was assigned the task of developing synthetic genetic circuits and establishing them in Vibrio natriegens which was a work for which no relevant literature was available. For that I had to thoroughly survey the literature available and develop my own idea, protocol and experimentation techniques. I had to optimize many protocols only after which I could work on the toggle switch and the dual feedback oscillator (famous synthetic genetic circuits). I had to establish them both in E.coli and Vibrio and study the oscillation frequency, switching speed, tunability, signal to noise ratio and develop parameters to smoothen the oscillations. After successfully establishing the circuits in Vibrio, we then decided to analyse them in microfluidic apparatus and perform single cell quantitative imaging to see the oscillations and toggling of the circuits and their corresponding expression at single cell level, quantitated by the level of fluorescent protein, i.e, GFP and mCherry production and degradation . Fortunately the circuits worked in Vibrio and produced significant results. Then we analyzed the change in the behavior of the circuits in different media to see in which type of conditions they showed optimal performance. On another part of the project, I worked closely with another co-intern in the lab and developed a promoter library of varying strengths and used dye barcoding techniques to segregate and identify them in microfluidic chips. Such type of promoter library creation and their quantitative classification based on their strengths will allow us to perfectly identify the set of promoters that we want to use for creating our varied genetic circuits. Optical trap and laser technology will be used to then selectively isolate the promoter we want to use for our purpose from the plethora of promoters being expressed in cells being run on the microfluidic chips. The lab has developed such techniques which has made it possible and will bring a revolution in the field of synthetic biology in the near future.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Work and Environment:-
|
||||
|
||||
The work environment was extremely good at Harvard. Everyone is equally dedicated towards their work. Even at the lunch time, they discuss about new ideas and exciting research that is going on in the world. These discussions allow a person to gain knowledge about varied things in a small amount of time that took over a cup of coffee. No one demotivates you if you fail in your experiment. There were instances where things did not work out according to my plan and the experiment for the day did not produce desired results, but my postdoc mentor still motivated me and told me to not to worry about all these things. He repeatedly told me that failure is a part of science and without failure one can never expect to achieve success in life. I had amazing lab mates who were experts in theoretical, experimental and computational work and learnt something from each of them. Everybody was willing to help us in any way possible. I had an amazing co-intern and roommate beside me all the time, Piyush Nanda, a final year undergrad from IIT KGP, who cleared lots of my doubts and played a very important part in reshaping my scientific mindset for which I indebted to him. Both of us had a fun time learning, working in the lab, exploring new places, restaurants and going for short trips. The department arranged theory lunches, seminars, happy hours, discussion meetings and other recreational activities to allow the people to interact with each other. There were some brilliant undergrads visiting the department from throughout the world with whom I spent a wonderful time. The department also took us for a retreat to Maine along with the other people of the department where we had a wonderful time listening to lectures, going for hiking, boating, dinner table meetings and also most importantly dancing at the discotheque with all the faculties and students of the department. It was an excellent experience to see your faculties dance beside you in the party which showed me how well they can maintain a work life balance. All of these incidents have left an everlasting impression on me.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Funding and Related Information:-
|
||||
|
||||
I had received replies from some of the faculties I had contacted and most of them appreciated my idea and expressed their interest towards hosting me in their lab. However, there were some problems regarding financial support, space crunch, and duration of the internship which prevented me from joining their labs. One of the best moments of my life when noble laureate, Jack Szostak replied back to my email and appreciated my idea but there being a space crunch in his lab I could not join his lab. However, these moments of happiness pushed me to keep on moving forward. I had then received acceptance letters from Max Planck Society of Plant Physiology, Genome Institute of Singapore, University of Saskatchewan (through Mitacs Globalink Fellowship Program), appreciation from EPFL@Life Sciences Internship Program Committee and Yale University. All of these internships were fully or partially funded by programs or the universities. My professor at Harvard offered me a hefty amount of stipend per month and apart from that I had also applied for the Travel Research Internship Scheme of IIT Roorkee for which I was selected and awarded an amount of Rupees One lakh. I am grateful to the institute to have provided me with the sum and I hope that I have been able to utilize the sum efficiently. The amount which I received was sufficient for the entire period of my internship and all the expenses were borne from those monetary support that I had received.
|
||||
|
||||
## Summing Up:-
|
||||
|
||||
I would suggest every student to try their best to find a suitable position for themshelves during the summer and to use the opportunities they receive wisely. Failures will come throughout the process but I strongly recommend to not stop trying because only if you try hard will you achieve success, no matter whether it is securing an internship or something bigger in life.
|
||||
|
||||
Best of Luck!!!!!!!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,79 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Australian National University"
|
||||
image: "nancy1.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Nancy Gupta"
|
||||
category: summer2019
|
||||
excerpt: "I spent these summers with OzGrav group working on experimental aspects of Gravitational waves (of which I will talk in detail later) at Australian National University, Canberra, for which I was supported by Future Research Talent Award."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Preface
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I spent these summers with OzGrav group working on experimental aspects of Gravitational waves (of which I will talk in detail later) at Australian National University, Canberra, for which I was supported by Future Research Talent Award.
|
||||
Before moving ahead, I intend to raze a few myths apropos to the country especially when it comes to research and social structure. I was warned multiple times by friends and family that ‘ Aussies are racist, be careful’, but if you give credence to my experience, Australia is one of the most welcoming and multicultural countries. Furthermore, research culture and network is no different and as good as it is in Europe despite its odd geographic location.
|
||||
|
||||
## Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
In my case, I was pretty sure that I wanted to go for an academic research internship, therefore I didn’t even give a thought to sit for on-campus internship sessions. Since my research is not at all inclined to my core branch that is Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, instead, it is more into the fundamental physics, therefore I was a bit skeptical initially but something that might have underpinned my application is my second year research internship at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics ( I believe I should have written how I made it to MPI before writing about my journey to ANU but I will leave it for later :p)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I started mailing the groups working on experimental gravitational physics (which are not a lot in number) from mid September. Most of the groups that I emailed were in US where funding is always an issue, so the typical replies I got were addressing the funding issue, suggesting to apply later in December or to involve a third party funding agency like SN Bose scholarship etc. I finally decided to apply late in December for programs like Caltech SURF (which was one of my dream groups to work with as it is one of the prominent groups involved in LIGO). Meanwhile, a day scrolling through SAC FB page, a post caught my eyes calling for the applications for Future Talent Research Award which is a scholarship to work on a short term project at ANU, Canberra. (Those who haven’t followed SAC page, please do it as it keeps you updated from academic reforms to other important stuff in the campus). For me, it was a good opportunity because ANU has a group working on Gravitation waves and is centre for LIGO Australia (OzGrav). The scholarship is worth 6000 Aus Dollars. Since it is a collaborative program between IITR and ANU, I needed to be first nominated by the institute on the basis of my resume, write-up and recommendation. Once I got nominated, my name was sent to the research group of my preference, which made the final decision. Sometimes, in order to make a decision, the professor may want to talk to you over skype but it is not necessary, many other scholars directly got selected without getting through an interview or so, it kinda depends on your professor.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
PS: Before applying for FRT you must keep in mind that the confirmation about selection comes by mid December, before the applications open for programs like Caltech SURF, Charpak etc which is good but also have huge drawback because IITR gets a bond signed by you with the application stating that denial of scholarship is prohibited once you are selected and as a penalty institute will never ever support your endeavours in future!
|
||||
|
||||
## Work
|
||||
|
||||
**<u>Institute and the Research group</u>**
|
||||
|
||||
Australian National University is one of the best universities with QS world ranking of 24. Despite this fact, it is a bit underrated and not as popular as the Western Universities. There are many underlying reasons for this and one of the most lucid one is Australia’s odd location ( The Real South :p) leading to the assumption that it might be disconnected from the rest of the world and scientific collaborations aren’t clustered about it but believe me this a whopper! Corroborating evidence to this is— Australia played a crucial role in Apollo 11 landing ( just bringing up to venerate 50 years of moon landing). Anyway, coming back to my research and work, I worked with a research group that is a part of bigger collaboration LSC (LIGO Scientific Collaboration). LSC is a combined effort to observe and probe the universe with a whole new spectrum of gravitational waves. Long term goal is to develop gravitational wave astronomy such that it proves to be a new tool to study cosmic events like Black Hole Merger, Binary neutron star merger etc.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
*4 km arm interferometer (LIGO) at the Hanford site*
|
||||
|
||||
**<u>The Domain of work</u>**
|
||||
|
||||
In a bigger picture, I was working on bettering the sensitivity of current gravitational wave detector by overcoming the standard quantum limit. My task was to work on table top experiments (involving lots of optics and electronics) and to essentially observe opto-mechanical coupling (or more specifically optical spring effect) in a seismically isolated optical cavity. To break it down further in simpler language I was trying to measure the effect of photon radiation pressure. If you figured it out, yes I am an experimentalist...not as smart as theorists !! :P
|
||||
Though I worked for LSC during my second year intern at MPI Germany, yet the domain of work at ANU was totally different and new to me therefore I spent a few weeks reading some books and papers and once I had enough background, I was dragged to a sophisticated clean laser lab to work on my cool experiment.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
*Up on the screen, that’s the fundamental mode of light !!*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Despite the fact that the work I was doing requires a considerable amount of experience, I was able to do it only because of the constant support and input of my postdoctoral mentor who was always ready to troubleshoot any problem in my experiment. Apart from this, the lab environment was pretty accommodating, I was allowed to come to the lab at any time 24*7 (I did go on weekends to collect measurement in the hope of less noisy data :P). Our Muti-cultured group of Indians, Aussies, German, Dutch, Kiwis etc used to go out for dinner and drinks on Fridays which I believe helped me to bond a lot better with my colleagues and mentors.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
Friday evening drinks with the group :)
|
||||
|
||||
## Beauty in the peace of the city!
|
||||
|
||||
Canberra is the capital city and unlike most of Australian cities, it is not situated on the coastal line. Also, Australia is different in terms of seasons from the rest of the world, Aussies celebrate Christmas in summers . Since it is in the southern hemisphere, it experiences winters (min -4 celsius) from May - July and summers in December- February. Taking you back to the history of the city which is no older than one and half century, when the different Australian colonies formed the Commonwealth of Australia, the new country needed a capital and both Sydney and Melbourne wanted the honor. However it was later decided to build a new capital at Canberra and a competition to design the new city was held which was won by Walter Burley Griffin. So, yes, it is a planned city and yet it is naturally vibrant, you can encounter possums and kangaroos even on the ANU campus.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
To justify the heading, let me address the beauty in the peace and silence of the city. Canberra has very less population density and also it is surrounded by hills with a big beautiful lake at the heart of the city which upholds my former statement about serenity. On a bright, sunny day, nothing is as satisfying as enjoying barbecue and drinks by the lakeside.
|
||||
You can go hiking to nearby hills and mountains (Mt. Taylor, Mt. Ainslie, Black Mountain) which is always fun to do solo or with a group, also you can easily encounter vibrant Australian wildlife during such hikes ( Don’t worry you won’t encounter poisonous snakes and spiders !!)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
If you are done with Canberra and start missing the crowd, you can head to Sydney which is not very far. Sydney offers you a bunch of interesting deals, some of my favourites are walking along Bondi beach, and a ferry to Manly. I visited Sydney during lights festival when the whole area near Opera House and Darling Harbour was covered by a sheet of light.
|
||||
“ My arrival to the city was marked by skepticism, but departure with the hope of the arrival”
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
*Kangaroos in their natural habitat*
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
*Lake Burley Griffin on a sunny day*
|
||||
|
||||
## Takeaways
|
||||
|
||||
For me the major upshot, apart from academic and technical knowledge, is the impression that research always involves iteration, one can succeed in it if she/he is enjoying it and having pleasure in finding things out. I did have many setbacks during my project but the only thing that kept me going was the amusement at how beautiful and predictive things in physics are. I feel, after this internship I developed a more profound and firm belief in science and rational thinking.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
At last, I want to add, please don’t adapt to the herd mentality, I know there is always pressure on us ( especially at the end of sophomore year) to get a good internship and so on, but never forget you won’t be able to perform up to your limit until you are enjoying your job. No matter how rarely travelled the desired path is, follow it, I am not sure if you’d be successful at it but you will definitely be satisfied. I too had the choice to opt for more conventional paths like data science or my core but I knew that the only thing that excites me is physics and today I am happy and satisfied with my pick.
|
||||
Since I am Richard Feynman’s fangirl, I would love to end this with his quote taken from ‘Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!’—
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
_**“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.”**_
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,23 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: Third Inter-IIT SPAN Meet
|
||||
category: sac
|
||||
image: 3rd-span-meet.jpg
|
||||
author: "Harshit Dubey"
|
||||
excerpt: "The IIT SPAN, or Indian Institutes of Technology Students’ Presence Across Nation, is a self-governed body composed of elected student representatives of the respective IITs, with the intent to serve as an advisory body and as a platform to hear and address the grievances of its members."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The IIT SPAN, or Indian Institutes of Technology Students’ Presence Across Nation, is a self-governed body composed of elected student representatives of the respective IITs, with the intent to serve as an advisory body and as a platform to hear and address the grievances of its members. The IIT SPAN constitution was adopted in April 2016, citing its various responsibilities, sub-committees, and bylaws.
|
||||
|
||||
The IIT-SPAN meet of the academic session 2019-2020 was held at IIT Roorkee Greater Noida Extension Campus, (IIT-GNEC) on 24th August 2019. It was attended by IITs BHU, Bhuvaneshwar, Bombay, Gandhinagar, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jammu, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Mandi, Pallakad, Ropar, Roorkee, and Tirupati. Watch Out! covered the event.
|
||||
|
||||
The agenda for the meeting was decided beforehand, and most points on the agenda were centered around the upcoming Inter-IIT Tech Meet to be held in IIT Roorkee in December 2019. The meeting opened with a discussion regarding several amendments to be made to the constitution of the Inter-IIT Tech Meet, followed by a discussion on the organizational structure. A decision was made to adopt the organisational model followed by the Inter-IIT sports meet. A discussion also ensued upon the inclusion of events related to designing, entrepreneurship and civil engineering. It was decided that several ‘productathon’ problem statements will be included in order to make the Tech Meet more inclusive.
|
||||
|
||||
The Board meet focused heavily upon getting the Inter IIT Tech Meet officially recognized by the Board of Directors, by lobbying the directors of different IITs individually. The structure and organisation of the Tech Meet were discussed, and it was emphasised that organizing IITs should focus heavily upon long term brand creation and continuity of the tech meet rather than focusing solely on the present edition of the event. It was also decided to outsource real-time projects from the industry. The dates for the Inter IIT Tech meet 2019 were finalized (20-22 December 2019). The board also agreed to find better avenues for collaboration, communication, and networking between the industry and academia. An important highlight of the event was that all IITs unanimously agreed upon not disclosing the name of the IIT while presenting a solution to the judging panel of any event in the Inter IIT Tech Meet.
|
||||
|
||||
Ultimately, the meeting agreed upon the organizing of a Student Academic Conference open for all UG/PG/Ph.D. students under the umbrella of the Tech Meet. Additionally, the inclusion of E-Conclave (a networking event for the E-Cell of different IITs) under the umbrella of Inter IIT Tech Meet was finalized.
|
||||
|
||||
The SPAN serves as a great platform for not only increased interaction and collaboration between the students of different IITs, but also as a portal that helps in addressing the grievances of students in a democratic manner. We believe that IIT SPAN will be instrumental in the future for the cooperation between different IITs, thus offering an avenue for Inter-IIT student communication and networking.
|
||||
|
||||
*The detailed minutes of the meeting, as compiled by Watch Out!, can be found on this [link](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WQmgAOIinIJ7cMV_32nHi7LzAlME2zv-ouEQs628Eu4/edit?usp=sharing){: style="text-decoration:underline"}. You can also find the constitution of IIT SPAN [here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TCU_ncbKKBQE83cY03aMtB3dvETWfgcO/view){: style="text-decoration:underline"}.*
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,62 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Institute Lecture : In Conversation with Professor B.C Joshi"
|
||||
image: "prof.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Professor B.C Joshi is an alumnus of the erstwhile University of Roorkee (our very own IITR), and is currently an Associate Professor at the National Center for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR). He has been associated with the use of some of the largest telescopes across the world."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*Professor B.C Joshi is an alumnus of the erstwhile University of Roorkee (our very own IITR), and is currently an Associate Professor at the National Center for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR). He has been associated with the use of some of the largest telescopes across the world. His research areas include the study of pulsars and polarimetry. As part of our larger goal to increase the coverage of Institute Lectures, Watch Out! decided to interview Professor Joshi to talk to him about his research, his talk, and his life at University of Roorkee.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** You are an alumnus of this institute. What memories does being here bring back?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Joshi :** Oh, plenty of good memories. You spend a major part of your life in college with your friends. Whenever I come back to the campus, I get transported back to the old times. I have good memories of the yacht club. I swam in the ganga canal many times. The three places I liked the most were the tennis court opposite to govind bhawan, the swimming pool and squash courts. We had very good sport facilities here and I made good use of them. I was a secretary of the stargazing club (Physics and Astronomy club now). One of my best memories is when I,along with a batchmate, built a telescope from scratch for which we visited the Nainital Observatory to get it polished. We spent countless hours building it. We used to have star parties frequently as well, those were happy times. Some of my best times were spent in the erstwhile University Canteen and talking about various things. We used to go to a place called Bhatia's next to the Hangar Gate(convocation hall). Next to the gate, there was a small shack where we used to eat bun omelettes. Late night when we were preparing for our test series or something else, that was the only place you could go to eat when hungry. The initial Thomsos or Cult Fests were organized by us, and we got Pankaj Udhas as one of the artists. Also the Roorkee team winning the Cult Fest in IIT kanpur is a pleasant memory. I was also a Debating Secretary and a member of the Dramatics Club.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** When and how did you realise that research was your calling and how did you narrow it down to the particular area of research you are involved in? Could you tell us a bit about what your research deals with?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Joshi :** It started from this very Physics Department. We had a faculty member Yogeshwar Singh, and it was very tough to get a good grade in his course. The HOD was Shri Krishna Joshi who organized a lot of things. I was interested in astronomy and physics, so I developed many things like instruments and so on. The Mathematics department had a Professor Chandrika Prasad, a renowned mathematician. He got an Astronomical Society of India meeting organized for which we had an astronomy exhibition set up. Professor Jayant Narilkar came there so we asked him what we could do in astronomy. He suggested many things which I followed subsequently.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I work in pulsar astronomy. Pulsars are very small stars which rotate very rapidly, and they are very good clocks. Because of this they are very important for several experiments like testing the General Theory of Relativity. You need huge radio telescopes for this and in India we have one of the largest telescopes in the world. I have been associated with that right from the days it was being built. I was one of the conceiving members of pulsar astronomy in India. So we started from scratch as there was nothing before that. The first pulsar observed from that was also done by me. That is what most of my research deals with and I remain deeply interested in.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** What topics will you be touching upon in your talk?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Joshi :** will be talking about pulsars and clocks. I am going to illustrate that these clocks can be used for fundamental physics and how studying these clocks requires application of cutting edge engineering techniques. I will also talk about the use of these clocks in interstellar navigation. This has been recently demonstrated to work in the international space station one year back.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** What are your views about the efforts being made to popularize research with newly established institutes like IISERs? In general do you think that there are enough research opportunities/ the right direction for research in the country?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Joshi :** I think this initiative is fairly good and it has been developing fairly fast. In general in the last 20-25 years we have made huge progress in doing cutting edge research. Internet has also helped in this as data can be transmitted very quickly now. In terms of funding, I think we are still way behind.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** A lot of undergraduates tend to sway away from research since it's a path which requires a lot of struggle which often amounts to nothing. People also give up on careers in research for monetary reasons. What advice do you have for undergraduates wanting to pursue research?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Joshi :** If we talk about engineering undergraduates, it's not true that there are no monetary rewards in research. All the startups right now are based on some or the other form of research done by an engineering graduate. The environment in the country right now is not bad for an innovator who wants to do research. Fundamental Sciences is different because you don't have a direct application in the human sphere because of which you can't monetize your discovery. So if I discover a new pulsar no one is going to pay me for it. It is more to satisfy the human curiosity and there its a problem. But if you are very passionate about doing research, I don't think there is a monetary disincentive, because you would eventually end up making good discoveries or doing fantastic science. There is a career for all such students, and you have to struggle. The science graduates will have to struggle more than their engineering counterparts as it is not a very straightforward or easy path.
|
||||
|
||||
The important thing is to have passion. When things get tough and there is not enough monetary incentive, it is the passion that sustains you.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** Do you think going into research/ becoming a scientist requires a high level of intelligence or is it a blend of both hardwork and IQ?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Joshi :** In astronomy there are a number of examples where if you are hardworking, you will be able to uncover many things that the most intelligent person will not be able to. Some of the earliest stellar structures depended on correlations which were discovered by women who were very hardworking, and worked for 10-15 years. Even Newton's Laws or later Kepler's formulations are all based on painstaking experiments. Basic intelligence is obviously required to correlate things. You can't discover things without having an analytical bent of mind. Many times discoveries are a matter of luck.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** How much has technology impacted scientific research? Can it be said that without the basic knowledge of programming languages/ other tools it's difficult to conduct research work now?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Joshi :** Oh it's huuge, especially in my area of research. If we didn't have gaming technologies it would be very difficult to do the research we are currently doing because we use GP GPUs everywhere. There are specialised GP GPUs for research and they have revolutionized computing to a large extent. Technologies create a discovery space, because discoveries happen when you explore a parameter space that has never been touched before. That enabling of parameter space happens only when there is a technological advancement.
|
||||
|
||||
With the help of computers and programming languages you can sort of reduce your menial tasks, and concentrate more on the fun and exciting parts. It's not that if you don't like programming, you can't do anything but then you will have to depend on someone who knows it. So that is how you collaborate with people with different specialisations.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** Do you have any general words of advice for us?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Joshi :** You should have fun in life. No matter what you do, if you are having fun you will make your mark. If you ever feel you are not having fun and that the work you're doing is drudgery, you should shift from that path. Success and money will eventually come if you are having fun.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,130 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Hult Prize"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Agastya Varhala and Adarsh Gupta"
|
||||
category: career
|
||||
image: hult1.jpg
|
||||
excerpt: 'The Hult Prize is an annual, year-long competition that crowd-sources ideas from MBA and college students after challenging them to solve a pressing social issue around topics such as food security, water access, energy, and education. The Prize is a partnership between Hult International Business School and the United Nations Foundation.'
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Hult Prize is an annual, year-long competition that crowd-sources ideas from MBA and college students after challenging them to solve a pressing social issue around topics such as food security, water access, energy, and education. The Prize is a partnership between Hult International Business School and the United Nations Foundation.
|
||||
|
||||
Previous topics that have been dished out as part of the competition include:
|
||||
|
||||
1. Harnessing the Power of Energy
|
||||
|
||||
2. Refugees – Re-awakening Human Potential
|
||||
|
||||
3. Crowded Urban Spaces
|
||||
|
||||
4. Early Childhood Education
|
||||
|
||||
5. The Global Food Crisis
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
This initiative is open to students of all colleges and universities from across the world, making it one of the biggest student-centered events of its kind. It is one of the world’s biggest engines for the launch of for-good, for-profit startups emerging from universities around the world. Each year thousands of college and university students from 150+ countries participate, and since its inception, participants have represented 1,000+ institutions of higher education. In 2018, 115,000 students from over 100 countries competed for the coveted Hult Prize.
|
||||
|
||||
How The Wheels Are Set In Motion:
|
||||
|
||||
Each year the announcement of the topic sets heralds the arrival of the competition. Every year a new area is chosen to be explored (for the challenge), with the primary criteria for topics being “transformative and sustainable business”.
|
||||
|
||||
**<u>The Hult Prize takes place in 4 stages :</u>**
|
||||
|
||||
## Stage 1: On Campus
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The On-Campus Program brings the prize directly to universities around the world. The local championship gives the university’s winning team the chance to bypass the general round, and guarantees a direct entry into one of the regional finals.
|
||||
A student who participated in the Hult Prize Challenge 2019 told us, “ The On Campus round mainly consists of pitching your idea to a panel, along with a presentation which summarizes your work plan. The round also gives you an opportunity to get a general idea about how the other participants have tackled the issue and what various strategies are being implemented in solving the challenge at hand.”
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Stage 2: Regionals
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The Hult Prize Regionals is a National Level Competition held in March. Regionals takes place in 17 countries including India, Japan, China, Belgium, UK, etc. From the 100,000 students who compete initially, only 5,000 snag a seat at these 2-day regional summits. The Top 50 Hult Prize startups qualify to the next round.
|
||||
|
||||
## Stage 3: Accelerator
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The very best startups represented at each regional summit secure a spot in the world’s largest accelerators for impact in Boston, Massachusetts and Hult’s castle in the UK.
|
||||
The startups spend six weeks in the accelerator. There the participants are mentored and undergo a tailor made 5-week program, that focuses on team building, sales, marketing and resource mapping.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Stage 4: Global Finals
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The Global Finals are hosted by the United Nations in New York. Selected teams from the Hult Accelerator program get a chance to present their ideas to the jury which generally consists of UN representatives, previous winners of the Hult Prize, politicians, and CEOs of Non-Governmental organizations working in fields related to that year’s topic, during the Global Finals in September.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## The Loot You Get to Keep:
|
||||
|
||||
The Hult family — founders of EF Education First — donates USD 1 million in seed capital, to help the winning team launch a social enterprise.
|
||||
Who Can Compete:
|
||||
Students from any college or university in the world are invited to form teams of 3-4. Individuals who cannot form a team, but are interested in competing, can join the Facebook community to find other individuals who are looking to form teams.
|
||||
The Application Process:
|
||||
Teams can apply online for entry into the Regional Finals through hultprize.org or compete in a locally organized Hult Prize On-Campus event, where the winner will bypass the application round and be guaranteed a place into one of 25+ Regional Finals.
|
||||
The interested students of IIT Roorkee can go through the On-Campus Hult Prize program where they would have to present their ideas to a panel of judges.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## The On-Campus At Hand:
|
||||
|
||||
This year’s topic is “Build Startups That Have a Net Impact on Environment”, where the idea is to look for transformative new models that make a positive impact on the environment with every sale completed, every dollar earned and every decision made.
|
||||
|
||||
To know more about this year's On-Campus event, please visit the following link : [http://hultprizeat.com/iitroorkee](http://hultprizeat.com/iitroorkee){: style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue"}
|
||||
|
||||
Or visit the Facebook page: [https://www.facebook.com/hpiitr/](https://www.facebook.com/hpiitr/){: style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue"}
|
||||
|
||||
To know more about this year’s topic visit: [https://www.facebook.com/109182803817789/posts/126962288706507/](https://www.facebook.com/109182803817789/posts/126962288706507/){: style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Too Long;Didn’t Read:
|
||||
|
||||
Hult Prize is an annual competition aimed at crowd sourcing innovative ideas and rewarding them with seed capital.
|
||||
It seeks to promote sustainable business solutions that tackle social and environmental issues.
|
||||
In 2018, 115,000 students from over 100 countries participated in the Hult Prize, competing for a total of $5m in prize money.
|
||||
The Hult Prize takes place in 4 stages :
|
||||
|
||||
Stage 1: On Campus
|
||||
|
||||
Stage 2: Regionals
|
||||
|
||||
Stage 3: Accelerator
|
||||
|
||||
Stage 4: Grand Finals
|
||||
|
||||
Students from any college or university in the world are invited to form teams of 3-4. Individuals who cannot form a team, but are interested in competing, can join the Facebook community to find other individuals who are looking to form teams.
|
||||
The interested students of IIT Roorkee can go through the On-Campus Hult Prize program where they would have to present their ideas to a panel of judges.
|
||||
Register at hultprize.org .
|
||||
|
||||
To know more visit the following link : [http://hultprizeat.com/iitroorkee](http://hultprizeat.com/iitroorkee){: style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
[https://www.facebook.com/hpiitr/https://www.facebook.com/109182803817789/posts/126962288706507/](https://www.facebook.com/hpiitr/https://www.facebook.com/109182803817789/posts/126962288706507/){: style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,59 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "NSS Blood Donation Camp’19"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: bigstory
|
||||
image: bdc1.png
|
||||
author: "Yavnika Garg, Pritika Mishra"
|
||||
excerpt: "A single pint can save three lives. A single gesture can create a million smiles."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
“A single pint can save three lives. A single gesture can create a million smiles.”
|
||||
Keeping this in mind, the National Service Scheme of IIT Roorkee successfully organized a Blood Donation Drive on 13th October 2019. The turnout was a whopping 1013 against the recorded turnout of 857 for the previous drive. There was an improvement in the participation of girls, as among the total donors 17.7% were girls as opposed to 11.3% in 2018. In addition to it, there was an increase in the participation of faculty, locals and the staff.
|
||||
|
||||
The organizing team of NSS IITR invested in a lot of effort and time, ensuring mass promotion of the event not just across the campus, but also in Civil lines and Solanipuram. Rahul Kumar Singh Sunil, General Secretary of NSS IITR, reported “This year we have extended the message of BDC, apart from the students and faculty, to the support staff, security guards and even the mess workers. I have witnessed 7 BDCs throughout my association with NSS, and I can proudly say that this year we have a lot of enthusiastic participants because of better .
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
When asked about the maintenance of hygiene and sanitation, Yash Agrawal, Joint Secretary of NSS IITR, commented, “Due to the outbreak of dengue, the wards are filled in the hospital and to avoid its further spread, we have set up the camp outside the hospital quarters. We have two different blood banks this year- **Mother Teresa Blood Bank** based in Roorkee and **IMA Blood Bank**, based in Dehradun. The equipment used by them is sterile and is designed for one-time usage. The disposal of syringes, cotton, and other medical waste was ensured by the use of special dustbins designed to contain bio-waste.”
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
One of the volunteers from the first year, Drishti Bhasin said, “It feels good to contribute to a noble cause. I am doing the registrations and another friend of mine is giving away the certificates to the donors. We are being supervised by our seniors from the second and third years. We have been working for this day for quite some time as we had regular meetings and promotions before-hand.”
|
||||
The Public Relations Head from IMA Blood Bank said, “I am connected to IIT Roorkee through my organization since 2012. The students here have always been enthusiastic about donating blood and the participation only increases each year. This year we’ve got a good amount of rare blood types likes AB+ and O-.”
|
||||
|
||||
The Manager of Mother Teresa Blood Bank said: “ We’ve conducted BDC camps previously at Patanjali Yogpeeth, Panasonic, Hero Honda group, CSF, District court but it is our first time here and the response we’re getting is quite impressive.”
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
One of the first time donors, Mihir, a freshman, told us, “ My parents encouraged me to come and donate blood, there was no peer pressure. The refreshments are good too so that’s an added incentive.”
|
||||
outreach in the promotional activities.”
|
||||
|
||||
One of the donors, Shadab Siddiqui, who donated the blood later in the evening said,” I had to wait for at least an hour to donate blood, but then the feeling was worth it and I am happy to do so.”
|
||||
Another regular blood donor, “I didn’t smoke for 2 days so I could donate blood, that’s how excited I was for today’s BDC.”
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
When asked about the problems, the major problem reported was that one of the blood banks left early and the entire work-load shifted to a single blood bank. As a consequence, donors had to wait a long time for their turn. The crowd dissuaded many people who had initially come with the intention of donating blood. This was one of the major reasons as to why things slowed down towards the end.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
When asked about this situation, Vishwas Rawat, Joint Secretary (Admin) NSS IIT Roorkee, said, “The blood donation camp witnessed a huge turn out after the lunch hours, and this was the result of the promotion done by our dedicated NSS Volunteers in front of the messes, today. As a result of this, IMA (Dehradun) Blood bank, soon reached their capacity and had to leave early. So, the entire donor crowd got transferred to the Mother-Teresa Blood bank. As a consequence, donors had to wait for their turn. Since before donating blood, the blood bank team runs a basic medical check on all the donors, some of the blood donors had to wait more than an hour. Seeing the crowd, some of the donors left, but most of the IITR junta was so excited that they waited for their turn and played their part in this generous cause”.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The blood donation camp plays a crucial part in saving the lives of many, particularly the IITR junta. NSS IITR has partnered with four blood banks - IMA ( Dehradun), Himalayan (Dehradun), Roorkee Civil Hospital and Mother-Teresa Blood Bank (Roorkee). Any request made through NSS IITR is prioritized by these blood banks and the blood unit is made available at a very nominal cost to the patient. As of now, the request can be made by dropping a message on any of the NSS, IITR social media handles, or placing a phone call on the mentioned phone number. The NSS Team is currently working on a portal, which will soon be available on their website. This portal can be used to raise blood requests.
|
||||
In conclusion, the donation drive was a resounding success, with the blood banks exceeding their targets for blood collection. The widespread involvement of the community as a whole for this noble endeavor was an extremely positive development, and we hope to see similar initiatives gain traction in the future.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Pictures-<br>
|
||||
[https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=11YAY4aQZUKBUZb78aMlzUzavZbYLDuWs](https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=11YAY4aQZUKBUZb78aMlzUzavZbYLDuWs){: style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,56 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Research Diary 1: Human Computer Interaction"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Vinayak Pushkar"
|
||||
category: career
|
||||
image: vinayak1.png
|
||||
excerpt: 'Hi, I am Vinayak Pushkar, a final year student pursuing my bachelor’s in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Science Engineering. I am interested in investigating and designing the interaction between humans and machines or computers. '
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Hi, I am Vinayak Pushkar, a final year student pursuing my bachelor’s in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Science Engineering. I am interested in investigating and designing the interaction between humans and machines or computers.
|
||||
|
||||
## Why I Chose Research:
|
||||
|
||||
Research was not the first career track that I pursued at the beginning of my undergraduate life. In the first three semesters of my bachelor's, I went on exploring and working with a lot of campus groups(mostly technical) and later I met a lot of professors for research projects. Most of us are hesitant to talk to professors and ask for projects in the beginning which should not be the case. I have always been interested in building products at the intersection of design and technology and I found that focusing on research gave me more time to pursue my interests. The more we explore and introspect in our initial years, the closer we get to what is precious to us or at least we come to know of things that do not align with our interests. I have experienced research on a small scale, but I can say it is a lot about patience. Even if you do not happen to be at some highly ranked foreign university for your research internship, you can still find ways to get involved in projects that interest you and work sincerely on them. If you want to explore research, you must dedicate a fair amount of time to it. In the institute, I have attempted projects in the Material Sciences, Physics and Architecture Departments and was also involved in some mechatronics projects. At first, I went through the research work which was being done by the professor. If I found it to be similar to what I wanted to do or if it seemed interesting, I approached them with my prior work in that field or just expressed my interest to work on similar projects after going through some literature from that field.
|
||||
|
||||
It is also very important to have proper planning on how to proceed with the projects.
|
||||
I had to drop a project in the Physics department because I was simultaneously involved in three projects in three different departments which I do not recommend beginners in research to do. Focusing on a single project and working wholeheartedly on that is a better option. While approaching professors, you need to show them how you can add value to their ongoing research. You may do it by describing your work, interest, and its alignment with research being done at their lab. I was given the position of Research Assistant which is generally a funded position in most universities. Some professors were interested in inviting me to work with them but they had a lack of funds. So, I kept trying until I landed a funded offer. It is actually a very good experience where you make a lot of connections with some people involved in quality research and labs across the globe. I approached professors directly through e-mail and inquired about funding if they seemed interested in my application. DORA IITR can also be helpful in case you need to get your travel aid for your internship or a conference. In the case of undergraduate research, funding becomes a big issue at all the different levels of research. Outside, one has to worry less about these things so they can work on anything they want to.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## My Research Work at The University of Michigan :
|
||||
|
||||
My research at the University of Michigan was based on the personalization of medication information using computational modeling of user’s behavior and how it could play a role in improving Health Literacy across the globe.
|
||||
|
||||
The output of my research was as follows:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**a.** Impact of the research: People will face less difficulty in interacting with healthcare information.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**b.** Takeaways: It would be great if we could learn to use and manipulate our technological advancements for the welfare of people who have been deprived of healthcare services.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**c.** Rewards: A publication if you consider this as a reward, but most rewarding is the experience you get during your research work. Being a part of a good research lab teaches a lot of things about what it is to be a researcher and the ethics involved in good research work.
|
||||
|
||||
## My Experience In Other Internships:
|
||||
My research work at CPDM IISC Banglore was based on 3D visualization of data in Virtual Reality for a smart manufacturing setup and adding hand gestures to it so that the user can interact with and manipulate the visualized data in VR. Some other projects in the lab where I was involved included “Locking targets for shooting a guided missile by fighter jets using eye-gaze behavior of the Pilot”. These projects were done in collaboration with the Indian Air Force(IAF) and I had opportunities to interact with a few Wing Commanders of the IAF just a month before the Airstrike was carried out. It was really inspiring to see the lab working out technologies that could empower the IAF.
|
||||
|
||||
At present, I am working as a visiting scholar at the University of Potsdam, Germany. My work here is based on developing scalable fabrication techniques based on laser cutting. Our goal is to investigate how to convert models for fabrication (focused on laser-cutting) to work on any machine, material and material thickness. This makes it possible to use models made by others without having to consider their machine/material. Fabrication using 3D printing has some limitations, like printing large structures can take a lot of time, and disassembly of 3D printed models can be cumbersome. Our prototyping system aims to overcome these limitations. This is a great experience for me as I see some exciting new technologies being developed in the field of fabrication.This project is also very insightful for me as now, I have seen how an imagined concept is converted into a real product and the time, effort and enthusiasm it takes.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Signing Off:
|
||||
|
||||
The overall takeaway would be that I could investigate my interest in academic research through these internships. Going for an internship for a few months is very different than pursuing research in graduate studies but surely one gets a glimpse of what to expect if one plans for graduate studies. Writing a paper is an art and I was not good at it. The guidance I received from my professor was extremely helpful, particularly while articulating my work. Having research publications helps in proving your capabilities in front of any research lab and communicating your interests in an efficient manner. The experience of interacting with and getting interviewed by various researchers inside and outside the country was very helpful. We get a sense of what it means to be involved in research.
|
||||
|
||||
Write well-articulated emails and make connections. GPA matters but I could get in with an average GPA. So, if you try hard enough, you will surely grab an opportunity somewhere. Research takes time, we need to be patient and always curious. Feel free to get in touch in case you need any help :)
|
||||
|
||||
Good Luck!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,41 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "The Inauguration Of Shiru Cafe"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: bigstory
|
||||
image: shiru1.jpeg
|
||||
author: "Arush Sharma, Aryan Bidani, Spandan Gera, Agastya Varhala,Shachi Singh"
|
||||
excerpt: "Shiru cafe inaugurated its 6th store in India (and 25th worldwide) on the 15th of October for the IITR junta."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Shiru cafe inaugurated its 6th store in India (and 25th worldwide) on the 15th of October for the IITR junta. The inauguration started at 11 a.m. with the ribbon-cutting ceremony, followed by an introduction to what Shiru cafe is, and how the whole concept works by our Director Dr. Ajit K Chaturvedi and Mr. Kazuki Hakamori, the manager of Shiru Cafe, India.
|
||||
|
||||
Shiru Cafe is a Japanese cafe chain, the brainchild of Enrission Inc., based in Kyoto, Japan that provides free drinks to university students in exchange for personal data such as name, university, ID number, and year. Shiru’s form also asks for students’ IT skills and previous internships. It is run completely on funds by sponsor companies, meaning that students don’t have to shell out a dime to enjoy their cuppa. The underlying philosophy of Shiru cafe is to help students make their transition from academic life to the workplace easier and provide them exposure to global corporate culture. The business model is such that it relies on targeted advertising of sponsors to students based on their profiles and interests that they fill at the time of registration.
|
||||
|
||||
Open to all students and faculty members of IITR, Shiru cafe serves up to three drinks a day per person. In order to order anything at the cafe, one has to sign up with the cafe’s website. The place does not have a cash counter, so if you want a fourth drink, come tomorrow! Open from 10:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m, the cafe has 6 drinks to choose from Coffee, Tea, Lemon Tea, Lassi, Litchi and Mango juice.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The Director, Dr. Ajit Chaturvedi is pretty excited about the concept of the cafe, how it opens new avenues for interactions between Indian and Japanese students, providing international exposure. He is especially pleased with the location of the cafe, which is between the two lecture hall complexes, which is well suited to make the cafe a hub for academic discussions between students, tutors, and faculty. He wishes that whatever is unresolved after the classes and tutorials, can be discussed over a cup of coffee.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The Manager, Kazuki Hakamori expressed his gratitude for the joyful reception of the cafe by the campus. He mentioned that the cafe would serve as a bridge between students and Japanese companies, where students can gather to work, while also receiving information about future opportunities. “Students also have a great chance to get acquainted with the Japanese culture and incorporate these in their lifestyle,'' he added.
|
||||
|
||||
When asked about the staff working in the cafe he told us that the staff consisted of University students enrolled here in an exchange program, who have their classes along with a quarterly shift in which they work at the cafe.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
We also interacted with Mr. Adityaojas Sharma, a student here at IITR, who played a key role in bringing the Shiru Cafe to Roorkee. When asked about how did he get to know about the cafe and how did he manage to interact with the people of the enterprise, he told us,
|
||||
“ I heard about the Shiru cafe in IIT Bombay and thought that something like this could be opened in IITR as well. Soon I came to know about an email mentioning the proposal of opening Shiru cafe in IITR, some two years ago to the Institute Central Administration, which somehow didn’t pass at that time. So, I contacted the Dean Of Resources and Alumni Affairs and proposed the pros of having Shiru cafe here who agreed to this and thus, ended being the point of contact between the two parties.”
|
||||
|
||||
According to him, the whole vision of Shiru Cafe is to enhance the cultural exchange between the Japanese students and Indian students. It exposes the students to the very extensive technological corporate life of Japan. He also visions that this initiative could help further improve the placement and internship scenario of the campus by providing a tremendous platform to over 150 Japanese companies that are sponsoring Shiru Cafe. We asked him about his experience working on this, to which he mentioned, “It’s been great knowing these people and their culture. We have so much to learn from them. For me, it was a very special experience and I just wish that this initiative turns out to be a major success.”
|
||||
|
||||
To get drinks from the Shiru Cafe, one needs to register on the Shiru Cafe app, which is available on both android and IOS platforms. After registering you are all set to order for whichever drink you wish.
|
||||
|
||||
Talking about the first day of the cafe on IITR, there were huge crowds and delicious drinks all over. So, after an overwhelming response on day 1, Shiru Cafe has truly set its feet in IITR. By providing a platform like no other to the IITR junta, it is now time for the students to make the most out of this opportunity. We hope that each one of us benefits from this initiative.
|
||||
|
||||
Arigatou gozaimasu!
|
||||
|
||||
Image Credits: Shreya Agarwal, Shruti Gour
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,56 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Research Diary 2: Machine Learning"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Ashish Sinha"
|
||||
category: career
|
||||
image: ashish1.jpeg
|
||||
excerpt: "Let's start with a brief introduction of mine. I am Ashish Sinha, a senior undergraduate majoring in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. My research interests focus on making machines that can see, talk and act with the power of machine learning. "
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Introduction
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Let's start with a brief introduction of mine. I am Ashish Sinha, a senior undergraduate majoring in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. My research interests focus on making machines that can see, talk and act with the power of machine learning. Now, you may be wondering how did I end up researching ML or the broader question of “How did I end up pursuing research as a career?” So, let’s answer that first.
|
||||
|
||||
## Why I Decided To Pursue Research
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I had never thought that I would pursue research when I joined IITR. I was one of those students who had the mindset of studying for a decent GPA and getting a good job, that’s it. I was on this path until the end of my 2nd year. My life took a major turn during my second-year internship. I was working at a startup in the data science team. The work culture of a lame 9 to 5 job didn’t appease me much, and I met a couple of people during that time with interests similar to mine, who advised me to move from the field of data analytics and try to read and implement research papers in ML to increase my knowledge. Machine learning is something that anyone can learn by taking a couple of online courses. But these courses are not sufficient if you want to stay updated with the fast progressing field of ML, you would have to read research papers. And researching in this field seemed a viable option for me to stay updated with the trends and to stay aloof from a boring routine job.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Projects and Internships
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I believe that projects and internships are the best modes of exploring an unknown area of interest. <br>
|
||||
I had tried to do a project related to my major in my second semester but it didn’t fascinate me enough. By the end of my first year, I realized that I was not interested at all in my major and didn’t want to do a project just for the sake of filling up my resume. Hence I didn’t complete any project in my department. So after having some experience with ML, during my second year, I tried to approach the Professors in the CSE department, sometimes they were unwilling to give a project, or sometimes the ideas just seemed not interesting enough to work out as a project. I wanted to explore material informatics, thus I took up a project in my department that involved the application of computer vision in metallurgy since it aligned with interest in ML. But since the professors in my department are also beginning to work with ML, I faced difficulties in taking the project to it's completion. So, after my second-year internship, I started emailing Professors around the globe for a research internship with the hope that someone would be willing to give me a chance to work, even though I didn’t have any prior research experience. Being a student with a not so high GPA and not being in a circuital branch, made it quite difficult for me to convince a Professor to extend an offer.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
After a couple of cold rejections due to lack of funding or vacancy, I finally landed an offer at Max Planck Institute for Iron Research. The project was related to the application of Deep Learning methods in material science, but I wanted to try something related to computer vision/ biomedical research. In 2 years, having already realized that I was not interested in my major and if I ever wanted to go for higher studies, an internship in core ML topic would help a lot rather than a computational aspect of it (this thought was so naive at that time). Finally, I got an offer from Preferred Networks to work on biomedical research. Even though it’s a company and I had made up my mind of not working in a company, this was different. Now, academia and industrial research have their own pros and cons. Academia focuses more on novelty but the resources are scarce while industries focus more on the application, we can try out multiple ideas at the same time as they don’t have a scarcity of resources and the pay is also quite good. Thus I ended up accepting the offer at PFN.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Results/ Takeaways From My Experiences
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
In the meantime, a Prof replied to email regarding taking my interview, but by that time I already had an internship, so I convinced him to supervise me remotely, and he was happy to do so. This is where my actual career in research begins. Working remotely with someone from the other side of the world has a demerit of the time difference but if you are able to communicate properly it’s not much of a problem, plus you get to work from the comfort of your room. I see this as an absolute win. Working for a couple of months resulted in the publication of my first research paper. During my internship I worked on Biomedical imaging for the construction of CT scans from X-Rays using GANs to reduce radiation exposure on patients when they go for various medical examinations and also to create a tool that can help the doctors to carry out preliminary examination before carrying out operations on patients. This work has been accepted to NeurIPS this year, a tier 1 Machine Learning conference. The sweet results of my perseverance motivated me further to go for higher studies.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## The Philosophy of Research
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Many people think that to carry out research, they have to take up a project with some professors. Though it is true for some areas like biotechnology or chemistry which requires access to lab equipment and proper guidance for carrying out research work, projects in an open field like ML can be carried out alone too. I took around 3 projects in my college but ended up completing only one, the major reason for the dropping of those projects was my lack of interest and the attitude of few professors who think that undergrads are not capable for carrying out good successful work. It may be true, but with proper mentorship, undergraduates can also produce good results. This led me to carry out various self-motivated projects by taking up various challenges on Kaggle. Kaggle is a competitive platform like CodeChef but for data science, and has loads of competitions in various domains like vision, language and data analysis. Some take part in competitions for the hefty prize money, some take part to try out their research ideas, and some take part just for the sake of learning. It has the most healthy community that are always willing to help whenever you get stuck on something. The discussion threads are a goldmine if you have the zeal to learn.
|
||||
|
||||
Doing research may be daunting and to be frank, it is challenging. Reading a research paper and understanding it completely is an art in itself. You look for a problem to solve, once you alienate the problem, you look for any previous works which have been done for inspiration. After you read some previous works, you begin to develop a mental image of what were the shortcomings of the previous works and how those can be solved. These are YOUR IDEAS. Then you try to implement those ideas, only to realize that some don’t even work, while some improve the results. Then you carry out some more experiments to make sure that your ideas were not just a fluke which worked only once but it generalizes well. That’s it, you’ve done it. You came with some novel ideas to solve a problem in a better way. Now it’s time to pen down your work and share it with the world i.e. write a research paper.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## In Conclusion
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Carrying out research, requires self-motivation and a positive attitude towards your work, so that when your ideas don’t produce any results, you don’t lose hope, but just carry on working towards the goal you set for yourself. Just don’t forget to maintain a decent GPA of around 8, though it is not a requirement for carrying out research, and having a decent GPA would provide you with more opportunities like selection in foreign research internship programs namely DAAD, MITACS or when you want to go for higher studies. Having a good GPA is like icing on the cake(your projects). On a concluding note, remember that research is trying and failing only to learn something new!
|
||||
|
||||
Cheers to your future endeavors,<br>
|
||||
Ashish.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,49 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Institute Lecture : In Conversation with Mr. U Raja Babu"
|
||||
image: "lecture.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Mr. U Rajababu is an accomplished scientist and engineer who currently leads India’s Ballistic Defense Program. In recent news, he led a group of over 150 scientists and engineers to design and conduct India’s first Anti-Satellite Test (ASAT), more popularly known around the country as MISSION SHAKTI."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Mr. U Rajababu is an accomplished scientist and engineer who currently leads India’s Ballistic Defense Program. In recent news, he led a group of over 150 scientists and engineers to design and conduct India’s first Anti-Satellite Test (ASAT), more popularly known around the country as MISSION SHAKTI. He delivered an Institute Lecture on 23rd October 2019 on the technological challenges faced by his team, and how they eventually succeeded with MISSION SHAKTI. As part of our larger goal to cover the Institute Lectures, Watch Out! decided to interview Mr. Rajababu to talk to him about his career in Defense Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), MISSION SHAKTI, and more.*
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** Could you tell us more about your undergraduate and postgraduate field of study?
|
||||
|
||||
**Mr. U Rajababu :** I graduated from Andhra University with an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. Soon after, I joined the Air Force where all the engineer-selects mandatorily study the field of Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Technical College. Subsequently I joined the Field Formations, where I started working on helicopters. I initially participated in the Siachen glacier operations after which I got posted to Hyderabad where I was in charge of the maintenance of about 30 helicopters. I then worked with DRDL on the Prithvi project (specific to the Air Force). I then started working on Missile Integration, and after about 20 years (since I initially joined the Air Force), I shifted from the Air Force cadre of DRDL to the Scientist cadre.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** How was undergraduate life for you?
|
||||
|
||||
**Mr. U Rajababu :** It was pretty good. I never really expected to work on such diversified fields. I guess you can say that my career took its own direction as per the requirement of the Service.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** At what point did you realise you wanted to utilise your knowledge for the protection and betterment of the nation, as opposed to, say, personal gains?
|
||||
|
||||
**Mr. U Rajababu :** I was basically intrigued by the field of aeronautics and since I was a child I was fascinated by the Air Force. I also got selected for the Air Force during my pre-final year of undergraduate studies, so it made sense for me to go that way. Once I joined the Air Force, the requirements of the service eventually made me specialise in certain fields. As an Aeronautical Engineer with a specialization in Mechanical Systems, I eventually had to learn a lot more about aerodynamics, propulsion, weaponry, ballistics etc and eventually, over time, I worked on Missile Integration.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** You’re the head of India’s Ballistic Defense Program which functions under DRDO. Could you tell us more about the history of this program, its current objectives etc?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Mr. U Rajababu :** Geographically speaking, we have two main adversaries, one in the West and one in the North-East. Both these adversaries possess long range ballistic missiles. In fact, across the world, over 30-40 countries possess ballistic missiles with ranges that exceed thousands of kilometers. With the ever looming threat of a surge in global tensions, it became imperative in the late 1990s to setup a Ballistic Defense program so that India could protect its vital assets. When this program started, it came with its set of challenges because it was a relatively new field and till date, very few countries can boast of expertise in this field. Also, since this program in any country is a matter of national security, it was not like no other technological setup because we had to start everything from scratch. It is obvious why no country would share the details of its ballistic defense program with us. To top it all, the threat is always evolving, and the ballistic capabilities of our adversaries only seem to grow. However, at this point, I can safely say that we’re in a good place to defend ourselves against both our adversaries. The current objectives of the program are pretty clear; we must continue to grow with evolving threats in order to always be capable of defending our vital areas.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** Mission Shakti was a grand success, and the degree of accuracy achieved is pretty stunning. Could you give us a brief overview of the testing that took place on March 27?
|
||||
|
||||
**Mr. U Rajababu :** Basically, Mission Shakti was an extension of my program. Since we were already working on anti-missile technology, we could easily adapt to the challenge of anti-satellite technology. Of course, here one of the main technical problems is the problem of extremely high velocities. There were more challenges though, like safety, security, collateral damage and secrecy. We couldn’t afford to have any failures, since it would lead to national embarrassment. In a single statement, one could say the Mission Shakti was a successful statement of deterrence.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** You mentioned in a few interviews that only a handful of scientists were aware of the actual goal of the project. Could you elaborate more on the importance of ‘deception’ in science when it comes to national security?
|
||||
|
||||
**Mr. U Rajababu :** Oh, it’s pretty important. When it comes to designing and running these tests that better our defenses and act as deterrents, it becomes imperative to work on a strictly need-to-know basis. The problem is, if the news of such a test leaked out before we could run it, the international pressure on India to not run such a test would be massive. We would have had to shut down the entire project if that happened. Hence we had to deal in deception. And especially with scientists, it is never easy. These are people who are inquisitive and curious, and when the simulations we were running pointed towards the true goal of our mission, we had to come up with a series of tactful alibis so that news wouldn’t leak. It was a tough job, but we were successful in the end.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** How important is it to keep space debris in mind?
|
||||
|
||||
**Mr. U Rajababu :** We wanted to keep the damage caused by the debris created to an absolute minimum to avoid any global hue and cry. Satellites usually occupy orbits in the range of 400 and 800 kms and if we chose to implode a satellite of ours within this range, then the debris created would have caused damage to satellites of other countries. In the past, China faced similar problems of international pressure with their anti-satellites tests. We wanted to avoid that, so we purposely chose a lower orbit, well outside the range of any satellite. With increased velocity, this debris would have quickly decayed and fallen on earth. The satellite we used was launched by us on January 24 of this year under the pretext of an experimental DRDO satellite.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** As someone who has been working in the intersection of science and national security, do you have any advice for undergraduates of IITR who dream of achieving the same?
|
||||
|
||||
**Mr. U Rajababu :** It’s a very interesting area to work in. It’s one of the best applications of advanced technologies, and of course, you get to work on matters of national security. Over the last few years the government has also been encouraging students to pursue science and research to groom them for similar reasons. It is an ever-evolving field with still a lot for us left to do, and I’m sure there are plenty of opportunities for anyone interested in working along these lines.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,51 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Institute Lecture : In Conversation With Professor Justin David"
|
||||
image: "lecture2.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Prof. Justin David is an accomplished theoretical string theorist, who is currently the chairman of the prestigious Centre for High Energy Physics, Indian Institute of Science (CHEP-IISc)"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Prof. Justin David is an accomplished theoretical string theorist, who is currently the chairman of the prestigious Centre for High Energy Physics, Indian Institute of Science (CHEP-IISc). On the 4th of November 2019, he delivered an Institute Lecture in Roorkee, on entanglement entropy and holography. As part of our larger goal to increase the coverage of the Institute Lectures, Watch Out! decided to interview Prof. Justin David, to find out more about his undergraduate life, his research and more.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** How was your undergraduate life? When did you start seeing research as a viable career option?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Justin David :** From my high school onwards, I was very clear that I wanted to study maths and physics. Even though I had a better JEE rank than was required, I opted for Integrated M.Sc. Physics at IIT Kanpur, since I wanted to pursue Physics at that time. Luckily, IIT Kanpur had a good culture of Physics, which I believe is still being continued. It was only later that I got interested in string theory.
|
||||
|
||||
I believe a strong sense of community is necessary in order to establish a good research culture, and I also believe that it is very easy to destroy that kind of culture simply by just putting the power into the wrong hands. One wrong person in the position of power and the entire research culture can be put in jeopardy.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** After doing your post-doctoral research work at the University of California what encouraged you to come back to India? Do you think there are ample opportunities for research in our country?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Justin David :** I cannot speak for other research areas, but since my topic of research is string theory and it is a theoretical topic, there have been ample opportunities for this topic in India. Maybe India lags in opportunities in the field of experimental research, but for a wide variety of research areas, especially theoretical physics, India has ample opportunities and a good research culture.
|
||||
|
||||
What I believe is that in order to establish a good culture of research, you need to have a sort of community. Thus, starting research in the field of something that is already being pursued in the country is easier than starting something new.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** You received the prestigious DST Ramanujan fellowship. How important do you think these programs are in motivating researchers?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Justin David :** These fellowships are awarded at the post-doctoral level and are not only encouraging, but provide the researchers with a fund to travel around, delivering lectures as well as attending them, and these actually encourage researchers at that level to achieve more.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** Can you give us an idea of what exactly your talk is going to be about?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Justin David :** I am going to give a talk on entropy geometry. You usually visualize entropy as randomness, but I am going to talk about the geometry present in it.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** With people still believing in the earth being flat, do you think it's necessary to initiate programs which educate people about science and research?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Justin David :** I think that most of the impact can be made by actually initiating a program at the school level. The real science-awareness can be spread amongst only students studying at the school level, because the adults are too set in their ways to accept new ways of thinking.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** How do you think undergrads can make the best of their college life?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. Justin David :** Undergraduates need to figure out what they are interested in. I mean, you people have so much energy, you can pursue anything you want, but you should try to find what interests you the most. Also, you need to find the right mentor for yourself. Now, I was only able to find my mentor at the post-doctoral level, but you guys need to start looking around.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,48 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Minor Details"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
category: academics
|
||||
image: minors.jpeg
|
||||
excerpt: "Today’s world is scary. The industrial and scientific landscape evolves by the minute - all you can do is try and keep up. While sticking to structures and labels can provide us with a sense of identity and purpose, reluctance to evolve can only prove to be detrimental in the long haul."
|
||||
author: "Vedant Kumar, Atharva Shukla, Jayati Shrivastava"
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Today’s world is scary. The industrial and scientific landscape evolves by the minute - all you can do is try and keep up. While sticking to structures and labels can provide us with a sense of identity and purpose, reluctance to evolve can only prove to be detrimental in the long haul. Our courses are usually designed to cater to specific needs that our field of study demands, making it difficult for an academician or a student to push the boundaries for ideas that don't come under a certain heading. The existence of Minor and Elective courses provides us with a good theoretical setup to embrace interdisciplinary research and job opportunities. Students across IITs decide the branch they study subject to the constraint of the rank they achieve in JEE, which makes having opportunities to explore different avenues even more important. This theoretical framework, however, is not without its own set of challenges and issues, and through this article, we aim to highlight the same.
|
||||
|
||||
## Challenges Students Face :
|
||||
|
||||
*Minor Specialisation Courses* are provided in the pre-final year of the undergraduate programmes in which a student is required to complete 18 credits (4-5 courses) to receive a degree. Here we enlist the major problems faced by the students who wish to take up these courses.
|
||||
|
||||
* **Inexistence of an all encompassing, foolproof and uniform procedure :** A lack of uniform procedure to apply for a minor makes applying for it a cumbersome task. In addition to this, if a student wishes to minor in a department which is not frequented by students, they find themselves clueless about the procedure and formalities that need to be followed.
|
||||
|
||||
* **Ambiguous C.G.P.A criterion :** A student having a CGPA above 7.5 after the IVth semester can take up a minor, but cannot continue if her CGPA falls below 7.5 at the end of her Vth semester. Now, a student with the exact opposite scenario (CGPA < 7.5 after the IVth Semester and > 7.5 after the Vth semester) doesn’t have a clear pathway to get enrolled in a minor course. (Please note: Taking up of a minor in this case is possible).
|
||||
|
||||
* **Rough Transitions :** The courses available as part of a department’s Minor courses usually require a certain amount of prerequisite knowledge which a person from another department cannot be expected to have. There are no introductory courses available which work towards smoothing this transition. This renders most of the courses unilluminating in their own singular capacity.
|
||||
|
||||
* **Logistical nightmares :** Opting for a Minor adds a total of 5 courses to a student’s existing workload. This inevitably leads to a string of clashes throughout the semester for students who opt for Minors - clashes between classes belonging to different departments, and clashes between exam dates (that are usually finished in a week’s time). Both classes and exams turn out to be very arduous to reschedule due to factors like a communication hiatus within different departments, comically low population densities etc. This compels people to drop the courses for the time being, but this is clearly not a permanent solution since for some people this might still mean making do without a Minor degree.
|
||||
|
||||
* **Unfilled vacancies :** A sizeable chunk of Minor-opted students tend to drift away from their choice - due to the aforementioned issues - which creates new vacancies. There is, as of yet, no system in place to help willing students fill up these vacancies, thus effectively rendering these seats (and the resources that are put into creating them) futile, or in vain.
|
||||
|
||||
* **Other Issues :** The Architecture Department - which comes under the UG Curriculum as per regulations - has never been allowed to take up Minors. Currently, Minors in the Department of Management Studies (DoMS) are not available for the students who are interested in these fields.
|
||||
|
||||
## Updates from recent IAPC Meetings :
|
||||
|
||||
* A proposal to allow students to take up minors from the 5th semester has been rejected by the IAPC in the 74th Meeting.
|
||||
|
||||
* In the 76th IAPC meeting, it was allowed for the UG (B.Tech./IMT/IMSc.) students to take up Minor Specialization Courses (MSC) in Economics offered by the HSS Department. This has also been approved by both the DAPC and DFC of the HSS Department. The students of the current 3rd year can also take this up.
|
||||
|
||||
* In the same meeting, the students of the Earth Sciences department were permitted to take up Minor Specialization Courses of other departments from their sixth semester (1 course per semester in the last 5 semesters). This structure has been also approved by the DAPC & DFC of the department and the Chairman, Senate. The students of the current 3rd year can also take this up.
|
||||
|
||||
## Watch Out’s Two Cents :
|
||||
|
||||
The problem of clashes can be resolved by trying to set up a system where Minors can be taken up by a student at an earlier stage, without exceeding the credit limit. This will also help students to explore more of the department they minor in. Exams could be conducted over a longer time span which will lower the probability of clashes. Another way would be to declare the timetables before the forms for the minors are filled, enabling students to pick the courses they will be able to manage.
|
||||
|
||||
Providing transparency to the whole process should be the first step before moving forward. A clear set of rules for everything related to Minors and the frequently faced problems by the students will surely prove to be of great assistance. Another interesting proposition would be to try and replicate the model of double majors being followed in IIT Kanpur ([https://www.iitk.ac.in/doaa/data/Double-Major.pdf](https://www.iitk.ac.in/doaa/data/Double-Major.pdf){: style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue"}). This would provide the students with greater flexibility in choosing their courses and studying them at length.
|
||||
|
||||
There have been cases when students have dropped their minor, considering it to be of no use when the placement season comes around. In sister IITs, companies which open to Software Clubs/Groups, also open up for the students with a minor in the field ([https://gymkhana.iitb.ac.in/~ugacademics/Docs/CourseInfo_Booklet.pdf](https://gymkhana.iitb.ac.in/~ugacademics/Docs/CourseInfo_Booklet.pdf){: style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue"}).
|
||||
The Placement and Internship Centre could implement similar eligibility criteria in IIT Roorkee as well, though the dropping of the minor before the beginning of the placement season seems to be the biggest barrier for this.
|
||||
|
||||
In addition, shedding some light on the procedure to be followed for adding & enrolling in a new course can be a baby step to fully making the Minor courses serve the purpose they are meant to fulfil.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,53 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Distinguished Lecture : In Conversation With Shri Nalin Surie"
|
||||
image: "lect.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Shri Nalin Surie is a distinguished Indian Civil Servant, and a seasoned diplomat. He served as the Indian Ambassador to China, and previously held the post of Director General, Indian Council of World Affairs."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Shri Nalin Surie is a distinguished Indian Civil Servant, and a seasoned diplomat. He served as the Indian Ambassador to China, and previously held the post of Director General, Indian Council of World Affairs. He has served as a diplomat in a multitude of places, including Hong Kong, New York and Brussels. He recently gave a couple of seminars as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series at IITR, and Watch Out! decided to interview him, to pick at his treasure-trove of knowledge, and to learn more about his undergraduate studies, his opinions, his worldview and his career.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You studied economics in your undergraduate and postgraduate studies. What led you to join the IFS and Indian Civil Service?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shri Nalin Surie:** You know as I mentioned in my talk a little earlier this morning, when we were growing up, there were not too many employment options and the most prestigious employment option was to take the UPSC exam and join the civil services, particularly the Foreign Service and the IAS. It was a difficult decision to take as I was actually keen to continue my training as an economist. I would have liked, personally, to do a PhD. There were certain circumstances which required me to stay back, and then I took the civil service exam. I worked hard for it but I was also very lucky that I made it in the first shot, and I was lucky that I was able to get the Indian Foreign Service. I have never regretted that decision. It has been a fabulous career. I think in one’s own way one has contributed to the making of Indian foreign policy, and it’s evolution. It’s a very satisfying job, it has been a very satisfying career. And I have never regretted the fact that I did not join the private sector or did not join any other profession. I do regret that I did not pursue higher studies in economics. But my training as an economist in the Delhi School of Economics actually has been one of the biggest strengths of my career because the bulk of our work is economic. And I had opportunities to use my training as an economist and I still take a lot of interest in international economic issues and the domestic economy. It has become a lifelong passion. It’s something which I find very relevant in my work. And in today’s international world, you cannot think of a geopolitical or geostrategic order without the economic element being critical. You cannot have military muscle on an empty stomach.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You said that you love economics. Could you tell us your views on the current situation of the Indian economy and the world economy, and the way it is slowing down?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shri Nalin Surie:** Look I’m not going to talk so much about the world economy, but as far as the Indian economy is concerned we are going through a difficult phase. But please remember that we are still growing at between 5 & 6%. I don’t place too much stress on the big numbers but it’s important psychologically to have the right big numbers. The government is taking a lot of steps to bring in the required reforms. Bringing in the required economic reform in India is not easy - in a democracy, in a federal system - as you know. It takes a bit of time but it’s happening. And we should be back to 6%+ if all goes well next year. For the steps being taken, it takes a lag before the impact kicks in. So the parameters are good. The basic strength of the economy is strong. As I said to you earlier this morning, we have slipped, to my mind, particularly on the savings rate. We need to revive that, take it above 30%. It should be closer to 32% if we want to sustain an 8 % growth rate. And we need to do much more not only in manufacturing but also in reorienting the agriculture sector. We need to use agriculture, agro processing, food processing, fruit processing, the white sector, the dairy sector and upgrade it. You will have enormous growth coming out of that and technology will play a very large role in the upgradation of the agriculture sector.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Do you see us becoming a 5-trillion economy by 2024?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shri Nalin Surie:** I’m not sure about 2024 - that is purely mathematical calculation. Frankly, if you want to do it you can just allow inflation to rise and it will happen. But that’s not what we want and that’s not what the government’s target is. The idea is to ensure a 5-trillion economy with a low inflation and a high growth rate. If it doesn’t happen by 2024 then it will happen by 2025. But as I mentioned earlier, it’s a question of how fast we can revive the big growth rate figure from between 5&6% to between 7&8%. But it’ll happen. I would rather it does not happen in mechanical terms because of high inflation rates, because this is an issue of the size of the economy at market prices. We want it to be in real terms. So inflation must remain low. Otherwise high inflation will cause other problems, serious problems. I mentioned earlier this morning that I’m basically optimistic about the Indian economy. I have always been optimistic. Reform is not easy in our system. But the more we are upset about our growth rate coming down, the more the pressure on the government is to bring in reform measures, and that’s a good thing in a democracy.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Given the recent protests in Hong Kong, and China claiming Hong Kong to be a part of itself - what parallels can we draw between Hong Kong and Kashmir?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shri Nalin Surie:** No parallel at all. Hong Kong is a part of China and Kashmir is a part of India, period.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Are those protests relevant to us as a country?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shri Nalin Surie:** No. I have lived in Hong Kong. I studied my language in Hong Kong, I had a posting in Hong Kong. Look, Hong Kong is a very strange...animal. You see, it is neither fish nor fowl. It is a special administrative region. It was a British colony, handed back to China in 1997 under an agreement. There are obviously grievances in Hong Kong. Serious grievances. Youth unemployment, income inequality, extremely high cost of housing etc. And these have not been addressed. They should have been addressed, but they have not been addressed. And there were demonstrations which started some years ago. The famous ‘umbrella’ revolution. But this time it got pretty violent and I don’t know why. There are various reasons attributed to this violence. I think the central government in Beijing has shown a lot of maturity by allowing the Hong Kong authorities to not only manage the situation, but they have also allowed the election process to go ahead unimpeded. And the elections have shown a remarkable result. So I think it reflects on the maturity of the authorities in Beijing. Let us see how they act now to the election results. It depends on them, but so far I think they have ensured that they keep a hands off approach. They have made a few statements which any government would make regarding its own territory but there is no parallel with Jammu and Kashmir. In civil society, demonstrations happen all the time. That’s your right to have a demonstration in any society, particularly in a democracy. You have this ‘Yellow Vest Movement’ in France where people go around destroying property, burning places. Why don’t you talk about that? You see the anomaly? You talk about Hong Kong but you don’t talk about the Yellow Vest Movement in France. Why not? Again I want to go back to what I said yesterday. Please have your independent narratives. Think things through. You belong to a very strong democracy. You cannot imagine how lucky you are. You aspire to be like the Chinese growth rates. You want to have the growth rates based on their system? It can be done. We tried the emergency and what happened? The people rejected it outright. Your generation may not remember it. So please read Indian history. This country is not ready for that kind of thing. This country is a federal system, it is a democratic federal system. That is your strength. We must never lose that strength. But please have your own independent narrative. Your generation particularly. Don’t get taken in by what others say.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** At the end of October, talks of new Naga Peace deal resurfaced on the news, but we haven’t heard anything since. Could you elaborate more on the issue and the importance of Nagaland in the region’s politics?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shri Nalin Surie:** This is a very complicated issue, and discussions have been going on for years. Yes we were all expecting an agreement. It didn’t happen, and negotiations will continue. And I’m sure they will end successfully. Because the gentleman who is handling this issue - the governor of Nagaland, Mr R N Ravi - is a very experienced negotiator. He knows the problem. He will handle it well. The important thing is to ensure that everything happens peacefully. See I don’t know the issue beyond a point so let me not pretend. Obviously there are claims the Nagas make on Naga populations in areas in adjoining states. Obviously those states have to agree to those conditionalities that the Nagas are putting before any agreement can be arrived at. There must be difficulties in that. It will happen. The important thing is that it is now all peaceful, and we need to make sure that it remains peaceful. We need to ensure that Nagaland is fully integrated into the Indian state as it should be.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How was this whole experience of being posted in different countries and working with the UN?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shri Nalin Surie:** Very challenging, very educative. Very humbling, frankly. It helps you realize how much the world is advancing, how much other countries have advanced over you, even smaller countries. You understand to learn other people’s points of view and try to see how you can marry their points of view with your point of view so that we can move forward together. As I said to you, it has been a fabulous experience. I would not exchange my career for anything else. Obviously I have regrets about what I could have done, would have done, should have done. But that pales before what actually happened in my career. I am very happy about it. Most importantly, you learn to listen to people. Because without that there is no diplomacy. Without that there is no moving forward - unless you learn to listen to people.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Do you have any general advice of us students?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shri Nalin Surie :** Look, I can only give you one piece of advice. Work hard, keep an open mind and you will have opportunities open up before you. If you don’t work hard or if you work hard and still have a closed mind, you will not make the same progress. So working hard and keeping an open mind is my answer to you. But remember one thing, the future of this country is not what we have made it. We changed the future we inherited. You can change the future you are inheriting. And you have many more means at your disposal. You are now part of a country which is a much bigger, more powerful, much richer country than when we were young. You cannot even imagine the India when we were growing up. You take everything for granted. Your phones, your computers, your food, everything. We used to stand in ration lines to buy our wheat and rice and sugar. Literally. We have grown up with shortages, we have grown up in difficult circumstances. But that’s what made us strong. Now that you have these facilities, particularly in an institution like this, you should use this to make yourself and this country stronger. The fact that you have fewer challenges in terms of your day to day livelihood or your educational requirements, or your technological requirements will actually encourage you to reach out much higher than we could. That’s the only advice I have. So work hard, keep an open mind and remember, you belong to a very old civilization but a very young and very powerful democracy. And never forget how free you are. And never take your freedom for granted. There is an old english saying. I think P G Wodehouse made it famous. It is the old man saying to the young man twirling his umbrella. He says young man, your freedom ends where my nose begins. So remember that. Good luck.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,73 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "The Tradeoff of Truth"
|
||||
image: "ignorance-vs-truth-1.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
author: "Surya Raman, Sudhang Varshney"
|
||||
category: editorial
|
||||
excerpt: "What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life—that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?"
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
> “...What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life—that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?”
|
||||
>
|
||||
> \- Morepheus to Neo, The Matrix
|
||||
|
||||
*You fumble with the front door key before stepping into the mellow yellow of your living room. Your kids aged 6 and 8 rush to greet you, and your spouse smiles, waiting patiently, so you can relish the spaghetti and red-wine together. It wasn’t a particularly rough day at work - it never really is. You stare absent-mindedly at your fat pay cheque before turning in for the night. None of this feels right. Life’s great, but, none of this feels right. You quickly reproach yourself for being an overthinking twerp, bordering on lunacy, and get on with your life. But nothing feels right. There is an itch you desperately want to scratch, but you can’t seem to figure out where to look for it. At times you blame your cushy, blissful life for your uneasiness. Everything is optimised to generate the maximal amount of contentment for you, yet things feel hollow and lifeless. You spend restless nights pondering if there is more to life than the facade you appraise it to be.*
|
||||
|
||||
Such is the life we wish to critique through this editorial.
|
||||
|
||||
For those of you unfamiliar with the cultural meme ‘Blue pill vs Red pill’, made popular by the Keanu Reaves blockbuster *The Matrix*, the dilemma is quite straightforward. As it happens, you (living life as described above) stumble into a chance encounter with a shady looking mobster of sorts (we shall name him Morpheus). This prowler-of-the-night confirms your lifelong suspicion of things *not being right*. His strange mannerisms, cadence and their deviance from your robotic existence make you want to trust him. A deafening silence ensues as you’re made aware of the fact that you’ve been living in a make-believe simulation since birth. Your friends, your family, your job - all part of a grand deception. The real world is a laughably distant cry from the one you’ve known, and all you know about this difference, is that life ‘out there’, stinks. Things have worked out your way remarkably easily so far, but the same is not true for what awaits beyond the red pill.
|
||||
|
||||
And then, the choice. A life of blissful ignorance, easy ecstasy and no recollection whatsoever of this chance encounter, or a life of truth, knowledge and hardships. The blue pill, or the red pill. To return to the simulation would mean giving up on your only chance at knowing the truth, and waking up again with the same nagging suspicion everyday. It would also mean a life sans hardships. To ‘wake up’ from the blissful simulation would mean the eradication of the gnawing suspicion you’ve always lived with. And a chance at a full realisation of what is true.
|
||||
|
||||
To recalibrate this fictional dilemma to a more digestible scenario, imagine yourself to be in your 30s, blissful in a healthy and happy relationship with the love of your life, your college sweetheart. Or if that's too much of a good thing, take a nice reel life Bollywood couple who have had it made. Both of you love each other to death, and feel secure about what you have; you know no matter what, your significant other will be the rock you can always fall back on. Morpheus - this time dressed in a pink sparkling gown and donning delicate wings - hovers to you and opens his left hand ( gloved in glorious white mittens ), offering you a “red pill” (the truth) - your sweetheart loves another, and has been lying to you everyday for the last 15 years. This news devastates you to the core of your fragile heart, and let’s say you know - with certainty - the fact that you will never be able to trust anyone ever again if you have to live with this knowledge. Morpheus then opens his right hand, and reveals a “blue pill”, which you can take to obliviate any memory of hallucinations involving a sunglasses-wearing-fairy, and life goes on merrily till eternity. You marry and die snuggled in your spouse’s arms, in a warm, comfortable bed. You never find out about your partner’s betrayal.
|
||||
|
||||
The choice Neo ( Keanu Reeves ) makes (and the choice most of us knowledge-seeking, truth-starved philosophers, artists and scientists here at Roorkee are likely to make) is perhaps, the red pill. One need not be an artist or a scientist for this; humans across the world seem to have embedded in them an innate thirst for truth. Plato, Dostoevsky, Einstein and innumerable other intellectuals over the ages have shown a frenzied fervour, an almost unparalleled zeal for knowledge and the truth. When posed with the aforementioned nightmarish choice, one tends to follow these paths set for humanity - these paths that lead to the truth. What is perhaps most intriguing about this decision is the baffling ignorance of the hardships that are guaranteed to follow. Does one simply not care about those? Are we truly a species that lusts only after knowledge, and has overcome the shackles of pain that should seemingly deter us?
|
||||
|
||||
The value of knowledge and truth has been a central topic in philosophy - particularly epistemology (which deals with the theory of knowledge). At the outset, we make it clear that this editorial does not aim to question what must be considered true. Instead, this article aims to deal only with **the value of that which is considered true**.
|
||||
|
||||
An evident reason as to why remarkably talented intellectuals showcase(d) a maniacal lust for the quintessential apple of knowledge, can be attributed to the fact that *‘Truth helps humans see the world as it is, sans prejudice or bias, and hence helps one act rationally.’* This statement is termed as a fact for pragmatic reasons. To illustrate, consider an individual X, hailing from a middle-class Indian family, who wishes to apply for music school abroad. In the event where he assumes his family to be opulent and wealthy ( maybe because of an Oedipal mother who kept him in the dark ), his dreams are bound to be shattered, for he shall find out the true nature of things too late. However, if he’s privy to his family’s financial status before applying, X is more likely to work harder, and in a way that bags him a scholarship to the same school. It is easy to see how knowing the truth, however bitter, helped X act rationally, and eventually succeed in attaining his initial goal. This example also illustrates why one would want to act rationally.
|
||||
|
||||
There is however, more to valuing truth than just the associated pragmatic value. Often one comes across abstract research in fields like physics and mathematics - research with seemingly no practical applications. To put it another way, research in the basic sciences often seems to be curiosity driven, as opposed to application driven. As a society, we applaud, honour, and reward individuals who are passionately curious. In some sense, we regard our hunger for truth as a moral virtue. However, once one acknowledges the fact that humanity collectively values truth for truth’s sake, and not simply for viable solutions and pragmatic applications, one comes across a slippery slope trying to explain the existence of the same.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
As is the case with most human characteristics, an explanation of this gusto and ardour inevitably involves evolution. Back in the day (way back in the day), curiosity was a necessity for survival. Humans had to know which fruit was poisonous and which wasn’t, had to know how to avoid manhunters, and a plethora of other diverse truths to survive in a hostile world. Nutrition and sexual reproduction became foundational necessities for the species to survive and proliferate, and as the species evolved, the brain evolved to activate pleasure centres whenever these necessities were satiated. One could draw a parallel here with our need to be curious, to explain the uneasiness one feels when faced with the unknown, and the subsequent calm and bliss that serves to electrify, once the unknown is fully understood. In his book *‘Why? What Makes Us Curious’*, Israeli astrophysicist Mario Livio talks of the same. He explains the uneasiness associated with being unable to grasp a concept or not knowing a truth, as a ‘fear’ of sorts. Wading through the subject and making oneself aware of the truth turns out to be the only way to activate those pleasure centres, and subsequently lose that fear.
|
||||
|
||||
The last few paragraphs have perhaps been a little abstract; however, dealing with Neo’s choice requires us to be armed with this discussion. The truth presented in the dilemma that this editorial posed initially, was a truth about the fundamental nature of reality. Clearly, waking up from the simulation serves to offer no practical benefits. Any and all of Neo’s (or your) needs, wants, ambitions and goals are satiated and satisfied thoroughly. No additional pragmatic benefits are offered by the red pill. The reason why one would want to choose the pill of truth then, would be for truth’s sake. Evolutionary reasons demand that you be curious, and can similarly be used to account for the picture of an uneasy life in the simulation. The only unaccounted problem here being that of hardship, of pain.
|
||||
|
||||
The dilemma merely states the existence of a harsh reality, a cruel world; details are cleverly omitted from the choice. Consider a case where a starry-eyed, curious undergraduate Sam is offered a similar choice. He is told that if he chooses to ingest a certain pill, by the age of 35, he would have significantly helped with the development of the Standard Model of Physics that physicists across the world drool over. Moreover, Sam would then have a much better understanding of the fundamental nature of reality than most human beings. However, he is also told that if he chooses to ingest this pill, his future spouse is bound to cheat on him, and his son is bound to take his own life with infallible certainty. In this scenario, the harshness of reality is described in gory detail. One would expect lesser people to reach out for the red pill now. However, assuming a sizable number of people do reach out for the red pill (maybe you, as you read this, feel the same way), the question why becomes of paramount importance. Why on earth would anyone lust after the truth even in the face of inevitable death, destruction and grief?
|
||||
|
||||
It is here that we encounter the concept of **known and unknown pain**. In this more descriptive dilemma, the pain is emotional suffering, grief, and a plethora of mental disorders that are bound to plague Sam. However, Sam being the starry-eyed brazen intellectual that he is, chooses the red pill anyway. *‘Sure all that stuff is bound to be pretty messed up, but I’ll get over it I’m sure. This is a one time opportunity at knowing the truth! Surely I can go through a few bouts of grief for that’*.
|
||||
|
||||
Sam, in his own way, makes sense. But what is vital to note here, is his certainty and willingness when it comes to dealing with previously inexperienced pain. Even if the parameters were tweaked, and Sam was told that he’d certainly suffer for the rest of his life, starry-eyed Sam would still make the same choice. Sam, in his 20 odd years of existence, has perhaps never encountered death or any other major form of grief or suffering. It would hence be logical to say that Sam chooses the red pill without being completely informed of the experiential impact of that choice. If instead of a cheating spouse and a dead son, Sam is told that he’s bound to be whipped with a bullwhip in a public square everyday for a decade, Sam is perhaps more likely to gladly ingest the blue pill. Our undergraduate Sam is certain to relate with physical pain.
|
||||
|
||||
\* *At this point, the authors would like to make it clear that it is not the intention of this editorial to undermine any individual’s suffering of any form. The intention was to make clear, the notion of experiential pain.*
|
||||
|
||||
Of course, given that we live in the real world (which is a terrible rabbit hole to go down; the authors advise you to not give that assumption too much thought), we are well aware of the vague hardships the initial dilemma referred to. Armed with this knowledge, it is easy to make the claim that one can wade through reality and eventually find peace, however hard and arduous the path may be. Riding on that claim, it is then not surprising to see why most humans posed with this dilemma would inevitably ingest the red pill. Sure the blue pill will ensure that you forget about the existence of any form of truth, but in that moment, humans being humans are bound to forget about ‘known and unknown pain’, forget about the implications of the blue pill, and simply be overwhelmed by the notion of a truth. Neo (or us, living in a simulation \*coughs\*) hence forgets about the peace of the blue pill and doesn’t consider the worst possible scenario that the red pill could land him in. In that moment, all he cares about is the truth - and one wonders if humans are somehow destined to suffer that way. Is knowing the truth truly worth a life of hardship and pain, with only the possibility of respite? Is it not better to simply smoke away your days while peacefully playing a game of poker with your friends, waiting for the bacon to be served? And what are we to do with this truth, when all of us are doomed in this infinite, meaningless void of a universe, which doesn’t care about us anyway?
|
||||
|
||||
Perhaps the pursuit of truth may never really prove to be worthy of suffering; however, it is what helped our species survive, proliferate, and eventually dominate as the most powerful to be found on earth. But why does every species want to increase in number? What drives this pursuit of expansion that we attribute to life as a biological need?
|
||||
|
||||
A convincing answer to such questions is still hidden ( if it does ,in fact, exist ) from us, but our profoundly human desire to explore is bound to keep mankind in pursuit of a satisfying resolution.
|
||||
|
||||
## References
|
||||
|
||||
1. [https://quillette.com/2019/01/16/on-the-value-of-truth/](https://quillette.com/2019/01/16/on-the-value-of-truth/)
|
||||
|
||||
1. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3506136?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents](https://www.jstor.org/stable/3506136?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents)
|
||||
|
||||
1. [https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-08-27/why-are-humans-so-curious](https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-08-27/why-are-humans-so-curious)
|
||||
|
||||
1. [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-humans-are-hardwired-\_b\_11984748](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-humans-are-hardwired-_b_11984748)
|
||||
|
||||
1. [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/16/books/mario-livio-why-what-makes-us-curious.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/16/books/mario-livio-why-what-makes-us-curious.html)
|
||||
|
||||
1. [https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/32620361-why](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/32620361-why#:~:targetText=Astrophysicist%20and%20author%20Mario%20Livio,innate%20desire%20to%20know%20why.&targetText=He%20examined%20the%20lives%20of,da%20Vinci%20and%20Richard%20Feynman)
|
||||
|
||||
## Illustration Credits
|
||||
|
||||
1. [http://www.jasonsanford.com/blog/2017/12/why-the-red-pill-doesnt-wake-people-to-our-worlds-true-reality](http://www.jasonsanford.com/blog/2017/12/why-the-red-pill-doesnt-wake-people-to-our-worlds-true-reality)
|
||||
|
||||
1. [https://in.pinterest.com/pin/3870349650308528/?lp=true](https://in.pinterest.com/pin/3870349650308528/?lp=true)
|
||||
@ -1,54 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Institute Lecture : In Conversation With Dr. Dharma Agrawal"
|
||||
image: "lect.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal completed his BE from NIT-Raipur, ME from IIT-Roorkee and PhD from EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland. He has been the OBR Distinguished Professor at the University of Cincinnati, since August 1998."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal completed his BE from NIT-Raipur, ME from IIT-Roorkee and PhD from EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland. He has been the OBR Distinguished Professor at the University of Cincinnati, since August 1998. He is coauthor of textbooks **‘Introduction to Wireless and Mobile System (4th edition)’** , and **‘Ad hoc and Sensor Networks (2nd edition)’**. He also co-edited **‘Encyclopedia on Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, and Embedded Sensor Systems’**. He is a Fellow of IEEE, ACM, AAAS, NAI, IACSIT, and WIF. He is a Golden Core member of the IEEE-CS and recipient of the IEEE Third Millennium Medal. He has published over 684 articles, 42 keynote speeches, 67 intensive courses, 8 patents and 25 invention disclosures, supervised 76 Ph.D. dissertations and led UCBT Bluetooth packages. His research interests include applications of sensor networks in monitoring Parkinson’s disease patients and neurosis, applications of sensor networks in monitoring fitness of athletes personnel wellness, applications of sensor networks in monitoring firefighters physical condition in action etc. He has a G-Index: 346, and an H-Index: 68.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*Professor Agarwal delivered an Institute Lecture on Friday, 13th December on the ‘Internet of Things (IoT)’. Watch Out! decided to interview him to find out more about his career, his research, his passion for the field, and the various ground-breaking aspects of IoT.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You completed your Masters in Engineering from IIT-Roorkee over 50 years ago. In all these years have you ever revisited the campus or is this the first instance?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Agrawal -** I visit the campus from time to time having been appointed a Faculty Member here under the Eminent Alumni scheme of things. In fact I was here last year too, although the topic of that talk was vastly different from what we have this time around (Internet of Things).
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How did you actually become interested in the field of research? What motivated you to move away from the thought of personal gain that comes with getting a mainstream job. or getting into business?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Agrawal-** I myself have never understood why people choose to believe that mainstream jobs offer personal gain. I prefer freedom of work, that is, being able to work for as long as I want, whenever I want to with my own deadlines and targets. More than that I had always been drawn to the idea of research, so pursuing anything apart from that didn’t seem logical. From very early on I enjoyed interacting with students and working with them. It’s brought me such joy that although I could have retired 10 years ago, I continue to work. Another positive is that I have been able to attract a lot of PhD students in my time as a professor, having just supervised my 76th PhD dissertation. It is things like this that motivate me to continue working.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You are back here in Roorkee for a talk on IoT. Based on your long term perspective of the development of the internet. what are some of the potentials of the field of IoT?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Agrawal -** The applications of IoT are countless! Most people don’t think about it, but the medical applications are ground breaking. The best examples are some of the non-intrusive pills we have developed over the years. *At this point in the interview, Dr. Agrawal showed us the pill he then talks about*. These pills have a small camera on the top, which is obviously encased. You swallow this pill, and it transmits the images to a transmitter placed close to your body - maybe even your mobile phone! This pill can help detect any tumors or other anomalies with a completely non-intrusive procedure, and can do so within 6-8 hours. All of this is made possible with IoT.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You have been working on improving the treatment for Parkinson’s disease as an application of IoT. Could you shed some light on it?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Agrawal -** This is why I like working with students, they want to know everything! *At this point in the interview Dr. Agrawal dug into his bag and showed us the boots he then talks about*. We have been working on these boots for the purpose of helping people with Parkinsons. Each boot has several pressure pads, each capable of withstanding 250kgs of weight. The data from these pressure pads is transferred to a computer or mobile phone by means of an Arduino. This way we can determine when the patient is beginning to get tired, and this provides a better way of treating Parkinson patients, since this circumvents the necessity for the individual to ask for help. This boot also has several other applications in the field of sports (cricket, football etc.). As I said, the medical potential of IoT is ground breaking.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You won the Harry H. Goode award in 2008. What was your work that made that possible?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Agrawal -** It was a cumulation of whatever I have done in my career, a part of which I’ve just talked to you about. It is all about hard work, and I can tell you that there are no shortcuts in getting to this point. As a student, everyone should be looking to work hard and get in contact with the right professor. All of this could make a very big difference in the scheme of things.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** One of the major questions that has followed the field of IoT has been the huge surge in power requirements. For the common man whose first hand experience with IoT comprises mainly of Google Homes and Alexas, the question that arises is that are researchers looking into the problem, or is the primary focus building smarter devices first, with the power side of things being left for later?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Agrawal -** Obviously researchers do look into making their device more power efficient, but the main problem with practical applications of IoT right now isn’t that the device that takes up a lot of power - it’s the transmission of data which is to blame. So as the datasets get larger, it is going to lead to an increase in power requirements, but a nice work around to all of these issues is to have portable wireless chargers. There are some small devices which have been developed for specific applications, and I believe their existence is extremely important for the field of IoT.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You have spent a lot of time both in and outside India. According to you what are the major differences in the students here and abroad?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Agrawal -** I have always loved working with Indian students and also with those from China. They are very diligent and hard working, unlike the students from maybe the USA. A major chunk of my students are in fact Indians. It’s always a joy to work with students of that exquisite calibre, who are willing to work as hard as they do. They are a lot more focused on their goals.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** I hope you are enjoying your stay at our campus sir.
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Agrawal -** I am quite enjoying my stay here. They make their best efforts in making the stay comfortable for us. My lecture is scheduled for Friday, and is being broadcasted live to the best of my knowledge and I will talk about my journey from mobile phones to IoT. I hope that talk and this interview are able to provide you and your peers with enough motivation and perspective to gain a deeper understanding of the field of IoT.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,233 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "In Conversation With The Inter IIT Sports Contingent"
|
||||
image: "football.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: ""
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Football (Shubham Kumar - Team Captain)
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How is the preparation this time different from the past years?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shubham:** Well we have had a lot of our senior players graduated this year. That has led to around 8-9 fresh players in the squad. Accordingly, we have played a lot of internal practice matches and to back it up, we had planned to participate in a few practice tournaments. We went to 2 tournaments but unfortunately both were washed out.
|
||||
So the overall exposure is less but the new members are highly motivated to give their best.
|
||||
Since, the setup for the whole squad has changed we have had to adapt out training and strategies accordingly.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** So how long did the team actually prepare for? Did preparations begin after the end-sems or before that?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shubham:** Preparation begins from the first day of the semester. You try and identify the positions that are vacant and then you have members from the bench and times new players who step up a their game and begin to take over. Steadily, we build our strategies with our minds first set on Udghosh which could have been a great opportunity to gain exposure had it not been washed out. But yes, for the 15 days after the end sems we have left the setup of the team unchanged with only minor changes here and there and we hope it pays off.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Who according to you are the toughest competitions in the tournament?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shubham:** Well personally I fell that IIT-Bombay provide the toughest competition on the field. They make you run and press really hard forcing you to commit mistakes. Fortunately we beat the last year and we hope to do that this year as well.
|
||||
IIt-BHU too has a wonderful team and also IIT-Delhi who beat us in the finals last year. I really hope we get to play them again this time.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Given the new additions to the squad, how would you rate your chances at this Inter IIT?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shubham:** Well I feel that although the players are new, they are also really skilled. Like not just the playing 11 but also the bench is really strong and these guys fit very well with the playing 11. We have a really strong team such that each player can play in any position. So yeah, I think we have a really good shot at bagging a Gold.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Badminton (Abhinav Gupta)
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Any major changes in the badminton contingent this time around?
|
||||
|
||||
**Abhinav:** We don’t have any first years joining us this time but we have 4 players who have been playing at the Inter IITs for the last 3 years. So we have a lot of experience on our side. There aren’t any major changes from what it was last year just the amount of time we spent preparing for it.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Could you describe what your training schedule was like?
|
||||
|
||||
**Abhinav:** We have really stretched out our training sessions with the morning session lasting for 2.5 hours and the evening session being extended to 2 and sometimes even 3 hours. Our preparation this time is really at the peak.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Did your training times match with the times that the matches are supposed to be scheduled?
|
||||
|
||||
**Abhinav:** No, the times for the matches will be completely random, but that really doesn’t matter. Our fitness and preparation is at the peak and we are ready to face anything that is thrown our way.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** So what are your expectations headed into the tournament?
|
||||
|
||||
**Abhinav:** Our expectations and beliefs for the badminton team are obviously quite high this year. We have put in a lot of effort in both on and off the court training, the whole contingent has. So our fingers are crossed and we all hope for the best.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Cricket Team (Pranjal Bajpai - Captain)
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How are your preparations this year different from the last few years?
|
||||
|
||||
**Pranjal:** Our team is very different this year than what it has been in the past. We have 8 people who’ll be playing at the Inter IIT for the first time. So, you can say that we have a fairly inexperienced team but our practice has sure been better than last year. We have had plenty of practice matches and we have performed much better than what anyone expected.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How many practice tournaments have you been to leading up to this?
|
||||
|
||||
**Pranjal:** We played at Sangram and travelled to Udghosh (it was washed out). But our performance at Sangram was amazing with us bagging a Gold.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Are there any freshers that have made it to the squad?
|
||||
|
||||
**Pranjal:** Yes, we have one kid from the first year joining us in the squad.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Which team do you think is the team to look out for?
|
||||
|
||||
**Pranjal:** Well, our arch-rivals are definitely IIT-Delhi and we are really looking forward to beating them.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are your expectations heading into the tournament, both from yourself and from the team?
|
||||
|
||||
**Pranjal:** We definitely hope to bad Gold this time. We have managed to come very close in the past year, especially in 2017 where we bagged a Silver. But given the effort that the squad has put in this year, we have our sight set on Gold.
|
||||
|
||||
### Chess (Vivek)
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** This is the first time that chess has been included in the Inter IITs. How have you prepared for the tournament?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vivek:** This time we have some additional pressure since we have to try and get the GC for the college. So we have had to prepare harder. Since its inclusion at the Inter IIT we have also had a coach come in to help the team. With the help of the coach we have put in a lot of effort and hope that we can bag a medal in our first tournament.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Have you been to any practice tournaments to get some exposure?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vivek:** No, we haven’t been to any practice tournaments but we did organise a practice tournament within the campus where we called known players from Dehradun. So that helped the team get some exposure.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How do you rate the performance of the team headed into the Inter IITs?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vivek:** The team performed well in the practice tournaments and I think it is safe to say that after the coaching sessions the performance of all the members has improved significantly. We hope that this improvement will show in our performance at the tournament.
|
||||
|
||||
## Hockey (Shubham Tripathi)
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How are the preparations this year different from that in the past?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shubham:** All the team members have been very regular in disciplined in preparing for the tournament. I and all the other fourth years have found time for the team despite everyone being busy with their placements. All of this has helped us to really start playing as a team.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** So do you have any new players in the squad?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shubham:** This year I guess around 7-8 players are new in the squad with an M.Tech student(who is a former player of IIT-Delhi) joining us this time.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Who according to you are our top rivals in Hockey?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shubham:** According to me our top rivals are IIT-Delhi, IIT-BHU and IIT-Madras and we look forward to playing them all.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** So what are your expectations heading into the tournament?
|
||||
|
||||
**Shubham:** We have a very good team and all the players are very motivated to do well. So we expect nothing less than bagging a gold as we did last year and defending the championship.
|
||||
|
||||
## Basketball (Medhavi Jain )
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How have the preparations this year been different from that in the past?
|
||||
|
||||
**Medhavi:** Since the team has changed a lot(we have many new players) we have had to train a little differently. The fourth yearites were very busy because of their placements but still were very regular and supportive to us. So although the way we train hasn’t changed a lot, the inclusion of the new players has led to a lot of tactical changes.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Does the team have any non-UG students?
|
||||
|
||||
**Medhavi:** We had a senior from M.Tech in the girls team last year who has since left the team because of a semester exchange. We also have a senior doing his PhD who is part of the boys team.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How has the performance of the team been leading up to the Inter IIT?
|
||||
|
||||
**Medhavi:** We went to Udghosh but our performance there wasn’t that good but we had won the event the year before that. Since the team is new, we have tried to go to different tournaments to gain more exposure to perform better at the Inter IIT.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are your expectations from the Basketball team heading into this tournament?
|
||||
|
||||
**Medhavi:** We have our fingers crossed and hope to give our best, that’s all.
|
||||
|
||||
## Athletics (Ajay )
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You have a very large contingent for athletics. How do you manage your preparations?
|
||||
|
||||
**Ajay:** Well it’s not actually that big if you compare it to the bast years, maybe compared to other sports but 28 members for all the different events that fall under athletics is not that big. We had 24 members in the contingent last year too!
|
||||
The athletics team prepares as a unit with specific training requirements also matching for a few events. We have excellent coaches who make sure that the students are well prepared and also that we stay disciplined.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What have you guys done differently this year?
|
||||
|
||||
**Ajay:** Well we have had a lot of training sessions and we felt that the last time we only focused on our strength and not technique. This time the major focus of the training sessions has been on the technique. The coach has made us understand the importance of finding the right balance of strength and technique and I think that has made us improve a lot.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How has the performance been leading up to the Inter IITs?
|
||||
|
||||
**Ajay:** Everyone has performed really well in the practices and now we just have to do the same in the Inter IIT.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** YOur expectations headed into the tournament?
|
||||
|
||||
**Ajay:** The expectations are really high. We hope to perform our best in every event and win as many events as possible. Hopefully we will bring the GC to IITR this year!
|
||||
|
||||
## Squash (Sparsh Jain - Captain)
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How has the preparation this year different from the past years?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sparsh:** As students of the game, we have tried our best to prepare ourselves with all members of Squash-IITR pitching in with their inputs on our game.
|
||||
The lack of a Coach continues to hurt us though. We had a coach last year who used to visit us on a fortnightly basis but even that was not provided this year. One can only learn so much by watching videos and especially in the case of complex technical games as Squash, it is absolutely necessary to have a good coach behind you and we have had to make do without one.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Squash is played in a very constricted environment. Are there any chances of injury and what are your plans to deal with them?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sparsh:** The sport is prone to injury with all players leaving their hearts out on the court. It requires a great technical know how in order to avoid major injuries and the lack of a coach really hurts us there.
|
||||
We have tried to study up on various post-match cool down techniques along with a few everyday treatments for knee injuries and hamstring injuries, but yes these are a part of the sport and we’ll try our best to fight through them.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** So who are your top rivals at the Inter IITs?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sparsh:** Well personally speaking I think IIT-Delhi are the toughest rivals and they did beat us last year. We do look forward to playing them this time.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are your expectations from the tournament?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sparsh:** Well preparing on our own without a coach has been a bit of a set back but we still feel very confident in ourselves and hope to perform at the highest possible level.
|
||||
|
||||
## Lawn Tennis
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How are the preparations this time different from the last time?
|
||||
|
||||
**Tennis:** I think this time the preparations are a lot better than the previous years. We even had some players from Allahabad come in to train with us, some top ranked players. So this has obviously provided us with a lot of exposure.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Any changes in the squad?
|
||||
|
||||
**Tennis:** There are two of us who have played at the Inter IITs before. The newcomers are really strong players too, so I think we have improved a lot as a squad.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** So what are your expectations headed into the tournament?
|
||||
|
||||
**Tennis:** Well we will go for gold. Hopefully IITR will be able to lift the GC this time too.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Volleyball
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How has the preparation this time been different from the past years?
|
||||
|
||||
**Volly:** As the squad changes so does the preparation. The coach obviously knows what is best for the team and is able to make changes keeping the strengths and weaknesses of each player in mind. There are a lot of such variables like strength, stamina and overall fitness. So yes the preparation has adapted to the squad.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Given that volleyball is an outdoor sport, do the weather conditions play a big role in the gameplay?
|
||||
|
||||
**Volly:** Ofcourse. In fact we were just checking the weather forecasts for the tournament. More or less the conditions are similar to Roorkee and we have our fingers crossed for playable wind conditions.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Have you been to any practice tournaments?
|
||||
|
||||
**Volly:** We did go to Udghosh but as everyone knows it was washed out.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are your expectations from the tournament?
|
||||
|
||||
**Volly:** We hope to give our best and will definitely aim for gold.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Weightlifting (Jogesh Kumar)
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You have been part of the squad for a long time now. How has your preparation this time been different?
|
||||
|
||||
**Jogesh:** Well me and a few other medal winners from the last year have entered our final year and were unable to give full time to the practices. We aimed to maintain our general fitness levels throughout the year with real weight practice beginning only last month. Apart from that the whole squad is new and they have prepared extremely hard for the entire duration of the semester.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How many hours do you put in the gym?
|
||||
|
||||
**Jogesh:** Well we train 6 days a week for 3 hours a day and on the week-ends we also have morning sessions. 80-90% of our focus is on gaining strength. In order to do so we lift 80-90% of the competition weight in each practice session.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Any changes to the contingent?
|
||||
|
||||
**Jogesh:** Well we have 2 freshers joining us this time. There is a student doing his PhD who is part of the squad for the first time.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are your expectations from the Inter IIT?
|
||||
|
||||
**Jogesh:** We are the defending champions and that is what we are aiming for. The team is new but they are highly motivated and we look forward to repeating our performance last year.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,61 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "5th IIT Students’ Council Meet"
|
||||
image: "iit-students-council-meet.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Interview with Sai Varun Mula (General Secretary Entrepreneurship / Professional Affairs)"
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
## Interview with Sai Varun Mula
|
||||
|
||||
*(General Secretary Entrepreneurship / Professional Affairs)*
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What is the PAN IIT Students’ Council? Who are its members?
|
||||
|
||||
**Varun:** The elected representatives of all IITs, who fall under their respective Student Councils form the PAN IIT Students’ Council.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** The General Secretaries of each IIT are recognised by the administration of the respective IIT. Is the PAN IIT Council similarly recognised?
|
||||
|
||||
**Varun:** We are not yet recognised by MHRD, like the Inter IIT Tech and Cultural Meets. It is recognised by the administration in a certain way, as the Director/DOSW of the host IIT sends invitations to all other IITs, in a similar way as invitations for Inter IIT Tech/Cultural Meet are sent.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** When and where did the last meeting take place?
|
||||
|
||||
**Varun:** The meeting was held on the 17th and 18th December at IIT Kharagpur.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Who represented IIT Roorkee?
|
||||
|
||||
**Varun:** General Secretary Academic Affairs(UG) and General Secretary Professional/Entrepreneurship Affairs.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Are the meetings frequent? Was this meeting convened just for the purpose of releasing the solidarity statement?
|
||||
|
||||
**Varun:** We have 2 more meets planned in the next semester. One at IIT Gandhinagar and one at IIT Hyderabad(tentatively). No, the agenda of the meeting was completely different. Due to recent happenings, this particular thing just came up and everyone felt the need to discuss it, and so we put it up for debate. We discussed many agendas related to Academics, Research, Entrepreneurship and Placements, among others.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Whom does this document represent?
|
||||
|
||||
**Varun:** The decision is taken by Student Representatives of the Council. Even in the statement, it is explicitly mentioned that the student representatives stand in solidarity with the attacked students. This clearly does not represent the stand of an entire IIT.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Can you tell us the process of reaching the decision that led to the publishing of this document?
|
||||
|
||||
**Varun:** Everyone took a vote. Each IIT had one vote. Every General Secretary's stance on the issue was taken into consideration.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
### Minutes of the Meeting that took place on 17th December
|
||||
|
||||
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HVxrradFOa2g6edqDnhxG1LyuX6583l9pT4UK0Dlv00/edit](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HVxrradFOa2g6edqDnhxG1LyuX6583l9pT4UK0Dlv00/edit){:style="text-decoration:underline"}
|
||||
@ -1,52 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Distinguished Lecture : In Conversation With Professor Lorenzo Pavesi"
|
||||
image: "lorenzo.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Lorenzo Pavesi is Professor of Experimental Physics at the Department of Physics of the University of Trento (Italy)"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*Lorenzo Pavesi is Professor of Experimental Physics at the Department of Physics of the University of Trento (Italy). He received his PhD in Physics in 1990 at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale of Lausanne (Switzerland). He leads the Nanoscience Laboratory (25 people), and teaches several classes at the Department of Physics of the University of Trento. He founded the research activity in semiconductor optoelectronics at the University of Trento and started several laboratories of photonics, growth and advanced treatment of materials. He was the first president and founder of the IEEE Italian chapter on Nanotechnology. He has directed 37 PhD students and more than 30 Master thesis students. In silicon photonics, he is one of the worldwide recognized experts. He has organized several international conferences, workshops and schools and is a frequently invited speaker. He is an author or co-author of more than 500 papers, author of several reviews, editor of more than 15 books, author of 2 books and holds 7 patents. In 2001 he was awarded the title of Cavaliere by the Italian President for scientific merit. In 2010 and 2011 he was elected distinguished speaker of the IEEE- Photonics society. He is fellow of the IEEE, of SPIE and of the SIF. He holds an h-index of 58 according to Scopus and of 69 according to Google Scholar. He delivered an Institute Lecture at IITR on the 16th of December, and Watch Out! decided to interview him, to find out more about his undergraduate life, his research interets, and his scientific perspective.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** How was your undergraduate life? When did you start seeing research as a viable career option?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr.Pavesi:** This is actually very interesting. Since the very start I was really very puzzled about what is actually happening in nature. So this was my interest, my main interest and then I decided to move because I had the motivation to try to contribute to the development of knowledge. So this was my motivation.
|
||||
But it was only at the start of my undergraduate studies that I decided to pursue physics. Initially, I was not willing to do so and was more interested in being an engineer because I am really interested ( from a personal point of view), in the applications of what you have studied. But I talked to a professor back home and he suggested that I take physics, and the reason why he did is that with engineers you do not exactly understand what the content of the formula is, why this formula has been formulated in this way or not. So you learn the formula, you learn how to apply the formula, and not the story behind the formulas. What he suggested was that I do two years in physics and then switch to engineering, but then I started with physics and I stayed in physics.
|
||||
When I was in the last year of my studies I was talking to another professor who was speaking to someone for a project to do a diploma, we have a Masters diploma at the end of our studies, which at that time was of a long period. It was for one year and he suggested that I do this one year period in Switzerland and so I moved to Switzerland and did my studies there. Once you go abroad, you go out of your comfort zone and then you start to be really challenged by what is happening around and so you stay. The reason why I stayed in research is because you never settle in your knowledge. All the days you have new challenges and so you're always provoked by what is happening around you.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** So, because of your research you got the title of the Cavaliere for scientific merit. Could you shed some light on what led you to getting this award?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Pavesi:** So I didn’t ask for it and it came as a surprise even for me. This was the President of the Italian Republic who was to award a few people for their merit. So you can get the award for work, research or because you serve the country in a specific way. Oh and he decided to give me that for scientific reasons because he was impressed by the scientific results we were achieving. So probably what happens is that there are some advisors of the President, scientific advisors that spotted me and they said,"Okay, so you have to give this scientific title to him."
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** That's great, sir! You have also been the head of the physics department now for six years at the University of Trento and you've headed the nanotechnology lab for around two decades. So could you tell the students of IIT-R what are some of the research opportunities that are available at the University of Trento in the field of nanotechnology?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Pavesi:** Okay. So once you finish your undergraduate studies, you have to opt for a PhD. Then Trento as an old Italian University has a year long course for PhD positions and so if you want to come to do a PhD in Trento you have to apply to this course. At my department, we have something like twenty positions per year on the PhD physics course, and essentially those positions are given on the basis of the curriculum and the colloquium of the students; so based on the merit. Among those twenty positions all are covered with a fellowship, which I think is in the order of twelve hundred Euros per month. So you know, twelve hundred Euros per month is not a huge amount in Italy. It means that you live, you live fine, but it's not. They have an average salary in Italy I think of the order of six hundred Euros per month so you're almost average salary. Anyway, out of those twenty positions, there are three that are free, meaning that the student can do whatever he wants and the others are linked to a specific subject. And so when one is applying, one has to has to look at the specific subject. If he/she is interested in that specific subject he can apply, and then if he is selected, he can start doing the PhD. So it's really merit based.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** So do you also have a summer program for undergraduate studies?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Pavesi:** No we do not have such summer programs.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Sir in recent times the quantum computers that are being developed have a classical chip and a quantum chip so two separate environments that are connected together on the motherboard and then they are trying to make a quantum computer. Is silicon integration of classical and quantum components possible to such an extent where it can be brought down to a single chip where we can commercialize a quantum computer?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Pavesi:** The approach would be hybrid integration and not monolithic integration. What I’m saying is that I’m very skeptical about the fact that everything could be done on a single chip. Their requirements are very different. And so most probably what is going to happen is that we are going to have two different chips or even two different systems that are going to communicate or will be integrated together instead of a single monolithic chip. What we are trying to use is the black box approach where you as a user will ask the black box to do any calculation. And then inside the computer, you have an architecture that is a software that decides which part goes to the quantum computer side or the classical computer side. So for the user, everything will be an absolute trust part so you do not care whether you use a quantum or a classical computer. And developing this kind of architecture is not easy you need to have software engineers, quantum engineers, electronic engineers, physicists, and mathematicians and they have to sit together and decide the architecture.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** As a final question, what is your advice for the undergraduate students of our campus who want to pursue research as a career option, in order to achieve the success that you have had in your particular field?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Pavesi :** Work hard. So, firstly, be really competent in the field. If you really want to attain success, you need to have a strong background, a strong knowledge of your field. So this is your first important point.
|
||||
|
||||
Secondly, you should look at what others are doing and take on big challenges. In a way, if you want to make a big career, you need to face big challenges. That means, you shouldn't be focussing on a very small project or very small things. Like nowadays, there's not much sense in making a processor that is slightly better than the processors we already have. But there is a big sense to have a quantum computer that is not yet there or to make an artificial intelligence model that is not there. Like biotechnology, physics ungergraduates could use physics in order to tackle diseases. There is a discipline - the physics of cancer - where people are using physical methods in order to analyse what is behind cancer and try to face this disease and so on and so forth. The idea is really to have big ideas, so try to face big challenges, because that’s the only way to go on.
|
||||
In my career, when I started to do my independent research, people told me that silicon is only good for micro-electronics. I started to say no. Why is that? I started to work, trying to push silicon into photonics. Now Silicon Photonics is an actuality. A reality. What I’m doing now, i.e., my big challenge is to try to make a hybrid circuit between a silicon circuit and a live neuron circuit. So, a hybrid computer between a neural tissue and a photonic tissue. This is what I’m trying to do.
|
||||
.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Urban Legends - The Chronicle of Old KB"
|
||||
image: "kb1.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
author: "Shachi SIngh, Murtaza Bookwala, Kushagra Agarwal, Shreya Agarwal"
|
||||
category: editorial
|
||||
excerpt: "Located across the street from the Ravindra Bhawan Mess, Old KB paints the perfect picture of a haunted house."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Located across the street from the Ravindra Bhawan Mess, Old KB paints the perfect picture of a haunted house—big, rambling, dusty, cobwebbed rooms with the wall’s plastering breaking apart like dead skin; broken furniture, doors battered down, windows boarded up; the air musty with the damp; the very atmosphere, suppressed with tense mystery; creaking, whistling windows—cold swishing winds howling a requiem -- a sort of setting that you would pick up straight from a Daphne De Maurer novel. A place you would visit to seek out a glimpse of thrill in your otherwise dreary, hamster-on-a- wheel of a life. It silently escapes attention in the grand tour of campus discovery that most of us take as brow-beaten freshers to convince ourselves that our campus is at least half as interesting as we thought it was, being overshadowed by subsidized coffee and random loitering around Main Building by midnight, as soon as the hostel restrictions are lifted.
|
||||
|
||||
According to common folklore, the place witnessed a gory triple suicide, a tragic event causing the hostel to be closed down, never to be renovated. Others say that a large-scale inferno burnt the place down, leaving it in its present state of desolation. Both of these theories have been passed down by generations and generations of students at R land verbally as if it’s a legacy to be cherished and passed on till Judgement Day. These musings set the stage for horror aficionados, enabling them to speak of ghosts and spectres that apparently still float around the rooms of the building, waiting ravenously for naive freshmen. Efforts to dispel these stories as fiction are not helped by the apparent urgency with which Roorkee’s guards chase out those who attempt to enter the building.
|
||||
|
||||
The blanket of green foliage that stretches over the decaying building seems rife with the rustle of life - or maybe it is the deathly silence that amplifies the sound that every movement leaves in its wake. The rational say that’s just naughty little snakes darting around the emerald metropolis. Others feel a cold chill crawl up their spine in a reaction that they believe cannot be of corporeal origins. Our reporters carried on in pursuit of the truth, unperturbed by the spookiness that had surrounded them from all sides.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
However, on digging around a little they unearthed a “shocking” discovery. The structure in question actually housed the mess workers of the Ravindra Mess and their families, some 15 years back. After the campus was rechristened an IIT, most of the staff was transferred outside the campus, including these workers. Thus, the place was abandoned. Currently, the structure is being used as a storehouse for various waste materials of the institute, like mattresses, planks, tables, chairs and almirahs. In short, it's that last drawer of your cabinet where you put the things you can’t find a place for, the drawer that is evocative of warped wood.
|
||||
|
||||
While it is true that the current Kasturba is relatively new, and a Kasturba existed prior to its inauguration, erstwhile KB was never this structure. It was the building which is now known as the Old Teachers Hostel. Once this Bhawan became insufficient to accommodate all girls across the campus, it was allotted to teachers and PhDs, and a new Kasturba was constructed.
|
||||
|
||||
Thus, the place behind Georgia never had any connection with any Kasturba Bhawan, or with any otherworldly phenomena. This piece of information, though not documented well, has been confirmed by various fruit sellers and security guards of the campus, along with mess workers who used to live there, and also by the supervisor of Ravindra Bhawan. However, even after establishing the fact that this place was never Kasturba, questions persist. Why are there no urinals, when it housed staff workers? Why has the structure never been demolished, restructured or renovated even after abandonment for such a long time? Why is its entrance a purposeless hole in the wall? And most importantly, why is it called, and that too rather ominously, The Old KB? These questions remain unanswered, lost in the bottomless pit of IITR history, living on to spin a confusing tale of a bygone era, and continue to attract those brave of heart, and seeking a quick dose of adrenaline. The crumbling stone walls, the abandoned quarters and the wilderness, all combine to present a heady concoction of mystery and drama - that's Old KB for you.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
@ -1,88 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Horror In Anime"
|
||||
image: "horror-in-anime-1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
author: "Mohit Sharma"
|
||||
category: editorial
|
||||
excerpt: "Being a melting pot of all things bizarre, from 60 feet tall robot-alien hybrids to scantily clad people with sinful bodily proportions duking it out in interplanetary cat-fights, horror is admittedly not the first genre that comes to mind when one thinks of anime. Which is unfortunate to say the least, as in some ways, the medium is perfect for it."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Being a melting pot of all things bizarre, from 60 feet tall robot-alien hybrids to scantily clad people with sinful bodily proportions duking it out in interplanetary cat-fights, horror is admittedly not the first genre that comes to mind when one thinks of anime. Which is unfortunate to say the least, as in some ways, the medium is perfect for it.
|
||||
|
||||
Though well executed horror flicks are rare in anime and manga, there is the occasional gem that’s capable of instilling in one, a brand of fear exclusive to Japanese animation. Anime is quite different from live-action productions, if it wasn’t obvious. And so it tends to achieve the same effects in really different ways. For example, scenes involving dynamic motion often feature exaggerated deformations and variable frame rates to make up for the absence of motion blur and natural-looking camera shakes in animation. Nowhere are these differences as prevalent as they are in the horror genre, and are highlighted quite beautifully in the elegantly crafted works of the great Junji Ito.
|
||||
|
||||
Junji Ito has a very unique take on psychological horror, which at times feels like a twisted version of the lovecraftian brand of terror, albeit a tad bit closer to believability. The idea of “grounded” cosmic horror doesn’t make much sense... until it does. And the hint of reality makes it all the more unsettling.
|
||||
|
||||
Horror in Japanese art and animation is very different from western media.
|
||||
|
||||
## Not All Scares Are Created Equal
|
||||
|
||||
**“Jump-scares are cheap”**, say the intellectuals on reddit. The thing is, jump-scares don’t get nearly enough credit for what they can, and do achieve, if done right. A full-length feature film can never be scary or terrifying for the entire duration. The plot, setting and progression are supposed to build tension, pull the viewer in, and brace them for the scare, but in the end, it’s the *moments* that reel it in.
|
||||
|
||||
This seemingly simple mechanic however, does not translate well into animation, much less into *manga*, as there is no “surprise moment” when you’re flipping through the pages of a book.
|
||||
|
||||
**Or is there?**
|
||||
|
||||
Junji Ito (a recurring theme throughout this article) overcomes this hurdle by making using of something the majority of us are inherently ignorant of.
|
||||
|
||||
### The Page Turn
|
||||
|
||||
Junji Ito’s work is above all else, unsettling. He too, relies on the gradual rise of tension. It’s not **meant** to be terrifying, it’s meant to put the reader off with slow psychological buildup, eating away at their fortitude, until you turn the page, and are met with **One. Singular. Frame.**
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
This frame hits hard for two reasons apart from the content of the frame itself : its carefully planned value to the plot, and the buildup leading up to it. By making use of something as insignificant as the flip of a page, something that all of us nonchalantly overlook, Ito-san is able to introduce the element of surprise to a medium that essentially lacks the groundwork for it.
|
||||
|
||||
And while it isn’t quite as nerve-wracking as a Xenomorph highlight reel from Alien, what it lacks in sheer shock value, it makes up for in meaning. Ito’s “jump-scares” often serve as grim revelations, central to the plot, quickly following up the release of fear with more mystique, to continue holding the reader in his/her agitated state.
|
||||
|
||||
## Gore Galore
|
||||
|
||||
The majority of anime with the horror keyword in their taglists, tend to resort to gruesome imagery in an attempt to jar the viewer. The problem being… it doesn’t work.
|
||||
|
||||
Roots of this practice can be traced back to Japanese culture - body horror and grotesque depictions having been prevalent in traditional Japanese art and literature for centuries now. But that is, in a word, irrelevant. It just doesn’t translate well into anime, because anime is… well, **animated.**
|
||||
|
||||
Animation, by its very nature, necessitates stylization and reduction in complexity, which is what drives body horror in the first place. It’s a major reason why the anime adaptations for Junji Ito’s works, weren’t received nearly as well as the original manga. The immaculately crafted illustrations lose much of their weight when animated, as a large portion of the depth and detail is lost in the transition, taking away the organic believability that made it work.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:100%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Body horror and monster design derive from features that humans have evolved to avoid. The twisted features, sharp teeth, unnatural movements are all intended to exploit a very primal sense of fear in the viewer. The stylistic representations of these elements don’t appeal to that primordial sense of fear the same way as their organic counterparts.
|
||||
|
||||
*Hence, anime has to rely on more subtle ways to get across that “something’s wrong” feeling, the most prominent way being:*
|
||||
|
||||
## The Valley Of The Damned
|
||||
|
||||
The concept of the uncanny valley has long been used by the film industry to build tension. It’s the eerie feeling you experience when something’s right… but it’s not. It’s just a little bit off, just enough to creep you out, but not enough for you to identify the reason.
|
||||
|
||||
Imagine a snake with human teeth, and you’re getting there.
|
||||
|
||||
Ito-san is renowned for his unique art style and use of unsettling imagery to jar the user. Not causing them to defecate, but keeping them damn near the edge the entire time.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:100%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Then there’s **Perfect Blue**, a 1998 thriller written by Sadayuki Murai and brought to life by Satoshi Kon.
|
||||
|
||||
The characters, the settings, the ambience… they all feel normal but they don’t, like they’re all hiding something you’ll never get to know. It’s exactly that. Just a little bit off. It all makes for a very off-putting atmosphere that plays perfectly into the intense moments. At times, the transitions between different moods feel a little abrupt, but that arguably makes it even better.
|
||||
|
||||
*Another important element of Junji’s style is his intentionally vague plots:*
|
||||
|
||||
## Better The Devil You Know Than The Devil You Don’t
|
||||
|
||||
**For there is no fear greater than that of the unknown.** The fear of uncertainty, the **unknown,** is perhaps the most nerve-racking. From a filmmaker’s perspective, it can also be quite hard to pull off. Give out too little information and the reader won’t relate to the story. Too much and it falls flat, as your “monster” loses its enigma. Many of Ito’s works don’t feature a physical monster; rather, it’s an unexplained phenomena that the concerned individuals, and for that matter even the readers, know absolutely nothing about, and have no way of understanding - prominent examples being “Uzumaki” and “The Enigma of the Amigara Fault”. By giving you a “monster” you don’t know, Ito-san pushes part of the fear-building on to your imagination, and your brain is forced to fill in the holes, speculating a version of the unexplained entity tailored to your deepest, darkest fears. No longer are you afraid of the monster you know it is, but of the devil you fear it could be. You’re given just enough to keep you on your toes, and your own anticipation eats away at you.
|
||||
|
||||
All in all, horror continues to be one of the most slept-on sub-categories of anime, thanks to the popular gore-fests that seemed to have undermined the entire genre, despite there being numerous gems to prove that horror is more than just pre-teens running around in a sea of guts and body parts flailing around like confetti. It’s one of the most skillful and refined art forms, that has led to some of the most intricate implementations of the simple buildup-fallout structure, as well as some of the most mind-bending psychological pieces to ever come out of the medium.
|
||||
|
||||
*We recommend having a look at the following works if you feel like getting familiarized with this beautiful and surprisingly niche genre:*
|
||||
|
||||
**Slug Girl:** One of the few examples of good body horror in anime/manga
|
||||
|
||||
**Shiki:** Great use of tone and atmosphere
|
||||
|
||||
**The Hanging Balloons:** Great example of Ito’s take at cosmic-ish horror along with Uzumaki
|
||||
|
||||
**Perfect Blue:** Another example of gorgeously unsettling atmosphere mixed in with bits of psychological goodness
|
||||
|
||||
**Hell Girl:** Noone completely gets it, but it’s beautiful
|
||||
|
||||
**Aku no Hana:** Not really horror per se, it’s only here because we want to get it out there. If there ever was an anime that deserved the psychological tag, it’s this one. Also has one of the most haunting ending tracks of all time
|
||||
@ -1,52 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Institute Lecture: In Conversation With Professor KPJ Reddy"
|
||||
image: "prof-kpj-reddy.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Prof. KPJ Reddy is Professor Emeritus in the department of aerospace engineering at IISc Bangalore, where he has served as a faculty for 28 years."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Prof. KPJ Reddy is Professor Emeritus in the department of aerospace engineering at IISc Bangalore, where he has served as a faculty for 28 years. Prof. Reddy did BSc and MSc (physics) from Mysore University and PhD from Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi. His research interests are in the areas of aerodynamics, hypersonics, shock waves, high temperature chemical kinetics and materials, gasdynamic lasers, and quantum electronics. He is a founding member and former president of the International Shock Wave Institute (Japan) and Society for Shock Wave Research (India). Prof. Reddy has developed and patented numerous technologies using shock waves and based on these innovations he has established a group of companies under the faculty entrepreneurship program at IISc. He is a recipient of several honours such as IISc Alumni Award, Prof. Satish Dhawan Chair Professorship, and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Chair Professor. He is editor in chief of the International Journal of Hypersonics and editorial board member of Shock Waves, Journal of Engineering Physics and Thermophysics. Prof. KPJ Reddy delivered an institute lecture on hypersonics and shockwaves on 15th January, Watch Out! Decided to interview him to know more about his passion for research and undying love for life.*
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How was your school life? Did you enjoy your childhood?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof K.P.J. Reddy:** Oh yes! We spent our time were jumping around, jumping into rivers and playing. I really enjoyed my childhood and I try to have the same approach towards research as well. I have never worked for more than 2 hours a day. This character of mine is very helpful. I give the remaining time to do other things I like.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What do you do in your past time ?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof K.P.J. Reddy:** I interact with people and mentor children. I’ve been doing this for about 10 years. I mentor about 30,000 children per year, I go to schools in villages. A lot of those children have become big scientists. I talk to people in villages, farmers, and apply science into what they’re doing, into their lives. I adopted the town where I did my high school from and I’m building a huge science center. The state government has provided about 206 acres, in which, I have built around 16 acres, children can come and indulge in Mathematics and Astronomy. My dream is that in about 20-30 years, a farmer’s child should be able to become a nobel laureate. My research is equally intense, the lab that I work in is the biggest in the world in the field of hypersonics. Hypersonics is the one that takes you to the moon.I have closely worked with Kalam. I enjoy the place of guru, they jokingly call me the Gandhian of hypersonics. It shouldn't be like "O, Lage Raho Munna Bhai" type.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Tell us more about the science city you are building.
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof K.P.J. Reddy:** The Science Center that we are building, in the name of H Narasimhaiah, the ex-Vice Chancellor of Bangalore University. IISc has 350 acres of land and in 2009 we had the centenary celebrations and we decided not to build any more inside the campus, so we needed a 2nd campus. I was asked to help, this is when I realized that India lacks a science city. Japan, has Tsukuba Science City. It is a really big science city and everything science is done there and I've wanted to one such thing for a long time, so I bought 11000 acres of land from the government and invited organizations related to Atomic Energy, I gave them 3000 acres, I gave 2500 acres to IISc, then 4500 acres to DRDO and 500 acres to ISRO, that is where they had the Chandrayan trials. Fortunately I was the advisor to the previous government, HD Kumaraswamy and I talked to him about declaring that a science city of the country. I dream big, I don't believe in small things, at the same time I sit and work with people and sell my dreams to them. I also build my industries, and I have about 30 patents.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How did this transition from academia to industry take place? Tell us about the work done by some of the industries you started.
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof K.P.J. Reddy:** It was always in me, in fact around 2003, when Kasturi Rangan was the chairman of ISRO, he had made an announcement that he wants to privatize satellite making. So, I went to different industries and we collected around 750 crore rupees, and we bid for it. So. I built a company for making satellites. Two years later, ISRO withdrew from the program. They didn't want to privatize so soon. So, I always had this dream that we should make something in India and sell it to the world. That's why I invented the hand driven shock tube and I named it "Reddy Tube". It's prideful. It's an Indian name, there are an infinite number of Reddy's. It isn't my ego that I'm satisfying. It is an Indian invention. And now it is appreciated everywhere. In Karnataka, You can't become an engineer without studying about the Reddy Tube. In Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh, they're adding it to the first year syllabus everywhere. So this is what drives me. Now I have 4 companies below me, one of them works with ONGC, Modi himself came to our office and signed an agreement with us. So, with that we made tools for fracking. Right now, we use hydro-fracking, and it’s harmful to the environment and groundwater. So, we came up with a new technology where we use air to frack, it was a 7.4 crore project and now it is worth a billion dollars. Similarly, I invented a device for veterinarians, India is the 2nd largest producer of milk in the world. If we are able to increase the production by 10%, then all the problems that farmer’s face would disappear. I was looking at the root cause of this and we found out that it lay in the artificial insemination gun, which is only 30% efficient. If we can increase it by 10%, we can make our farmers financially dependent. So, I worked on the gun and attached the Reddy Tube to it and now it is known as “Super Bull”, so now it’s being used and we have used it on 15,000 cows and the results are mind-boggling, it has increased efficiency by 20%. Once this gun is used across the country, per day, the income of the farmers across the country will go up by 500 crore rupees. Per year, farmers would get an extra 1 Lakh 80 Thousand crore rupees as income with no additional cost. They need not go to the government asking for subsidies and loan waivers. Then they can have their pride.
|
||||
|
||||
In drip irrigation, acid is used to clean the drip irrigation pipes, which is killing our lands, because the acid goes into our lands. The farmers’ lungs are affected by the acidic fumes too. I implemented the Reddy Tube and now we just need to connect the Reddy Tube to these pipes, send a shockwave into the drip irrigation tube and all the clogged holes would open up, and no acid would be used. I am also the first one to use drones for afforestation. We have barren hills which stretches for about 35-50 kilometers on either side of the road close to my town, and my town is bone dry. No rains. So, we made these drones that can lift about 10 kilograms of seeds and I discovered a method to make these seeds germinate. So we built these 2 drones, so during the rainy season, the drones will take off and spray these seeds on the hills.. This is the knowledge that you guys have and are familiar with, you just have to apply it. That’s what I would say. I’m into that. So, likewise, I work with silk farmers, mulberry silk. That’s our major commercial product. Now we’re working on aeroponics. Aeroponics is basically agriculture without soil. So we would suspend the plant in the air. It needs nutrients and moisture. So, now we have built these mist making machines. We just need to add a little water into it and it creates a cloud of nanoparticles. We add the nutrients into this water and spray the plant with the water that it needs. Now this plant will grow in the air. My intention here is for farmers to do their agriculture with just buckets of water. We need not depend on rains.
|
||||
It will take a while because no one invests money into this. I have to mobilize my resources, whatever I get from my industries, I put it here. We were just talking about how we are building an artificial liver. That’s another thing. Doctors work with us, we just finished the proof of concept.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How did you manage to diversify your projects to this extent?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof K.P.J. Reddy:** It is your mind which creates these boundaries. In 1999, I realized that India had to go to space, but there were no hypersonics in the country, and today, India is one of the richest in terms of manpower in hypersonics. I personally produced 30 PhD’s. We have the best manpower in the world today. So, we can support the moon mission, we can support making hypersonics missiles. Now the government has to invest money, but the world-class manpower is right here in India. Everything is possible if you believe in it. Everything that I have learnt, I learnt without teachers, in school there were no teachers, in college I had to learn without teachers, even for my Ph.D, I didn’t have a guide. So, the point I’m making here is that I’m not a genius. It’s a mindset. I am not even one-tenth of what you guys are capable of. You have come through the system. You are extraordinary, but you have to realize this. Don’t go on an ego trip that “I’m extraordinary”. Remove the borders. Can you imagine that I have spent hours and hours, days and days watching people on the fields catching rats. Nomads would come after the harvest and they would catch these rats.How these rats make their tunnels, how they build their chambers where they store food for years together. That was the technology that Vietnam used to beat the Americans. So, we have to learn from nature. When you go back to your hometown, don’t waste your time sitting and watching TV. Go to the primary school near your house and spend time with those children. And then your personality opens up and you’ll be in such a position, that you’ll glow with confidence. This was the privilege that I had. I sit back and think “Why was I like this?”. Now I see that this is the reason. Honestly speaking you put the boundaries, and these boundaries make you what you are. You tell yourself that you will do Physics, Math and so on. But who stopped you from taking Economics as well? And your brain has infinite strength. You can be a dramatist, you can do whatever you want to. One day I thought I should learn music, because everyone was doing it. Now I can play fluently, you don’t need talent, all you need is that mindset that you can do it. And, honestly, you guys are blessed with it.
|
||||
|
||||
We are very miniscule compared to what we see around us, especially farmers. One day I went to Israel, where I was a visiting professor. A friend of mine was gardening and a Palestian passed by while my friend was watering his plants. The Palestinian asked him why he was being idiotic. My friend asked him what he meant by that. The Palestinian then told him, “Don’t you know that it’s going to rain tomorrow?”. And it promptly rained the next day. That’s why I say, “Learn, Look Around, Look Around and then you can be a leader”. You are insignificant, but at the same time you are infinite. Don’t ever tell yourself that you are great, but you are so great that you can change the universe.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What was your calling that made you want to take research, with research being such a risky option, where most undergraduate students don’t take up research because of its uncertainty. What do you have to say about this and what advice would you give to students on this topic?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof K.P.J. Reddy:** You see, I had no intelligence like this to make decisions on my own. I never had this dilemma. I’m just from a village and thought that if you passed 1st Standard, then you should go to 2nd standard and then 3rd. So, I never thought there were options anywhere. We never had a dilemma as to what to study and what not to. I asked myself “What is the best thing that I can become?”. The first time this had occurred to me was when I went to a hotel for the first time in my life. Over there, I bought a plate of Upma and Kesari Bath (South Indian dishes). I enjoyed it so much that I decided to become a waiter at the hotel, so that I could eat food like this everyday. That was my first goal. And then after 10th Standard, I had found out that a classmate had become a bus conductor. He lived a more luxurious life compared to us, so I told myself that I should become a conductor. To us ignorance was bliss. During my 11th and 12th grade, I worked very hard to fail because I wanted to get into politics. I wanted to solve the problems in my village, in order to do that, I thought that I should become a minister and help solve the problems of the village. During my 11th and 12th, my brother forced me to attend my exam. When the results came, I was tilling my land, when my father came to me and told me that i had passed. I was so annoyed with myself, I said “Damn It, I think destiny is trying to push me somewhere”. If I had gotten one mark less, I would have been somewhere else. My education was accidental. And then when I was studying during my B.Sc programme, I switched gears and I was the topper. One day when I was collecting my report card from the office, my Physics teacher saw me asked me about my marks, I had gotten a 100 in Physics. He then asked me if I applied for an M.Sc degree. I told him that I didn’t know what that was. So, he gave me a letter and I went to Mysore and that’s where I did my M.Sc. While I was doing my M.Sc, a colleague of mine told me that doing research is the best thing. I then got a fellowship at BIT Ranchi, where a professor from IISc had come and told us that the topper could come and join. It was destiny and a positive attitude. But the underlying difference between my friends and I is that whatever comes to me, I take it as a positive thing. Don’t ever cry. Don’t ever pity yourself. It is then that nobody can stop you from becoming successful. I sit back, I’m about 67, so I should start doing what old people do. And old people tell stories.
|
||||
@ -1,99 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "In Conversation with Team KNOx"
|
||||
image: "team-knox-2020-1.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "On the 10th of January, Team KNOx unveiled its latest automotive vehicle N-IITR-O to the campus junta. The team is all set to participate in the upcoming BAJA SAE competition."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
On the 10th of January, Team KNOx unveiled its latest automotive vehicle N-IITR-O to the campus junta. The team is all set to participate in the upcoming BAJA SAE competition.
|
||||
|
||||
WatchOut! decided to interview them to know more about their preparations and their journey so far.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What exactly is the BAJA SAE competition, and what is the history of your team in this competition?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** BAJA SAE is an intercollegiate design competition. It started in America. They particularly started by building trucks that could run on any terrain. What we build is a mini BAJA, the small vehicle, weighing around 200 kgs. Teams from various colleges in India, as well as the world, participate in this competition. In India, the event is held at two sites, at Indore around the Republic day and at Ropar in March. This year the competition is from the 23rd to the 26th of January.
|
||||
|
||||
Our team participated in this event for the first time in 2010. We ranked among the top ten teams consecutively in 2010,2011 and 2012. Somehow we could not participate after that and could only send the vehicle again in 2016, which failed the endurance test. A similar thing happened in 2018 as well. In 2019, we ran through the endurance for about 2 hours, but again had a breakdown and couldn't finish the race. We are hoping that we don't experience a similar kind of failure this year and finish well in the race.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Can you give us a few more details about the event?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** On day one at the event, a technical inspection is done. A check is conducted to see if the vehicle complies with the rulebook. After our vehicle passes this phase, another test is done for safety purposes - a brake test. We are given an (approximately) hundred feet trek. We are expected to run the vehicle at a speed of forty kilometres per hour. Then brakes are applied. We have to stop at a distance within ten feet, and all the four tyres should lock. Else, the vehicle will not pass, and we will not be allowed to attend any upcoming events. After that, the acceleration of the vehicle is tested. These are the first three events. Coming to the dynamic events, we are expected to drive our vehicle from one end to the other of a road littered with boulders. There are events for maneuverability, traction (of the tires), steering ability, and the driving skills of the driver.
|
||||
|
||||
Then there is an event where our vehicle has to face challenges. . Then there is a sales presentation, where we are asked about how we will sell the ATV, and how we will attract investors. Additionally, there is a design presentation, where we are judged based on our design, and the changes that have been made in its implementation. The final event is endurance. It comprises of four hundred marks (out of a thousand). It is the main focus of the competition and lasts for four hours.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What exactly is the endurance round which you are talking about?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** Endurance round comprises of four hours of rigorous testing of the vehicle. The lap consists of different types of rough terrains like rock crawl and mud bog. There are approximately 150 teams who participate in the endurance test, but after around 2 hours, only 10-15 remain. This is to tell you how brutal the track is.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Participating in a competition of such stature must have required a lot of dedication, hard work and planning. What has been your preparation process for the event?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** After coming back from the competition last year in January, all the sub-departments of our team sat together to look upon the mistakes we had made and to think about the changes that had to be done. After deciding the changes, we made a budget for every sub-department under the supervision of our team captain, and then by the end of February, we started working on the design. We were done by the end of March. We have the first round, the Virtuals, for the competition in June. In this round, we are judged on the basis of the presentation of the design of the ATV and also the full vehicle assembly. The judges decide whether the model we submit is feasible or not. We cleared the virtuals and were given the opportunity to represent ourselves in the main event, which is going to happen now.
|
||||
|
||||
After getting selected, we began with the manufacturing phase. First of all, we made a timeline for every sub-department. We had a plan to finish the manufacturing by November, and after that, we were ready for testing our ATV. We tried to make similar tracks as we are going to face in the competition. After testing, we went for the documentation of the vehicle, and now we are all set for the event.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How supportive is the administration, with regards to financial and infrastructural assistance?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** Our workshops are comfortable. However, if anything needs to be repaired, a long procedure is required. If the process (for funds) was online, it would be better. Right now, we have to fill out a form in advance, then submit it. It involves a lot of paperwork and is bureaucratic. If it was online, it would be beneficial. Our workshops and departments are pretty old, and sometimes the machinery gets filled with water. If we want them cleaned or removed, we have to wait for a month and a half. Manufacturing starts in August and ends in January. We can design in our rooms, but manufacturing has to be done in our labs, and the monsoon comes in the middle.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are the significant changes in the vehicle and your strategy this year?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** In 2017, we could not participate in the event because we could not clear the virtuals. Then in 2018, we faced issues related to the budget, and also the senior members of the team didn't have the requisite experience with manufacturing. Yet,, we made it to the competition in 2018, after a gap of a year but could not perform that well. We improved a lot in 2019, and our vehicle could finish 16-17 laps in 2 hours in the endurance round. But we had a breakdown after that. This time, we have worked a lot on the wheel assembly, which had caused the failure last year
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%"}
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are the difficulties that you faced as a team?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** The first difficulty that one faces is the kind of output the seniors give or how they pass on the knowledge and information to the juniors. That was the problem we met in 2017 when we could not enter the event, after which we had only one senior left in our team because of whom we could make it to the competition in 2018. This hasn't been the problem after that. The difficulty we face now is related to the manufacturing process. Though we have a vast amount of information and we can design everything correctly, there are only a few parts which we can actually manufacture ourselves, the rest of them have to be procured from Delhi, Pune or Chennai. This year we had to go to a vendor in Pune for CNC machining of specific components. He had promised to deliver the assemblies by the end of October but the delivery as made by the end of November. The whole manufacturing process, thus, got delayed by around a month, because of which we could not test the vehicle for the duration we had planned for. This is the biggest hurdle that we've faced. There are also certain issues like the tiresome process of documentation and running for funds here and there. Sometimes the team has to contribute funds to get things done. These are the two main problems that we face.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What kind of competition do you anticipate this year? Which institutions are expected to give your team stiff competition?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** The competition is very tough. Before 2019, 120 teams qualified for the main event; the count has now increased to 150, making the competition tougher. Institutions like College of Engineering, Pune, MIT Pune, and NIT Kurukshetra have an o utstanding track record, and we are aiming to beat them this year.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What kind of training do you give to the driver of the ATV and how do you decide who should be the one to drive the ATV?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** We have a team of about thirty people, and we choose the driver from these thirty people itself. First of all, the driver should have a driving license, that is compulsory. Along with this, the person needs to be fit; all the physical criteria for the same must be satisfied. The car is designed according to the 95th percentile rule which states that 95 per cent of the population should be able to sit in the car properly so it's evident that we cannot make a very tall or a hefty guy the driver. The driver should be as light as possible because that will improve the performance of the vehicle by enhancing fuel efficiency. 5-6 people qualify these parameters. Then we check how the driver handles the car on the track. For this, we give them the vehicle for testing, and then 2 or 3 of them are finally selected out of whom the fittest is chosen as the driver and the rest as co-drivers. This year Piyush is the driver.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Do accidents occur on the day of the competition? How do you ensure the safety of the driver in such a case?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** The rulebook which is allotted to us for the manufacturing process is concerned with the safety of the drivers. From the manufacturing phase itself, safety is a consideration. On the day of the event, we have a five-point harness, fireproof suit, and a helmet set that is sfi rated, for the driver. To deal with instances of a fire breaking out, the front cockpit and the rear cockpit are completely separated by an aluminium sheet. The rear cockpit has the engine and the fuel tank. The fuel tank is checked at the event site for any fuel leakage. In case of any emergency, there is a fire extinguisher attached to the vehicle. For further safety of the driver, there is a kill switch on the steering, and another at the back of the vehicle. A volunteer can then stop the engine immediately.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** In a race like this, how important is the pit crew? What skillset are they expected to have?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** The pit crew is the most crucial part of the team. If any failure occurs, or the car suffers a breakdown in the endurance test (or any event), the car is rushed to the pit. The job of the pit crew is to quickly identify the problem - which parts are broken or require servicing and promptly change it. If spares are unavailable, they should be able to work out how to make do without that particular part. This requires problem-solving abilities and quick thinking. They need to be level headed because time is of the essence (the race lasts for only four hours). If they panic, they will be unable to solve the problem and may even worsen the situation. Throughout the year, while the vehicle is still in the manufacturing and testing phases, we identify people for this task. We select twenty-five members who come through in all the situations and take them for the competition.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What additional supplies and resources do you carry, and how likely are they to impact your chance of winning the competition?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** We carry spares of every critical component and components which have a low factor of safety. We keep the factor of safety low for some components to reduce weight. If we increase the factor of safety, then the weight will be significantly increased. This can make the difference between losing and winning because if a component fails and there are no spares available, and the part is such that without it the car cannot run, we will be out of the race. This year, we have worked a lot on the design and have made most of the parts failure-proof. If the worst happens, we have spares of these parts.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Was there any exciting incident that occurred while you were preparing for this competition?
|
||||
|
||||
**Team KNOx:** A funny incident occurred when we had our first run. Our team captain was driving, and his leg got stuck on the accelerator pedal. He accidentally hit the car on a pipe that was on our set, and it got a dent on it. Many such incidents occur during the testing phase too. Once, we were testing the drop of our vehicle from a five feet high cliff. Our driver kept the vehicle too slow. The moment the car left the cliff, a rollover occurred. Our driver was upside down and lying by the car. Another comic incident that happened was that our machine has a part made up of tubes. When we start the car, there is something known as idling, which means that when the vehicle is started, it shouldn't run immediately, or begin to accelerate on its own. Our car is checked for idling. Two years ago, a component wasn't welded properly, and our captain was holding it and standing (to make sure the car didn't run). The engine was started, and behold! The tube remains in hand, while the car has run away.
|
||||
@ -1,38 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "In Conversation with Roorkee Motorsports"
|
||||
image: "rms.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: ""
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How long has RSME'19 been in the works?
|
||||
|
||||
**Captain:** After formula green 2017, we decided to do much more than we had done in that competition. We decided to have more powerful motors and organise our systems. We introduced rollbar and suspension, a power drain system and eccentric mounts. We changed the motor and many other parts. We worked on new type of steering systems. We organised all our thoughts and began designing around July 2017. The designing process took about an year. By the end of Spring 2018, our design was ready and we were awarded the required budget for the project. The first part of the budget, given in June was the basis of chassis manufacturing, suspension manufacturing, steering manufacturing, basically the mechanical part of the car, along with motors and batteries. The second part of the budget was used in the production of electrical parts of the car.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Are all the members of the team part of the project initially still working on it?
|
||||
|
||||
**Captain:** No, the project has been going on for about three years, so two batches have passed out since then.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are the difficulties you've faced as a team while working on this project?
|
||||
|
||||
**Captain:** The major challenge is the management of two teams, the Electrical and Mechanical team. We have to ensure proper communication between both. The departments like marketing and design also have to be managed. To recruit skilled members into the teamz as a group of students is a very challenging task. We also have to follow the guidelines, keeping the work on track and meeting all deadlines.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How is the budget divided between that provided by the sponsors and by the institute?
|
||||
|
||||
**Captain:** The budget provided by the institute is based on the design that we give them. It amounts for the components required for manufacturing thr car. However during production, we face many other expenses, like damage of a part or parts that cannot be manufactured, or manufacturing expenses. The total cost of this car is around 42 lakhs.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Calling onboard a famous personality like Garima Avtar for the unveiling event must've been quite a task. How did you decide to call her and what went into making this happen?
|
||||
|
||||
**Captain:** We wanted to make the unveiling event an innovative one. Our basic idea was that none of us know what a racing car is. We thought that it would be good if we could call someone who had racing as their area of expertise drive our car, and tell us about it. Later on, this combined with our plan of unveiling. We contacted Garima Avtar ma'am on Facebook, and through that we set up the event today. Ma'am was very cooperative with our plan and helped us make the event successful.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are your future plans with the car?
|
||||
|
||||
**Captain:** Our first objective is to participate in Formula Green 2020. We plan to retain the same electrical systems in the subsequent cars. We also plan to participate in as many competitions in one year, as a particular chassis is valid for one year only. If at all possible, we would like to participate in another international competition. At present, we lack expertise in our vehicle. If we gain expertise in a national competition, we can put our skills to test in an international event.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,65 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "In Conversation with Mrs. Garima Avtar"
|
||||
image: "garima.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Garima Avtar is a professional rally car racer. She has been a professional driver for Mercedes Benz Luxe Drive Live. She is an Automotive journalist, a car enthusiast and also organizes motorsport car rallies and self drive expeditions."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Garima Avtar is a professional rally car racer. She has been a professional driver for Mercedes Benz Luxe Drive Live. She is an Automotive journalist, a car enthusiast and also organizes motorsport car rallies and self drive expeditions.
|
||||
|
||||
She has participated and won laurels in almost all of India’s major Rally competitions, including the Indian National Rally Championship, the Raid De Himalayas, Desert Storm, the Mughal Rally , the Monsoon Challenge to name a few and many auto crosses and speed sprints. She has been felicitated as Superwoman of Delhi NCR as well as SuperMom by Radio One 94.3 FM. She has received numerous awards including the Asian Achievement Award for outstanding work in rally racing and setting an example for young minds and upcoming millennials.
|
||||
|
||||
Garima is Ex- Corporate Vice President of Delton Cables Limited. She is a Ted speaker, a model, an avid golfer and a Sufi singer too.
|
||||
She visited our campus on the 30th of January for the unveiling of RSME’19, a formula electric car designed and manufactured by IIT Roorkee Motorsports.
|
||||
Watchout! got the chance to interview her and know more about her journey.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How did you enter the world of automotive vehicles? What is your story?
|
||||
|
||||
**Garima Avtar:** Entering in the world of motorsports was something I never planned on. I started very late in life with this, and had a lot of doubts and apprehensions initially because there is no one from my family or friends who has done something like this before. When i started rallying there were hardly any mentors whom I could have taken guidance from. There were apprehensions, but my convictions were very strong, i knew this was what I wanted to do, this was the life I always wanted to have. The seed was sown when I was young. My dad taught me to drive a car at the age of 13. I remember, he used to be very proud watching me drive, also he was very particular that i do not exceed a certain speed while driving.He never treated me differently. That is what matters the most, the way you are brought up by your family.I was lucky that my dad was very progressive in his thinking. He is undoubtedly the wind beneath my wings.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What makes rally cars different from the normal cars and the other racing cars?
|
||||
|
||||
**Garima Avtar:** There are two kinds of rallies, one is the ‘Time-Speed-Distance’ rally also called the Regularity rally. In this kind of rally you are given a proper speed chart, the average speed being about 40km/hr. The navigation is more important in this format.
|
||||
The other kind of rally is the ‘Extreme’ rally. I am into extreme rallying, the high speed one.
|
||||
|
||||
I started with TSD and was very lucky to become a part of team Mahindra. I took training and then graduated to extreme rallying. When we do TSD rallying, cars need not be modified, but the safety needs to be ensured,though its not compulsory to wear your racing suit, because the speed is very less and you drive in normal traffic. The TSD rallies are very cool, fun, also competitive.They definitely give you a rule book and its more about finding your way to the checkpoints. You can’t reach before or after the time specified. You get a penalty in seconds.If you reach before time you get double the penalty.
|
||||
In extreme rallies, the cars are all modified. The track can be a gravel track or somewhere through the sand dunes.These tracks are not the circuit racing tracks, where you keep taking laps, these tracks have bumps, dips, and trees all around. The cars used in this rally are extremely high on safety parameters. They have a roll cage, the seats have to be FI approved, you are supposed to wear the rally suit which also has to be FI approved, the helmet has to be FI approved. They have different gear boxes, the suspension is also different. The safety parameters are very paramount, if you don’t pass the scrutiny you don’t get to the rally.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What goes into making a good racing driver?
|
||||
|
||||
**Garima Avtar:** First is passion, the love for the sport, then is discipline and training, because I think it's very important to constantly own your skills and practice and train ,as there is no substitute for practice. It is very important to know how to drive fast, how to change gears at the right time, also knowing all the techniques like left foot braking is very necessary. That is why it is very important to train, so that you know all the technicalities. The third is the car. Having a good car is also very important. In rally racing there are different categories on the basis of the car, namely 2000cc category, 1600cc category, etc. There is also an open category racing where all the cars of different powers compete together. So, if you have a knife and someone else has a piston, it obviously is not equal competition. So a good car matters a lot.Its an expensive sport at the end of the day, the better and costlier the suspensions you use, the less time you take, and it's all a matter of few seconds.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You started racing in 2011. There must have been a lot of mansplaining which is attached to this sport. How did you rise above all that?
|
||||
|
||||
**Garima Avtar:** It is all about competency, about the training. When you do a superficial job by just going there and rallying, that is not enough.If you train, and you know how the car is built,you get inside the engineering of the car, you get inside the nitty-gritty of the car, then the guys respect you, the peer respects you,because you know your stuff, you know your craft.
|
||||
Fortunately, I have not faced much of this. I was very lucky that i was picked up by team Mahindra, so i was with the top drivers. I was picked up in my initial days, that’s how i got a good standing in the motorsport community at that time. It is definitely a male dominated sport, but I think with time it becomes like a family. Also, as i mentioned competency is very important.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You just had the opportunity to test out the product which the IIT Roorkee Motorsports team has come up with. How would you rate the car they have put out?
|
||||
|
||||
**Garima Avtar:** I am very proud of the whole team of IIT Roorkee who have put up the car.
|
||||
The vehicle that these guys have made is environment friendly and we know that the government is putting in a lot of effort to make India the global electric vehicle manufacturing hub and thus, manufacturing something like this is just wonderful.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Which form of racing would you qualify to be the toughest?
|
||||
|
||||
**Garima Avtar:** For circuit racing, it's definitely FORMULA1. For rally racing ,WRC(World Rally Championship) is the toughest.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Did you ever get a chance to participate in the WRC?
|
||||
|
||||
**Garima Avtar:** I would need a crores of money for that. It’s an expensive sport as I already mentioned.
|
||||
I’ll be very happy if I get to drive in the APRC, I have driven one round of APRC that happened in India, but I would love to drive in the APRC anytime soon. The DAKAR rally is also a great championship.
|
||||
For WRC, as I said, you need a different level of expertise, you need a whole lot of money even to train. Last year, I went to Dubai to take training in Drifting and this year also, in February, I will be going to London to train for an advanced level of drifting.I am super excited about cars and driving. And as I said, training must never stop, it is always how much you can afford and what you can do about it.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** We read an article about you leading an all women's expedition to Spiti valley in 2017. What were your experiences and also how did you get the idea of this?
|
||||
|
||||
**Garima Avtar:** I did it for an expedition company. They reached out to me to do an all women's expedition and I agreed to it. I got a bunch of very enthusiastic and brave women, because Spiti valley has got the world’s most treacherous roads and it was compulsory for them to drive, even the co-drivers were women. Though the team was also accompanied by men, all the participants were women. Many of them were regular drivers who had never driven on the highway, so we had to train them first.
|
||||
The experience was fabulous. I have got the best of friends from the 7 day journey. For the participants, the experience was great. The whole journey was a lifetime of an experience for all of us.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Do you have plans of visiting the 2020 Auto Expo and what are you looking forward to?
|
||||
|
||||
**Garima Avtar:** I definitely have plans of visiting the 2020 Auto Expo. I am very excited about hybrid and electric vehicles. I am a very big car enthusiast but i am also very fond of super cars and sports cars. So, I am going to be mainly focussing on the sections of premium category and will also be looking out for hybrid and electric cars.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,87 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Institute Lecture: In Conversation With Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain"
|
||||
image: "lieutenant-general-syed-ata-hasnain.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Through most of his 41-year illustrious career, Lt. Gen. Hasnain has served in a turbulent environment and hot spots. From Sri Lanka to the Siachen Glacier, from the North East to J&K and in UN operations from Mozambique to Rwanda, he has seen it all in crucial appointments."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
_Through most of his 41-year illustrious career, Lt. Gen. Hasnain has served in a turbulent environment and hot spots. From Sri Lanka to the Siachen Glacier, from the North East to J&K and in UN operations from Mozambique to Rwanda, he has seen it all in crucial appointments. He served seven tours in J&K, in every rank, decorated in almost all of them and knows the J&K conflict comprehensively. He is one of the foremost writers and analysts on J&K, Pakistan and transnational extremist violence. He is a much sought after speaker and writes for major Indian newspapers. With a strong academic background from Sherwood College, Nainital, St Stephen’s College, Delhi, the Royal College of Defence Studies and Kings College London, as also the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies, Hawaii, he has been at the forefront of encouraging the adoption of the Scholar Warrior concept in the Indian Army. Besides having spoken at the Bangladesh Institute of Strategic Studies (BISS), National Defence College (NDC) and Institute for Policy, Advocacy and Governance (IPAG), all at Dhaka, he also lectures at the Rajaratnam School for International Studies (RSIS), Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), and Lee Kwan Yu School for Public Policy all at Singapore and is associated with the Vivekananda International Foundation as Distinguished Fellow and the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies at New Delhi. On 13 Jul 2018 The President of India has appointed Lt Gen Hasnain as Chancellor of the Central University of Kashmir. As one of India’s most decorated military officers Gen Hasnain has six decorations awarded by the President for India and two by the Army Chief._
|
||||
|
||||
_Lt. General Hasnain gave an institute lecture on the 22nd of january. Watch Out! Decided to interview him to know more about his way of life and his acumen of dealing with sensitive situations as and when they present themselves._
|
||||
|
||||
**NOTE: This interview contains certain parts that are gory in their detail, and may be inadvisable for certain readers. Those parts will be preceded by a “trigger warning”, and readers are expected to read that part of their own volition.**
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Being in the military is a profession where your life is always at risk. When and why did you decide that you wanted to join the army? And what was your motivation behind that?
|
||||
|
||||
**Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain:** Frankly, in the army, we have a system called passing It on which means that a military family, will always want that at least one person in the family joins the army to carry on the tradition. My father was in the military. He belonged to the Garhwal Rifles, he didn't ask me to join the army. I was good academically. My brother was very good academically. He joined the Foreign Services, I could have also probably worked for civil services, but I had an inner calling. I loved the outdoors, I went everywhere with my father anyways. I loved the life of the army, and that is why I didn't even give a second thought to this idea. It's a profession in which your life can be endangered. I think you ask any of the army officers. I don't think this aspect has probably ever come to our minds. We take an oath. At the cost of our life, we will perform our duties at the expense of our lives.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Sir, you have been in the service since 1974 and hence have a lot of experience. So how does it feel like to serve in the military? What were some of the things that being in the army taught you?
|
||||
|
||||
**Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain:** Number one was the whole concept of team spirit. You can't be an individual in life. Everything has to be done in a team. For us in the army, everything is about the team.
|
||||
|
||||
Number two is a sense of honor. I don't want to do anything which will bring a bad name to my family and, more importantly, to my regiment. We have a very strange system. I may be an Indian Muslim from Allahabad or Lucknow, but my troops are all Garhwali. We have a very simple thing in the army; the faith and belief of the ideology of your troops become the faith, ideology and value of the officer. So, I'm equally comfortable going to a temple. The army has taught me to go to the temple, to go to the mosque, to go to the gurdwara. God is omnipresent. I wish, rest of India could follow this. I want this lesson to be learned by the rest of India.
|
||||
|
||||
I think this is some of the very big lessons the army had taught me, the whole aspect of tolerance, the entire aspect of plurality that please don't look at people by their faith and by their caste or by their color and by their creed. Nothing of that sort. Another is the overall value system that the army gave us and the excellent team spirit that it imbibed in us. I think these are three takeaways for me from the military.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** I was going through your Wikipedia page, and I read something about the Scholar Warrior Concept. Can you tell us more about it? And why are you an advocate of that?
|
||||
|
||||
**Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain:** You see, first of all, it's not my thing alone. I will never claim something which is not mine. I brought this system from America, and many people have gone to America for courses from the Indian army. Many people came across this concept. No one brought it back to India. I thought it was such an exciting thing. I thought, let me bring it back, and if I am in a position to implement it, let me implement it.
|
||||
|
||||
So I was in a particular part of the Army War College, and I implemented it. I started by saying that no officer will be called a student officer, every officer would be called a scholar warrior. The common belief is that a normal army man does everything through his physique and muscle power. This is what people believe. They don't realize that this profession that we are involved in has much more to do with the brain than anything else. Now, if you don't combine the brain and the brawn, you will never be successful. The scholar warrior concept is nothing but combining the brain and the brawn. Know your profession from the physical side, but at the same time read about different things.
|
||||
|
||||
Imbibe intellectualism, investigate many other things otherwise you'll be stuck in one line only. For me, history is essential, economics is essential, social science is essential, computer science is essential, bollywood is important, cricket is important. The other day someone asked me on twitter, Sir, which newspaper do you read, I said the first paper I read is DAWN, Pakistan. They were surprised. They said, why do you read DAWN? I said DAWN tells me about my enemy; that's why I read it first. Then he asked which Indian newspaper i read, I said Indian Express. Then they asked where do you turn to in the Indian Express? I said I turn to the page where there are two cartoons. One is Marvin and the other one is Calvin and Hobbes. I read them first to start my day with some cheer. Then I read my horoscope also. To see if the day would go well or not. I read that too. So you know, you must have varied interests. If you are to become a scientist tomorrow, I mean as an IIT graduate, you are a science-oriented person and you may have no other interest in life. If you don't know when did Virat Kohli hit his last century, then you're not fit enough. I tell people on twitter that Virat is going to score a century. They'll be like Sir, why do you have an interest in cricket? I say I have an interest in everything under the sun. So your personality has to be rounded up completely. At the end of the day, any question that you ask me, I am ready to answer. That's because of the scholar warrior concept.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**\*\*TRIGGER WARNING\*\***
|
||||
|
||||
**Question (audience):** Sir, would you like to share some good experiences in your 40 years of service and if you don't mind can you share some bad experiences from which we can learn as students?
|
||||
|
||||
**Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain:** My worst experience, let me tell you, one of my most awful experiences was when I came back from the United Nations, I was in the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Rwanda. My unit had already gone to Siachen. I came quickly through Delhi. I went to the Siachen base camp and met the commander there and everything. He told me I should acclimatize adequately. I said I have to get to my battalion headquarters. He said, you are a CO(commanding officer), take your own decisions. So the next morning instead of waking up there, which is a normal thing, I took the helicopter and headed there, got down and as I was taking the initial briefing, I got a call from the front post from an officer. I can't remember his name, a lieutenant, a young lieutenant, ASE officer attached to my battalion. He rang me up, I inquired who is on the phone, he said I am lieutenant Hardeep Singh, I am the youngest officer in the battalion. I've just joined. He said he was in a war post called Ashok. I think about nine or ten weeks he had been there.
|
||||
|
||||
I said, I hope everything is well and safe. He says, I hope you'll be coming here to visit me. And I've been looking forward to meeting you for some time. I said okay, great. I asked him what do your parents do? Then he told me he was from Chandigarh; his father was from a bank, And he said I've got one sister, no brothers. So then after a while, I cut the call. Not even a minute had passed when I received another call. I picked it up. Another Jawan calling, he said sir, sir, sir, I said yes? He said is this CO sir on the line? I said yes, he said sir, Hardeep sir has been hit by a bullet. I asked him how is this possible? Just a minute ago, I was talking to him over the phone. He said yes sir, as soon as he ended the call with you and lifted his head, he received a bullet under his eye and fell on the other side of the wall. He died.
|
||||
|
||||
Then Pakistan started heavy firing, the jawans told me that sir, there is so much firing over there, we can't recover the body. Then I told them to leave the body there. Leave it. Later in the night, at around 9 pm, when it was pitch black, I knew my jawans since I was from the same battalion. I asked for a particular jawan and asked someone to tell him to go down; he was from the Ghatak platoon. I told him to go down, tie the legs of the body with a rope and pull the body up. Then he went there and brought it up.
|
||||
|
||||
You have to bring it through a tunnel. The tunnel is made up of drums and the body, by then, had developed rigor mortis. To bring the body down, you had to break the body. So the body had to be broken to bring it back. I mean, one day he is your officer, talking to you and the next day you are talking about his body only. This happens a lot in our lives.
|
||||
|
||||
I have seen this in Sri Lanka a lot of times. One of the second-worst, I would say one of the even worse experiences was when a jawan in front of me stepped on a mine, a mine which was planted by LTTE. All his blood, the muscle, everything from his leg, came on my face. Unfortunately, he also died later. He lost his leg initially, so then he went off. He had an amputated leg, but he died. Such instances like this happen a lot in our lives.
|
||||
|
||||
Now good experiences, there have been many good experiences in my life. I mean, something which is out of the world and makes you feel so good. I can't think of anything that way, personally immediately with me. But otherwise happiness in the Army, it's a lot there. The biggest delight is when you get the command of your battalion.Oh! Excellent, I also commanded my battalion. The battalion that you had been admitted in, and for me the cherry on the cake was that my father was also from that battalion; he was the one who brought it together. And then I received the order that I am going to take over the command of the battalion, So I was the second generation CO of a battalion which was also raised by my father. I think that was a great feeling. Amazing feeling! I mean, very nice. One small little anecdote, let me tell you when I came back after I got commissioned in my battalion as a second lieutenant. I arrived and the sahayak told me, the CHM of the company also said to me that, sir, tomorrow you are going to have the CO interview, sir, please get a haircut before that, I am sending the barber to you. So now the barber came in the mess, made me sit, and started cutting my hair. After a while, he says,”sir, aapke baal kam ho hye”. I was barely 21 so I asked, “baal kam ho gye? Aapne kab mere baal dekhe jo aap keh sakte ho ki mere baal kam ho gye?” He remained silent. Then when I asked him again after a minute, he said, “Sir zindagi ka pehla haircut maine hi diya tha”.
|
||||
|
||||
He was my father's rifleman , but my father was a part of the first Garhwal Rifles. The barber was also in it. At that time, that barber had just joined as a young constable and I was only a year old then. So he came home, my father made me stand on the chair and he gave me a haircut. And 20 years later, he was giving me a haircut again.
|
||||
|
||||
**\*\*END OF TRIGGER WARNING\*\***
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Sir, recently you have been appointed as the chancellor of the central university of Kashmir so what are your plans for it in the future?
|
||||
|
||||
**Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain:** It's a near-impossible job. Operating these things in Kashmir, from the past 2-3 years or in the future, also is a very very difficult task. The university after the 5th of August was closed for almost two months. When it opened, then satyagraha started. The students didn't come, teachers didn't come. I've been a military commander in Kashmir. I can't go back and start motivating university professors and students to start coming and studying. I said this is not my cup of tea. I am not going to do it. But I had a Skype talk several times with students, with people like that. And I did motivate them, one of the things which we started to do was to try and bring in new departments, international studies department we have been trying to start, but it has not been fully functional till now.
|
||||
|
||||
We want to look for strategic studies as a subject. These things will help the Kashmiris a lot; academically, they are very sound. But because of the prevailing environment, although there is a lot of passion for academics but at the end of the day, somehow, it fails to flourish. It doesn't emerge that way. Kashmiris have a lot of love for sports. It's a sporting state. If you see the unconventional games which involve body contact, different-different martial arts, and other games like that, you will find that Kashmiris win them all over India. Especially the female child. The girls around the 13-14 years age group win, and many a time even at the all India level. I wish we could do much more to encourage them and train them for better potential things internationally and things like that. So I have tried a lot to improve this sporting culture in the central university of Kashmir. But I'm not happy with what I have achieved. I hope the situation is much better next year and we can pursue better academics and better sports activities.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Question (audience):** Since the army does a lot for the people in Jammu and Kashmir. We see it in the news, like managing students who want to give JEE exams and others. So the army still helps in bringing those people in the mainstream and then you see people pelting stones against you, accusing you. So sometimes do you feel unacknowledged and directionless and that all your efforts are going in vain. Like do you sometimes feel that no matter how much you do, some people have a set ideology and don't want to appreciate what the army does in their capacity?
|
||||
|
||||
**Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain:** Good question, excellent question. And let me tell you, it all depends on what rank you are on in the army, what service you had in the military and how much experience you have in these turbulent areas.
|
||||
|
||||
Someone who has spent two years there, six months or eight months there, would feel disappointed. But someone who has spent 22-23 years over there will never be disappointed because they know that these things are for the long term. There are no quick-fix solutions to this. Generational change has to happen. It will take three generations to change Kashmir. I am aware, so I don't feel disappointed by this as I was telling you that the first stone was thrown on my car. Even after that stone, I used to go so often in Baramulla like that. A curfew was present; it lasted for over two months. So I told my staff, for me, in my Gypsy and the escort car behind me, there should be only biscuits and baby food. So I got them filled with biscuits and baby food. Then I told them I want medicines and a doctor to go with me. And we went into the old town of Baramulla. The turbulent area filled with terrorists. I said I don't want any ammunition near me. I want to go out. I said wherever we will go we distribute biscuits, give baby food and whosoever is sick will see the doctor. And through that, I broke their will. I cut their intention with that. If in these places you use force, power and try to intimidate them, they will rise again to fight you. That is the approach we need to follow and keep reinforcing it. Keep reinforcing it.
|
||||
|
||||
Don't keep it as a transactional thing; make it a transformational thing, how to ultimately bring everyone on board with you. That's why I said, the program Sadbhavna that we do, by which we try to win people's hearts and minds, has to be taken ownership of by the government of India, not by the army alone. Then only it will succeed.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Sir, do you have a word of advice for our young generation?
|
||||
|
||||
**Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain:** I would say, don't be disappointed by temporary setbacks that your nation goes through. You will get through this in your personal life, your parents will get through this. With every setback like this, there will be compensation that will come your way. And that compensation will always make up for it. So if you're going through a particularly tricky phase at a particular time, believe in yourself. Believe in God. And at the end of it, everything will be delivered to you. Thank you.
|
||||
@ -1,91 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "In Conversation With David Tong"
|
||||
image: "david.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "David Tong is a professor of theoretical physics at DAMTP in Cambridge, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and joint recipient of the 2008 Adams Prize. He was a postdoc at the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*David Tong is a professor of theoretical physics at DAMTP in Cambridge, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and joint recipient of the 2008 Adams Prize. He was a postdoc at the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics. He was an Adjunct Professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). He is currently also a Simons Investigator. His main research interest is in Quantum Field Theory, while also studying aspects of Quantum Field Theory related to String Theory, Supersymmetry, Solitons, Geometry, Cosmology, and Condensed matter physics. His most-cited paper, "DBI in the sky", provides a possible observational test of one mechanism for inflation in the very early universe. He is also well known amongst the students for his very enthusiastic lecturing and comprehensive lecture notes for courses he has taught at the University of Cambridge (most notably the ones on quantum field theory). On 26th February 2020, Prof. David was invited by the Physics and Astronomy Club to deliver a webinar lecture. The topic of the lecture was the Renormalisation Group. Watch Out! had the chance to inquire into his thoughts about theoretical physics and our attempts to make sense of the structured chaos of our universe.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How did you get interested in physics when you were young? And after so many years of being involved in theoretical physics, what still excites you?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. David Tong:** I got a copy of Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" for my 17th birthday, and it opened my eyes. I didn't know anything about quantum mechanics or black holes or particle physics before reading that book. It really lit a spark in me. I also didn't know that there was a career called "theoretical physicist" where you get to sit and think about these things for a living.
|
||||
|
||||
I'm very easy to excite when it comes to physics. It's an infinitely rich playground and it's very hard to be bored. At the moment I'm thinking about topological insulators and what they may have to say about particle physics.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How can an undergraduate student start with research in an area like theoretical physics?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. David Tong:** It can be hard to do undergraduate research in some areas of theoretical physics, especially quantum field theory. If you do get the chance to do some research as an undergraduate, the exact area doesn't matter so much. Just enjoy the chance to solve some problems.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How do you feel about the research environment in India and how it differs from the international domain? What can be done to improve it?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. David Tong:** India has some of the best theoretical physics groups on the planet. The country has a wonderfully strong education system, and many talented physicists who could have taken positions in prestigious universities abroad but have decided to return home. That retention of your best scientists is really the key to generating the research environment.
|
||||
|
||||
One way that it differs from most countries is the large number of research institutions, where there is limited contact with undergraduates. I don't know if that's good or bad, but personally I find that I learn a great deal from teaching undergraduates, and I'd certainly miss that in a research institute.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** We've heard some people say that theoretical physics is in a state of slowdown. What do you think about this?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. David Tong:** I suspect that these people either aren't paying attention, or have a very limited view of what theoretical physics entails. If you have a small attention span and want a revolution like quantum mechanics every few years, then research in theoretical physics isn't for you. You should probably just write a blog or something.
|
||||
|
||||
But if you're interested in the universe around us, then there's so many exciting things going on, from breakthroughs in experiment like gravitational waves and the Higgs boson, to breakthroughs in theory like quantum computing and topological insulators, to mysteries that we don't understand like dark energy and dark matter. It's very hard to see how anyone can view this as a slow time.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** With the rise of the internet and video lectures on YouTube, a lot of educational resources are now more accessible to the general public than ever. How do you feel about that? Do you think that this has sabotaged the learning experience for students and the importance of a teacher for a student?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. David Tong:** The more of this stuff, the better. Physics is hard. Really hard. Anything that can help students learn has got to be good.
|
||||
|
||||
And there's still a major role to be played by universities and the traditional lecturing style. Despite all the videos and materials available online, the quickest way for me to learn something new is still to sit in front of someone smart and have them explain it clearly.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are the differences between how one does theoretical physics and experimental physics in terms of the mindset required to work in it?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. David Tong:** Since I barely know one end of a screwdriver from another, I'm not the right person to ask about experimental physics. Does it even involve screwdrivers?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How would you explain QFT to a curious 5-year-old?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. David Tong:** I wouldn't start with the path integral. That would be way too hard for a 5 year old. So I guess I'd start with the Lagrangian, then move to the Hamiltonian and just go over the usual canonical commutation relations with them.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are your views on people who believe that the earth is flat and that birds are just drones spread around by the government to spy on us?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. David Tong:** I'll let you guess what my views are. Here's a hint: your first guess is probably the right one.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Have you ever read a book and were captivated by a particular quote or a quirky footnote that has just stuck with you?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. David Tong:** Here's a story. A few months ago I was reading a book on general relativity that included the following quote from Einstein:
|
||||
|
||||
"You know, when you start calculating you just shit yourself".
|
||||
|
||||
For obvious reasons, that kind of stuck with me. But I didn't understand it, so I tried to track it down. The book I read cited another biography of Einstein which, in turn, said it was from in a letter Einstein wrote to the physicist Otto Stern. That book was translated from German. I don't speak German but thought it might be interesting to get the original. When I eventually found it, it said:
|
||||
|
||||
"Wissen Sie, wenn man zu rechnun anfängt, b'scheisst man unwillkürlich."
|
||||
|
||||
"Scheisst" is shit yourself. But "b'scheisst" is cheat yourself. So this is my great contribution to the history of science: Einstein didn't shit himself. But he did cheat himself.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** A lot of undergraduates tend to sway away from research since it's a path which requires a lot of struggle which often amounts to nothing. People also give up on careers in research for monetary reasons. What advice do you have for undergraduates in this regard?
|
||||
|
||||
**Prof. David Tong:** There's so many rewarding careers out there and many reasons to look at them. If you want money, you should do something other than research. If you want a career without a lot of struggle then you should definitely do something other than research.
|
||||
|
||||
But if you think physics is beautiful, are desperate to understand more, and get a real thrill when you understand something, even something small, then research might be the right path.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,100 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "A Word With The HPVC Team"
|
||||
image: "hpvc1.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "IIT Roorkee’s Human Powered Vehicle Challenge team (HPVC) has been participating in E-fest, a national competition hosted by American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for the last three years."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*IIT Roorkee’s Human Powered Vehicle Challenge team (HPVC) has been participating in E-fest, a national competition hosted by American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for the last three years. Each year, the event sees teams across the nation attempt to engineer a vehicle from scratch that is practical and eco-friendly. In the HPVC, students work in teams to design and build immaculately engineered and highly efficient vehicles for everyday use—whether it be commuting to work or to carrying goods to market.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**All set out, Prancer 2.0 was unveiled by the honourable Director Dr Ajit K Chaturvedi.**
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** What exactly is E fest and where is it being held this year?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** Basically ASME is the governing body of ours.It stands for American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which allows us to form local student chapters. So E-fest is their annual competition held in different parts of the world, we participate in the asia-pacific region event and it would be held between 28th Feb and 2nd March at Marwadi University, Rajkot.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** What is the history of IIT roorkee in this competition?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** It is the 11th year since ASME IIT Roorkee Chapter's was formed..We are participating in the ASME E-FEST Asia Pacific for the third time.We were ranked 18th overall out of the 40 teams last time and are expecting a better result this time.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** Tell us about the various competitions that will be held here
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** HPVC is the biggest event in the E-fest. Their other events include the Student Design challenge , which we are also participating in. There’s also IM 3D, where you compete with 3D printed models. Apart from this there are several paper presentation and poster presentation competitions and some fun events.
|
||||
|
||||
In the HPVC, first we have to submit a qualification report, out of which they shortlist around 50 teams for the final event which we are going to Rajkot for.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** What are the various levels of testing to pass to succeed?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** It is actually a 3 day event. The first day is mainly design checks and specifications, which includes a design presentation and both static and dynamic inspection of the vehicle such as speed events, turning radius events and other safety checks. On day 2 we have the drag event which is focused on testing the maximum speed with head to head races between the vehicles in several knockout stages and on the last day there is the endurance event that continuously runs for two and a half hours where the built quality of the hpv is tested with several obstacles and tasks that are to be completed and the one with the maximum number of laps at the end is declared the winner.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** How different is an HPV(Human powered vehicle) from a normal cycle?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** You might have observed that in a normal upright cycle the rider is essentially in upright position. Riding cycle continuously for long time like 4-5 hours in this position can cause some serious problems like back pain, saddle sore, etc. In our HPV, the rider sits in the recumbent position that is in laid back position. Apart from alleviating problems like back pain, saddle sore, etc, this position is optimum for riding a bicycle as there is maximum utilization of muscle strength (thigh muscles) making it more comfortable to ride. This position also gives different options for the drivetrain mechanism. The recumbent position also provide us an aerodynamic advantage over upright position. We can achieve streamline shape in recumbent position and after incorporating an aerodynamic fairing in our vehicle we can significantly reduce the drag force, which ultimately helps in achieving speed much higher than normal cycle.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** How long have you been preparing for the event?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** HPVC 2020 was a eight month long rigorous journey. We also had insights from our previous submission.The designing and prototyping phase was almost four months long, and the next three months was all rigorous, hard core manufacturing follwed by the testing phase.We started from scratch and then we came up with the final vehicle.
|
||||
|
||||
Currently we are completely funded by the institute although we have been trying to get sponsorship for the coming year.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** What are the effective changes in this year's model when compared to last year's? What is the strategy?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** There are a lot of innovations brought forth this year. The main focus was to increase the ergonomic ability of the vehicle and thus features such as adjustable steering angle and movable seat were incorporated to accommodate riders of different heights. Rear suspension was added for the first time in our design to improve the off road riding experience of the vehicle and making it more usable in real life riding conditions. GRP(Glass Reinforced Plastic) was used to manufacture the fairing for the vehicle to increase its aerodynamic design without adding much to the total weight. All the above changes narrowed down to achieve the goal of making a rider friendly vehicle so that each rider could give his maximum effort in the racing events and thus increasing the chances of winning.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** How fast is your HPV?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** In the controlled conditions,in our campus we have reached 39km/hr, and the theoretical speed limit that we had come up with was around 42 km/hr.
|
||||
So we have reached almost the maximum.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** Do any accidents occur on the day of the competition?Anything that you know about?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** Yes, accidents do occur during the event involving failure in the vehicle or improper judgement from the rider. Previous year there was a head on collision between two vehicles not during the race but during the practise hours in the evening time but thankfully neither the vehicle nor the rider from both sides were harmed.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** How safe is it?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** The first priority in the judging criterion of the vehicle is safety.. The roll cage that we manufacture is actually designed so that no part of the rider's body actually touches the ground in case the vehicle misbalances or falls. Additional safety features are also required to justify the safety of the rider and the other people on the road. We are required to submit a safety video where we have to depict all the safety features which are then verified in the static inspection held during the event.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** What are the major difficulties you actually face while working as a team?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** It's a eight month long program, which needs patience and dedication. Proper planning and coordination amongst the team members is important for the smooth functioning of the project. You don't get all the custom made parts here at Roorkee so logistics is a great difficulty here. Also in the designing aspect ,as it is a completely new design, there is a lot less documentation available on the internet. So prototyping every other thing in the HPV is required. We made about six to seven prototypes to get the final dimensions and designs.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** You have been participating for the last three years, which institutes are gonna be tough competitors?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** Teams learn from there experiences and each year we have new top rankers. Teams from VIT, Chandigarh University and NMIMS have been consistent over the past few years and will be there to pose a tough competition.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO :** What are your future plans?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**HPVC Team :** We are planning to take part next year, with few more innovations to come. We will be working on a self funded and self sufficient HPV.
|
||||
|
||||
It has been a great experience, you learn a lot of things and we take our vehicle as a product and at this stage, it’s quite easy to convert this into a market viable product.
|
||||
@ -1,35 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Institute Lecture : In Conversation With Dr. Anil Joshi"
|
||||
image: "anil.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Dr. Anil Prakash Joshi secured a master's degree in botany and a doctoral degree in ecology. He started his career as a member of faculty at the Kotdwar Government PG College but resigned from the position in 1979 and founded Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization (HESCO), a nongovernmental organization."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Dr. Anil Prakash Joshi secured a master's degree in botany and a doctoral degree in ecology. He started his career as a member of faculty at the Kotdwar Government PG College but resigned from the position in 1979 and founded Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization (HESCO), a nongovernmental organization. Under the aegis of HESCO, Joshi promoted research and development of new environment-friendly technologies for the agricultural sector, tapping the local resources. His emphasis has been on inclusive growth of community by economy and ecology both. The Uttarakhand State Government has adopted his concept of Gross Environmental Product (GEP). He is also a recipient of the coveted Padma Shree and Padma Bhushan awards as well.
|
||||
Dr. Anil Prakash Joshi gave an institute lecture on 12th February, Watchout! interviewed him to find out more about his diverse social initiatives and the motivation behind them. *
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You once had a job as a researcher, which is considered stable by many. You left that job, and established HESCO. What drove you to take such a big step?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Anil Joshi:** I never really had any inspiration per se. The main driving force was when I saw that the deprived in villages never had what everyone in cities had. I felt that being a teacher, I couldn’t be of much help to the society. A better way to help would be to set an example for the poor and deprived. It was my compassion for the underprivileged and my will to help that drove me, not inspiration. The people in villages are rich in resources but still poor. Those who do not have anything to do with the production of these resources grow rich. The managers are more fulfilled than the producers. We aim to help these producers, by boosting a local resource based economy. When I was still teaching, my PhD and MSc students were my major resources, who helped me with this. As time went on, there came a point when I was forced to pick. I could either teach or help the rural areas. I decided on the latter.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You are the founder of HESCO. Can you tell us more about the organisation and its workings?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Anil Joshi:** My students, in the early 80s, couldn't find a platform to justify their works in the rural areas, such that people could identify them with it. That was when the foundation of HESCO was put up. In those times, there was no culture for NGOs, rather we were just some organised people, who identified ourselves as this group, Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization, among the people.
|
||||
The group never had a mandatory thought in the beginning. The mandate was decided as the community priority. This is why we make all sorts of things to help them, be it technology, garments, construction, food processing or fighting against the government. Anything the community requires, we provide them with it.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Talking about the institute, during your talk, you asked us to invite Open Scholars. Can you elaborate on that?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Anil Joshi:** In our country, education has become synonymous with learning the alphabet and cracking JEE, which is not a good mindset to have. There are people who are educated by the environment itself. They develop their own education. They are very important, especially now when we're losing the ecosystem at a very fast rate. I believe It is the people who've been close to the environment, suffered along with it, who can provide us with the best solutions. Thus we propose an Open Scholars program, where institutions such as IITs can invite such people to learn and share their ideas in a suitable environment. Such a program where the poorest of the poor, who never had the opportunity to grow, also have a chance to learn and share their experiences. This may not be like the regular education at IIT, but somewhat like a partnership between them and the institute.
|
||||
The students have to be the ones talking to the authorities. I will be the one to connect you with the people actually interested. Get them to meet your professors, get them to learn. We will be able to give a chance to the deprived and underprivileged, to put up their thoughts. What I aim is to promote the innovations that they think of, but are not given an outlet for promotion or scientific validation.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** You talked about urbanization curbing the nation's identity, how ecological development and urbanization cannot go hand in hand. However, removing research that doesn't focus on the rural people won't allow the benefits of that research to be enjoyed by the urban people either. How would you go about that?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr. Anil Joshi:** See, the word urbanization itself is something people don't know the meaning of. Urbanization itself is where has an opportunity to fulfill most of their needs, along with a chance to contribute to the system. Today, this has become the biggest consumer of air, soil and water. However, it has given the environment nothing in return. The urban people are only contributing hazardous waste to the system. Urbanization, in our country, has just become erecting buildings and stuff. This model can never bring sustainability. Sustainability can only be obtained when we regularly produce and consume. Urban parts only do secondary processing. Thus they are unaware of the production processes. This leads to a situation where the urban people where they consume continuously, unaware of the harm they might be putting on the environment they live in. This has led to a large ecological disparity complementing the economic disparity already existing between the cities and the villages. The floods affect the villages more than the cities, even though the main cause is the environmental destruction, caused by urbanization. There's no balance. We have to go for a balance between the urban and rural areas.
|
||||
The villages, however, cannot function without the cities either, many practices, already undertaken by the villagers, are upgraded by what cities have to offer. Toilets, pressure cookers, tractor, many innovations provided by the cities have helped the villages grow with faster and more efficient techniques. Only if both villages and cities go hand in hand, can we be effective in the sustainable growth of the whole nation.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,48 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "In Conversation With Major General Sudhakar Jee"
|
||||
image: "major.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Major General Sudhakar Jee, Vishisht Seva Medal is an alumnus of Sainik School, Bhubaneshwar and National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Major General Sudhakar Jee, Vishisht Seva Medal is an alumnus of Sainik School, Bhubaneshwar and National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla. He was commissioned into The Mahar Regiment of the Indian Army in June 1983 and has vast experience in operations across a wide spectrum of conflict and terrain profiles within India and abroad. The General Officer is presently holding the appointment of Deputy Commandant, Army War College, Mhow where the present and future leaders of the Indian Armed Forces and Friendly Foreign Countries are trained in Strategy and the Art of Warfare. He was elected as Colonel of the Mahar Regiment and has been holding the appointment since 01 Sep 2017.*
|
||||
|
||||
*Major General Sudhakar Jee gave an institute lecture on the 25th of February. Watch Out! decided to interview him to know more about his way of life and gain a better view of his opinions about the nation’s security and the role we’re supposed to play within it.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: When did you decide to join the army, how did you deal with the potential risks involving a career in the armed forces? What was your motivation behind this?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maj. Gen. Sudhakar Jee:** I was an alumni of Sainik school Bhuvaneshwar, which I joined in 1979. In those days, whoever entered this school did so with the primary objective of providing HR for training in the National Defense Academy. Having joined the school, I had no option. Joining the army was something that happened very naturally. I undertook a journey of many memorable experiences, of self discipline, of character building. Be it arriving on time, wearing the right dress, walking straight, marching straight, mannerisms, etiquettes, everything I learnt over there. What matters ultimately, is that success is in terms of growth, not progress. Success isn't going ahead alone, it is taking everyone together with morals and ethics. That is what success actually is. This is why I joined the army. It happened naturally as I said, though in the heart of my hearts, I really wanted to become a doctor, which didn't happen. I got through NDA in the first chance, and I joined and now have become a General in 36 years.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: Serving the Army for 36 years, you must’ve had many tough experiences. Can you tell us about some of them? How do you treat those situations?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maj. Gen. Sudhakar Jee:** Being a soldier, you have a singular aim. You’re given a task, and that task has to be completed. If it is not completed the way it is supposed to be, there are mechanisms of feedback. Once the task is assigned to someone, one has to complete it. If you’re asking me questions about my good times or bad times, well I do not see time as good or bad, I see time as a rare opportunity, one that everyone doesn't get. Soldiering, as I see, is an experience of self sacrifice, dedication and selfless commitment to dedicate yourself to a higher purpose in life, the national security. I took it as a rare challenge. The family, friends, parents, kids everyone takes a backseat everytime. I have been faced with many challenges where I couldn't be there for my family. When my father died, I wasn't there for his last rites. I couldn't care for my mother when she suffered from cancer. I missed out, you see. A soldier is neither here, nor there. He fights the battles for the goals and objectives of the nation.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: Tell us more about the ' power of Indian moustache'
|
||||
|
||||
**Maj. Gen. Sudhakar Jee:** *laughs* That was on the lighter side. You see, with China, we have gone for many agreements, involving many protocols. In the northern borders, at such high altitude, not a single shot has been fired since 1962, with such an established adversary, discounting Nathula as it was just a local skirmish. There’s no war taking place here. Having said that, the protocols and agreements that we’ve gone in for are basically to ensure peace and tranquility along the northern border, which is holding out very effectively. There’s a mutual trust prevailing among them and us, something not seen between many nations. So, to abide by protocols, and to keep the troops motivated, I was charged with the duty, as I had been previously posted in Eastern Ladakh and other northern borders. I brought in the Indian moustache as a tool to elevate your personality and self esteem, rather than firing rounds with guns. You will show yourself one foot taller than the adversary. The moustache does all of that effectively. Thus we adopted this moustache policy, which paid off. We never had anything untoward during my time.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: What was your toughest experience in your military service?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maj. Gen. Sudhakar Jee:** During Operation Vijay, I was posted in Siachen Glacier. On one occasion, the enemy had started shelling, and we had gone into an ice cave. We were still sweating. When we did a regular drill of headcounts, breathless, we were supposed to be 38, but the headcount came out to be 37. It took us some time to fathom out who that 38th person was. As the company commander, I asked a soldier to go and look out for that person. He couldn't go out as the shelling was so intensive, it took place right at the mouth of the ice cave, even on the ice cave itself. In that critical phase, I decided to tackle the situation myself, instead of ordering someone around. I had promised my CO that I’m taking 64 people, and I’ll bring back 64 people. Nobody will die.
|
||||
So at a height of about 20000 feet, I went with a signal operator, himself a low medical category. Both of us corralled as we went to the Signal Hut. The shelling was intense, the enemy fired at us with all kinds of weapons. We crawled and ducked to reach the FGH, a fiberglass hut, a hut perched on an icicle. We checked it, on coming back however, we found that the washroom lock had been bolted from outside. A shell had bounced off the fiberglass hut, and landed on this small hut. There’s a rope hanging, which allows you to go from high ground to lower ground. I decided to go check for this person here. The problem is that only one person can go down at once. The rope hanging can support only one, the tethering mechanism can only handle one person. If there’s only a person inside, a second person going can create a high risk situation, thus it was a very difficult decision for me. I asked the signal operator to stay there, and took the risk, with the noble intention of saving a person. On going there, I found that my colleague was there, he couldn't come out. The drill was that whenever shelling starts, which was ongoing at that time, wherever one was, we were supposed to leave everything and assemble. I unbolted the contraption, and prayed we wouldn't fall. Had we gone down, we’d have gone into the enemy's side. But, luck favoured us. We climbed out safely. Had I lost that officer, perhaps I wouldn't have been able to pardon myself.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: In recent times, there has been much dispute with China over Doklam. Can you put more light on this issue?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maj. Gen. Sudhakar Jee:** Doklam, even now, is being discussed and deliberated with a high degree of confidentiality. This issue isn't something which should be addressed in the open media. However, just to address the curiosity of the student population, it is sufficient to say that we have checkmated them, at a place beyond which it would have been detrimental to the national interest. This was identified as a redline much prior to the incident actually taking place. Had they not been held back at a point, they would’ve gone ahead into Bhutan territory, thus they had been stopped there itself.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: You talk about the media multiple times, how it does not play a proper part in our nation. How do you feel the media should work in our nation?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maj. Gen. Sudhakar Jee:** The fact that you have invited me to give a talk here, is a testament to the fact that public awareness is growing. You are a student media body in a technologically oriented institute. My son himself is a techie, a software developer at Apple. Still, in the Indian mindset, to become an engineer, you study. You don't go for journalism or other things. Learning about this gave fire in my belly to be invited to an IIT, that too Roorkee, one of the oldest institutions in the country, requesting me to give a talk on the Regional Security perspective of India. Thus the media is becoming curious day by day. Issues one has never heard of earlier are being talked about. However, the culture of the media must undergo change. It has to be more civilised, responsible and accountable. Security is not just the citizen’s or the soldier’s responsibility. It is also the media’s responsibility. Coming to the question, let’s take the previous example of Doklam. Doklam is supposed to be highly classified. But the way the media has covered it, they had covered issues that even we were supposed not to talk about. We all are now well versed, well connected, there are many such issues which the media can take up. Take for example, the situation of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The media can inform people about what is happening at these places. This will also result in an opinion being mobilised, and will ensure that the people make their electoral representatives equally aware about such issues. There’s a need to involve ourselves with greater interest in the grave issue of national security.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: What challenges did you face when serving at harsh terrains like Ladakh?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maj. Gen. Sudhakar Jee:** In Ladakh, we have a reporting system, in the morning and evening. I was a commanding officer there, and was sitting at my office when a report came that a celestial object was spotted, which was coming down to a lower altitude, clicking a photo, and then going up. I realised that this was an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or a drone as it is popularly called. Our adversaries in the north have manufactured more than 170 varieties of drones. The conflict is taking place in many contours. It is manifesting not always as guns, but as psychological, or through cyber medium or the media. These are known as non kinetic warfare. There is also a recent terminology called gray-zone battles, where you don’t know about the enemy, and are vulnerable to their attacks. The information management and communication are posing a very potent and realistic threat even now. Last year, the website of an aircraft company was hacked. People were stranded there for 9 hours. The ticketing process, once automated, manual ticketing didn't work. The northern grid became disabled for 26 hours.
|
||||
This celestial object we found, we took measures but couldn't get it down. We could see that there were multitude of these objects at work surveying us. Then, with the measures we had taken with the northern countries, we couldn't open fire on them, in our territory, however, we were allowed to knock it down. It wasn’t easy, we were unable to deal with it. Many such cases happened at different places in Ladakh. I am sharing this with you guys as you are the technologically oriented people of the country. If anything can be done to disable such UAVs and bring them down, then steps must be taken in that direction. The drones which are being made, none of them are supposed to operate in the harsh conditions of Ladakh, but such drones work. Why can’t we do it? Why don’t take it as a challenge? Many of you are working on such devices which are effective at high altitudes, but they are not working. They are sustained only to a limit, beyond which they don’t operate effectively.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: How do you feel we as citizens of the country contribute to its general safety?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maj. Gen. Sudhakar Jee:** For a good length of time, the constitution of India, had the rights of the people. In the 70’s an article outlining the duties of the citizens. I’m happy that they came up. Abraham Lincoln used to say that one shouldn’t ask what the nation can do for them, rather, they should ask what they can do for the nation. Similarly, I feel, there is a need for all of us to have a collective accountability and responsibility towards anything that happens in the nation, which is growing steadily among people. The unfortunate thing is that this is manifesting in a different way. In a democracy like ours, the major issues pertain to the system of governance. We have a multi-party system. Such a system makes the decision making process time consuming. If decisions are taken, implementations are much longer. It is different in other democracies even. Still, we have fared much better even than the developed countries in the past 72 years. Having said that, I will say that yes, there is a requirement to improve awareness, in the form of education. The central point of ensuring onground impact is education. In our syllabi, as much as the rights of the citizens, the duties of a citizen must be outlined.
|
||||
@ -1,84 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "An Inward Bound Dinghy"
|
||||
image: "an-inward-bound-dinghy-0.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: editorial
|
||||
author: "Atharva Shukla, Surya"
|
||||
excerpt: "Among the innumerable problems that a person faces in his/her life, a select few individuals decide to concentrate on the quandary of finding their true self."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
> “The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you.”
|
||||
>
|
||||
> \- Carl Jung
|
||||
|
||||
Among the innumerable problems that a person faces in his/her life, a select few individuals decide to concentrate on the quandary of finding their true self. This number is on a gradual increase in our society, ripe with dysphoria. Deranged individuals collectively drown in their cesspool of anxiety, while worrying about the meaning of life. Knowing one’s goals and personal image may appear to be straightforward, but if this were so, literary discourse would not have grappled with this search of self for several centuries. This article is another attempt to do the same.
|
||||
|
||||
We are by nature storytelling animals, and in our mind lies a journal in which we constantly update our life stories and the concept of our own self. But this internal narration of the kind of person we are, might become the very reason for our actions. These actions might further reinforce our belief of who we are. So what part of us is true to us and what part of it is induced?
|
||||
|
||||
## The Muddled Within
|
||||
|
||||
For now, whatever is written would be under the assumption of the existence of an inherent true self in each one of us. ***True self, or the ‘inherent’ self,*** is an abstract idea characterised by our tendency to ***conform to a certain type of behaviour in the absence of an external/societal bias.*** The notion of the non-existence of this true self is discomforting since it strips us off of any individuality we are believed to possess. This essentially leads us to the conclusion that apart from our physical features, all of us were the same at one point of time. Hence theoretically we could create a replica of any human being, by providing a bunch of carbon atoms with the same external stimuli that shaped the persona of the original person.
|
||||
|
||||
This line of thought laughs in the face of our existence, and turns us into mere marionettes, puppeteered by a relentless universe that seems to have orchestrated our darkest desires and guilty pleasures. One would assume that humans across the world don’t want to lead lives like that - as characters in a scarily sophisticated video game. We make the comfortable choice here, and accept the existence of an inherent true self.
|
||||
|
||||
This assumption seems to be intuitive; twins despite being exposed to similar external factors develop very differently. It appears to be that even though an individual works in an inherited societal formula, the perceptions of it differ. An individual ultimately acts as an idiosyncratic interpreter of this formula, and derives unique value from it.
|
||||
|
||||
## The Facade Without
|
||||
|
||||
*Humans think about themselves* - this statement is hardly surprising, but the trait is unique to us. This self reflection morphs into an internalized narrative of one's competencies, traits and values. We don’t need to seriously weigh the pros and cons while making a number of decisions - we make them automatically and subconsciously. This is because our identity provides a pivot for us to do so. We feel we know who we are because of the length of time we spend with ourselves, and the amount of autobiographical memories we possess. We can always look back at them and realise the kind of person we should be, the decisions we should take. Therefore the self has for long been regarded as a shaper of behaviour while simultaneously being the product of situations.
|
||||
|
||||
Humans are social animals, and hence the reception of approval has a positive feedback on this belief system that we subconsciously develop. We try to model ourselves in ways that please those around us and whatever seems to be good for us, to be a functional part of a society. As we continue to waltz through our lives, this picture begins to form a mind of its own and somewhere along the line gives birth to a whole belief system that now defines us. This might create a terrifying cycle, which becomes excruciatingly difficult to escape from. This is dubbed as our ***self concept.***
|
||||
|
||||
## The Dilapidated Viaduct
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%"}
|
||||
|
||||
How stable is this belief that we hold about ourselves? Are we capable of living under a garb of false identity without realising it?
|
||||
|
||||
The eldest boy in a family of five, after a long hard day at school, is expected to be patient while the mother tends to the needs of the younger, innocuous looking sibling. He’s also expected to make sacrifices by giving up on the larger piece of chocolate or his favourite TV show, on the pretext of being older and hence somehow wiser? He never gets to portray his true emotions, because the parents might expect the child to be well behaved and exude ideality. Over time, these expectations only intensify, and the child’s response seeps into his personality; he starts acting as people expect him to, in a way he thinks he should.
|
||||
|
||||
A significant part of our ‘self’ is built during our early childhood, when we aren't mentally developed enough to make sense of the things happening around us. Questioning it becomes increasingly difficult, because of the sheer amount of time we have already spent believing in it by the time we reach adolescence. This is hugely problematic, because a person can't detect their own problems from the outset (because of the self-narrative ingrained in their minds); thus they go through a tumultuous period in their lives as they choose to either accept things as they are, or try to change them to the best of their abilities . This is characterised by frustration - when they realise that they have not been what they want to be or who they really are. It is evident that the problem arises when our self concept does not align with reality, that is, it is incongruent with our true self. It turns out that the self-concept is susceptible to manipulation, and a person can indeed suppress their true self.
|
||||
|
||||
Neitzsche too believed that the incompetence of a person to be their own selves in a society will slowly lead to a feeling of alienation and a disintegration of social identity. This develops into a condition in which the love a person has for their life is passionless and numb as they desperately try to grapple with two versions of themselves at once.
|
||||
|
||||
## Tear Down The Walls
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%"}
|
||||
|
||||
How do we change the life story we have been developing for ourselves and try to replace it with a more accurate one? How do we change our minds about who we have believed we are, and question the cornerstone of our own identity?
|
||||
|
||||
The rationality of the beliefs we hold about ourselves, the very rationality that most of us build and base our entire lives on, is suddenly seen in a different light - threatened and vulnerable. Presumably, you start with a view about what your “true” self is and then go on to repudiate that view. That advice though would be akin to advising a terminally ill patient to “not die”. We’ve lived our entire lives one way, and now we are asked to define something else as our true self - the real life equivalent of “change your avatar”.
|
||||
|
||||
*“It is neither wealth nor splendor; but tranquility and occupation which give you happiness.”*
|
||||
|
||||
The classic leisure theory introduced by Aristotle serves as a basis for all modern theories related to self actualisation. This finds its roots 2300 years ago, when Aristotle hypothesised that happiness - defined by him as the ultimate goal of life - depended on leisure. He advocated that leisure was the right way to live - as opposed to taking intermittent breaks from work to do so. This idea was characterised by doing what you wanted to do, not what you had to. A similar theory was put forward by Csikszentmihalyi. Using the building blocks of intrinsic motivation and peak experiences, Csikszentmihalyi argued that to truly enjoy yourself is to satisfy intrinsic goals. He argued that with time, one realises that getting rich, owning a bigger house etc. does not contribute to one’s happiness. These are goals that have been imposed on us by society. To truly be happy, one must look for activities during which nothing else seems to matter, the sense of time itself gets distorted. He classified this feeling as ‘experiencing flow’. Experiencing flow is to be accompanied by a loss of self consciousness - forgetting ourselves while performing an activity we undertake is what contributes to us finding peace, and eventually the growth of our self.
|
||||
|
||||
For those readers who are skeptical about the narrative of a singular true self that this article has explored so far, humans have also hypothesized the existence of a dynamic true self, rather than a singular one which is waiting to be realised. The possibility of having a dynamic self seems more plausible. Such an ever-evolving nature of the self makes it seem like an elusive and unattainable prize. This is summarized in what Pieper said, “we are essentially on the way, beings who are not yet”. This introduction of a dynamic self does not refute the idea of an innate self, it only introduces the idea of multiple selves changing through the course of time. It is more about being ‘yourself’ in the moment and doing what you get the maximum joy out of, at that particular point in time.
|
||||
|
||||
An important feature of authenticity and self discovery is to steer yourself towards your intrinsic desires while carefully navigating away from societal influences. It is difficult to realise what you truly are, but by rejecting what you are not, you realise what you must be. An internal state of ‘being’, described by intrinsic motivation and experiencing ‘self’ is how change takes place. There can never be a definite answer to this dilemma of realising what your true self is; these experiences as put forward by Csikszentmihalyi can never be described in words. Each of us will have a different interpretation and experience of these incorporeal realisations.
|
||||
|
||||
> “Your entire life you feel like you’re drowning with the exception of these moments, these very rare, brief instances, in which you suddenly remember you can swim. But, then again, mostly not. Mostly you’re drowning.”
|
||||
>
|
||||
> \- Bojack Horseman
|
||||
|
||||
In this life, there almost certainly will be times when you feel you are being suffocated, and the metaphorical walls seem to be closing in, as you vie for another breath of air. These rare instances (flow experiences) make you feel that you can remain afloat even as the tide hightens. One needs to strive towards things/people that make one feel different; emotions that one has never experienced before. These are the moments we live for. These are the moments we can try to live for. That is how we ought to get closer to our true selves. Or at least that’s what we can hope for.
|
||||
|
||||
> “I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived.”
|
||||
>
|
||||
> \- Henry David Thoreau
|
||||
|
||||
### References
|
||||
|
||||
1. [https://www.academia.edu/297046/Know_thyself_Assimilating_the_classical_leisure_ideal_self-actualisation_flow_experience_and_existential_authenticity](https://www.academia.edu/297046/Know_thyself_Assimilating_the_classical_leisure_ideal_self-actualisation_flow_experience_and_existential_authenticity)
|
||||
1. [https://www.academia.edu/30236534/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi_Flow](https://www.academia.edu/30236534/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi_Flow)
|
||||
1. [https://www.academia.edu/14052661/Self_Self-Concept_and_Identity](https://www.academia.edu/14052661/Self_Self-Concept_and_Identity)
|
||||
1. [https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html](https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html)
|
||||
1. [https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/jul/06/are-you-really-the-real-you-and-how-can-we-best-become-our-true-selves](https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/jul/06/are-you-really-the-real-you-and-how-can-we-best-become-our-true-selves)
|
||||
|
||||
### Illustration Credits
|
||||
|
||||
1. [https://pin.it/2kcQLTj](https://pin.it/2kcQLTj)
|
||||
1. [https://pin.it/4Nbskjx](https://pin.it/4Nbskjx)
|
||||
1. [https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/jul/06/are-you-really-the-real-you-and-how-can-we-best-become-our-true-selves](https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/jul/06/are-you-really-the-real-you-and-how-can-we-best-become-our-true-selves)
|
||||
@ -1,48 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Archives Gallery: A Gateway To The Past"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: bigstory
|
||||
image: archives-gallery.jpg
|
||||
author: "Nishita T, Sarthak Sharma, Yashish Khurana, Manish Prasad"
|
||||
excerpt: "Ever wondered why something archival is priced so high? Why do people believe that one product has more vintage/artisan aspects than others?"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Ever wondered why something archival is priced so high? Why do people believe that one product has more vintage/artisan aspects than others? There is no specific answer to these questions, but if one were to guess, it would be the aura of authenticity, an essence of the past, that remains attached to those articles forever. Consider the copy of a best selling book, produced by the mechanical drudgery of a machine, in the confines of a dingy factory reeking of sweat, as opposed to the original draft having the author’s signature. There is a significant difference in price because of the essence, the emotional value attached to the original draft. It has a part of the author itself, so to speak. It is a piece of history. Such is the glory of the past.
|
||||
|
||||
Recently, an ‘Archives Gallery’ was inaugurated in our campus. This treasure trove is situated right across from where one issues one’s books during the holy days of TBLS, to satiate one’s curiosity for the increasingly more intriguing and engrossing curriculum. Here one can find the original books relating to architecture - written during the construction of the Ganga canal - as well as one of the only few remaining copies of William Shakespeare's original works. If any of these items are sitting in your attic, that's your ticket to becoming a millionaire.
|
||||
|
||||
The story of this gallery dates back many decades, when the erstwhile librarians found some rare documents in the (possibly) mahogany, dust laden, shelves of our current and our old library. Yes, there were two library buildings, but that’s a story for another time. They found some really old documents, which they believed were important enough to be kept aside for posterity.
|
||||
|
||||
In 2018, our director Professor AK Chaturvedi was extremely thrilled when the librarians showed him these hidden, seemingly plain, and decayed pieces of paper. It was then decided that there was a need to preserve these documents, these texts that held in their musty ink the mellifluous sound of a time now long gone. A committee was created that consisted of our librarian Dr. C. Jayakumar, deputy librarian Dr. Sanjeev K Sunny, and Prof DC Srivastava (who has also spearheaded the construction of the museum in the earth science department.)
|
||||
|
||||
The pages within these documents were old and fragile and what remained of the book’s original stitching was barely holding them together; they needed proper preservation. A list of the books to be preserved was made by the team and under the guidance of The National Archives of India, the Archives team hired the services of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH),Lucknow for preservation. With funding from the institute, project IITR Archives began manifesting the drive to showcase these gems. To begin with, twenty two books were sent to INTACH Conservation Institute, Lucknow for conservation, to create the best possible practical procedures for their future handling and display. It does seem to be an exciting year as MGCL reimagines itself with a cherished gallery designed by Prof. Chani and Prof. Ram Sateesh.
|
||||
|
||||
Here we list out a few articles that we found to be immensely fascinating, housed in the glass shelves of the gallery.
|
||||
|
||||
- Literary materials include William Shakespeare's comedies, histories, and tragedies (1623), whose inviting ethos at times feels more biblical than museological. Of the 750 first folios printed only 233 exist today. A copy of the book was sold for $5153000 US dollars in London. Radiocarbon dating implies that trees used for making the papers of the book kept in the gallery are 394-807 years old.
|
||||
|
||||
- Another prized possession of the gallery is “The Constitution of India” (1949) by Dr. B R Ambedkar. It is one of the 16 copies published then (since the copy is of 1956, it's the original one without any amendments). One can’t help but notice the signatures of the 250 members of the constituent assembly and images of washed-up photo books, serving as a metaphor for multiple, diverse and nuanced narratives of statehood.
|
||||
|
||||
- In the middle of the gallery is the majestic table and chair used by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru during the first convocation of the University of Roorkee, held on the 25th of November, 1949.
|
||||
|
||||
- Emily Eden, Portraits of the Princes & People of India, 1844- This is a short biography of Emily Eden. It is a touring collection of memories of Oudh and the hill regions, in an extensive collection of letters and sketches. It contains a collection of hand-colored lithographic works of the famous Sikh rulers of Punjab, with portraits of Ranjit Singh, Maharaja Sher Singh, and Hira Singh.
|
||||
|
||||
- The Monuments of Nineveh (1849)- an exceptionally rare book is splayed open on display, always attracting a healthy audience. Only 37 US libraries are known to own a copy, one of which is known to have retailed for 16,000 US dollars.
|
||||
|
||||
- Pristinely displayed in vitrines is a telescopic compass with a tripod stand, manufactured by Lawrence and Mayo, London, in the 19th century. The compass contains a transparent compass card with a reverse-printed scale on the face, coated with luminous paint for use in the dark. Its back is attached to the case and a hole is made through the rim for noting the readings.
|
||||
|
||||
Though the origin of the books can't be traced back definitively, a lot of these books must have been included when the collection of Addiscombe College, London was merged with ours.
|
||||
|
||||
The books currently in the institute’s possession will be digitized, barring the ones we don’t own a copyright over. This initiative will help share these documents with the world.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
## Future Prospects
|
||||
|
||||
In addition to the 22 books sent earlier, ten more had been sent to INTACH, Lucknow for preservation. The books in the library are under scrutiny to identify the books which need to be preserved. In fact, there are thousands of documents that are yet to be properly checked, and their current status is to be determined. A few of the books and documents preserved till now belonged to the 17th century; next, the works of the 18th century shall be analyzed for the need for preservation. We urge our readers to try to be more cognizant of the life’s work of an 18th century artist - who lives on now only in the ink engrained in fragile pieces of paper - before eventually traipsing to the cozy corners of the library with their “friend”.
|
||||
|
||||
A few documents worth displaying, which will definitely be preserved soon, include all the available copies of the Thomason College Calendars (the four oldest have already been preserved) and the convocation addresses including that of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and Smti. Indira Gandhi.
|
||||
|
||||
The archiving of these documents not only increases their lifetime, but also ensures better management of them. Another initiative is to manage the overall intellectual output of our institution. This will be achieved through the creation of an institutional repository, which is a digital archive for collecting, preserving and disseminating the research work produced by the brilliant minds who are currently studying or once studied in our college. This will lead to permanent preservation, more effective cataloging, as well as easier access to the research work for members of the academic community.
|
||||
|
||||
To reanimate the past century in a way that is relevant to the current one, and a need to perpetuate history - these can be said to be the main motives behind the opening of this Archives Gallery. We highly recommend you to visit this gallery and witness it’s grandeur firsthand.
|
||||
@ -1,105 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "In Conversation with Mohit Saxena, Co-founder of InMobi"
|
||||
image: "mohit-saxena.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "InMobi is an Indian global provider of enterprise platforms for marketers.The platform enables consumers to discover new products and services by providing contextual, relevant, and curated recommendations on mobile apps and devices."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*InMobi is an Indian global provider of enterprise platforms for marketers.The platform enables consumers to discover new products and services by providing contextual, relevant, and curated recommendations on mobile apps and devices. Their mobile-first platform allows brands, developers and publishers to engage consumers through mobile advertising.*
|
||||
|
||||
*The company was founded in 2007 under the name mKhoj by Naveen Tewari, Mohit Saxena, Amit Gupta and Abhay Singhal, and has since then received multiple laurels and awards. It found a place amongst the ‘50 Disruptive Companies 2013’ list by MIT Technology Review, and was the recipient of NDTV’s “Indian of the Year Award” in 2016.*
|
||||
|
||||
*Watch Out! And E-Cell had a chance to interact with Mohit Saxena, an alumnus of our institute and the co-founder of InMobi.*
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**What campus groups did you associate yourself with?**
|
||||
|
||||
Actually, it’s a very funny story. When you were in your first year, you must’ve figured out what groups you want to join and then applied for it. For us it was very different. In those days, hostels were rife with ragging and it so happened that one day I was just going somewhere, when someone grabbed me and before I knew, I ended up in a hall and was asked to climb a ladder and install some light bulbs. Later I learnt that it was a part of my induction and recruitment to Lights Section. So, this was the group that I used to hang out with during my time here. Incidentally, I was also selected as Secretary in my 3rd year. I also contributed my time to Watch Out!, thanks to my room-mate who was responsible for it.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**What kind of work experience do you think a budding entrepreneur needs inside the campus?**
|
||||
|
||||
In my opinion, you guys have a lot of opportunities which allow you to contribute to many things, and besides that, I think entrepreneurship is not all about experience, and it might be really overrated. Guys like Ritesh Agrawal of OYO didn’t even attend proper colleges and still they are where they are. I am not asking you guys to leave college, but what I am trying to tell is that other things matter as well. Yes, college does provide you with perspective and knowledge which helps you a lot, but entrepreneurship is all about ownership and accountability. Anything that you do, you should really feel passionate about it. You should give 100% to what you are doing. Because if you believe in a cause then your mindset reaches a state where you don’t worry about failure and success. To me that state of mind is entrepreneurship. So, you can pick up anything that is out there that you are passionate about because right now there are a lot of opportunities in college.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**What are the elemental skills one should have to start one’s own venture?**
|
||||
|
||||
I don’t think it’s about one particular set of skills, because skills you can build over time. Entrepreneurship generally is a very long-term commitment and you know these “necessary skills” keep changing and someone who can adapt to those changes and continue to move forward eventually gets success. What is more important for entrepreneurship is temperament. It can easily be correlated with our endeavours in college. We try to find our comfort zone and give up at the slightest sign of trouble. This is why perseverance and temperament are necessary. Along with it you should be willing to compromise and make sacrifices. For example, I don’t get enough time to spend with my family, which will always be a regret. Bottom line is it isn’t about skill so much as it is about values such as these.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Other co-founders of InMobi are alumni of IIT Kanpur. So how did you meet them and feel confident to collaborate with them? What are the qualities one should look for in their business partners?**
|
||||
|
||||
I met Naveen in the US. He had just completed his MBA from Harvard and he was quite passionate about the Mobiquel system of India but he was not clear about what he wanted to do. He and his other three classmates wanted to start this venture and he asked me to take the position of the CEO. At that time, I was in a comfort zone and was doing a very mundane job, so I decided to go for it. Within 10 days, we packed our bags and before I knew it, I was in India and it all started. So it doesn’t matter where you have studied and what your background is, what matters for entrepreneurship is a common interest among the co-founders. You should be able to understand each other very well because things will get tough, and the only thing which will keep you going is the ability to solve those problems collectively.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**What is the message you would like to give the enthusiasts who are searching for a co-founder of an enterprise?**
|
||||
|
||||
Partnership in business requires a very close relationship and a huge amount of trust. I know it from experience when I say that chances are that you already know your associate. It might be one of your best friends. You might observe that a lot of companies are run by people who grew up together. I think that partners have some level of connection already because building trust is a long process. If there is someone new, it is hard to put up. So out of the companies that are successful a majority of them have co-founders that have a history together
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**How did you come up with the idea of InMobi, and when did you start implementing that idea?**
|
||||
|
||||
We had no idea. We had a very vague thing in mind that we wanted to build a technology company based in India. And we were very clear that this is going to be a Product & Tech company which will be known for its Tech-related jobs. At the end of the day, the main objective was building a universally known start-up, and it is quite amazing how far we have come. You know, tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft know us and some of these companies are our partners. We are a global company. Today we have an engineering team of people from China, Beijing, Shanghai, Bangalore.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**What was the real motivation of starting Rizort after dedicating so many years of your life to InMobi, and how does it feel like starting from all over scratch again? What was the journey like?**
|
||||
|
||||
As an entrepreneur, whenever you see any problem, you try to solve it. At the moment, I’m a part of two companies, InMobi and Rizort. With InMobi, we have made it big and now I don’t have many responsibilities. So, before the time we started Rizort, we were moving to the US. At that time, I found a huge problem in this industry and that’s how the idea of Rizort came up. So, you can say InMobi is professionally very close to me and Rizort is something that I always wanted to do, something that I liked doing.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**What is the journey like starting all over again?**
|
||||
|
||||
It’s very difficult. On one side you have such a large team and you are operating on such a big level and immediately you need to switch and operate in such a small team. But both of these scenarios have their pros and cons. In a small team, you get to work on every detail and in a large team, you get to work on something very big. Plus, in Rizort I was purely on the sales side, I was not doing anything on the tech side, unlike here InMobi. That was a blind spot for me earlier, but this change helped me to learn and all this worked out quite well.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**What differences do you see in the start-up culture between when you started and today?**
|
||||
|
||||
A lot has changed, especially the awareness. From hiring to setting up, everything was difficult in my time. Initially, none of our own VCs were Indian. This has definitely changed now. People are willing to take greater risks. Currently, there is a very strong growth of Indian ecosystem over there, being such a large country with many problems, and hence many companies are building India-specific solutions. So, if you have the right idea, now is the time to make it happen.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Has people’s risk-taking capability increased?**
|
||||
|
||||
Over the years, people in general have had more of a safety net, and lesser pressure to take up a job as soon as possible, and hence people do have some extra cushion which allows them to take the risks demanded by a start-up.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**What has been your source of motivation for your start-up journey?**
|
||||
|
||||
Well, according to me, if one has a certain passion to solve a problem, then beyond that I feel no extra motivation is required to keep one going, unless the problem gets solved.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**What major operational challenges do you face daily?**
|
||||
|
||||
InMobi is a large company with a very diverse demographic, so keeping all these people working together in one direction is a challenge. In a small company like Rizort, there is a constant hustle, and things get affected by several external factors too, like how travel in the South East Asian hub has been affected by the Coronavirus.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**How difficult is it to maintain work culture in a big, and small company?**
|
||||
|
||||
According to me, maintaining a work culture should be the same, irrespective of the scale and scope of your company. I believe that it’s people who are important, and given the right space and environment, they can do great work, irrespective of whether it is a big or a small company.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**What message do you have for the budding entrepreneurs on campus?**
|
||||
|
||||
I think now is the best time for you to enjoy life and make lasting friendships. But try not to waste 4 years of your life and get an idea of what you want to do in your life, and hopefully get a head start in the competition of real life.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Can you describe an entrepreneurial journey in your own words?**
|
||||
|
||||
Entrepreneurship is a mindset, where you own something, you feel accountable for it, give what you have, try to grow that component to the best of your ability, and continue to progress in a direction where it would eventually be a success.
|
||||
@ -1,115 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "A Rick Shaped Void"
|
||||
image: "rick-shaped-void-1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
author: Kushagra Agarwal,Aryan Bidani,Kriti
|
||||
category: phekingnews
|
||||
excerpt: "The moment a student sets foot on the campus, he or she stares down a long race-course like stretch of land leading to his/her bhawan, and a longer one from there to the LHC. Traversing this distance on foot early in the morning goes from easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy to I-can’t-feel-the-bottom-half-of-my-body-someone-help after the first few weeks (read:days), as R-land starts to take its toll on one's sleep schedule. Defeated by the long avenues and expansive promenades in the campus, students finally resort to support from the electric heroes of the campus, popularly known as E-Rickshaws.
|
||||
"
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*The moment a student sets foot on the campus, he or she stares down a long race-course like stretch of land leading to his/her bhawan, and a longer one from there to the LHC. Traversing this distance on foot early in the morning goes from easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy to I-can’t-feel-the-bottom-half-of-my-body-someone-help after the first few weeks (read:days), as R-land starts to take its toll on one's sleep schedule. Defeated by the long avenues and expansive promenades in the campus, students finally resort to support from the electric heroes of the campus, popularly known as E-Rickshaws.*
|
||||
|
||||
*During the harrowing months of November-February, however, the campus saw a tragic decline in the number of these aides in transit. Students were robbed of their right to a 5 minute quickie to the LHC and were now forced to walk, or worse, cycle for 10 minutes through harsh weather and unforgiving terrain to attend lectures. Observing a general sense of angst and disbelief amongst campus dwellers, Watch Out!, in early January, set out to discover what the citizenry of R-land thought about this development. After sorting through hundreds of tragic, and sometimes weird responses, we present to you a few chosen transcripts :*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How do you feel about the lack of E-Ricks?
|
||||
|
||||
**Random Person Standing Outside Rajiv Bhawan** : My whole college life, which I built piece by piece for three years, is now perfectly ruined. My survival depended on E-Ricks for basic transportation. With no rickshaws available in the morning, I am forced to trudge to classes during the wee hours of the morning. Often late, and too broken to even try, my attendance dipped way below what the professors demanded of me, and I was held back in five of my courses. Even during placements, my body could never adjust to the change which led to me missing 10 of my interviews. Now I'm a 4th year guy with a ruined CG and no hopes of a good placement opportunity, which guarantees me a hamster-wheel of a life, where munching on rusted iron nails seems easier than getting out of bed for my soul-sucking excuse of a job. Even the Academic Affairs people have given up on me, and I'll probably be forced to repeat this year. My lifeline to a better future is now decidedly dead, and everything is worse now.
|
||||
|
||||
*The random guy was in the midst of a nervous breakdown when we saw a flash of light pass by, fast enough to unsettle the dust which formed a fragile crust on the surroundings. We followed this unusual phenomenon to its terminus, leading us to the LHC.*
|
||||
|
||||
*We somehow managed to stop this person. After several refusals and a promise for chaapos by a certain third year member of Watch Out, he agreed to give an interview.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How has your life changed in the absence of E-Ricks?
|
||||
|
||||
**The Random Person With Lightning In His Eyes:** The absence of E-Ricks has extended my life on the track onto the IITR roads. The exercise that the ABN track provided me with, I now obtain from jogging all the way to the LHC and back every morning and evening. I have seen many people improving their health just by these early morning endeavours. It’s also fun that you get to socialise with the people you know, something that 2 minute rides on E-Ricks didn’t allow. My friends have been giving juniors random chaapos just because they have saved a lot by not spending 40 bucks a day on travel. All in all, though uncomfortable at first, I have really enjoyed the campus sans E-rickshaws.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*As we left the stranger behind, he stood in a daze, having missed out on a day of attendance despite running towards the LHC at a superhuman speed. Interestingly, as we made our way out of the building, we saw a tinfoil hat donning entity, making its way out of the library, with chants of random Japanese verses. We stopped him in his tracks, and waited for him to complete his verses, which were oddly reminiscent of satanic sermons.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What do you feel about the sudden disappearance of the E-Rickshaws?
|
||||
|
||||
**Tinfoil Man:** It’s all in the waves man. The earth, you know, the earth is pure, it never lies. Lemme tell y’all. The rickshaws and everything, it's just one big conspiracy. It wasn’t the rickshaw people, it was the goddamned mech profs. They have invented some sort of a roborick, which wouldn’t get funded until human driven rickshaws existed. Thus they destroyed all the E-Ricks and set them on fire before dancing over their bleeding electric ruins.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%"}
|
||||
|
||||
*The look he gave while sensing the change in waves*
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Or they might have just stopped them from entering the campus...?
|
||||
|
||||
**Tinfoil Man:** Wait! The waves! They’re changing. It wasn’t them profs, it was rather a bicycle renting company looking to open up their booths in R. They bribed the rickshaw drivers to lessen their numbers, just so that their venture would gain some traction in the campus. They orchestrated a fight between the authorities and the rickshaw drivers to benefit from the resulting rift. This is what the earth tells me, and I refuse to believe otherwise.
|
||||
|
||||
*Overwhelmed by the fact that our world might be a simulation, we took to our heels and happened to come across a gloomy lad loitering around Lovers’ Lane*.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How do you feel about the lack of E-Ricks out here?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sad Guy With 2 Hoodies And A Birthday Card In His Hand:** What do I feel? Is that what you want to know? Because of the lack of E-Ricks, my 2 years 3 months and 15 days long relationship came crashing down. It was easy to travel from Govind to Kasturba in that electrically powered beast. But when they stopped, meeting her got tough. She kept complaining, but she too couldn’t make the massive effort of putting one foot in front of the other for 500 long meters. Today when I saw her after what seemed like an eternity, it made my heart soar with joy; her voice seemed like the sweet euphony of birds chirping in the morning. It felt like a soft, cool drizzle of rain on a hot afternoon. But I was in for a rude shock when she returned my hoodies. She also refused to take this handmade card which I had painstakingly put together for her birthday. My world has come crashing down. I am among the 99% of people on campus now. I am single. I...I don’t
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*We had to end the interview here because this guy burst into a deluge of tears*
|
||||
|
||||
*On reaching the library we found an unfamiliar sight of two girls standing alone in despair*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How do you feel about the lack of E-Ricks on campus?
|
||||
|
||||
**Two Girls Blankly Staring Into Nothingness Outside The Library** : There was this guy. Jesus he was beautiful. A work of art. In this cesspool of sweaty, burly men, he grew like a lotus, sculpted to perfection. He used to wear his headphones, chew on the caboose of a Natraj pencil and work everyday from 8-11 PM at the library. We lost a tonne of weight skipping dinner everyday just to have our own mini Baywatch. And now, now *bursts into sobs* he probably studies in his room like the rest of those sweaty ba-
|
||||
|
||||
*We covered our ears, muttered the name of the lord, and ran away just in time. Tired from our journalistic endeavours we decided to stop by Dominos to grab a quick bite.*
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%"}
|
||||
*An unrelated naive, delusional boy we lied to.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How did the reduction of E-Rickshaws inside IITR affect your life?
|
||||
|
||||
**The Owner of Dominos:** I remember weeks ago when most of the students from IIT Roorkee would be lingering around here. We earned so much every day. Life was so good. We made so many pizzas. The aroma of exotic spices delicately placed on freshly grated cheese filled up this place. Ah! The continuous ringing of the phones, the chaotic ruckus that ensued, all of it was a piece of art, analogous to the intricate pirouette of a ballerina. All I am left with now are the beautiful memories. Since the news about E-Ricks came out, we have been inconsolably sad and depressed. Kids do not order pizza after 9 p.m. because they can not reach the gate to collect it.
|
||||
|
||||
*We ordered 5 pizzas and the order number was 2.*
|
||||
.
|
||||
.
|
||||
.
|
||||
*It was 7 p.m.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** We wanted to ask you about the E-Rickshaw situation in the campus, but you kind of look down. Is everything alright?
|
||||
|
||||
**An Unnamed Official From The Hospital :** Ah, no, nothing at all. You won't believe it, but we have had 112 calls for the ambulance since this morning. Alarmed by the frequent signals, we feared that we might have had a corona-virus outbreak in the campus and contacted some of the renowned doctors around the area. But then we noticed a strange coincidence - all the patients were carrying their bags along with them, and suddenly felt fine as the ambulance neared the LHC. After encountering many such cases, we figured out that as there are no E-Ricks on campus, these students have smartly started using our ambulance service as per their convenience. Sadly, in our profession, we are compelled to accept every call, and thus we are now the substitutes of E-Ricks for the smarter lot of the campus. Ah, the system needs a change.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*As we were wrapping up for the day we saw a guy staring into blank walls, seemingly trying to take in it's aroma*
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** With only a few months left for your graduation, what makes you sad about the E-Rickshaw void?
|
||||
|
||||
**Random 4th Yearite:** Roorkee, located in the heart of Uttaranchal, is much more than just a town for me. With the mighty Himalayas in the background and the Ganga and Yamuna hemming it in, Roorkee has immense glorious natural beauty. Being the green panther that I am, I am mad for every bit of Roorkee - from the exquisite James Thomason Building to the dazzling Ganga Canal. Roorkee is like my drug. Up above this materialistic World, my sole aim in life was not to leave this pleasant place. After ruling out hundreds of job possibilities one could have taken up in Roorkee, I came up with a unique idea : to become an E Rickshaw-driver post my graduation in this lovely town. With only a few months left for my graduation, I was super-duper excited to take up this job. But then, one gloomy morning, I heard that there would not be any E-Rickshaws in Roorkee from now on. All my aspirations came to a crashing end. Now, with the placement season over, there is nothing I can do in life. I am a disappointment.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Illustration credits:** Yavnika
|
||||
@ -1,221 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Beyond the Bookshelves"
|
||||
image: "mgcl-1.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: bigstory
|
||||
author: "Keerat Kaur Guliani, Harshit Dubey, Divyam Goel"
|
||||
|
||||
excerpt: "The Mahatma Gandhi Central Library is one of the most frequented buildings of our campus.
|
||||
Watch Out! undertook a small survey in order to identify the core problems surrounding the MGCL, wherein a Google form was floated across the campus to allow the populace a fair chance at voicing their concerns regarding the same.
|
||||
"
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*The Mahatma Gandhi Central Library is one of the most frequented buildings of our campus. This fact necessitates the existence of a strong and efficient management system to diligently provide for the hordes of students who flock here on a daily basis. At the same time, we do acknowledge that managing a building - nay, an ecosystem - as large as our library is no small feat, and is bound to entail different kinds of problems.*
|
||||
|
||||
*Watch Out! undertook a small survey in order to identify the core problems surrounding the MGCL, wherein a Google form was floated across the campus to allow the populace a fair chance at voicing their concerns regarding the same. This was followed by interviews of the Management and the Chief Librarian. This article is a culmination of the information we collected as a result.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
## A BRIEF OUTLINE :
|
||||
|
||||
**How old is the Mahatma Gandhi Central Library?**
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
From the very start of the institution (i.e.1847), a small College Library was established with a collection of a few hundred books to meet the needs of about 34 students and 6 teachers. In order to meet the growing needs of the institution, the strength of which had increased to 231 in 1873, a separate library block was constructed in the same year consisting of two big halls, one serving as a stack room and the other as a reading room and two small closet rooms for the maintenance staff.
|
||||
|
||||
After multiple transitional periods, when the erstwhile University of Roorkee became an Indian Institute of Technology on September 21, 2001, it was felt that in the existing building, necessary expansion and information-technology related provisions could not be made and therefore, a new state of the art building was planned. The foundation stone of the present building was laid on 19th June 2004 and it was completed in June 2007. The new building started serving as the Central Library from 12th July, 2007. On the first International Day of Non-Violence i.e. 2nd October 2009, the Central Library was renamed as Mahatma Gandhi Central Library (MGCL).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**What is the administrative structure in place to manage the MGCL?**
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
The administration of the library basically falls under the Dean of Academic Affairs. The Library Advisory Committee (LAC) consists of the following members:<br><br>
|
||||
|
||||
1. A Senior Professor to be nominated by the Director as Chairman;
|
||||
2. One faculty representative/ Scientist from each Academic Department/ Centre;
|
||||
3. Three representatives each from the Undergraduate (UG), Postgraduate (PG) programmes, and research scholars to be nominated by the Students Affairs Council (SAC);
|
||||
4. Dean Academics;
|
||||
5. The Librarian – Member Secretary (ex officio).
|
||||
|
||||
(The current UG representative is the General Secretary Academic Affairs (UG).)
|
||||
|
||||
The LAC has the term of two years commencing from the first day of July of the year it has been constituted. The student members serve from the date they have been nominated for a term of one year.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**How big is the MGCL?**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
The MGCL is housed in an 80,000 sq. ft., centrally air conditioned building equipped with all the latest Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities, spread over four floors. Equipped with a surveillance system, it has been aesthetically designed for efficient use of the system by patrons of all kinds, and for comfortable and easy access of the facilities available.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**How vast a collection does the MGCL house?**
|
||||
|
||||
The Library contains around 4 lakh documents in print, including-
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
* 2,00,000+ Books
|
||||
* 60,000+ Textbooks
|
||||
* 50,000 bound volumes of Journals
|
||||
* 50,000 books in Departmental Libraries
|
||||
* 10,000+ books in the Reference section
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
Its e-resource collection is also very robust, comprising of-
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
* 15,000+ current e-journals
|
||||
* 2,00,000 back volumes of e-journals
|
||||
* 20,00,000 standards and patents
|
||||
* 2,00,00,000 theses and dissertations (including the ProQuest database)
|
||||
* 35,000+ e-books
|
||||
* Access to the World eBook Library (WeL)
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
MGCL provides access to eBooks from Elsevier Science, Springer, CRC Press, CUP, OUP, John Wiley, Tata McGraw-Hill, & Pearson Education. Access for Print and Online journals are available from all major Societies’ publishers viz. ASCE, ASME, ACS, AIP, APS, AMS, AICHE, IEEE, ASM, RSC, RS, AAAS etc. and all major STM publishers like Elsevier Science/T&F/CUP/ OUP/Springer/John Wiley.
|
||||
|
||||
## THE HASSLES PLAGUING THE LIBRARY :
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
__1) Change in Library timings & Capacity of the Library:__
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**The Problems:**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
* There have always been concerns surrounding the existing timings of the library and the results from the Google Forms indicated that they are still as prevalent as ever. While the students continue to push for the library to be opened 24x7, this action would entail severe issues both financially and in terms of management.
|
||||
An interview with the Chief Librarian revealed that doing so with the current workforce would mean opening the gates to huge occupational hazards associated with overworking the library staff.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
* Another concern raised by the students was the inadequate seating capacity of the library and that of the reading room, especially during the time of examinations. The authorities are well aware of the paucity of space in the library, but the construction of the new LHC leaves no hope for future expansions of the library, which is now surrounded with structures on all sides. With the increased intake of students through the JEE, this poses an even bigger problem for the students looking for a well-managed study environment.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Proposed Solutions:**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
* The issue of the loss of seating capacity due to the library’s fixed timings can be addressed by making the LHCs available as study spaces after the end of the day’s classes. This eliminates the need of increasing the workforce as well as any management issues attached with it, while also addressing the ever-growing needs of the campus.
|
||||
|
||||
* A novel solution would be the construction of multi-storied study centres (open 24x7) near the student hostels. Such study centres will also address the issues of accessibility attached with the central library. These centres can take inspiration from commercial spaces and house conference rooms, as per the availability of resources.
|
||||
|
||||
* Across the campus, security guards work in shifts - this caters to the requirement of 24x7 security. A similar mechanism could be constituted in the library, but would of course require the hiring of more workforce. This would enable the library to function 24*7 efficiently. The workforce to be hired can be kept to a minimum by not allowing for all functions of the library to be available 24*7 (for example, a policy disallowing the issuance of books post 11 PM or 12AM while the library remains open for reference and seating purposes, would play out beneficially for all involved parties.)
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
__2) Change in TBLS (Textbook Loan Scheme) timings:__
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**The Problem:**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
* The timings of TBLS (after the branch-wise issuance of 2 books each) are 10 am-1 pm and 3 pm-5 pm (only on weekdays), which directly clash with lecture/laboratory times. This makes it difficult for the students to take full advantage of this facility offered by the MGCL.
|
||||
|
||||
**Proposed Solution:**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
* As per popular demand, the timings for TBLS should be extended up to 8 pm, and/or the service should be offered during the weekend as well.
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
__3) The number of books made available under the TBLS facility:__
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**The Problem:**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
* The survey found that more than 65.6% of students are dissatisfied with the issuance of only 3 books through TBLS. This hardly comes as a surprise as the first 6 semesters have 4-6 subjects across almost all programs.
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
**Proposed Solution:**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
* One solution could be the issuance of e-books via the library account. The solution does need the backing of the administration to ensure that the copy-righted versions of the recommended books are made available online. This step could also potentially serve as a springboard to a future that is largely digital, paving the path towards a paperless tomorrow
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The above is just a suggestion and better solutions can and should be explored, but something we can all agree upon is that the provision of 3 books is clearly insufficient.
|
||||
|
||||
__4) Navigation system:__
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**The Problem:**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
* While the MGCL houses thousands of textbooks and journals of invaluable importance, a pertinent issue faced by a majority of the student populace is the inability to find the text that they seek.
|
||||
|
||||
**The Ideal Solution:**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
For those readers unfamiliar with the searching system, we’ve broken down the process into 5 super-small steps :
|
||||
|
||||
* **Step 1:** Go to the Computers erected on either side of the stairway, on the ground/first floor. If you find them to be out of use (which you must report to one of the staff), you may also open the Online Search Catalogue (OPAC) given on the MGCL Website
|
||||
<span style="color:#0645AD">[here](http://opac.iitr.ac.in:8280/opac/search/search.html)</span>.
|
||||
|
||||

|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
* **Step 2:** Enter the name of the book you want, either by title or by author/publication.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
* **Step 3:** Press the search button/Enter on your keyboard. Click on the title you want.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
* **Step 4:** Note the Call Number displayed on your screen. Locate this number on the racks under the respective subject section.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
* **Step 5:** Bingo! You’ve found the text you were looking for.
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
**The Persisting Problem and Proposed Solutions :**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
But what this doesn’t tackle is the annoying absence of books from these alloted racks, either because all copies of a particular title have been issued already (which is reflected in the item status in the catalogue), or because they’re lying around somewhere apart from their designated place (the more usual case). Despite having the requisite staff to ensure that the books are returned to their usual spots each morning, it’s imperative that the students return the titles they use to the shelves at the end of each day, and not leave them elsewhere. This innocuous and easy-to-do task, when completed on a large scale, is likely to curb this issue to a large extent.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
For certain books - such as those of Mathematics required by most students in the first year across all branches - more titles could be added as per the demand, which can be gauged via a potential survey carried out by the Library Committee.
|
||||
|
||||
__5) Hygiene Issues:__
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**The Problem:**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
Though most students find the overall hygiene of the library to be satisfactory, one of the most common reasons for wrinkled noses is the cleanliness of the washrooms. This is even more relevant in the context of the reading room, which seems to be a neglected extension of the main library, but is especially important to the night owls of our campus.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Evidence to support the same comes from one student’s observation : ‘Mouses come out of their bills at night time and make noises.’ Another valid concern is to ‘ensure the regular cleaning of sofas’, given their usual role as intellectual parlours (we kid of course).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Proposed Solution:**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
The reading room should undergo regular maintenance checks. The authorities should also look into introducing other 24x7 study spaces to curb over use of the facilities made available in the reading room.
|
||||
|
||||
## OUR TWO CENTS :
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
Clearly, the Library is a vital resource for a large part of the population, especially the PG and the PhD students - this also correlates to the quality and scientific research output of the institute. It also serves as a quiet retreat for all those who wish to reflect, introspect, and spend time with their thoughts, away from the chaotic bustle and hubbub of the rest of the campus.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
We understand that most problems mentioned above can be resolved only with the combined efforts of both the students and the management. However, there is a need for easier and clearer communication between both parties involved to be able to do the same. As active consumers of this space, we could start with reporting our concerns to the student representatives in the Library Committee. A review of the utilisation of resources and manpower can help solve most of the problems raised.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Any further details about the MGCL can be found <span style="color:#0645AD">[here](http://mgcl.iitr.ac.in/)</span>.<br> or by referring to the Student Guide- <span style="color:#0645AD">[here](http://mgcl.iitr.ac.in/Docs/sg.pdf)</span>.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,56 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Masaan: A Bubble of Infinite Radius"
|
||||
image: "masaan-movie-0.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
author: "Aditya Ramkumar"
|
||||
category: editorial
|
||||
excerpt: "This editorial aims to critique and appreciate the brilliant symbolism found in the movie ‘Masaan’. The article looks closely at defining moments of the movie, and readers are advised to watch the movie first, in order to thoroughly soak in this emotionally evocative ride."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
***SPOILER WARNING***
|
||||
|
||||
*This editorial aims to critique and appreciate the brilliant symbolism found in the movie ‘Masaan’. The article looks closely at defining moments of the movie, and readers are advised to watch the movie first, in order to thoroughly soak in this emotionally evocative ride.*
|
||||
|
||||
If one were to stand at a point on the bank of a river, and stare at a spot on the flowing water, involuntarily, one would follow the crests and troughs as they moved forward. We take notice of this disobedience, this rhythmic ebb and flow, and drag our eyes back. Again they wander, dragged along by the gurgling fluid. We blink twice, steady our minds and stare hard till our vision blurs and our heads ache - and yet our eyes rebel. At this point we start to realize that each iteration shows us the same sight. Each set of images, each consecutive wave pulse is identical to the previous. For all intents and purposes the river never changes, remains static and indistinguishable to our eyes. And yet the journey these drops of water make! Infinite identical water molecules trace this path all the way from the glacier high up in the mountains to the wide mouth by the sea. Each particle rushing, trickling, splashing, falling, experiencing! While our lives may be but a blip on the cosmic time diagram, they are a celebration of the wealth of experience this universe has to offer. Just as every water molecule, irrespective of its origin, irrespective of the path it takes, sooner or later merges with the giant, interconnected waters of the oceans, so must all life, as surely as it has erupted, ultimately end in identical fashion.
|
||||
|
||||
For a movie about the shackles of birth, grief and the interconnectedness of the universe, Neeraj Ghaywan and Varun Grover could have chosen no better metaphor than the Ganga. In many ways, the river is responsible for the events that occur. It enables the creation of the film’s world, acts as a narrator, and at times directly enters the plot as an inanimate cast member. The Ganga is important to each and every character in Banaras, mirroring and influencing their lives.
|
||||
|
||||
The city of Banaras was built around the Ganga, and even today the hustle bustle of this temple town revolves around the river. The Ganga, then, in one way or another, is linked with the multitude of professions and castes that flourish today in Banaras . Vidhyadhar Pathak, who gives up his teaching position at the University to care for his daughter after her mother passes away, is presented with an alternate source of income as a pandit. The holy Ganga attracts tourists and pilgrims, who in turn create the demand for rituals, offerings and merchandise. The river also offers young Jhonta a means of earning fast money through gambling and risking his life. The boatmen and fishermen of Banaras depend on it for their daily income.
|
||||
|
||||
The Doms, the traditional corpse burners of Varanasi, are an ‘untouchable’ caste that exist solely because death in Varanasi and being cremated at the Ghats, is considered to be a direct ticket to moksha. These are the shackles that Deepak is born into - the threat to all his dreams and hopes. For him, the City of Lights is not the city of lamps and aartis - it is the painful city of funeral pyres, burning bodies and choolas heated by wood from the ghats. The Ganga marks a physical divide with the ‘Kashi Naresh’ on one bank and the ‘Dom Raja’ on the other. For Deepak, education is the only way out of the life his forebears could never leave. It is the ticket to be rid of the tag of ‘Corpse Burner’ that he has been branded with at birth, the ticket to a more comfortable life, the ticket to love.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The river is a hang out spot for the locals, be it for daily chores like bathing or cleaning, for religious and spiritual duties or just for fun. Pandit Pathak chats with his friends outside his shop, Deepak and his friends chill on the banks or hitch a boat ride in the dark. The river bank is the site of Deepak and Shaalu’s romance and their first kiss. It is also where the Doms drink, smoke and make merry as they age. The river is their eternal companion, silently observing and offering its solidarity.
|
||||
|
||||
It is heart wrenchingly cruel that love - the only thing Deepak at the time identifies as being worth living for, worth toiling for, worth fighting for - is snatched away by the very same Ganga river. The same river that ensured that Deepak would go to the Polytechnic college, meet Shaalu and eventually fall in love with her at its banks, drowns her miles away on a pilgrimage to other sites built along the same Ganga. The same river then brings her body all the way over to Varanasi, to Deepak, so he may at least cremate her and see her one last time. The same river brings to him her ring, something to remember her by and to hold on to her memory.
|
||||
|
||||
Perhaps the biggest theme of Masaan is that life keeps moving forward. Just as the river does not stop flowing and keeps hurtling towards the ocean, so must a human. A person who stops moving, stops trying to live is effectively dead. Sure, setbacks may occur and one may need time to recuperate. But as the water collects and rises until it can clear the barrier, so do the characters in Masaan. Devi refuses to let her freedom be curtailed. Deepak gets right back to his studies for he knows that he cannot afford the luxury of sitting around and moping.
|
||||
|
||||
The river is a metaphor for letting go and flowing through life. This is the central emotional conflict of the film as the main characters (that are still alive) learn to feel yet to not cling to that emotion.
|
||||
|
||||
It is interesting that when Deepak throws away the ring but dives in out of regret, he is unable to find the ring and is at last able to let go, sleeping calmly on the shore. Yet when Devi tries to immerse the gift she received from Piyush, it is pushed back to her as though asking for confirmation that she is indeed prepared to let go without ever knowing what is inside the box. The Ganga seems to know what the characters need when they come to it for aid and helps them out as it deems fit. At the end of the original screenplay, Deepak describes this as “Thode din pahle hum bhi aise hi they… Ganga ji mein kood gaye...! Sab dhul gaya.” (A few days ago, I was the same...I jumped in the Ganga and everything was washed off.) This is also demonstrated when Jhonta, desperate for a family, finds the ring while almost drowning in the process and gives it to debt ridden Pathak who profusely expresses his love for Jhonta as his own blood.
|
||||
|
||||
In a similar vein, the river also describes the theme of breaking away from the shackles and being free. The only way for our characters to leave the lives they hate is by working to leave home. If one finds oneself in deep, dark, troubling waters, the only way out is to breathe and follow the bubbles.. If one gives in to the situation and offers no resistance, one will either drown or be carried away by the mighty swells till one is shredded by debris or has one’s brains dashed out against a rock. Either way one suffers and dies. This is what has happened to Sikander who has lost his chance to study and leave Harishchandra Ghat. He is a warning to Deepak who cannot afford to slip up, who, like Devi, is held to a different standard by society.
|
||||
|
||||
It is said that one must visit the Sangam twice. Once alone and once with someone else. When Deepak visits for the first time with Shaalu, this is simply a metaphor for love. As the two mighty rivers that have travelled a long distance, and must travel further ahead, meet at a single place, so do these two people with different histories and personalities meet. I may be reading into it too deeply, but it is striking that only one stream leaves the Sangam, foreshadowing the events to come. When Deepak visits the second time, alone, his romance comes full circle.
|
||||
|
||||
At a spiritual level, this film is about the similarities and interconnectedness of life. While the characters may face different problems, their situations are similar. The source of their problems is similar, the feelings of love, hatred, helplessness, grief, hope and serenity they feel as they live alongside the Ganga are identical. This is alluded to in the song ‘Mann Kasturi Re’ which compares our minds to a musk deer that searches for the source of the sweet scent, not realizing that the smell comes from itself. The differences that humanity has created in society are artificial and are a matter of perception. ‘Ulta karke dekh sake to, Ambar bhi hai geheri khai’. (Even the sky is an abyss if inverted)
|
||||
|
||||
Water from the two rivers combines at the Sangam till it is no longer distinguishable where it came from. What river could convey this theme better than the Ganga? Corpses from all ages, all castes, all genders burn side by side in the crackling fires of the Ghats before being dispersed in the water. In this blip we identify as ours, we live, we die.
|
||||
|
||||
> ज़िन्दगी क्या है, अनासिर में ज़हूर-ए-तरतीब,
|
||||
> मौत क्या है, इनीं अज़ा का परेशाँ होना।"
|
||||
>
|
||||
> \- बृज नारायण ‘चकबस्त’
|
||||
|
||||
“What is life? A delicate arrangement of the five elements.
|
||||
What is death? A slight disturbance of this arrangement.”
|
||||
|
||||
### References
|
||||
|
||||
* [https://www.filmcompanion.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Masaan-Movie-Script-Film-Companion.pdf](https://www.filmcompanion.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Masaan-Movie-Script-Film-Companion.pdf){: style="text-decoration:underline"}
|
||||
|
||||
* [https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/sing-along-here-are-the-lyrics-to-masaans-mann-kasturi-and-tu-kisi-rail-si-2362770.html](https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/sing-along-here-are-the-lyrics-to-masaans-mann-kasturi-and-tu-kisi-rail-si-2362770.html){: style="text-decoration:underline"}
|
||||
@ -1,59 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Guest Editorial : I'm Not Okay, Are You?"
|
||||
image: "iamnotokay1.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: editorial
|
||||
author: "Anonymous"
|
||||
|
||||
excerpt: "Today had been a bad day. But then every day felt like a bad day. The professor admonished him again for being listless, preoccupied, inattentive. His girlfriend accused him of not \"getting her\" while she ranted about her day. The disappointments didn’t end there. His parents continued to worry; he hadn't spoken to them in the last two weeks. His friends felt neglected and shut off - they were pissed at him because he kept bailing on every plan they made.
|
||||
"
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Today had been a bad day. But then every day felt like a bad day. The professor admonished him again for being listless, preoccupied, inattentive. His girlfriend accused him of not "getting her" while she ranted about her day. The disappointments didn’t end there. His parents continued to worry; he hadn't spoken to them in the last two weeks. His friends felt neglected and shut off - they were pissed at him because he kept bailing on every plan they made.*
|
||||
|
||||
*But our protagonist is used to this. He's used to the pretense. He's probably sitting in his room right now, again, smoke in hand,blaming himself for something that probably isn't even his own fault. But he knows that he needs to keep up the pretense. The pretense that everything is okay. That he's not fighting his demons every day.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
"I murmured a vow of silence and now
|
||||
I don't even hear when I think aloud
|
||||
Extinguished by light, I turn on the night
|
||||
Wear its darkness with an empty smile."
|
||||
|
||||
-Wearing the Inside Out, Pink Floyd<br>
|
||||
|
||||
While we tend to flippantly quote Tyrion Lannister and claim to “know things”, there are an incredible amount of things around us that we know shamefully little about. Mental illness is one of those things. It is unfathomable for most of us to digest the fact that a person, seemingly normal on the outside, could be dealing with an apocalyptic melee of thoughts on the inside - all the while cracking “that’s what she said jokes” reflexively and nonchalantly.
|
||||
|
||||
(Before we proceed any further, I would like to state that mental illnesses are very complex, and I am not professionally qualified to give any sort of advice. What follows is based completely on personal experiences.)
|
||||
|
||||
For a lot of us, clearing the JEE and coming to Roorkee was a chance to finally experience the good life that awaited us on the other side, after what seemed like a lifetime of slogging to clear one of the most gruelling exams in the country. For me, coming to Roorkee was a chance to start over.
|
||||
|
||||
It clearly didn’t turn out the way I hoped.
|
||||
|
||||
On most days, I was lost. I didn’t know how to deal with my emotions. Okay, who am I kidding? I still don’t know how to deal with my emotions. I was in love with what I was studying here and that has ever so slowly diminished and faded away, almost to the point where now I just do what I have to, to get my godforsaken degree uneventfully, and just leave. I tried to distance myself from people in general, which also meant shirking whatever responsibilities I had towards the groups I am involved with. I found solace in going to Divine or heading off to JD after the classes ended.
|
||||
|
||||
Despite all of this I had a group of really nice people around who put up with most of my bullshit when all I wanted to do was push them away. In retrospect, I’m glad they stayed right where they were.
|
||||
|
||||
Roorkee can be a sloppy mess, a dark cesspool and an incredibly depressing place. In this small world of ours, it is often surprising and terrifying to learn about the number of people who are dealing with a large number of problems. You'd say everyone is dealing with issues of their own, and that's true everywhere, and of course you're absolutely right. So what makes Roorkee special? What sets Roorkee apart is the people. The same aforementioned people who are dealing with a truckload of issues, but will drop everything if you need them.
|
||||
|
||||
A lot of people will come to you and tell you that it will all be okay and that you will be completely ‘normal’. A lot of them preach the power of self-love and how it can heal you. Look, if you can love yourself, I envy you. Self-love isn’t just a switch that you can just flip on and feel great about yourself. It isn’t about looking for the good in yourself, it's about acknowledging the screwed up bits about you and getting to know yourself - what makes you tick and what pisses you off. Just like you need time to fall in love with another person, you need time to fall in love with yourself and you can’t force that, no matter how hard you try.
|
||||
|
||||
We tend to underestimate the helplessness that comes with mental illnesses. One cannot claim to completely understand the plethora of emotions that someone else might be going through at any given moment, so one can never ever fully empathize with anyone. Axiomatically, it's unfair to expect someone to empathize with you. While people around you will be there to support you, it’s not wise to depend on them for that. From whatever limited experience I have, we are all jigsaws waiting to fall into place, but we can’t look for the pieces that fix us, complete us, in other people.
|
||||
(Yes, that should be a tshirt quote, I know; also the Radiohead reference is on purpose)
|
||||
|
||||
I found a friend, a constant companion in the form and shape of our campus. Whenever life gets a little too much to deal with, I take a walk around IITR. Nothing can match the beauty of Roorkee late at night. When you need it, even the tacky, strangely familiar lights of the ECE tower can give you solace. I often find myself strolling off to different spots around the campus, just to spend time with my thoughts. You do need that sometimes - ample amounts of time and an appropriate place to be with your thoughts and nothing else. You need clarity, to put things in perspective. In that sense, I feel that Roorkee has always been what I wanted it to be. I don’t think I can put that feeling in words, but think of the Room of Requirement from Harry Potter, except here it’s the entire campus.
|
||||
|
||||
It’s taken me almost a year of therapy to realize a simple fact : it helps to do things that give you temporary happiness - even if it’s for a fleeting moment in the entire day. And you can hope that time makes you a better person than you are at the moment.
|
||||
|
||||
If you've stuck around for so long, I would like to leave you with this:
|
||||
Life is unfair. We have to play the hand that we have been dealt. I can’t tell you that it gets better. I can only tell you that it gets easier, ever so slightly.
|
||||
|
||||
“In this terrifying world, all we have are the connections that we make.”<br>
|
||||
|
||||
-Some Random Dude on Some Random Show<br><br>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*:)*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,111 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "In Conversation With Gaurav Solanki: Co-Writer of Article 15 (Movie)"
|
||||
image: "gaurav-solanki.jpeg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Gaurav Solanki (born 1986) is an Indian fiction writer, poet, screenwriter and lyricist. He is an IIT Roorkee alumni and recently won a filmfare for the ‘Best Original Story’ for the much acclaimed film Article 15."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Gaurav Solanki (born 1986) is an Indian fiction writer, poet, screenwriter and lyricist. He is an IIT Roorkee alumni and recently won a filmfare for the ‘Best Original Story’ for the much acclaimed film Article 15. In addition to this he has written songs for Ugly, Daas Dev and Veere Di Wedding. Interestingly, in 2012, he was awarded Jnanpeeth's Navlekhan Puraskar which he refused to accept - read on to find out why. His first short-story collection 'Gyrahvin-A ke Ladke' was released in Jaipur Literature Festival, 2018. It was among top 3 Hindi Books in the Dainik Jagran Nielsen Bookscan Bestseller list in its first quarter. Watch Out! scheduled a skype interview with him, the transcript of which is given below.*
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** At what point in your life did you understand that you wanted to get into writing and wanted to become a poet/lyricist? How did this transition happen, were you interested in writing before college as well?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** I wrote my first poem in the 11th standard but at that time, writing never seemed like a career option. I wanted to do something related to films, but I didn’t know how to go to Bombay and reach out to people. We all are very young when we take up these professional courses. I was good at studies, so I got into an IIT. At that point, it seemed like a way to get out of my small town. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an actor, but this thought went away when I grew older, so it was all very vague. However, something was fascinating about cinema that intrigued me in various ways. In my first year, during the recruitments, I wanted to join the Dramatics section but was eliminated in the last round. There was this tall guy who got selected in the section when one of us had to be chosen. In my teenage angst, I felt like he got selected and I didn’t solely because of his height. (laughs) Otherwise, I thought I was pretty decent. Later, I joined Kshitij and started writing poems and short stories. During the second or third year, I wrote a novel. It was possible because you don’t need any extra accessories or resources for writing. I used to publish poems on my blog and tried to reach out to the publishers in Delhi during my summer vacations, but no one took me seriously. I went to Rupa, Raj Kamal and the like, but no one paid attention. However, I kept on writing. During my final year, I felt I should go to FTII Pune. I took the exam for FTII Pune, but unlike JEE, for which there are tons of books and coaching institutes available, this exam didn’t have many resources, and I didn’t know what would be asked in the exam. I got to know through some seniors on Orkut about the exam. Also, I got placed in a networking company in Gurgaon. I joined the company while I waited for the results of the exam. I cleared the exam and the interview for a course in film direction, but at that point, I felt like I didn’t want to study for another 3-5 years. So, I didn’t join FTII Pune, and also left my job after six or seven months.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** Who were your inspirations, the movies/authors that influenced you when you started writing and discovered your interest in filmmaking?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** While I was in college, I read Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. That was quite complex but it has this magical realism in it, and I was fascinated by how he dealt with real history and then fictionalized it. It made me think that writing can be approached in different ways. I read a lot of Premchand and Sharatchandra in my childhood. They had their influences on me. I also read Arundhati Roy in college. I also read the works of Nirmal Verma, Vinod Kumar Shukl and Uday Prakash. These writers showed me new possible ways. When it comes to filmmaking, Hindi films were changing. Movies like Maqbool, Omkara, Rang de Basanti, Socha na tha and Jab We Met, which were quite different from the typical Bollywood movies showed me the possibility of a different kind of mainstream cinema. I think these films carved out a path for a lot of people of my generation. People like Anurag Kashyap were making unique films. There used to be a community blog called “Passion for Cinema''. On this blog, Indie filmmakers, enthusiasts and critics used to write. Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Kashyap and many other directors were active there. Neeraj Ghaywan who later directed Masaan, used to write there. I started watching World Cinema after passing out from college. I used to rent movies from a website called “seventymm”. Around that time, I watched the works of Kurosawa, Wong Kar Wai, Almodovar, Truffaut, Bergman and many other filmmakers. A little bit later, I explored some wonderful Iranian directors. All of them gave me a lot.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** What were the difficulties that you faced when you decided not to do an engineering job? Did your parents pressurize you, did you also feel that engineering was the easy way out, how did you overcome it?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** It seemed inevitable that I had to leave my job. It was only a matter of time before I moved on. I felt that the more delay there was, the more I’d get used to the job, the salary and everything else in between. I started to feel imprisoned because I wasn’t able to write. My parents used to urge me to write after returning from my job. They didn’t want me to give up on my job. However, I realized that then it would just be a hobby. If you wish to do something professionally, it has to be full-time, whether it’s writing, photography or something else. So, I decided to leave my job. People labeled this decision as ‘brave’, ‘bold’, ‘risky’, ‘stupid’, depending on how they thought. I believed that this is the only way I can live. My parents, however, were shocked. They thought that I don’t understand the real, practical world. I look back and can understand their point of view scarred with their struggles in life.
|
||||
Eventually, I remained tenacious and started writing for magazines and newspapers. I used to write film reviews for Tehelka. Thankfully, it was always clear in my head that I wanted to do this with my life.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** Did you ever feel that there were certain benefits attached with the IIT tag even in the film industry?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** Not exactly, but sometimes people take you more seriously and believe that you are sincere because you passed such a tough exam and that you must be hardworking. Some benefits are always there. During the initial days, people show their interest in you and take you more seriously, but since the field is very different, there are no other benefits.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** Writing ‘Article 15’ must’ve been a monumental incident in your life. How did you get that project and what was the inspiration when you started writing it?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** I was working on a script with Sudhir Mishra when he introduced me to Anubhav Sinha, who was looking for a writer for a film, which was a different film. We connected and soon I realized that he was trying to change the kind of films he was making. That was the transitional period in his filmmaking career. Both of us shared the anger about a lot of things around us and we wanted to express it through our work. We decided to make it a thriller so that more people can watch this movie because not many people will watch a serious film with a social message and neither did we want to make a cliche ‘issue-based’ film. We did all this for about 4-5 months. We tried to add all those things which we had experienced, heard and seen throughout our lives related to caste, including current situations on various campuses, politics and fight against this discrimination and and how casteism is spreading in cities and villages in new forms. We tried to capture as much as we could.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** ‘Article 15’ is based on a very sensitive topic. While you were writing, did you face any problems regarding what you could and couldn’t portray?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** No, not really. Anubhav and I used to discuss this. We took names of various castes as well, including the scheduled castes. Some team members even said that the Censor Board will not approve of it. They said the same thing when we decided to mention the symbols of the various political parties. About these possible objections by the Censor Board, we decided to wait for this to happen in reality instead of censoring ourselves. Interestingly, CBFC didn’t have any problem with these scenes.
|
||||
|
||||
We tried to be as objective in our approach as we could and did not think twice about mentioning something. However, about reservation, there was a scene in the movie which originally contained a few lines about reservation. It was the scene in which Ayushmann and others come to meet Nishad. After a couple of rewrites, we realised that if we bring up reservation, it would have to be a lengthy conversation and we can’t be done with it in a single scene. We had to let go of those lines because we realised that we won’t be able to do justice with it within the limited duration of one film.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** About the characters and incidents in the movie, did you draw inspirations from things that have happened to you or around you?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** These things never happened to me, but I have seen even in cities like Delhi and Mumbai, it matters to people, it matters to many house owners while renting out their flats and most of the people prefer to marry within their castes. It is more visible in smaller cities and villages. A lot of savarns offer water or tea to a Dalit in different utensils. This takes a brutal form when a Dalit goes to a temple or when they want to ride a horse in a marriage and get beaten or even killed sometimes. They get killed for the smallest of things a human being would want to do. I remember reading many incidents of brutal mob lynching or burning dalit houses in my growing years . They had a deep impact on me. These incidents happen every year. Sewage workers work in very bad circumstances without any safety gear and many people die because of this. Most of them are dalits. So, we come across these incidents everyday, but we develop a habit to ignore them, like ignoring a beggar on the street. Many people even say that the Mafia is behind these beggars and they’re the ones who will gain money from all this. No one has either the time or the determination to do something about this, so we prefer to ignore it. Even the citizens who are conscious about this think that they can’t change the entire society or how the system works. So, there was this anger that we’ll have to do something about this.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** You mentioned that you had a personal anger against the discriminatory practices you saw. Following up on that, how important do you feel is the connection between a writer and the characters they’re writing?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** True, such a connection is really important. However, the things you write about don't need to be your personal experiences. Your life is too short to experience everything. I try to let all the characters live in my mind. Films, videos, books and sometimes talking to or listening to people similar to your characters help a lot.
|
||||
I regularly think about how they might be living their lives. I think it's important to ‘act inside’, to live all those lives inside you, in order to bring intensity and authenticity to your story. These crucial parts of the story can only be achieved when you feel for the characters. I feel that a writer’s craft is to translate those feelings he has for his story, his characters onto a piece of paper. One has to feel for the character, and have the ability to communicate those feelings, both of them are equally important for a story.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** What was your favourite scene in the movie and Why?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** That’s a difficult question, to be honest. It’s a cliche thing to say but it’s impossible to choose one favorite among your own work. There were many scenes, though, which were more challenging than others and to be able to do them was quite satisfying. For example, the scene where Ayan asks everyone’s caste, it turned out to be somewhat funny and was included in the trailer as well. A lot of people talk about that. Another such scene was the one when Nishad returns to meet Ayan, Gaura, Jatav and Mayank. The conversations Ayan has with the CBI officer Panicker nearing the climax, that too.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** Your film has gained widespread popularity and love and has been awarded a Filmfare and other national accolades. Do you think the message you wanted to convey got through?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** Many people have seen the film in Cinema halls, on Netflix, so the message has been received by a lot of people. What matters is the number of people who remember the message, and how many stay affected by it. Many times we watch movies purely for entertainment and do not change anything in real life. Take the example of love stories. In our country, love stories have always been popular among the masses, yet love is seen as taboo, much more in smaller cities. I’ve always felt that we’re living dual lives. In cinema, we enjoy it but in our homes, in the same scenario, it is seen in a different light. I have a similar fear for such films and it’s always up to individuals how they choose to let films impact their lives. Cinema can’t bring complete change, it can only inspire, can only be the catalyst to change. If the film does that, I will be satisfied.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** As a follow up to that question, even in elite institutions like IITs, visible or invisible forms of discrimination do exist. How do you feel we can combat that?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** I feel that the only solution to this is to talk among yourselves. In social constructs, there are some who face discrimination, then those who do the discrimination. There are people in between, those who prefer to stay quiet. If they start to speak up, engage in discussions and protest, I feel change can be brought about sooner. A discussion between communities, among people of different backgrounds is necessary.
|
||||
|
||||
Acknowledging the problem is the first step to solving it. Many of us, mostly from so-called upper castes, say that the caste discrimination is a thing of the past, that it does not happen anymore, while the truth is they are saying this just because they haven’t faced it.
|
||||
|
||||
You’ll realise that those from the upper castes have most friends from the upper castes itself, this makes a sort of an echo-chamber, with your friends, neighbours, parents and those related to the parents, all of them belong to the upper castes, so either these ‘neutral’ people don’t know the actual plight of the lower castes or they choose to ignore it because of their privilege, security and indifference. Many in the younger generations never get to know the discrimination prevalent, as they do not talk to those discriminated against. Talking to those different from you, making friends with them, is important, I feel. Even in IIT, I felt that the students who entered by reservation have different groups, general category students have different groups. Due to the decreased interaction, there’s a feeling of discrimination and alienation inherently developed in such students. I feel faculty and all the students must make efforts to mitigate such barriers. There have been many suicides in campuses in recent past because of this inhuman discrimination. So first we have to acknowledge that the problem is far from gone.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** We all know that the Oscar this year went to a South Korean film, Parasite, which relayed the message of social inequality. Why do you think Indian cinema has not been able to make a mark on the global stage so far?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** I don't feel the films we usually send for oscars are our best ones. We tend to send our popular films, which were commercial hits. However, for the awards, those films which have more novelty, more originality, they’re more likely to win an award. Another factor is that we’ve become too obsessed with our box office numbers – 100 Cr, 300 Cr. This is becoming a cultural problem that we keep talking about these numbers in shows, interviews, etc. Kids in schools are talking about the Friday collections. The films that should be made, they would give you some profit, but not necessarily 10 or 20 times the investment.
|
||||
|
||||
Still, we keep on making some brilliant films across languages. Some of them are commercially successful too. Many films in the past have made a huge mark on the global stage. Satyajit Ray has been celebrated around the world.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** In 2012, you rejected the prestigious Jnanpith Navlekhan Award. What were your reasons for this rejection?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** The people from Jnanpith were giving me an award for my first poetry collection and were also going to publish my short story collection. Maybe it was their politics or moral hypocrisy, they told me after a year that one of my stories had obscenity in it, and asked me to modify or remove this story despite the book being reviewed and selected by multiple senior critics and writers beforehand. To protest this I refused the award, as it felt weird getting an award from someone who sees obscenity in your works. Thus I decided not to take the award. I was disillusioned and disappeared for a while from the literary world. Finally when I published the collection of stories after a few years, I named it after the title of the story 'Gyrahvin-A ke Ladke' which they found to be obscene.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** Can you tell us about the future projects you’re working on?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** I have written a series for Amazon Prime, a political thriller which will come out sometime this year. It stars Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Mohd. Zeeshan, and many others. I’m also working on another film, Freedom, directed by Dibakar Banarjee, which I have co-written with him.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** Any final message to the quarantined junta?
|
||||
|
||||
**Gaurav -** Take care everyone, follow physical distancing seriously, listen to the government and WHO. Help others who are not as privileged. When we come out of this situation, we must look at problems like climate change as well. The problems that we might face in the future because of climate change would be much larger than the current crisis, so let’s live sustainably and take care of our planet. Read, watch movies, spend time with your family. Let’s stay strong and united.
|
||||
@ -1,216 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Sports At R: A Level Playing Field?"
|
||||
image: "sports-at-r.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: bigstory
|
||||
author: "Vedant Kumar, Atharva Shukla, Pritika Mishra, Mayank Verma, Jigyasa Kumari"
|
||||
excerpt: "With IIT Roorkee having won the bid to host the 55th Inter IIT Sports competition, our institute has been presented with a unique chance to upgrade its sports facilities. This also presents our teams with the coveted home advantage on which they will surely try and capitalize."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
With IIT Roorkee having won the bid to host the 55th Inter IIT Sports competition, our institute has been presented with a unique chance to upgrade its sports facilities. This also presents our teams with the coveted home advantage on which they will surely try and capitalize. Organising an event like the Inter IIT Sports Meet is a mammoth task, and hence Watch Out! decided to try and gauge the level of preparedness of our institute, as well as our participating teams, for next year's tournament.
|
||||
|
||||
World class sports facilities - while being obvious catalysts that improve our performances in the intercollegiate tournaments - are expected to exist in an institute like ours, because they promote the all round development of the students on campus. After sacrificing their favourite sports for a good part of two years while burning the midnight while preparing for the JEE, students are often keen to rekindle their love for sports and expect an avenue to do the same.
|
||||
|
||||
This article is the first in a two article series - here we concern ourselves with the pressing issues faced by our teams, as well as the student populace as a whole. We aim to dispel the common doubts and problems students deal with, as well as inform the campus junta about the work being done behind the scenes to provide a seamless experience to all the students.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
## Past Performance
|
||||
|
||||
We start by taking a look at the past performances of IIT Roorkee in the Inter IIT Sports tournaments (we have taken the 52nd, 53rd and 54th meetup in our analysis).
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="infogram-embed" data-id="f4a941f1-783a-43a8-831b-f7773a4f76e8" data-type="interactive" data-title="Line Chart"></div><script>!function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async");</script><div style="padding:8px 0;font-family:Arial!important;font-size:13px!important;line-height:15px!important;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #dadada;margin:0 30px"><a href="https://infogram.com/f4a941f1-783a-43a8-831b-f7773a4f76e8" style="color:#989898!important;text-decoration:none!important;" target="_blank">Line Chart</a><br><a href="https://infogram.com" style="color:#989898!important;text-decoration:none!important;" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Infogram</a></div>
|
||||
|
||||
The teams of a number of sports like Basketball, Football, Hockey, Cricket, Volleyball, Weightlifting have been consistently performing well over the years (with only a few ups and downs). The March Past performed by the IIT Roorkee contingent also managed to receive the nod of approval by finishing on the podium in the previous three editions. The performance of the Swimming team has improved as well, with the men’s team brilliantly securing the 2nd position overall in the 54th tournament, and the water polo team breaking into the semis.
|
||||
|
||||
This year, the squash team was able to overcome the stand-still they were facing in the last two tournaments, by securing the overall 3rd position in the 2019 edition. Even though there has been a significant improvement in the results in the individual events for the Athletics Men’s Contingent, the team as a whole hasn’t been able to move past the forsaken 5th position in the last three editions of the tournament. Similarly the racquet teams - despite delivering a few exceptional performances, have not fared well overall in these tournaments either (refer to the above graph).
|
||||
|
||||
We have tried to find reasons for this seeming asymmetry and imbalance in the performances of these various teams.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The overall performance of our institute in this year’s meet was far from a victory after the triumphant success we achieved in 2018. As apparent from the graph, there have been massive improvements in different categories in recent years, but the team performance still leaves a lot to be desired.
|
||||
|
||||
***Please Note: Mentioned in the above graph is the overall standing of the team. In a few sports such as Swimming & Athletics, many students have secured medals in their individual events, which is not reflected in this graph.***
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
## Grievances & Redressals
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*The quality of various relevant parameters for different sports has been shown above. This list has been compiled by us and is bound to be subjective. However, we expect it to be fairly accurate since it was curated after interacting extensively with the sport secretaries and the sports council.*
|
||||
|
||||
After conferring with the Secretaries/Joint Secretaries of the various teams, some common problems for all the sports were found; these are listed down below along with the work done by the administration to ease the situation for the teams -
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
### 1. Coaches :-
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Grievance:**
|
||||
|
||||
The lack of permanent coaches, or in some cases any coach at all, has been a pertinent issue for a long time. Coaches are essential since they help improve performances and alleviate other issues that the players might be facing. The teams are mentored in a way such that the players avoid injuries. They also provide much needed motivation - which helps the students practice regularly - and are bound to add a tinge of seriousness to the team’s activities.
|
||||
|
||||
Our Squash team grapples with this problem, as the institute has found it difficult to hire a coach for the sport since Roorkee is not a big metropolitan city. For the swimming team, there’s no full time coach, that is, during the off days (when the swimming pool isn’t open) the students have to practice on their own or follow the regime followed by the athletics team, so they are left without any specialised supervision. The Athletics team has an experienced coach, but athletics itself comprises various specialised activities (Long Jump, High Jump, Hammer throw, Shot put, Javelin throw, track & field etc. etc.), so at times, in many of these activities, the students do not receive specialised coaching.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Redressal:**
|
||||
|
||||
Even though the situation was dismal in the past, a lot of ground has been covered in the past three years to cover this gap.
|
||||
|
||||
**Ground Staff-**
|
||||
|
||||
Coaches have to be hired from the gymkhana fees, and the ground staff are paid using the same fund. A lot of money from the gymkhana budget is spent on the salaries of the ground staff (they are responsible for the proper maintenance of the vast sports arenas and are hence required in large numbers). This is primarily because the hiring needs to be done according to institute norms which dictate that the ground staff and the coaches are to be hired through an external agency, which makes the procedure expensive. The agency assumes insurance responsibilities for the employees they bring in. Despite the added incurred cost, this path is better suited for an educational institution such as IIT Roorkee, since in case of any mishap, the external agency is questioned, and the institute is not held liable.
|
||||
|
||||
**Coaches-**
|
||||
|
||||
Due to this there is often a dearth of money to spend on other related activities, including the hiring of coaches. Efforts are being made to bring these expenses under the aegis of the Central Administration. Specialized coaches are being hired, who already have training in the necessary basic skills. As of now, we have temporary coaches for almost all the sports including Rowing, Yoga, Taekwondo and Weightlifting.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
### 2. Exposure :-
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Grievance:**
|
||||
|
||||
A major issue faced by nearly all the teams is the lack of tournaments they participate in, which leads to them not being sufficiently prepared and ready during the days of the Inter IIT. For example, the Hockey team usually plays practice games with the army team, but these matches are infrequent, since the paperwork involved in setting them up is cumbersome.
|
||||
|
||||
The AITA ( All India Tennis Association) is situated in Dehradun. The permission to participate in their tournaments can provide the students with adequate match practice, but as of now this is not being granted on a regular basis as well.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Redressal:**
|
||||
|
||||
Funding is the primary hurdle when the exposure of students is considered. For instance, sending students to IIT Bombay for competitions is expensive. Instead, students are sent to competitions like Udghosh (IIT Kanpur’s Sports Fest) which are conducted near the campus. Other college teams are also invited to play in IITR’s Sports Fest - Sangram.
|
||||
|
||||
The administration also pointed out the fact that the teams are not sent to other tournaments in the nearby NCR-region. This is because they don't wish to send them to institutes which are not IITs, since they believe this might lead to tussles between the participating colleges. The relevant paperwork has to be dealt with when it comes to organizing matches with teams outside the campus, since there are safety concerns involved. The Sports Council has taken steps to reduce the bureaucracy surrounding this process.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
### 3. Equipments & Arena:-
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Grievance:**
|
||||
|
||||
Students associated with a few sports have expressed their concerns surrounding the equipment that they are provided with. Quality equipment is an inescapable component of improvement, and the lack thereof prevents the students from realising their true potentials. There are only three badminton courts in our institute as of now due to which there isn't enough space for everyone to practice. Similar problems are faced by the Table-Tennis and Athletics teams. A lot of requests have been made by various sports teams regarding the need for different equipment, but either their requests have not been fulfilled so far, or the desired equipment has been partially made available (Many of these requests were made 3 to 4 years ago).
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Redressal:**
|
||||
|
||||
A major roadblock in getting new equipment turns out to be the fact that the MHRD has stopped funding the development of infrastructure across all IITs. These costs now have to be taken up by the institute. The Sport Council has tried to provide the necessary equipment for the various sports : 10-15 lakhs have been spent on equipment, petty expenses and office expenses.
|
||||
|
||||
The renovation of the gym has been done during the past 2-3 years - a whopping total of Rs. 1 crore was spent on this. These funds have been granted by the Director, and are not taken out of the Sports fund as they cannot be sustained otherwise. A spiker machine has been purchased for the volleyball team. A safety landing pit for long/ high jump has been provided along with jumping pit, poles and bars for pole vault, which in total cost Rs. 10 lakh. The LBS is being renovated, the ground is being levelled and the Director has also approved the necessary funding for installing floodlights. A sprinkler system has been installed in the football and hockey grounds - this cost Rs. 38 lakh.
|
||||
|
||||
Any expenditure amounting to upwards of Rs. 50,000 requires a quotation and the resulting bureaucracy can take upto two months, resulting in delays.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
### 4. NSO Credits:-
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Grievance:**
|
||||
|
||||
It is a general consensus that the recent removal of NSO credits has resulted in lackadaisical participation by the student community. This lack of participation follows when the students come to their second years as well.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Redressal:**
|
||||
|
||||
To counter this the sports council is looking to adopt a system similar to what is being followed in IIT Kanpur. There is a physical education course which is compulsory for all first yearities in which the students spend two hours every week. The sports council has passed it and right now the proposal is under the supervision of officers in the main building.
|
||||
|
||||
## Arguments Put Forward By the Emerging Sports And Their Counters By The Administration
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
### 1. Chess:-
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Argument:**
|
||||
|
||||
The sport Chess has recently been inducted into the Inter IIT tournament, and the members of the chess team have been protesting the need for them to go through rigorous physical training (running, push ups etc) along with the other members of NSO, since they are more likely to be benefited by Yoga and meditation which might help them in boosting their concentration.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Response:**
|
||||
|
||||
The maintenance of bare minimum physical fitness is what necessitates the involvement of students of NSO Chess in the physical drills, though the contact hours should be revised for them.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
### 2. Boxing:-
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Argument:**
|
||||
|
||||
There has been a steady increase in the number of enthusiasts for boxing in the institute. This has naturally been followed by calls for equipment and recognition by the administration.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Response:**
|
||||
|
||||
The failure to recognise Boxing by the administration can be put down to it being a ‘violent’ sport. The Sports Council is wary of the possible damage that can be caused to a student taking part in this sport. Kabaddi was removed due to this very same reason in the past.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
### 3. Taekwondo:-
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Argument:**
|
||||
|
||||
Taekwondo seems to fight similar problems since it is not recognised as a sport by the Institute Sports Council (ISC) and is not a part of the Inter IIT Sports Meet. Due to this the members of the Taekwondo team have to participate individually in the competitions they want to go to - they can not represent IIT Roorkee. The performance of the team in the State Taekwondo competition 2019 was a success, their group of 12 people won 17 medals. But these accolades could not be attributed to IIT Roorkee as the students had to participate in their individual capacity.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
#### **Response:**
|
||||
|
||||
The Institute Sports council has taken several steps to ensure increased student participation by introducing Taekwondo as a sport in NSO, Inter Bhawan Championships and Colors Trophy. In addition to this the arena and equipment provided are of world class standards and helps in preventing serious injuries. However, students still can’t represent IIT Roorkee in externally held competitions.
|
||||
|
||||
*A note from WO: We urge the sports council to come up with definitive rules which characterize the inclusion of a new sport, its recognition by the sport council. This will help reduce the persisting confusion in the student community.*
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
## IITR Speaks On Sports
|
||||
|
||||
To better understand the problems faced by the students, we conducted a survey to gauge the perception of the IITR junta regarding the sports facilities. This was done with the help of a Google Form available in the public domain. In the next section, we discuss its inferences.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
1. **A majority of the IITR junta seems to be into sports,** with over 90% of them having played a sport on the campus before. This result is obviously skewed due to the fact that a person actively involved in a sport would have been more inclined to answer this survey.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
2. **The public view seems to be split on the quality of equipment provided in the institute.** It does not come as a surprise that more professional sports persons would want better equipment while the rest might be content with the available facilities.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
3. **A lot of people feel that there is insufficient space for everyone to train together.** This lack of space is particularly highlighted in sports like Badminton, where there are only 3 courts as of now which makes it difficult to accommodate everyone involved. A non-NSO player has to come in the morning or during class timings, thus making it difficult to come and practice. As would be expected, these problems are not faced in sports like football, cricket and hockey.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
## Induction Of Students Into Sports Through Improved ‘Bhawan Sports Culture’
|
||||
|
||||
It is fair to say that the improvement in IITR’s performances in the inter-collegiate tournaments, and/or the increase in the number of students participating in sports, is highly dependent on a strong bhawan culture for sports. This is also essential for the physical fitness of the bhawan inmates.
|
||||
|
||||
Learning a new sport is not always as challenging and implausible as people might imagine it to be. Theoretically the only things required for certain sports are regularity and patience. Anyone who wants to start playing a sport that is not heavily dependent on specialised gear and equipment, can play at non-professional levels with friends and colleagues in the students’ club or even in the bhawan compounds. As an individual gets the hang of the sport, he/she can shift to play it under the supervision of the professionals and the coaches in our courts and fields. Participating in institute tournaments like the Inter- and Intra-Bhawans, or in Sangram and other events would also help them in realizing their Inter IIT dreams.
|
||||
|
||||
But a lot of this is easier said than done. When it comes to a number of sports (like badminton), the timings of the regular courts, and the number of courts found in the bhawans are inflexible and insufficient. A lot of students are thus not able to practice on a regular basis and hone their skills. The lack of tournaments for sports like squash and water polo can be attributed to the sparse interest in them; the promotion of these sports at bhawan level by the sports secretaries can help improve matters. The sports facilities inside the hostel premises also require regular maintenance work which will further help the students to take part in their favourite sports.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
According to our survey (which is likely to have been filled by sport enthusiasts on campus), **an overwhelmingly large percentage of students believe tournaments similar to the inter and the intra bhawan would be of help.** The firsts steps to improve the Bhawan Culture have already been taken by the Sports Council. The Inter Bhawan Sports tournament was revamped and the duration over which it was held was increased. This year the tournament followed the ‘General Championship’ format - this is similar to the one followed during Inter IIT tournaments. We request the sports council to continue with similar efforts this year and look into the viability of expanding the same.
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*With the help of this piece we hope to bridge the communication gap between the Sport Council and the students. We hope the administration takes note of the problems discussed and appropriately deals with them. Stay tuned for the next part of this article where we analyse the budget for the Sports Activities in the campus, as well as the preparations for hosting the Inter IIT Sports meet 2020.*
|
||||
@ -1,103 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Heart to Heart with the Culinary Club"
|
||||
image: "cc10.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Culinary Club IITR was founded a couple years ago by an adventurous alumnus of ours - Siddharth Sarvanakumar (Batch of 2019, Integrated M.Sc Physics)."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Culinary Club IITR was founded a couple years ago by an adventurous alumnus of ours - Siddharth Sarvanakumar (Batch of 2019, Integrated M.Sc Physics). The members had a lot of hurdles to cross ever since the idea of such a club was incepted in the mind of the founder by a colleague of his from Yale. The club participated in the Inter-IIT (Cult Meet) Culinary Event in 2018 (held in Roorkee), and bulldozed all opposition to secure the top spot. Over the last two years the club has also regularly served dishes at a reasonable rate to the campus junta every weekend. February of this year saw the club organise a remarkable event - ‘Cook Without Fire’, a competition that pits budding campus cooks against each other in a bid to come up with the most delicious dish sans the use of fire.*
|
||||
|
||||
*Watch Out! decided to interview the founder Siddharth Sarvanakumar, and the current quirky secretary Saumya Gupta, to find out more about the kind of challenges they faced, their vision for the club etcetera. Read on to find out more.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**1. Siddharth, you founded this club a couple years ago. Could you tell us the inspiration behind setting this up?**
|
||||
|
||||
**Siddharth:** I liked cooking right since I was a child but I never thought of it as a viable career option until I actually got into it. Out of all the things that I have tried, I have lost my curiosity for a lot of things but this is one thing which has remained with me ever since it caught my eye, and has in fact led to making me even more curious as I kept on exploring it. So I knew that I wanted to cook but unfortunately the campus had nothing to do with cooking then. This concept was completely blank not only in our college but also in the whole of India in general. During the third year of college I met this student from Yale who said that they had these student-run cafes in their college called “Butteries” - there are like 4 or 5 of them throughout the campus. The interiors are designed by the aspiring architects of the college, the operations are taken care of by the students of the business school, and the staff comprises students who want to cook and earn some pocket money.
|
||||
|
||||
Eventually I pitched my own version of this idea to the administration, made a core team, and finally started operations in 2019.The main inspiration was to imbibe Food-Culture in our society(and specifically IITR Junta) - a culture where we can follow our passion for cooking & serve society with our delicacies. It always feels nice to be a part of it. And, if ever again a lost kid like me, who has no aim in life and only a love for cooking ever enters our campus - he/she will have a place to express him/herself :)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**2. How does it feel being India’s first student-run cafe and how does it feel to inspire other IITs to start their own culinary clubs there?**
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**Siddharth:** Well, when you ask us that question, it feels like there’s a lot of weight in those words. When I talk to people about this, they usually respond with, “Why didn’t my college think of this?”. It’s a very simple concept, but it’s a reflection of how we perceive food. When I came to campus back in 2014, I didn’t fit in anywhere on campus, because I had no interest in coding, physics, and all of the other mainstream things that people do. But during my last 2 years on campus, I felt like I fit into the campus so much, and it was all thanks to this club, and it’s been more of a personal journey for me. And now it’s become this place where people come and experiment with food. We just want India to become more knowledgeable about food.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**3. Considering the Culinary Club was incorporated 2 years ago, and is very young, what are the challenges that you have faced trying to run the club?**
|
||||
|
||||
**Saumya:** One of the major challenges we face is inventory management - we have to decide and purchase a specific quantity of ingredients that we need everytime we serve food on Sunday, and this can be problematic since we don’t know how many people are going to show up when we open the cafe. And we have to decide which ingredients to use depending on the complexity of the dish. Unfortunately most of the ingredients aren’t available in Roorkee, so we need to order things from Amazon. And very few people know about our group, so, most of the time we end up calling our friends to come and eat, otherwise we wouldn’t be selling anything.
|
||||
With respect to utensils, we get it from the campus. We give them a list of equipment that we need and they provide us with the things. For the operation of the cafe, we put in money from our pockets, sell food, and then we get our money back.
|
||||
|
||||
**Siddharth:** Initially we faced challenges getting clearance from the administration. Since no other IIT or college in India had such a cafe at the time, we found it tough to make them understand why it’s required (they’d say “there’s a reason why it’s not there in other campuses - it’s not a good idea”). We were shooed away a few times and were told that a club for Food wasn’t required, and that there were enough campus activities. Getting the faculty on-board with this idea was the first hurdle. The second hurdle was getting the space after we were made a legitimate campus group. We had to wait a few months or so for the SAC building opposite KB to become functional to claim a space.Fortunately we had a few professors who had supported the whole endeavor. One major thing that helped boost our chances of establishing the club was Inter-IIT because culinary events were included at that time and we thought it would help if we fought for those 100 points.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**4. How are your recruitments held, and what do you look for in your recruits? Once the selection process is done, how do you teach and train your young cooks?**
|
||||
|
||||
**Saumya:** Students have to apply online via a form that we circulate. They are then called for an interview. We ask the applicants questions about the culinary arts, their hobbies, the time that they can devote to the club, etcetera and then we evaluate them.
|
||||
|
||||
**5. Have you been working on/do you plan on releasing a cook-book?**
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Siddharth:** Yes. The plan was to encourage kids to learn their family recipes and I believe that every family has this one recipe that’s unique to them and is passed down, and honestly, I think with our generation a lot of those recipes are going to die out because most of us aren’t that interested in cooking. We are probably going to live off of Zomato, Swiggy and Instant Noodles, and by the time we want to learn from our grandmothers, they’re most probably gone. I learnt to cook from my grandmother, and grandmothers are amazing cooks. I wanted to find those recipes and make a cookbook out of it. It would’ve just been like another magazine where we had the recipe with the name of the student who submitted the recipe. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to complete it because we started gaining momentum during my last few months of college. But I think Saumya would continue with it.
|
||||
|
||||
**Saumya:** We have released a series of blogs on Medium, and this year alone we have posted about 15 recipes, and we are planning to get more of these.We initially had a plan of giving out printed copies like any other campus magazine but as of now we're regularly pushing recipes on our medium page.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**6. Could you tell us more about the weekend dish you serve? How do you decide the pricing of the food you serve every Sunday?**
|
||||
|
||||
**Saumya:** We have at least 2 meetings a month where we decide on 2 dishes. We then divide the work amongst the people by assigning roles to everyone. We buy the ingredients from the market,sometimes if a dish needs a special ingredient, we’ll need to order it online, and then we just add a profit margin of Rs. 2-5 for one serving.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**7. You recently held a ‘Cook Without Fire’ event in February. How are such endeavours undertaken and what sort of planning goes into the same?**
|
||||
|
||||
**Saumya:** A lot of planning actually goes into these events. First we have to decide the event’s schedule, location and rules. Then we have to get approval from the administration. After that we decide on the ingredients for the event, then we purchase those ingredients, advertise the event, and contact the judges. We do provide a tentative list of ingredients that would be available to the participants, but they are free to bring their own ingredients as per the dish that they plan on making. We then divide the work amongst our members, where some would deal with the judges, while the others would deal with logistics. We have to make sure that the ingredients don’t get wasted and also be prepared to run to the market if we need anything else.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**8. Have you ever had a Gordon Ramsay moment in the club?**
|
||||
|
||||
**Siddharth:** As in shout at each other? Just leave Vishal Goddu (another culinary enthusiast from Roorkee) and Saumya in the cafe with some raw ingredients, and you're in for a lot of Ramsay moments.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**9. Has there ever been a moment in the club where you paid attention to the science behind cooking and came up with a crazy idea that people would not think of, to fix a mistake or come up with an entirely new dish or a really cool moment like that (like the scene from House M.D or Food Wars)?**
|
||||
|
||||
**Siddharth:** Well, even when you bake a cake there’s science involved. A lot of things that we take for granted in cooking does involve science. We always used to experiment with food.. Even if we want to make an ice cream, we can use the concept of how milk solids react at low temperatures to form a kind of fluffy bond. An interested kid would do it. Usually the plan gets messed up and we aren’t able to experiment with dishes when we’re serving, but when we’re by ourselves, then we experiment with various techniques. We had these workshops on campus. In one of these workshops we were explaining this four course meal, where we spoke about why whisking a fat and an acid, a vinaigrette, in a salad works, like lemon juice or basic vinegar with egg-yolks and oil whisked with some spices to make a vinaigrette and then spoke about the main course which was a white sauce pasta, where we spoke about what happens when a flour and a fat combine. When you combine butter and flour, it’s called a roux, and then we add milk to form the white sauce. Which is called a Béchamel sauce and then you add that to your pasta. And then we went to desserts, and then I remember that I was talking about how to make soups, but sadly I had chopped my finger at that time. It depends on the students if they want to experiment. But it works, even if one person wants to cook, it works.
|
||||
|
||||
We did use science to innovate with our dish with my scottish egg that won the InterIIT back in 2018.
|
||||
|
||||
We were working on dishes with eggs as the main ingredient. Scottish eggs are a popular dish where soft boiled eggs are fried with a covering of patty - the eater expects liquid yolk to ooze out when he breaks the patty-egg white coating. I wanted to elevate the experience, so I used a syringe to remove the liquid yolk from the outer egg white, and immediately filled it in with liquid cheese infused with thyme and pepper. Accompanying this entree was an egg yolk ravioli, to compensate for the yolk running out moment that would have otherwise been in a normal scottish egg. (Are you getting it? Yolk oozing out is a culinary delight, but a scottish egg that has cheese oozing out still leaves the judge wanting for the yolk ooze! Hence the egg yolk ravioli that was basted with a little butter)
|
||||
|
||||
**10. What are your future goals with respect to the Culinary Club and where do you see the Club in the future?**
|
||||
|
||||
**Saumya:** The main aim we had when the club was founded was to foster this culinary culture in our country and with regard to this, a lot of colleges have contacted us : IIT-KGP, IIT-K, IIT-BHU, etcetera have spoken to us and they have inquired about how we established the club, and the various problems that they might face if they chose to do the same. We were really happy when we heard that other IITss had opened their own culinary clubs, and well, this was our goal from the start.
|
||||
|
||||
Back when this lockdown started, we started this initiative where we asked students of IITR to send us pictures of the food that they made at home and it turned out great - we received around 200+ entries and we even gave feedback to a lot of students by just looking at their dishes : some tips and tricks for their dish so that they can make it better.
|
||||
|
||||
We are trying to increase our presence in the campus. We are planning on organizing a lot of events on campus in the coming year: A three-course meal event where each course would be a different Indian regional dish, a sweet-foods fest , Bhawan-level events like salad-fiesta. We had a talk with the International Relation cell and we are planning an international cuisine competition next semester.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,67 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Shaping International Ties"
|
||||
image: "maram.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "WatchOut presents to you an Interview of Maram, a young independent girl from Syria, currently in her first year of PhD at IITR."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*IITR is considered to be one of the best IITs with regards to outreach and inclusivity. The international students constitute a growing population at the institute and yet, there seems to be little interaction with the local student populace. The different communities choose to stay within themselves, often finding it hard to overcome the barriers of communication. Bridging the cultural gaps between schools and international students is seen as a stepping stone to building a strong community of learners.
|
||||
Greeting the International Students in R-land, WatchOut presents to you an Interview of Maram, a young independent girl from Syria, currently in her first year of PhD at IITR.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Is coming here for your higher studies a part of a government programme or is it a personal venture?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maram:** I initially came here for my M.Tech. in the Computer Science department as a student under a cultural programme by the Indian Government. My country, Syria, was a part of this program which is called the ICCR. This program offers meritorious students good opportunities to continue their education in India with the fee waived with a monthly stipend. Now, I continue as a PhD student with funding from my country.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are the fundamental differences in the education system of both the countries?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maram:** Education in Syria is really good, but the basic layout of education here is a bit different. When I came to India, I realised that education here, at least in my branch, demands strong mathematical foundation and focuses on theoretical aspects as well which is a stark contrast against the focus on practical education in Syria. Also here the professors are well qualified and helpful. I haven't found the study here very difficult because of these factors, I even finished my M.tech with a CGPA of 8.8.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** The sex ratio in our college, being a technical institute is pretty low. How is the status in Syria?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maram:** Yes, I have noticed that the sex ratio is quite low here, in my M.tech class there were only 10 girls opposed to 35 boys. I feel that though the girls are less here, all of them seem to be very ambitious and intelligent girls, placed in top companies, like Microsoft and Intel. I hope to see more girls, and as I have heard about the reservation programme in IITs, I think it will encourage more parents to send their daughters for higher education at such top-class institutes. In Syria, the girls share the same ambition with the Indian girls. Education is free for all citizens until the graduation of highschool so girls get a fair chance in every domain especially in education and job opportunities. We are a country of small population afterall.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What is the best and the worst thing about living here?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maram:** IITR has a special place in my heart, which is why I even applied for PhD here after completing my M.Tech. Roorkee is less polluted as compared to Delhi and the weather too is better as compared to Bombay. I would like to say that the International Relations Cell is doing a great job here in trying to make international students feel like home, trying to make them more involved in the student community. One of the best things about here is the hospitality offered by the people around.
|
||||
One thing I dislike is the spices in food. In my first year I fell sick as I faced a major problem with the food. Soon, I adjusted to it. Earlier, when there were less international students, I was unaware about the various restaurant options outside the campus. They have even opened a new food court in MAC, it's extremely cool.
|
||||
Nowadays, I mostly like to go to Desi Tadka and Olive. Utopia, inside the campus is also a good option. When there is a special occasion, we go to Rustic House. My favourite dishes are Dosa and Chicken Malai Tikka. They are very delicious and I'm planning to take the recipe back home with me.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are the barriers faced by international students in interacting with different communities and Indians?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maram:** I believe that the language barrier is the most difficult one. I consider myself to have a good fluency in English as compared to many other students. I have seen many of my friends struggling in this aspect. English is not our language and we need to put in extra efforts to learn it to comprehend things here and communicate. I have noticed that mostly Indian students prefer their mother tongue which is an understandable thing and the most widely spoken language between them is Hindi. They do talk to us in English but that's still not easy for us as not all of us are very proficient in English. Also, some of the International students prefer to stay within groups among themselves because of this language and cultural differences. However, the situation is being looked upon by the International Relations office as they are working to improve this aspect, by maybe organising some activities to increase the interaction and bring us all together.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Are you aware about the various campus groups?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maram:** Yes, I am aware about the different campus culture and technical clubs. I am myself a part of the Wellness Centre in the category of Bhawan Wellness. I sometimes go to the students' club to play snooker.
|
||||
As far as the technical groups are concerned, I find it hard to make it there as they are primarily focused on B.Tech students. I do attend the different activities that happen there and enjoy looking at the robots made by them or the intelligent musical instruments. There are quite a few fascinating projects being taken up there and I even saw the drone built by them once. This December, I even attended the Inter-IIT Tech Fest held here. IITR presented drones were made by the students here during the event, but unfortunately there were some technical difficulties since to be fair it is a complicated problem. It was very clear that they put a lot of effort into it. I heartily congratulate them for all the good work they do on the technical side!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How are the living facilities here?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maram:** I live on campus, in the Himgiri Apartments. It is a part of the campus but outside the campus. It is 1BHK, has decent living facilities, and is very comfortable. I find it much better than my first year, when I had to live in Kasturba. I didn't like the room there much and I had to live alone. However when I was living in the hostel, I had more chances to interact with other students, get involved with them and have our meals together.
|
||||
However, I faced a medical issue in my first year with regards to the food and spices here. Our food is very different from the Indian cuisine, so much so that there is nothing in common. When I moved to Himgiri, I had to cook my own food, my national food and I was able to restore my health. Other than that, interacting with the girls in the hostel was a pretty cool experience.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Have you been to Syria after you came here?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maram:** Unfortunately the current condition in my country is not that good, besides the study pressure here, which makes it hard for me to go there often. However, after 2 years from my arrival here, I went there for a month during the summer vacation. It wasn't very easy for me to go and come back from there.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Would you like to suggest something focusing on the international students here which can be taken up by one of the college groups to integrate the international students?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maram:** Yes, it would be great if there are some social events and contests between International students and Indian students. Not particularly something technical, but anything as simple as a sports matches or cooking contest. The aim will be to have fun, enjoy and have healthy interactions. It will be a good platform for both parties to get to know each other. Something like this can be an ice breaking session of sorts.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Which places have you visited around Roorkee?
|
||||
|
||||
**Maram:** I have been to Rishikesh, Ganga Canal, Mussorrie and even Dehradun. Rajasthan and Taj Mahal were magical places that I will never forget. I also went to the Nag Tibba trek last year and it was really fun.
|
||||
@ -1,100 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "In conversation with Rahul Sharma, Co-Founder of Zetwerk"
|
||||
image: "zetwerk.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Zetwerk is an online marketplace that connects buyers and suppliers for manufacturing jobs."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*The story of Rahul Sharma is full of interesting anecdotes, and his success at building his massive startup Zetwerk embarks his vision and passion. Zetwerk is an online marketplace that connects buyers and suppliers for manufacturing jobs. It is a fast-moving rocket which he co-pilots with IIT Madras alumni Amrit Acharya and Srinath Ramakkrushnan. In this exclusive interview with WONA and E-cell, Rahul Sharma discusses his background, his motivations, tips for young entrepreneurs, his experiences, and legacy.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Hi Rahul. Thank you for joining us. Let's get started.**
|
||||
|
||||
Hi,I am Rahul Sharma, and I hail from Bhopal. I was a student of IITR’s batch of 2008 and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering.
|
||||
|
||||
Like every first yearite, I needed a branch change. You could see me studying all day long, but soon I realized engineering wasn't my cup of tea, just maintaining decent grades was all I needed now. Thomso was a great ally as it helped me realize my passion for managing events. Though I started as a volunteer, I was soon promoted to a coordinator. Joining Cogni’s managing team was also a fantastic experience.
|
||||
|
||||
College groups are an essential part of university life. Not only do you learn something, but you also develop bonds that last forever. You interact, discuss different things, and do things together. No one tells you what to do. You figure it out yourselves, which gives you an ability to work in ambiguity, and you learn to work in a team to achieve a common target. You develop soft skills that normal engineering courses do not teach us. Managing events in Thomso and Cognizance was the most exciting part of my college life.
|
||||
|
||||
In my fourth year, I got into Schlumberger. It’s like a dream job until you realize that you have to work in the sea. Placements are a vital part of the fourth year. You notice that as the placement season begins, everyone around you is confused. That's when I started my first startup Prepnut. During my fourth year, startups had just started coming up : Flipkart had raised its fundings and they had just bought a startup called letsbuy.com. Then there was Snapdeal, and Facebook that had also just boomed up. We were only college students and had little idea of what an Indian company could do.
|
||||
|
||||
My friend Rahul Nandwani and I never had a business model; we just wanted to solve a problem. He was the developer, and I used to do all the handy work. I had interviewed almost 300 people from IIT Roorkee who got placed and created a site for all these interviews. It was good; we still have one lakh likes on the Facebook page, though it's not functional now. Your first job is a gateway between college life and the real world. Schlum taught me how to run operations and how to deal with people. It still serves as a base for what I have been doing for so long.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**What difference do you notice between the entrepreneurship culture then and now?**
|
||||
|
||||
In 2012, entrepreneurship culture in IIT Roorkee wasn’t well developed, but now it's different. Numerous seniors have built great startups, and you can always reach out to them. The modules have improved now. Now, so many companies come to campus that the awareness about them has increased. Flipkart back then in my year came on the sixth day, and nobody even wanted to go there. But it was an amazing time to join the company as it was in that curve of deflection. Awareness has increased in terms of seeing your peers do it. There is HackerEarth, Classplus, Razorpay, and many more. If we look at my seniors ten years before, you will still see them at the same company: the craze for startups was not much.
|
||||
|
||||
But now it's quite common to change jobs every two years. Earlier it was something to be scared of. I am happy that you belong to a culture where you know that failing is okay, joining a startup is okay and not knowing sometimes is completely okay. That's what has made the entrepreneurship culture more welcoming.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**What was the motivation behind Prepnut?**
|
||||
|
||||
You get placed in the seventh semester, and there's the eighth semester where you decide not to do anything. It was a placement book for IIT Roorkee. It was not a startup, just an adventure. It was a hobby we pursued, though we didn't take it to a logical conclusion.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Was Prepnut instrumental in your learning experience?**
|
||||
|
||||
It was just a project we undertook. My second job at Blackbuck helped me learn a lot. After three years in the Arabian sea for Schlum, I was dreaming of wearing regular clothes, walking on land, and something as simple as taking an auto-rickshaw. Having such thoughts meant it was time to quit.
|
||||
|
||||
Things were different. No other big company would employ a manager of an oil company. Thus, joining a developing startup was my only option. I joined Blackbuck, a logistics employee, when it had only 100 employees. By the time I left after two years, 1000 employees formed the engine of the company. There I learned what it meant to scale, what it meant to manage people and to work under the auspices of ambiguity. They give you a structure and ask you to manage that structure again and again with efficiency. You learn to manage and grow. Even today, the team I work with are ex-employees of Blackbuck.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Zetwerk falls under the manufacturing sector. You said that your career background was related to Electrical Engineering, and later you worked as an oil engineer. So how did this transition take place, moving from one environment to another?**
|
||||
|
||||
When running a startup, previous career background and some pre-acquired knowledge definitely helps you. Still, when there is a problem to be solved by the company, then a background is not very necessary. You need to manage many people working for you. You might not be a developer or a finance guy, but you have to hire a developer or a finance professional at some point in time. Running a startup is not about knowing the industry, but knowing the people who know about the industry. Becoming an entrepreneur is about knowing how to work in ambiguity, accepting failures, creating structures, managing people, and also learning how to inspire people. The challenge is whether you can make people at the same level as yours or even those who are more experienced than you, work for you.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**It’s been 2-3 years of Zetwerk running successfully. Heartfelt congratulations to you. What has been the biggest challenge that you have faced until now?**
|
||||
|
||||
We have scaled really fast. We were the fastest growing startup company till March this year. Within two years, we have had a valuation of more than 102 million dollars. One of the biggest challenges of running a big setup is hiring the right kind of people, retaining them and keeping them motivated. It’s important to have the right team that will stand by you and whom you can trust to make decisions on your behalf. The biggest challenge of becoming an entrepreneur right after coming out of college is to figure out whether a business model will exist or not and whether people would actually pay for it. You need to figure out how many people would require the service, and even before that, you need to figure out the market size, understanding the market demand and supply.
|
||||
|
||||
You need to analyze the problem by getting your hands dirty, and not by merely sitting in your room. It is best to go out, talk to people, understand the scenario, and then do a test pilot run to figure out whether it makes sense or not. It takes time and iterations.
|
||||
|
||||
The present model we run at Zetwerk is the third iteration. In our first iteration, we went to the market with a model of solving procurement on a software basis. People were more than happy, but we realized that nobody would pay for our services - hence, our first model failed. You might not reach the end goal immediately, and at every step, the ways could differ, but your ultimate goal should remain constant.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Do you think, being a person who has had work experience has leveraged you more than just being a fresher in the industry?**
|
||||
|
||||
Of course, it has, but in a different way actually. To be an entrepreneur, it is not compulsory to have prior experience. Still, it is vital to learn how to manage the team, and for this purpose, experience does help. Work experience helps you to scale faster, although it does not matter a lot. If you are passionate about your work, and you enjoy the journey and not the pace of the journey, then it’s okay. These things you can learn from your seniors involved in similar fields - they will tell you about how they were able to tackle similar problems when they faced them.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**We wanted to ask about the co-founder of Zetwerk. How did you meet him, and when did you decide that he should be the co-founder and also, how important that decision has been for you?**
|
||||
|
||||
There are four of us who founded Zetwerk. My co-founder, Srinath used to be my manager at BlackBuck, where I used to work before. On 1st January 2018, he called me up and asked me whether I was interested in beginning a startup. I was not very sure about it at that time. I enjoyed working with him at BlackBuck. Once he shared his idea, I decided to put my faith in him and decided to contribute towards the startup idea. The two other co-founders were Srinath’s colleagues at ITC, both of them 2010 passouts, one from IIT Madras, and the other from IIT Kharagpur. We all knew that we had the capabilities , the will and the energy to make our vision come true.
|
||||
|
||||
We were striving for the same goal: to shake up an industry.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**There are a couple of TV series, like Silicon Valley and TVF Pitchers, where the startup journey has been showcased as being glamorous and quite exciting. Is the journey indeed so fancy?**
|
||||
|
||||
I haven’t watched these series, but I have watched many of the scenes of these shows. The startup journey is, to be honest, a bit stereotyped in its portrayal. There indeed have been such incidents, but they comprise only 5-10% of the entire journey. Apart from that, it is not as fancy and involves a lot of struggle. But definitely, the whole journey is fun! You end up creating some really good memories for your lifetime, whether you succeed or fail.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**A lot of students nowadays decide on moving towards startups directly as they pass out. What is the message that you would like to give them?**
|
||||
|
||||
Something essential for a startup is to have a belief in yourself and your idea. Not being hesitant to know the need for this idea is crucial. Being afraid of ambiguity and not knowing an answer is fine as long as you are willing to fight for the answer. Leveraging your contacts and communicating with people will help find solutions to various problems, which otherwise may have taken a long time to figure out.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Having worked on startups in both Delhi and Bangalore, what do you think are the major differences between these places?**
|
||||
|
||||
The main reason why we had the startup in Delhi was that my co-founder was from Delhi, and he had a job there. Even though the hiring of a large group of technical staff would be easier in Bangalore, once the company develops to a certain degree, this issue can be taken care of. Hence, anywhere would have been equally conducive for the establishment of a startup.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**With the obvious restrictions due to COVID - 19, many industries are suffering. How is Zetwerk managing?**
|
||||
|
||||
Businesses have deteriorated on a large scale. The demand, supply, and physical markets have taken massive blows indeed. But working on areas that were previously avoided, communicating with the team, bonding well with them, and staying connected is crucial during this time.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Is there something you miss about college?**
|
||||
|
||||
The time that I spent at Nescafe with friends is something that I cherish a lot. Not worrying about anything and having fun creating memories is the best part of college.
|
||||
|
||||
That is, without any doubt, the best time of your life.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,99 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "In Conversation With Vaibhav Sethia"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
image: vaibhav.jpg
|
||||
excerpt: "Vaibhav Sethia, an alum of IIT Roorkee(B.Arch batch of 2011), is a stand-up comedian and a content creator. He has a stand-up special, “Don’t” on Amazon Prime Video along with a number of videos that he has uploaded on his Youtube channel."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*Vaibhav Sethia, an alum of IIT Roorkee(B.Arch batch of 2011), is a stand-up comedian and a content creator. He has a stand-up special, “Don’t” on Amazon Prime Video along with a number of videos that he has uploaded on his Youtube channel. In a (virtual) chat with WatchOut!, he talks about trying out 5 different fields before discovering stand-up, reminisces about his campus life and gives out advice to budding stand-up comics.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** You’re a Silver Medalist from the Architecture department, got a prize for the best project in your time, and even have your name on your department's plaque. You were brilliant in your acads, and quite successful. Did you have an inkling in college that you would not end up pursuing Architecture as a career? When and how did the thought of doing Stand-up strike you?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** I was not interested in architecture. It was always in my mind to try something new out-but I was never averse to the idea of architecture because I liked the subject. So after my first job after getting some money into my account- I decided to try out things and find out what I’d like enough to stick around for long. I experimented with a bunch of jobs. I think I worked in almost five different fields. Initially, I was in Schlum for a couple of months. Then I was doing a startup magazine with a friend of mine in IIT Bombay where I was a graphic designer and content creator for them. After this, I practiced architecture for a bit, wrote horror stories for a production house, and tried out the role of an Assistant Director. After this, I finally started doing stand up.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** Did you ever perform on stage, here in IIT Roorkee during your college days? Also, did you ever experience stage fright, give us some tips on how to deal with it.
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** I think first of all stage fright is something akin to flesh and bone. Every human being has it. There's no one who does not have stage fright. There can be degrees of it. But I know for a fact, this is not debatable- that anyone going up on stage will face some fear. I've gone on stage more than a couple thousand times now, I think, but I still get it. I have my heartbeat racing up, you know, just feeling like- I hope I do it right. I hope I do it right over there. And if something goes wrong you feel a little panicky. It's very human to be that way. What does help is, if you go on stage enough times the whole anxiety reduces when and if you eventually screw up. Because that's inevitable, everyone will screw up at some point. And it's just that if you get up on stage plenty of times you don't completely panic at that moment and then somehow learn to handle it much better.
|
||||
As for your first question-No, I never did go on stage to perform stand-up in college.
|
||||
I remember going to the audition for the drama club but I think I was rejected. And then, later on, I found my theatre group in Calcutta which got dissolved but that's about it. Besides, we weren't allowed to go into any of the groups. We were boycotted in the first year-Architecture batch of 2006 was banned from any clubs. But I was fortunate- I’m actually one of a couple of people who got selected in a few groups, later on, I got especially fortunate because I was accepted by Watch out!. Along with Basketball they stood up and said they were not gonna go with this nonsense.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** What was the reason behind this boycott?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** Yeah, there was some issue regarding ragging, someone in our class had complained. It wasn't known who had complained. A lot of seniors lost a lot of discipline marks, because of this, and action was taken against them, which could have caused a lot of damage to their careers later on. Obviously, those marks were later returned and all the drama was solved but that happened maybe five months later, so for the entire first semester, we were boycotted from the entire campus. And most of us did not end up in any group because of that. So yeah, I didn't get a chance to perform at any of the places.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** Did you ever think about starting a stand-up club or something similar when in college?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** Honestly, I didn't even know stand-up was an art form throughout campus life. I remember watching Russell Peters - the Uncensored Red, White and Brown specials, those really old ones from back in 2006- when he went viral. And I remember thinking that these are just one act plays where he's just being funny. I still did not know that stand up as an art form existed. It did not even register at that time, but I guess I got my first hint during my third-year internship in Toronto. There was this ‘Just for Laughs’ festival happening. Russell Peters was performing over there in front of 10,000 people, all of whom could gather for free- it was just like Time Square in New York. And that was my first live show but it still did not register. I think it was only after college- when I saw some Indian comics perform in a bar. I went there and when I saw it, I was just so smitten by it. I was like, I have to try this, this is just insane. I still remember the four people performing- I think it was Khamba, Varun Thakur, Aditi Mittal-doing her famous Mrs. Lutchuke act, and Rajneesh Kapoor. I remember a very significant thing from that night. Tanmay Bhatt was not performing, he was just at the bar in the back of the room. And at some point, some right point- he yelled out ‘That's what she said’, and I was blown away by that because I did not know it's a template joke. I was just like, oh my god, what has he done!?
|
||||
But yeah, it was hilarious. That's how far I was from comedy. So, I never thought about starting a club because obviously, I did not know. But once I understood that people do this for a living my first thought was that I have to do this no matter what. And then later that year after graduation when I came back to Calcutta to have an open mic session, that's when I did it.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** What advice would you like to give to the newly formed stand up club here?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** There's not much advice in stand up as such, there's no crack or tricks. I feel it is pretty much straight forward, you keep getting on stage. And the only feedback you get -you see it right then and there. There's no advice as such, people just have to keep on going, it's a very selfish artform. You're the director, writer, everything is yours. Only you know the downfalls, the uphills, everything. So, it's a very personal journey. The only golden advice is -just keep getting on stage. If you don't give up after a point you will figure out what is going wrong and how to fix it.
|
||||
One more advice specifically to people who’re not in Delhi, Bombay, Pune or Bangalore. Apart from these four or five major cities in India including Calcutta, Hyderabad, and Chennai if there's anyone anywhere, I think whenever you can just go and watch stand-up in other cities, preferably Mumbai because Mumbai has the maximum number of full-time comics. And the variety is just too diverse, there are so many types of stand up comedians. I think two years back someone pointed out that Mumbai was having 25 shows every day of the weekend and this is two years back. After Mumbai, Bangalore probably comes close to that huge number.
|
||||
There is this common fear: people who are doing stand-up in a particular city wonder if their material would work in another city. That nervousness goes away once you do it like two or three times with different sets of audiences. If you want to become a comedian, like seriously, then you should travel. And spend maybe like, two, three days in different cities as much as you can. I used to do that every two months, I used to come down to Mumbai from Calcutta. So I'd advise the same.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** What are your favorite memories associated with the campus? What were your favorite hangout spots?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** Every evening of mine was spent at the basketball court with some of my best friends. Apart from that, Architecture has this culture of families, they're a very well-knit community. So obviously the architecture canteen is a favorite along with Nescafe- that was my favorite place to go eat. I am a vegetarian and really loved the food at Prakash, especially their Chinese french fries. I must tell you I've been looking for it all over after graduating from Roorkee. I haven't found it yet, so if anyone likes that you should have as much as you can! When I came back to Roorkee in February, I went to Prakash and just had that dish- they’re really very tasty.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** We have heard you don't listen to music, what are the reasons behind this? Also, tell us about your hobbies and interests.
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** Okay, so two parts I guess - like the first is the music thing. It's a little odd but it's just that I never got the hang of it, I never started listening to music in the first place. Back in school also I used to just spend all my time playing some sport or the other after school so I never really got down to listening to music as such. All the TV I ever watched was cartoons, never music, and then maybe when I could've found sometime later- I ended up spending 2 years in Kota. So that was that. And afterward when I came back to college I just did not have time, like I said all my time apart from the class was with basketball or with people. And I guess, I never really was inclined towards it. I'm not averse to music. Recently another comedian who was intrigued by this told me something interesting. He told me that there's this thing that 3% of the people of the world just cannot tolerate music. It's not like I can't tolerate music. It's just that I don't have the patience or the skill to search for good music. I don't think I've discovered a song which I really liked, ever, in my life. I've only heard songs which people have played and If I liked it, maybe I replayed it once in a while when there's someone else and I wanted to fill in the silence. I've never played it for leisure. I have no idea why- it's a puzzle.
|
||||
About my hobbies-most of my time actually goes into chess. It's been about three and a half years, I've just been playing chess a lot. Lots of chess and basketball. Also, I watch a lot of stuff even today after having left college. I have at least five to six hours of screen time every day. I watch a lot of web series, not as many movies, but a lot of web series and also a lot of chess, basketball. Regarding hobbies, well I really don’t get time for that but I enjoy what I do! This is one of the better things about being a comedian or a content creator is that no matter what you like you can make some content out of it. Like right now chess streams are going on. I'm there almost regularly on all the shows. It's pretty fun just watching and interacting with those people and learning a little bit about the game. Great fun.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** Sir, you told us you were a part of Watch Out? Which cell did you work in, and how was your experience?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** Yeah, I was in the design cell. There were like only three-four people back then in the design cell and just two of us from my batch. I and Pratap Singh- he used to play basketball too. So we were great buddies.
|
||||
But I remember like he was so proactive with everyone from WONA, whereas I, well I was left behind in Cautley while the others were all grouped in nearby bhawans.
|
||||
Also, there’s this one really memorable incident that had happened- primarily because our bhawan was so far off from the Archi department. I remember on the day we had to give a thesis presentation one of the guys had to carry his model, but it started raining so we called the ambulance from the IITR hospital. Literally told them there’s this fellow on the verge of dying, when the ambulance arrived we pleaded to him to help us take the model.
|
||||
In Watch Out! 90% 95% of people used to be in either Ravindra, Govind, Jawahar, or Azad. Cautley was sadly far away so I did not hang out as much with the people, and wasn't very active. I was good friends with all of them, used to keep bumping into them and go to all the meetings, basically, I did hang out and chill with them quite a lot. But man, I genuinely liked and enjoyed WONA, all the people there were really fun. So I was really glad to be a part of Watch Out!.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** You worked as a writer in Kolkata and even assisted a director, how did this happen? Why did you not continue with the same?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** It was completely out of nepotism. My uncle knew this guy who owned a production house in Calcutta and he was making Bengali movies. I was doing Architecture in Calcutta for a couple of months and, as I said, I haven’t worked in any place for more than 2 months. I had to leave this job because of medical issues, I had an issue with my lower back. So, after that, I figured that I don’t want a job where I have to sit all the time. I thought I’d give this a shot and then decide whether to go back to Architecture or not. So I went to the production house and my uncle introduced me to him and I told him that “I don’t want money, I don’t want anything. I just want to see if I like doing this. Give me as much work as you can, whatever it may be”, and that’s why he gave me the task of writing horror stories for a show that he was made for TV. After that, he told me that he was making a movie and asked me if I’d like to be an Assistant Director of the movie. Although it requires a lot of responsibility, I was given the title of an AD but I never actually contributed like an AD. It wasn’t anything related to direction. It was mostly clearing people away, teaching the side characters a little, etcetera, whatever was needed at that moment. I wanted to be an actor, so I was also acting in the same movie. I played the brother of the lead actress and we shot a sequence that took an entire day in which we had to hit the hero. I had like only 5-7 minutes of screen time in the entire movie but it was super fun. The experience was really nice. It was super fun to do it. I got it only because the producer was good friends with my uncle, it was 2 - 3 months long, one month in Calcutta and one month in Pathankot, I gave it everything I had and I had this brief break during the shoot and I found stand-up at that time, and I realized that I found something really amazing. So I just gave that up and that’s how this happened.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** Can you tell us a little about Comedified and its inception?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** In hindsight what we were doing was really silly because we didn’t know what we were doing, but, when we tried stand up for the first time in Calcutta there was this one guy who was hosting shows and he used to get big acts every 2 months and he’d give 2-3 people a chance, people who were really looking forward to doing stand up, we used to be the opening act. So the first show was with Andy Zaltzman, a UK comic, and then Papa CJ, Cyrus Brocha, Vir Das. I think my third show was the opening act for Virr Das, which I don’t think anyone would get easily. So, we were doing these shows and it was incredible, but there was no exposure for us. After you’d do a show, you would have nothing to do for 2 months, no open mics, nothing. And it was difficult to deal with the guy who was hosting these shows. So the rest of us were really inclined to do more shows regularly because I kept going to Mumbai and I used to spend a lot on airfare, travel, housing, etcetera and I was running out of money. So I figured that we have to start a culture in Calcutta if we want to survive and do this seriously. We saw people uploading videos and it became a thing, that unless you put out your work you aren’t going to get exposure. So, we uploaded the first show that I did, it was 15 minutes long, it’s private now and I’m not going to reveal that in this lifetime. It’s the worst piece of stand up that I have ever seen. Very cringey. So, we started comedified because we needed some online presence so that people would start coming to our shows. We did not have the money to bring the A-listers of the comedy scene then. But we wanted to keep doing shows and wanted people to attend, so we started comedified so that we could do open mics and we were doing like 5 open mics a week. These were small venues, basically 5-7 people in a cafe. We started making an ecosystem where people could develop the art form and that’s the reason why we started comedified. We gave it a name only and only after we made a video that we wanted to release it. And we were like, “No one knows Anirban Das Gupta, Vaibhav Sethia or Sourav Gosh”, so we should just name ourselves and came up with ‘comedified’.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** You were a good student and you would have had a successful career. You had spent so much time,five years of your degree, and two years before that preparing for it so how difficult is it to go into something which is so starkly different from what you were doing? And how did your parents react to this?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** Surprise surprise! about 70% of the people who graduate from campus don’t actually practice what they study. So, it’s not that different. I wouldn’t say I was a very good student, I was a decent one. I had 3 backs in the 2 - 1, because of my attendance. 3 backs in one semester were pretty big. I wasn’t that good, I was a decent student, I never used to be the absolute last. I was fortunate because although my parents didn’t understand stand-up, they weren’t hellbent on telling me that I wasn’t allowed to do something. They were never controlling. And I am the kind of guy who does what he wants to do, no matter what. The first difficulty that I faced when making them understand was the fact that I didn’t know anything about stand-up and it’s not just me, no one did. There was no mentor as such in India at that time. Back then, like 2009, 2010, 2011, no one knew anything about stand-up. No one knew where their careers were headed and in fact, even today, after live shows, people don’t know what else they can do with stand-up. In the West, stand-up comedians have branched out into writers and they do a lot, but that’s yet to happen in India. So it was very difficult to make them understand as to where I was headed with my career because honestly, I didn’t know and I told them that I don’t know, but I like doing this so I’m going to continue doing it. Fortunately, even though they were a little pushy they never forced me to do something else. And I’m just glad that the patience paid off. The first 3 years were a little difficult because I had run out of all my savings, that’s when I started loaning money from my parents. I started paying rent to my parents because of my pride, the fact that I haven’t done anything for 3 years. I told them that this isn’t rent or anything, I’m just going to give you this although they didn’t ask me for it. I just wanted to feel more responsible and independent. Once I moved to Bombay and became financially stable they still didn’t understand stand-up but they were okay with it. Honestly, at that time I had quit about 6 jobs, so they figured they would just wait for this one out.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** Being an IITian, do the people associated with your work view you differently? Do you feel the experiences in college helped you?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** The IIT tag matters only till you want a job in the field you've applied for, I didn't experience a lot of perks because of it but I'm pretty sure it does affect people. If you're from an IIT and apply for a job, the people hiring you have already made some preconceived notions about you. And why not? You've worked hard to achieve your goals and if you can crack IIT, you can do wonders at something else as well.
|
||||
I remember applying for a couple of architecture jobs and maybe being an IITian did help there. I was rarely ever rejected, I almost got every job I ever applied for and I have a feeling the IIT tag had something to do with it. Apart from architecture, it didn't help me anywhere else, especially not in standup. A lot of people don't even know I'm from IIT Roorkee. So overall, I don't think it makes much of a difference.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** When you started doing stand-up, where did you learn the intricacies of the field? Who were your early influences?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** There are a few comics who, like me, don't watch a lot of standup. During my initial years, poverty and debt were my main inspirations *laughs*. I just wanted to earn some money. All I knew was I had to work hard. There was no way to learn the art of standup comedy apart from getting on stage and performing. This I had figured out early on in my career because I could see that the more I go on stage the better I feel. I was fortunate enough to have a friend Anirban who was equally passionate, had he not been there it would have made matters much worse. The first open mic we did was in a 600 seater auditorium with a 1 lakh rupees cash prize and still only three people came to participate and one of them was Anirban. The third person won. Anirban and I supported each other, we were sharing almost everything we had. During my initial years, I didn't have any fixed role models, I used to see Indian comics perform and was always awestruck by them. They used to look so invincible up there and the whole atmosphere of the show was magical for me. So it was the setting, the atmosphere I was in love with, I didn't know a lot of comics back then, I still don't.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** How do you write a set, do you base them on the experiences you have had?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** Initially I used to write the entire script and learn every word, I didn't even miss the "the"s or "a"s anywhere. I used to rehearse everything. Now, after 7 years in comedy, I can repeat sentences without any mistakes. For the past 3-4 years, I haven't written anything or made any scripts, it's all memory-based. I do have the video recordings for safety. Everyone has their tricks and methods to produce materials for their set, for me, it's like when I'm in the middle of a conversation and I say something generic, sometimes I flip the thought and present it in different angles. I talk about that thought or idea nonstop, I tell my wife, friends and I test it out a few times. It took around 4 months for me to write a joke I was proud of and that was the smallest time I took to write a joke. I was working on a joke once and it wasn't working and three years later it revives into a huge bit. It's usually just reacting to everyday stuff, some new, interesting response to something mundane.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** A majority of your audience is obviously from India, and in India, there are a number of religions and different types of people. So it is highly likely that any joke that you crack, someone will be there who will take offense? How do you manage this? Are there some topics that you know that you will never touch?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** I don't do jokes on Bollywood or politics, the biggest reason being I don't know enough about them. Religion is another thing that I don't touch, no matter how much I learn about religion if it's not my own I'll just end up sounding ignorant and what I say may be annoying to people, they'll feel like I'm belittling something important to them and that is not the purpose of standup in my opinion. If someone finds a way to do it right then great. I used to do a joke on religion then I stopped after I got in some trouble. I knew I was belittling the religion but this particular joke used to get a lot of response, people loved it, but then I figured it's not worth it. It didn't feel nice to say those things and it had repercussions, so there was no point in doing that joke anymore. Offending people is not the purpose of standup comedy, so if something is majorly offensive, it shouldn't be said. The fear of falling into trouble is not the reason why I don't make jokes about religion, rather it is because I feel that offending someone is not the purpose of doing comedy. Figuring out what offends people is a confusing task but there are some basic areas which you should stay away from. I do believe in absolute freedom of speech and stand for the thought that anyone who wishes to express a particular feeling should do so. Based on the current situation people believe that anyone who speaks on a mic speaks the absolute truth. Having this responsibility of influencing others, one has to be careful.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** What have you been up to during this quarantine and how will your shows be affected after the lockdown period as people have to maintain social distancing?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** I spend most of my time cleaning and cooking along with my wife. I also do play a lot of quiz games with my friends. Talking about how my shows will be affected, after having a discussion with the people in the same industry, I have understood that standup may not resume properly until around November. The main reason for this being that the government may not allow mass gatherings for the purpose of entertainment. It has definitely been a blow for comedians like me who thrive on live shows rather than posting content on the internet. Not being able to perform live on shows may even result in some nervousness to kick in the next time I go on stage and may even take a month for things to go back normal for everyone.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** Tell us about your future projects and tell us what you intend to do when the quarantine ends.
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** I am planning on releasing a video, a standup, some editing has to be done before its release. A new podcast will be released within a week, it's around an hour and a half. I am planning on writing a story for a web series or a movie soon. Even though I worked on the first season of ‘Laakhon mein ek’ with Biswa, I lack the experience needed in this field. I will be performing a 1-hour special as soon as the lockdown ends which will be named ‘Apple is red’.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** A few words of advice for people reading this?
|
||||
|
||||
**Vaibhav-** I am not a very nostalgic person and I am not in touch with most of my old peers but I did love my time on campus. All the students at IIT R are very fortunate to be there. Something that I regret not doing much during my stay at Roorkee is to not visit the hill stations nearby. This is something that I would suggest the students on campus do.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,64 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "In Conversation With Aayush Rai, Co-founder Of Inito"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
image: inito.jpeg
|
||||
excerpt: "Here are the excerpts from a talk with Aayush Rai, an alumnus of IIT Roorkee (2012), and the co-founder of Inito, the world's first at home diagnostic device."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Here are the excerpts from a talk with Aayush Rai, an alumnus of IIT Roorkee (2012), and the co-founder of Inito, the world's first at home diagnostic device. Inito has been revolutionizing the Health Tech sector by introducing diagnostic tests on fertility, diabetes, high cholesterol and more on a single device connected to a smartphone. We joined him over Google Hangouts during this quarantine to get insightful knowledge from the world of tech, startups and YCombinator(Inito was selected for the YC as well!).*
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** What are the specific memories that strike you on reminiscing Roorkee? If you had to classify yourself according to Roorkee lingo, where would you place yourself?
|
||||
|
||||
**Aayush-** I was a people's person back in college. In my first year, I was In Watch Out! I was very much into tech, and I was one of the founding members of Robocon. I also served as the secretary of the Electronics section in the Hobbies Club.
|
||||
All my memories of Roorkee are related to people. I rarely went to classes and to be honest I hardly have any memories related to classrooms! Looking back at those days, I had a close group of friends and an extended gang, as I believe is the case with most of us. And I had a very diverse set of friends as well, all of them now pursuing careers in different fields like administration, management, technology and politics.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** Have you been to Roorkee recently? What was the biggest change that you observed?
|
||||
|
||||
**Aayush-** Yes, I went to Roorkee for placements last year. I wasn't there for a long time, just over a day. I observed a lot of changes, but the most striking change I saw was the frantic activity student cells are involved in. 'Pehle Roorkee mein sarkari tareeke se kaam hota tha', but now I found the aggression among students' cells to get things done,it is very encouraging. I found the students of the placement cell very active, wanting to get things done.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** Were there any specific activities you did in college keeping in mind you wanted to start your own venture?
|
||||
|
||||
**Aayush-** I can't say that I did things in college keeping in mind that I wished to do a startup. One thing that I was sure of was that I will be doing something in tech. So I took a job that allowed me to innovate in tech.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** What persuaded you to leave your job at Siemens technology and start your journey with Inito?
|
||||
|
||||
**Aayush-** It wasn't like I woke up one day and said aaj se start up karna hai.
|
||||
At that point I just realised that Inito was something that I wanted to work on. Office became a burden for me at that point of time. I just knew that I had to work on this idea full time and I had no time to go to the office.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** Inito has been a part of the YC winter school. How was the journey, the experience?
|
||||
|
||||
**Aayush-** We didn't go to YC for funding. We were already well funded by the time we applied for YC. What the winter school did teach us was how to scale our startup. They had us think in a more aggressive way on how to build our business from a global perspective.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** Why did you start a startup particularly in the medical field? What part of the healthcare sector acts as the greatest potential untapped market yet? Were there any trepidations in migrating from engineering to a new domain?
|
||||
|
||||
**Aayush-** To answer your question, let me tell you about the products that we build at Inito. We combine software and hardware yoake medical devices on which you can take your medical tests yourself. Also, the different thing about our products is that we allow multiple tests from the same device. Currently you have different devices for measuring your BP, or your blood sugar but we combine that in one single device.
|
||||
|
||||
The Healthcare system is currently geared towards one time testing. Now, we're building products that'll allow you to test yourself regularly, thereby making every home a diagnostic lab. Thus 85 percent of doctor visits can be simply handled by our machines. And thus doctors can apply their acumen to 15 percentage of the critical cases that actually require their attention. This is a win win situation, since the world is so short on doctors as the current pandemic has shown us.
|
||||
|
||||
Now I believe that Healthcare will be one sector that will receive more attention, considering the current pandemic. People building medical devices will be incentivised to make devices for testing.
|
||||
|
||||
Apart from that, the entire infrastructure of India will be digitised. For example, we today have shifted the banking system online. Similar revolutions will come in the field of other essential sectors, like health care, education.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** What are some of the biggest challenges you faced as a startup co-founder?
|
||||
|
||||
**Aayush-** As a startup founder I knew that my strengths lay in technology and management. At the beginning we did not know much about funding and other stuff related to startups. so understanding the entire startup ecosystem was one big challenge.
|
||||
The greatest challenge that I think we faced was team building. We were starting a long-term business, and team building was the most crucial part of it. Even then it was easy to convince other people to join our startup since most of our team is from Roorkee itself.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** How do you think the startup ecosystem has changed since when you first started?
|
||||
|
||||
**Aayush-** When I started my own venture startups were a relatively new thing in India. I did not know much about startups. But today India has seen a full cycle of startups.
|
||||
By that I mean that many startups started , got funded, some failed and some became successful.
|
||||
|
||||
Now bolder ideas can be seen persisting and thriving in the Indian market.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!-** What is your message to the young entrepreneurs out there?
|
||||
|
||||
**Aayush-** When I interviewed students for campus placements this year, I found that there were two kinds of students. One category were the students who were very bookish. They had sound theoretical knowledge but lacked project experiences. The other faction was the group of students who had a lot of hands on experience, but they lacked depth in understanding.
|
||||
|
||||
My advice to entrepreneurs or students out there is to have both. Have some hands on experience as well as sound technical knowledge of concepts.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,66 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Filter coffee: Rhea Parekh"
|
||||
image: rhea.jpg
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
excerpt: "From IMG, GSoC, Quantum Computing, Microsoft Redmond - there's only so much we can keep count of, because Rhea Parekh, a name that doesn't need much introduction, has been there; done and dusted all of these."
|
||||
category: filtercoffee
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*From IMG, GSoC, Quantum Computing, Microsoft Redmond - there's only so much we can keep count of, because Rhea Parekh, a name that doesn't need much introduction, has been there; done and dusted all of these. However, there's more to her apart from securing the highest package offered in the campus this year. For us, she’s still the goofy person, sitting with us enthusiastically in WONA meetings, laughing like a maniac at a silly Pheking news idea. Here’s an excerpt from our chat with our very own self-proclaimed connoisseur of bad jokes.*
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** You were a part of 6 Campus Groups in your first year ranging from GG to WO, IMG-PAG to Drams. How did you manage it then? Also were you able to manage your grades along with these commitments?
|
||||
|
||||
**Rhea -** After the arduous JEE years, I was driven to participate in as many extra-curricular activities as I could in my freshman year, which is the reason why I was so motivated to be a part of these groups. The thrill of being presented these many opportunities overshadowed how time consuming it would be and I had found a strange comfort in being busy. I was always on my toes, running from one meeting to the other, with multiple tasks on hand everyday. In fact, I ended up losing sleep on a lot of days and dozed off during my lectures, but I’ll attribute that to the normalcy of student life in our campus. I also owe it to the fact that a lot of these groups weren’t aren’t as demanding in the first year as they are later, that I was able manage my time well between these engagements. But by the end of my first year, I did realise how difficult it would be to sustain this, but I’ll always be indebted to every group I was a part of, for shaping my life in its own way.
|
||||
My first semester C.G. was 9.4 and I very narrowly missed out on a branch change in my first semester. In a funny contrast, I narrowly missed out on the academic probation in my second semester.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** This big list of achievements that you have, to get here and to have done all this, you must have had to cut down on other fun things. Do you think you missed out on things and if yes do you regret it?
|
||||
|
||||
**Rhea -** I did have to cut down on a lot of things, especially in my second and third year. I was constantly working throughout these years, creating a huge imbalance between my work and social life. However, I don’t regret the decisions I took in this period as I was quite satisfied with my work and started to cherish the free time I had. With that, I hold the belief that these sacrifices were crucial in order for me to reach where I am right now and that it’s an important part of any university student’s life. Plus, I did make up for all the things I missed out on, in my final year, and hence looking back I am content with my choices.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** You were one of the first people to take Quantum Computing seriously. You even had a research paper done on it in your third year. What made you interested in it?
|
||||
|
||||
**Rhea -** I was introduced to Quantum Computing in my second year, when I stumbled upon a blog on Shor’s Algorithm - an algorithm to find the prime factors of an integer. The idea was really perplexing to me, which motivated me to further start reading the theory behind it. I was completely intrigued with this field and it’s potential to change the face of technology in the next few years. IBM was offering it’s quantum computer on the cloud for free which sparked my interest, and I used to play around with it initially, trying to implement different algorithms. Quantum Mechanics has been my favourite subject over the years and I found quantum computing to be the perfect blend of this subject with different fields in computer science.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** You have interned with Microsoft apart from cracking GSoC in your sophomore year and ICPC Regionals too. Despite all this, you went ahead to study Quantum Computing and a remote BTP abroad. Why?
|
||||
|
||||
**Rhea -** I started off with attempting competitive programming and learning software engineering, the way a lot of students do when they first join campus. Even though I had developed a strong liking to software development, I was keen to explore and experiment with other fields. A younger and naive pre-JEE version of myself always thought that I’ll pursue research in Physics and I felt like I owed it to her to try my hand in different physics oriented fields. When I came across quantum computing, it realised that it was the perfect fit for me and I really enjoyed working on different problems in this field. With that, since the beginning of my first year, I had romanticized the idea of going on a semester exchange or an intern abroad and just experiencing the culture and life there. I was lucky enough that Roorkee finally started permitting a remote BTP, when I was in my third year, and hence I jumped on this opportunity.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** Describe your stay in Europe for 6 months, like in 4-1 there’s pressure for placements et al, but you were away in Europe and secured the highest package in the campus at Microsoft Redmond. How did you manage it, or rather how did you prepare for placement tests?
|
||||
|
||||
Rhea - My stay in Europe was as dreamy as it could have been. I thoroughly enjoyed my work with the team there and it exposed me to a lot of new opportunities, which acted as a launchpad for my research career. With that, it was thrilling to immerse myself in a different culture altogether, meeting people from all across Europe, travelling to and exploring different cities, attending concerts of my favourite artists. This experience made me grow and changed my perspective in a way I would have never imagined.
|
||||
I didn’t face any pressure for placements as I already had a PPO from Microsoft India as a back-up and my main goal then was to apply to different universities for graduate studies. The turn of events was extremely surprising, as being away from the campus, I wasn’t expecting to get an opportunity to interview for this position at Redmond in the first place, until I found out that a call was scheduled online. I only had about one-two week’s time to prepare for this interview which I used to brush up on different topics, however, I mostly relied on my past experiences for this the call.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** Apart from this Machau Rhea, you were very well known for being the demi-God of bad jokes in IMG and your commercial trips-half selfies are well known too. Tell us something about this side of Rhea.
|
||||
|
||||
**Rhea -** I wittingly tried to build this reputation. To benchmark the intensity of my bad jokes, my go-to would be this anti-joke: I’ll say “Ask me if I am a car?”. When they would ask me, I’d reply with a simple “no”. This is probably as cringeworthy now as it was before, but I enjoyed being the cause of it. With that, I always enjoyed partaking in occasional roasts of my friends. I also have this tendency to cause uncomfortable and awkward scenarios just for the thrill of it, and yes, Michael Scott is my ultimate role model.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** You've been in so many groups,you must know all the hard work that goes in the functioning of one . So, If you could, given you had the time and the resources, what group would you have wanted to start?
|
||||
|
||||
**Rhea -** We did plan on starting a discussion group for Quantum computing with ACM IIT Roorkee. We took a lecture at the beginning of the semester and were supposed to continue these lectures as well as conduct workshops after the mid-semester break. We intended to lay down a foundation for this group, which was then going to be carried forward by our juniors. Sadly, all of these plans were thwarted by the Covid situation. However, seeing an increasing number of people showing interest in this field from our campus, I do hope the campus will see this group in the next few years.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** How has being a part of WatchOut been so far?
|
||||
|
||||
**Rhea -** WatchOut has always been my escape on the campus, a break from my hectic schedule. Every week I’d look forward to those two hours where we’d discuss our thoughts ranging from serious issues to rambles about some conspiracy theory that dogs are forming a secret cult in the campus. To put it in words, the time I spent with this group felt like a blissful scroll on reddit. WatchOut has aided me in overcoming my lifelong fear of speaking my mind in front of a huge group. Finally, I met some of the best people I know (hint: you guys) through this group, and for that I’ll always be thankful.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** What is it about Roorkee(campus) that you like the most?
|
||||
|
||||
**Rhea -** It’s most definitely the people I met here, which makes Roorkee complete. A senior once told me “Once you graduate, when you come back to the campus after a few years, you don’t feel it's the same because you barely recognise the faces as you walk by”. It’s the people who were always involved in some shenanigans with you, who you hung out with till sunrise, who taught you more things than any professor in the campus, who lent you a shoulder to cry on or who beat you up on your birthday which make this taxing student life on the campus seem joyous and almost exhilarating.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out! -** How do you like the concept of Chaapos?
|
||||
|
||||
**Rhea -** Suffice it to say I did not have to spend any money on food in my first year. Being a part of multiple groups had its own perks in a way. To be frank, I have received way more chapos than I have given. This concept is utterly brilliant until you reach your final year and realise you have no one left to coax into giving a chapo. Jokes apart, this is one of the best traditions of Roorkee that’ll stay life long with a person - it a platform for people to avail their bragging rights and share/get some gyaan, a reason to dance your stress away, celebrate achievements or maybe just a deceptive method of flirting with someone.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
>| Wona or IMG? | IMG |
|
||||
>| Your chapo toll? | Can’t keep count :P |
|
||||
>| Lowest grade point you've ever got? | 6 |
|
||||
>| Fav eatery in Roorkee? | Rustic, Hands down |
|
||||
>| SB Or KB? | KB |
|
||||
@ -1,73 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Heart To Heart with iGEM Chapter- IIT Roorkee"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
image: igem1.png
|
||||
excerpt: "iGEM is the largest worldwide synthetic-biology based competition, conducted every year at Boston, USA."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*iGEM is the largest worldwide synthetic-biology based competition, conducted every year at Boston, USA. iGEM developed out of student projects conducted during MIT's Independent Activities Period, and has continued to grow with 310 teams (and 5400 members) entering the competition in 2017.
|
||||
With a large number of teams participating in this competition from over 40 countries across the world, and with numerous teams from India like IISER Bhopal and IIT Kanpur participating as well, IIT Roorkee decided to unfold its own iGem chapter this year. Despite the odds faced as a consequence of the unfortunate COVID-19 crisis, the iGEM Roorkee team, with a versatile bunch of highly energetic and enthusiastic minds, aim to achieve some really big laurels this year, and have been pushing hard for the same.
|
||||
Watch Out! decided to interview the members of this team along with the brains behind IITR's iGEM chapter - Sanjeevani Marcha, to get to know more about the kind of challenges they faced, their vision for their journey and to find out more about the competition itself.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: Could you elaborate on what iGEM is all about? How is it unique from other competitions around the world?
|
||||
|
||||
iGEM stands for International Genetically Engineered Machine and it is the largest undergraduate Synthetic Biology competition in the world. In the competition the teams engineer biological machineries like Bacteria, Yeast or Algae and use them to solve a local or global problem. In one full iGEM cycle (8-9 months) we start by identifying the problem, think of Synthetic Biology based solutions, conduct research and experiments and finally conceptualise the product to reach the main stakeholders and the market. iGEM is very popular in most of the Bioengineering schools across the world.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: You mentioned the term ‘synthetic biology’, for the sake of the readers, could you expand on what ‘synthetic biology’ means?
|
||||
|
||||
Synthetic biology is simply playing with the DNA and the genetic codes, eventually manipulating it to work according to our needs or deliver required products. For example; instead of using the roses for the production of rose scent, one can actually use a micro-organism, let’s say a yeast, and transfer the gene for the rose scent and make the yeast produce that scent. This will save the overuse of roses and roses won’t have to be cut for obtaining rose scent. Here, designer genetic circuits are made from various biobricks, each having some functionality, which are run in a cellular system that are usually bacteria. Every property that the natural world exhibits like, the scent of the rose, the color of the leaves, or the glowing of a jellyfish, it has a genetic code present in the fragments of its DNA. Through iGEM and other synthetic biology research these fragments are now standardised like the lego blocks. We arrange different Lego boxes to make a synthetic construct which is run inside a bacteria. To put simply, it is the amalgamation of engineering into biology, and hence, it is also known as Engineering Biology 2.0.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: How and where is the competition held? How are various teams pitted against each other?
|
||||
|
||||
There is no such ranking system to judge different teams. There are 3 grand prizes for the best overall projects. Medals (with no limits), special awards and track prizes. After the registration process, the teams start working independently on their idea, build their product and then present their work in a 4 Day event called the Giant Jamboree, held somewhere near October-November at Boston, USA. Earlier it was hosted in MIT (that is where it began), now in the Hynes Convention Centre and after 12 years iGEM is shifting to Paris next year! The teams have presentation sessions and poster sessions there. This international competition witnesses a participation of over 350 teams, from around 40-50 countries. There is a special category for high school students as well. We can’t do an iGEM project just with the people who know biotechnology. We need people who are good with computers, machine learning, effective communication, public relations, social science research, business mindset, designers, videographers, marketing and sponsorship. We conduct engagement workshops and seminars as a part of the project and talk to multiple stakeholders, create animations or maybe even make a comic! Then there are special awards where teams are acknowledged for a specific skill they fared well in. So if we have an amazing design & development team we can win a prize in that category. Or maybe if we couldn’t have sufficient experiments but work rigorously on the social front, we win a prize!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: IITR will be participating for the first time in this year’s iGEM tournament. Where do you place your chances of winning? What kind of expectations do you have from the competition?
|
||||
|
||||
Yes, it’s our first time and full of fresh challenges. iGEM has 12 standard project tracks which are designed according to the problem a team is working on namely, therapeutics, diagnostics, environment, manufacturing, information technology, nutrition etc. The tracks clearly highlight that you can leverage any discipline of science or engineering and pair it with Biological systems. Our project is currently in the therapeutic and environment track and we have our eye on the Gold Medal. We are strategizing our team’s strength and will plan our way accordingly to maximize our chances of success.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: Are the members of iGem Roorkee Chapter, all Biotechnology students? How does one get to become a member of the team? Also, do you plan to expand the team?
|
||||
|
||||
First of all, all members are not Biotechnology students. iGEM is centred around the field of synthetic biology but it is not restricted to it. In fact, anyone can join the team. It simply depends on how you want to apply your knowledge in your respective field and incorporate your skills into the competition.
|
||||
Secondly, yes, we are planning to expand the team. Majority of the people we have in our team are involved in research. We need people who can manage our public engagement. We also need volunteers who can handle social media or are really good with content writing. Whenever we design a model, it needs to be mathematically validated with an exhaustive mathematical proof. We do not have the aid of someone with a strong mathematical expertise at our department, so we are looking for people who can help us in this regard. This year the competition has a major focus on dry labs (computational models, software design, product development). We will need impressive team videos and presentations for one of the medal criteria. So yeah, we are on a lookout for amazing videographers who can conceptualise and make it with us. Also, even if you can contribute to a small component of the project, all our work is documented and attributed to people who help us execute it. I believe that it is IIT Roorkee’s team - and if you have the time and capacity to enhance any part of the project, Roorkee’s chance to shine on the platform increases.
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: How does one go about selecting projects? Did you have a fixed list of projects to choose from?
|
||||
|
||||
No. We need to identify a problem in the community and solve it using biotechnology. For instance, seeing the rising antimicrobial diseases, we are trying to create a therapy alternative to antibiotics. Starting with an idea is the biggest challenge. There can be two ways to approach it- focus on the research areas of our institute or professors and align along those lines or observe the immediate problems around us and look for its biological solutions. We start with multiple ideas and eliminate them. We had done considerable work on an idea related to Ganga which was pursued vigorously by 2nd year students - Nitish, Pradum and Kushagra. It was an amazing idea with a high social impact, but further research revealed that it was complex and more expertise intensive, hence we had to drop it. Yeah, it’s heartbreaking.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: Sanjeevani Marcha, you are the brains behind the setting up of the iGEM Roorkee Chapter. Could you tell us what inspired you to go down this road?
|
||||
|
||||
My personal interest and passion for biotechnology encouraged me to embark on this journey of establishing the iGEM community at IIT Roorkee. At Roorkee, in a batch of just 28 students with hardly 2% having any interest in the subject, it is difficult to sustain your interest in research. Also the conventional research projects aren’t as exciting and rather exhausting. At iGEM, I saw 4000+ undergraduates, my age and even high school students, working passionately and creatively with biotechnology. All of them coming together in a grand celebration to change the traditional ways of science and biology impressed me deeply. When I first saw this website, I was utterly surprised to see this amazing community of biologists and engineers! The website is super intuitive and you are bound to be attracted if you have slightest of passion for Biotechnology. As I read more about the competition, I realized that this is a very serious platform, a huge global community, and there are Indian teams participating as well. When I researched further, I found IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IISERs, IISc etc, participating in it and a simple question came to mind- Why not IIT Roorkee yet? Our institute has all the resources and the Biotechnology department is already blooming with innovations. I became firm on bracing all the challenges with only one goal - iGEM IIT Roorkee and a teethy group picture with the traditional iGEM logo at the Hynes Convention Centre - Boston.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: What kind of challenges did you face while setting up this chapter?
|
||||
|
||||
Each and every kind possible! Starting anything new, and that too at IITR, is challenging and you face a ton of resistance. It is difficult to convince people to move out of the ‘set’ patterns, and take an initiative to pursue something different. First, I needed a team of like-minded people who could resonate with the grandeur of iGEM. Trust me, I didn’t get them till the very end. Many people liked the idea, but seeing the amount of uncertainty, difficulties and lack of direction lessened their trust and confidence. But on and off I always had people who were working with me on this. Not all were with me from the beginning, and not all stayed till the end. But I am grateful for everyone’s contribution because they helped in shaping it and most importantly kept me going on this path. Next it was difficult to convince the professors and draw their attention to our work - something that we really wanted to do, because we cannot do it without them. Good quality research and scientific aptitude is not very well developed in undergraduates. Hence Professors, PhDs and Lab managers are very significant components of iGEM Teams. It has been extremely difficult to convince a professor with the idea of iGEM and win their trust by a good idea that we can work on. Another big challenge was the financial aspect of the competition. It has a fancy registration fee plus the experiment costs and the logistics. The bottleneck was to get the money for registration, and going to the Jamboree. So all our efforts were directed in identifying the problem that we wanted to address and develop a solution that can convince our professors and the administration to invest in our team. I am really proud of Siddharth, a first year student who developed the idea from scratch, stood strong with me in this dream and sat together long hours writing the proposals and attending meetings with Professors. We literally went to more than 20 professors, TIDES, our HoD, the Dean, talking about iGEM & explaining our idea. Juggled team management, designing, content, research, networking, development and even online presence, finally making it through the funnel!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: You have recently been officially recognised by our institute. What do you think is the next milestone in your journey?
|
||||
|
||||
Currently we are an independent body, but our ultimate aim is to be a part of the STC as a Biotech based technical group. Our idea is to first participate in the competition, prove our caliber and then we can try to streamline the process of integration into STC. This will improve our visibility and allow easy access to a lot of resources.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: We heard that IITR’s team was groomed by former participants from IISER Bhopal this year. How has this collaborative experience been? How does IITR’s BioTechnology education/research differ from other IITs/IISERs?
|
||||
|
||||
Teams are continuously encouraged to collaborate and have conjoined aspects in their projects, some shared work, and even have discussions on improving each other’s project. And the iGEM network is very helpful and so humble! When I reached out to the Indian circuit of iGEM Teams and asked for mentorship to start my own team, what factors to focus on, how to make a timeline and enhance communication, all of them were super helpful. We had discussions with ex-iGEMers and Team Leads and got amazing tips! We spoke to IISER Bhopal and simply asked the student team to mentor us and help us make it through our debut year. They were delighted to support us! The team is super energetic and always available to take our doubts and calls. We are planning to have some collaborative events with them as well.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: 2020 has been a unique year. Has it impacted iGem in any way?
|
||||
|
||||
Due to covid a major change is shifting to a Virtual Giant Jamboree (crying inside, no boston trip, MIT ke bahar photo, after parties and firangis, ohno). Also the committee has provided the teams with a lot of resources and tools to build our projects. We are given access to Benchling, snap gene, Twist Biosciences products along with numerous webinars, panel discussions, training sessions, virtual coffee hours, global slack channel and fun events to keep all the students connected and at the same time investing in cultivating new ways of working in biology without enzymes and pipettes. We are learning so much and thoroughly enjoying these gloomy uncertain days in isolation.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**WO**: How do you see the future of iGEM IIT Roorkee Chapter?
|
||||
|
||||
Personally, I wanted to establish this community on the campus that will speak of Biotechnology as “technology” and change the ways biotech undergraduates see their branch. Even if someone doesn’t want to pursue research, he/she can always participate in one iGEM season during their 4 years and it will be one of the most exhilarating journeys. This is one of the main reasons I strongly believe that iGEM can be a great success at IITR. It is truly multidisciplinary and something made for undergraduates who want to have a blast in science and research. Every year, people who come together for a project can decide which skills to focus on and leverage the project on that. We have an amazing set of people at Roorkee and expertise in every possible domain. Indian institutes generally face major challenges in pursuing iGEM because our researchers and professors aren’t very supportive of open-source or collaborative science. Also, they aren’t used to the glamour and energy that comes together on such platforms. If we start utilising our resources effectively, and we are able to showcase our caliber at this stage, I am sure our professors will trust us and fully support the teams.
|
||||
@ -1,41 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Memoir of a Selenophile "
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
image: priyanshi.JPG
|
||||
category: memoirs
|
||||
author: "Priyanshi Mishra"
|
||||
excerpt: "I’m sad today as this journey is ending. Although, you are the stepping stone of my life and I don’t want to leave you now but, there was a part of me that never wanted to come to you in the first place. I feel warm in your arms now."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Dear Roorkee,
|
||||
|
||||
I’m sad today as this journey is ending. Although, you are the stepping stone of my life and I don’t want to leave you now but, there was a part of me that never wanted to come to you in the first place. I feel warm in your arms now. I never really thought that you could make me feel this way because the start of our friendship was not an endearing one. You welcomed me with high humidity, scorching heat and AN khosla.
|
||||
|
||||
But it all began to change as your monsoon beauty washed away all my worries and apprehensions. Our friendship started getting better as I fell in love with the wholesome breakfast, late night strolling, unforgettable excursions by Himalayan Explorers’ Club, IITR lingo, killing boredom at student’s club, the calmness of Ganga, late night fun at cautley, enormous MGCL and much more that I cannot fathom. You gave me all that I needed vis-a-vis cool professors, well-equipped labs, never ending workshops, cerebral seminars, culinary club, fine arts section and most importantly a conducive environment for all my aspirations.
|
||||
|
||||
Since we met, you have completely changed for me. Obviously, in a good way. And I would very much like to thank you for:
|
||||
|
||||
Giving me a hard time adjusting to hostel life but at the same time, letting me take responsibilities for myself and handling the account all by myself.
|
||||
|
||||
Giving a garden facing room at Sarojini bhawan which helped me wake up early in the morning and kept me energized throughout the day to attend all the classes.
|
||||
|
||||
Making me realize that nothing can beat home cooked food by serving me a monotonous lunch and dinner all the time.
|
||||
|
||||
Helping me evolve through those never-ending challenges that kept coming my way and allowed me to embrace both the calmness of the night as well as the chaos of the morning.
|
||||
|
||||
The pocket friendly and really delicious snacks and music concerts at MAC, movies at convocation hall, festival celebrations at Saraswati temple that became one of the best ways to break the monotony and have fun.
|
||||
|
||||
Serving free beverages at Shiru café where I got a chance to relax after classes and enjoy great conversations with strangers, colleagues and friends.
|
||||
|
||||
All the bhawan days that gave me immense pleasure in wall painting, decorations, and getting a little bit too judgemental over other people’s contribution.
|
||||
|
||||
Introducing me to a grand Cult fest like “Thomso” where I got the chance to volunteer and participate in so many events.
|
||||
|
||||
Being my best friend, by giving me places to hide when I was sad and places to celebrate when I was happy.
|
||||
|
||||
However, I was sad that being a part of the batch of 2020, I’m not going to get a regular farewell or a chance to enjoy the prom night and convocation like other batches. We all are suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic but I’m glad that I got a little bit more time to enjoy with you. It’s not a normal ending though. But, what’s the fun in being normal? I’m going away from you and surely going to miss you a lot.
|
||||
|
||||
With love,
|
||||
Priyanshi
|
||||
@ -1,31 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Roorkee Chronicles"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
image: aritra.png
|
||||
category: memoirs
|
||||
author: "Aritra Dutta"
|
||||
excerpt: "It was March of 2018. We had butterflies in our stomach and adrenaline continuously rushing through our blood."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
It was March of 2018. We had butterflies in our stomach and adrenaline continuously rushing through our blood. It was the day of our JAM counseling result. After bearing all sorts of pain for three years at the undergrad level, finally it was the day of receiving something in return.
|
||||
The screen displayed “IIT-Roorkee”.
|
||||
|
||||
The next few moments were beyond description. I was utterly joyed. The preparations began from this day onwards. Next few months went by in no time and I arrived at one of the oldest engineering colleges of Asia, thousands of kilometers away from my home. But honestly speaking, on the day of our admission, when we were allotted our hostel rooms, I was actually disappointed. I was like “Seriously!!! Is this a hostel room or a bigger version of a cellular jail?? Are they going to treat us like criminals”…
|
||||
There were innumerable thoughts going on in my mind. But I was soon assured. It took almost no time to get used to the college’s hostel environment.
|
||||
We were supposed to have our first class nine days after our admission. So the very next day of our admission, when I got out of my bed the next morning, I had nothing to do except watch a few guys playing in the hostel ground. I couldn’t control myself and went to join them. Little did I know that this would become one of the permanent fixtures of my life.
|
||||
Although it was a cambise ball, I got my ring finger injured so badly that later on, the doctor informed me that I have a broken tendon. So technically, the string of my embarrassing moments had already begun; right from the second day of my hostel life. And it was to continue for the next two years.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Next major embarrassment was when I went cycling on the campus roads. I was riding down the slope in front of the library. That day, it was raining heavily. The above circumstances were enough to make me fall flat on my face.. I fell hard. Within the first two months, I had a damaged finger and a broken jaw. Sounds ideal hostel life…Right?!!
|
||||
Well, there were many more such “embarrassments” to come.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
But yeah, there were some good moments as well. I went to the very first trek of my life, all thanks to IIT Roorkee’s HEC. It was a 4 days trek to Chandrashila and Deoriatal. After a grueling semester, this was a major stress buster!
|
||||
|
||||
How can one forget the chilling cold winter mornings of Roorkee. And by the virtue of our dearest faculties. They gave us so much attention that we had to attend their classes as early as 7 AM in the month of January.
|
||||
Kudos to their dedication. And to our tolerance. :)
|
||||
|
||||
With one blink of our eyes, our first year was gone and we were standing on the verge of setting out foot on the accelerator of our career vehicle. Bhawan day, departmental fest, late night hangouts, football on rainy days, even hostel change; all these events added a myriad of colors to my two years of IIT life.
|
||||
The next six months passed well. I was in my last semester, where everyone had mixed feelings, before this pandemic set in.
|
||||
All the endless sleepless nights, parties, divine refreshments, will be missed. Life at IIT Roorkee has been a priceless memory I’ll cherish for the rest of my days.
|
||||
@ -1,105 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Portrait of a Lady on Fire: The Poet's Choice"
|
||||
image: fire.jpeg
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
author: "Pritika Mishra, Aditya Ramkumar"
|
||||
category: editorial
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*SPOILER WARNING*
|
||||
|
||||
*The following article contains extensive spoilers for the film ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’. Readers are encouraged to watch the movie before they proceed.*
|
||||
|
||||
Most people love fried bhindi. To some (including Author P), it is the greatest thing on earth, a true delicacy and the most OP vegetable known to humankind. Yet despite repeated testaments to vendakya being the key to infinite intelligence and reassurance that ‘this is just a phase’, Author A dislikes (to say the least) this wretched organism from the depths of their existence. Imagine having your brain sheared off, cutting your fingers off, frying them and then eating them. You don’t need to imagine it, you already have. The only silver lining is that whichever genius decided to name this autotrophic piece of sinew ‘Lady’s finger’ has an imagination equally morbid and has learnt to hide it with subtlety.
|
||||
|
||||
The only relevant difference between Author A and Author P is their separate, individual reality. The finger remains the same, yet it receives such varied reactions. Rarely, if ever, do we investigate the working and interactions of our experiences, our senses and our desires. Céline Sciamma’s 2019 masterpiece Portrait of a Lady on Fire deals with these very concepts.
|
||||
|
||||
Portrait is a profoundly tender story about self discovery, becoming and the anticipation of coming to terms with being noticed by someone. It spends its time with the characters as they fall in love. Set in the 18th century, this forbidden queer period drama does a lot. We are introduced to Marianne right away, an artist teaching a painting class who notices one of her old (quite possibly secret) works ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’. We are then taken back in time through Marianne’s memory.
|
||||
|
||||
Amidst the sounds of waves crashing, Marianne arrives on a remote island off the coast of Brittany after the Comtesse commissions her to paint a portrait of her daughter, Héloïse. Héloïse is to marry a Milanese nobleman. Before Marianne’s arrival, Héloïse had already spoiled her mother’s plans to have her portrait painted and sent to Milan for the prospective husband’s appraisal because she refused to sit for a male artist. Now, Marianne has the task of painting Héloïse in secret, while spending time with her in the guise of a walking companion.
|
||||
|
||||
Sciamma makes very specific use of camera angles and blocking. For most of the film, the viewer is placed in one of three perspectives - following Marianne from right behind her, watching Héloïse from Marianne’s perspective and wider shots of the characters interacting. While entire essays could be written on how the film deals with the concept of ‘The Gaze” from artistic and feminist perspectives, this technique also provides a third perspective, showing us from both the inside and the outside how a relationship develops.
|
||||
|
||||
For the first half of the film, Héloïse just wants to be ‘looked at’, to actually be seen as the person she is, and not just as an imaginary object in a painting. We know nothing about the Milanese nobleman, nor does anyone make any effort to describe him beyond those two words.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
To see someone is not as simple as it is made out to be. One could be very mechanical about it and describe only what is externally apparent - a person’s appearance, their clothes, their actions, their words. This is extremely reductive and impersonal. Any human being could describe any other human being in this way if they were in the same room as them, if they had a photo of them or if they walked past them on a busy street. This is what Marianne does initially. We keep looking at Héloïse’s hands, her hair, her eyes. Marianne’s focus is to draw Héloïse as accurately as possible, which means she needs a smile. She only cares about that expression and not the feelings that trigger it.
|
||||
|
||||
On a deeper level, as we are drawn to something, we attempt to learn how it works. Musicians learn music theory and appreciate the intricacies and brilliance of the composition and arrangement when they listen to a new song, beyond merely how it sounds to a lay-person. When it comes to people, we study their desires. To know someone is to know how they think and why they behave a certain way, to know what they want and to predict what they will need. Marianne realises that she is attracted to Héloïse and cannot bear to pretend anymore, even to herself. She realises that she has repeated the previous artist’s behavior and destroys her first portrait out of guilt.
|
||||
|
||||
Most people, especially in popular descriptions stop here. But there is a trap - human beings aren’t automatons. We can only guess at the motives of others based on what we see and what they themselves tell us. More importantly, we ourselves do not really know how our minds work. We analyse ourselves based on our own self-image, which is tainted by our biases, experiences and the knowledge that this is our own selves that we are trying to understand. A degree of uncertainty exists. Try taking an online personality test. The result will likely be what you predicted (and is probably not accurate) - the test told you what you think your personality is.
|
||||
|
||||
We don’t actually love other people because we don’t really know other people. We love the idea of them, our own mental automaton that thinks and acts like them. The closer the approximation, the healthier the relationship. We are stuck in our bubbles of momentary infatuation and myopic affection.
|
||||
|
||||
The film shows us this mind-numbing, suffocatingly exhilarating, early-stage love in the way we stop looking at specific parts of Héloïse and just stare in her general direction. We watch them play the harpsichord together, catching fleeting glimpses of each other from the corners of their eyes. When Héloïse finally agrees to pose for Marianne, we watch from a neutral perspective how the two fawn over each other, barely able to look each other in the eye, yet extremely concerned about the other. Marianne says ‘look at me’, so she herself can get a good look at Héloïse. The camera cuts to Marianne’s perspective exactly as she looks up. We gasp every time.
|
||||
|
||||
Marianne and Héloïse’s romance has to end. We know this from the very start. Halfway through the movie, the film makes its engagement with the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, right when it’s starting to get evident that Marianne and Héloïse have feelings for each other. The dialogue, editing and composition in this scene makes it almost impossible to miss how iconic and relevant the myth is going to be to their story.
|
||||
|
||||
Héloïse wonders if maybe it was Eurydice who asked Orpheus to look back - perhaps she played a role in her own end. Marianne thinks differently - “He doesn’t make the lover’s choice, but the poet’s. He chooses the memory of her.” Later, when Marianne and Héloïse are forced to part themselves, neither is without agency - like her imagined version of Eurydice, Héloïse encourages Marianne to look back at her; and like her Orpheus, Marianne chooses not to regret, but to remember.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
These authors believe that both versions are true. The time Eurydice spent in the underworld and Orpheus spent alone in the human world has resulted in drastic changes in both of them. They are not who they were before and Eurydice realises this. She knows that their relationship is doomed and hell is a pretty comfortable place anyway.
|
||||
|
||||
In both stories, the artist in the relationship tries saving their love from “death”, figurative in the case of Héloïse and literal in the case of Eurydice. The artist then “looks back”, losing their lover, keeping with them only the memory of theirs.
|
||||
|
||||
The film plays with this idea from the beginning. The first time Marianne meets Héloïse, they go out on a walk with their faces covered. Héloïse makes a run for the cliff with Marianne (and us) fearing that she will jump off and kill herself like her sister, that the film will end before it has even started. But Héloïse stops and uncovers her face. The waves surge and she turns around.
|
||||
|
||||
The film's score is the score of real life. The surging of the waves, the crackle of the fire, the footsteps. Each moment is filled with intention. So when the film actually uses music, the scene's importance is emphasized automatically.
|
||||
|
||||
One of the most powerful scenes in the film features a group of local women chanting in front of a bonfire, producing a scene of community that nurtures the crescendo of desire between Marianne and Héloïse. Its status as a central turning-point is powerfully emphasized by its being one of only three scenes with music: in this case, a haunting acapella chorus that seems to emerge organically from the society of women around the fire. With its harmonies stacking ever higher, and with dynamics rising to match, the song in some way mirrors the flames, literal in the way Héloïse was in flames (which then goes on to inspire the titular painting that we see at the beginning of the movie) and figuratively, the flames igniting between the two characters. Héloïse and Marianne stare at each other, even as one catches fire, even as things change.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Class divisions also break down as the two form a friendship with the family maid, Sophie, accompanying her to get an abortion from a village medicine woman. Sophie lies on the same bed where the local woman’s infant plays. We see a close up of Sophie’s face, as the infants play with her. We watch as Sophie goes through pain and begins to cry, but the giggling baby next to her makes her smile, comforting her and clinging to her fingers. There is a conscious choice, in this scene, to depict Sophie as neither a demon nor a victim. Later that evening, at Héloïse’s suggestion, the three women re-create and paint Sophie’s abortion, an act that comes across as normal. By choosing to portray it, they deem it important, a story worth telling.
|
||||
|
||||
The film shows us all these different women come together, laugh, cry and support each other based on simple commonalities, proximity and good nature. The film also sends out a clear pro-choice message as it points out to us that we should not let out subjective notions cloud objective truths. Héloïse and Marianne care and support Sophie and do all the things that someone who ‘loved’ Sophie would do as well.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The final scene of the film takes place long after the affair, Héloïse married and with a child. Marianne sees Héloïse, who is unaware of her presence, sitting alone in an opera house, and watches her former lover closely as the orchestra opens with the ‘Summer’ concerto of Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons – the same piece of music that Marianne had played for Héloïse years ago on a harpsichord. Marianne remains fixed unflinchingly on Héloïse as she listens raptly, a wrenching sequence of expressions registering on her face, emotions heightened. Both women still remember those experiences and have feelings for the person they knew.
|
||||
|
||||
What makes this final shot of Héloïse so masterful is that it is from Marianne’s perspective. This is a movie which explores the power of observation, of appreciation for the subtleties of expression which make you appreciate the object of your desire that much more, telling us what desire and love and friendship could mean for women, when free from society’s patriarchy, even for a short period of time. Portrait is a memory of a love story; sad yet hopeful.
|
||||
|
||||
Even though this idea of perception, the idea of it being not one sided is nothing short of terrifying, at the end of the day, all we think we still want is someone to whom we can say
|
||||
‘Look at me.”
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Attached for your listening, here's a list of songs that we associate with the film.
|
||||
|
||||
- La Jeune Fille en Feu - **Para One, Arthur Simonini**
|
||||
- The Four Seasons (Summer) - **Antonio Vivaldi**
|
||||
- Your Wave Caresses me - **The Last Sighs of the Wind**
|
||||
- Saibo - **Sachin - Jigar**
|
||||
- In Exile - **The Pineapple Thief**
|
||||
- Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice) - **Arcade Fire**
|
||||
- Gone - **The Head and the Heart**
|
||||
- Forget Not - **Ne Obliviscaris**
|
||||
- What About Me - **Snarky Puppy**
|
||||
- Like Real People Do - **Hozier**
|
||||
- Fade Into You - **Mazzy Star**
|
||||
- falkor - **Covet**
|
||||
- Visions of Gideon - **Sufjan Stevens**
|
||||
- I Want you to Want Me - **Letters to Cleo**
|
||||
- All I Need - **Radiohead**
|
||||
- It's Never Over (Hey Orpheus) - **Arcade Fire**
|
||||
|
||||
[https://open.spotify.com/playlist/04n1zPULrTqPPWFQL6Rswn?si=TA7o53oqS-auQu2HDk-p0Q](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/04n1zPULrTqPPWFQL6Rswn?si=TA7o53oqS-auQu2HDk-p0Q){: style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue"}
|
||||
|
||||
Miscellaneous
|
||||
|
||||
[Céline Sciamma breaks down adapting lyrics from Nietzsche, evoking witches and power of sorority, and the creation of the incredible scene.](https://www.indiewire.com/2020/02/portrait-of-a-lady-on-fire-song-bonfire-lyrics-chanting-1202211855/){: style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue"}
|
||||
|
||||
[What Portrait of a Lady on Fire Tells Us About "the Gaze"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMUC584ppNQ&t=179s){: style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue"}
|
||||
|
||||
[Portrait of a Lady on Fire review – mesmerised by the female gaze](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/mar/01/portrait-of-a-lady-on-fire-review-celine-sciamma){: style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,20 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "An Ordinary Life"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
image: memoir_an_ordinary_life.jpg
|
||||
category: memoirs
|
||||
author: "Nipun Vashistha"
|
||||
excerpt: "This is an account of how I felt during college years, rather than what exactly I did in college."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
When I took up this job of writing a memoir, I honestly did not have any clue what I was going to write, and I am still struggling in my head to recollect as I write this. It is not that I do not have any memories of the last five years at Roorkee, or that it was not an eventful place to be. Infact, probably, there are just too many of them that I am not able to pick a few out of them to share with you. If you ask anyone how their college stint was, they might say it was too good, amazing, brilliant, extraordinary or maybe those with contrasting views saying it was competitive, overrated, and/or depressing. If you ask me how it was, it was ordinary. It was a series of ordinary days in the campus with your mates, waking up to find you have already missed the mess lunch timings and a few classes, having a love-hate relationship with mess and canteen food, looking at the same beautiful sunset everyday, getting excited about idea of getting an ice-cream sandwich, having a debate on ideas that would seem nonsensical to some, obsessing over a new Netflix series every month, cracking the same inside joke over and over again, walking in the campus for eternities observing the weird placement of trees in the campus, and ending your day just looking at the flickering stars in the night. It is interesting that as I write, I realise how there are so many things which makes up an ordinary day.
|
||||
|
||||
It is not that there were not days which were really eventful, when you go out and meet a lot of people, learn a bunch of new things, feel so full of life. In fact, I used to take part in a good deal of college activities and events, made a lot of friends that way, and it used to be a very exciting and great learning experience as well. You feel like you can do anything, you feel like cycling down the library slope, you feel like going on that trek you always wanted to, you feel like staying up all night for that dream job, you feel like working hard for that next start-up idea, you feel like jamming all night till you lose your breath, you feel like staying up all night with your friends and partying, you feel like finding the love of your life, you feel infinite and euphoric. And there were also days when everything seemed doomed, days when you feel like giving up on everything, days when you tell yourself that tomorrow will be a good day but it does not turn out to be, days when you ghost on all your friends. There are just so many ideas and ideologies moving around in college, that the journey of searching for a meaning might leave you in a place where you just end up feeling lost. In the second half of college, after the post JEE hangover was completely gone and I finally started to look at things as they were, I was so overwhelmed with different schools of thoughts that, first, I was impressed by the very existence of these different ideologies, I was impressed that I get to be around people who aspire to bring a change in the nation, or people who want to be literary geniuses, or people who feel for art as it is their life, or people who want to join the line of changing the world by a technological revolution. But in the end, after I peeked into all of those different paths and possibilities, I only found myself more lost than ever. Then one fine day, a guy who was referred to as ‘danger’ in my first year (trust me, he is one of the sweetest human beings I had the pleasure to know in college shoutout!), we were talking and I found a little life lesson between our conversation that ‘You gotta try, you will only know if you want to do it or not once you give yourself in and give it a try’. I guess that has encouraged me a little over the years to do things and not panic. I guess nobody has any answers for you except yourself. College seems like a pretty difficult place if you find yourself stuck in the loop of doomed days. **But what better time than college to be lost?**
|
||||
|
||||
Now the thing is, these exciting moments and the days in search for something, they were only the peak moments and I feel it is unfair to just remember or describe your college days based on the peak moments and leaving out the ordinary ones, because that would be like painting a beautiful incomplete picture, or making a really catchy song with only beats in it. And perhaps, wouldn’t it be just unfair to not speak about all of those days which were just okay?
|
||||
|
||||
As nostalgic and good college days and these memoirs sound like, in reality, it was a fair share of happy, really sad and ordinary days. But I still find myself cherishing that evening sunset outside my room the most. And when I look back, I realise that in some magical way, every single day that I have lived is now a part of me. My choices and dreams are not just impressions of the grand moments of my life but also of my everyday musings.
|
||||
|
||||
वक़्त को आते न जाते न गुज़रते देखा, जमा होते हुए देखा मगर उसको मैंने - गुलज़ार
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "A Memoir of Sorts"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
image: sorts.jpeg
|
||||
category: memoirs
|
||||
author: "Rajsuryan Singh"
|
||||
excerpt: "Four years ago, around this time, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do in life. I wish I could still say the same thing."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Four years ago, around this time, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do in life. I wish I could still say the same thing. College is supposed to be this transformative phase that you enter as a naïve kid and come out as a fully functioning adult having your life all figured out. The normalisation of this notion makes it much more difficult to accept when the puzzle pieces don’t fall together. Three years into college, as I looked at the puzzle with its pieces farther apart than they’ve ever been, I couldn’t help but wonder what drove me from clarity to chaos.
|
||||
|
||||
When I started college, I planned to pursue science, physics to be specific. I found a sense of comfort in objective descriptions of the world, a resolution from an otherwise uncertain reality riddled with grey areas. To put it in less pretentious words, a career in science just seemed really cool (I blame Richard Feynman). Also, the only other discernible skill I had was music - which I never saw as a potential career choice. My plan made total sense. What’s funny about it - or tragic depending on your sense of humour - is that I didn’t act on it at all during the first couple of years at college and spent all my time on music instead. While the details of how it happened have blurred out, I vividly remember the consequences.
|
||||
|
||||
Music has been an amusement for as long as I can remember. However, my relationship with it was fairly underdeveloped before college. Growing up in a small suburban town, the only other musicians I knew were old harmonium and percussion players who’d play at religious gatherings - not something a 13-year-old John Mayer fan could vibe with. All of my exposure to good music came from the internet, and I am utterly grateful for its existence, but it misses out on a very important factor of effective learning—a like-minded peer group. College gave me access to competent musicians who asked similar questions, had a similar understanding and shared a similar relationship with music. I could always find people willing to listen and talk about anything interesting I came across and the other way around. Showing someone an idea I was working on, as they casually dropped by my room, would turn into full-blown songwriting sessions (true story, happened several times!). And the best part is that people bring in influences from diverse sources, musically and otherwise. Conversations that started with music would often branch off to math, philosophy, art, literature or even accounts of tragic - or funny depending on your sense of humour - life experiences. I credit a large part of my development as a musician to such instances - instances that also happen to form most of the reminiscent highlight reel that plays in my head while writing this. However, the more I progressed as a musician, the farther I strayed from my original “plan”.
|
||||
|
||||
I didn’t realise it as it happened, but I gradually lost touch with science. I wasn’t doing too bad academically, but I was sort of faking my way through it. Most of my coursework was not particularly demanding, and a day or two of studying was enough to get a decent grade. A lot of it was learning factual information, the rest was barely an extension of high school chemistry. To be fair, that’s probably a gross oversimplification and perhaps a misrepresentation of the courses, the two-day marathon study sessions are not built for nuance after all, but that’s what I remember. Science was not as exciting as it used to be. It started feeling like a hopeless relationship I had grown out of but was too afraid to walk away from. I started entertaining the idea of dropping it altogether and doing music full-time. But it wasn’t a time to be able to afford rash decisions, so I decided to give myself a semester to figure things out. What followed was several weeks of introspection and existential dread. And binge-watching Bojack Horseman, which might have been a trigger. I started working on the internship applications, scoured through research fields even remotely related to my major, and by the end of the semester, found several areas that piqued my interest and provided me with the much-needed intellectual stimulation. More importantly, I had a couple of realisations about the things I found fulfilling and the reasons thereof (content warning - loads of armchair philosophy ahead!).
|
||||
|
||||
I realised that every fulfilling activity for me has the same anatomy - there are long periods of mildly unpleasant monotony followed by little moments of genuine excitement. The excitement almost always comes from an acknowledgement of beauty - whether it’s in an elegant mathematical proof or a soul-stirring guitar solo. It doesn’t have to be as profound, even seemingly insignificant things like a clever calculation trick or a subtle unexpected drum fill have a similar effect. And I believe that your ability to appreciate beauty and hence find joy in something is proportional to your proficiency in it. The more deeply you understand something, the more enjoyable it becomes. This brings me to the puzzle I mentioned earlier. If I were to believe whatever I have written in this paragraph, as invalid as it may be beyond the confines of my mind, it becomes obvious to do whatever you’re the most competent at as your career. At the same time, it becomes impossible to decide between things that you enjoy equally and are equally mediocre at. Whichever way you think about it, there seems to be no satisfactory way to choose what becomes a career and what is relegated to a means to fill spare time.
|
||||
|
||||
Coming back to the real world that doesn’t conform to idealistic personal philosophy, you have to factor in things like financial stability, relevant education, and available opportunities while making career choices. A career in science makes practical sense given the formal education, relevant experience and all, and it’s significantly easier to do music as a hobby than the other way around. So that’s what I’m doing, for the time being. My plan, while being turned upside down several times throughout college, is still kind of the same. But there's a catch - it still comes with the same caveats. A few years down the line if I significantly improve as a musician, I'm pretty sure that I’m going to have another one of these crises, and the trend will probably continue for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, having gone through it once, I’ll be better equipped to deal with it. Now, to end this as abruptly as college did for me, I'll just say that whatever college entails for you is highly unpredictable, plans fall apart, new ones are formed, and in the process, you go through unforeseen self-discovery (the proof is trivial and is left as an exercise for the reader).
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,117 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "In Conversation with The Wellness Center"
|
||||
image: "wellness-center.jpg"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
excerpt: "Watch Out! spoke to Dr Shikha Jain and Mr Ashfaq Ahmad of the Wellness Center about mental health and the facilities available to the IIT Roorkee populace."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Could you tell us what it means to be mentally healthy?
|
||||
|
||||
**Dr Shikha Jain (SJ):** Being mentally healthy is a dynamic state of internal equilibrium - a harmonious relationship between the mind and the body. According to the World Health Organisation, mental healthiness is a state of well being, in which an individual can realize their capabilities or abilities, and can cope up with normal stressful situations. She/He can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his/her community or society, so in short, we can say that it is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being.
|
||||
|
||||
**If someone thinks that they have a mental health issue, what should be their first approach? How should they deal with it?**
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** You should visit professionals - only they can decide if you truly have a mental issue, and the severity of it. Then the best kind of treatment for your issue is decided by them.
|
||||
|
||||
**Mr Ashfaq Ahmad (AA):** So we need to look into three parameters - our emotions, behaviour and thought processes. For example, one indication is when any lifestyle change disturbs your mental equilibrium or your functionality because of your emotions, thought process and your behaviour. Then, of course, you need to meet a mental health professional or counsellor. A counsellor is a trained person who can identify and assess the level of the problem, and can give the intervention needed.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** A lot of myths surround the description of various common mental illnesses like anxiety and depression. What do these illnesses actually look like? What does the treatment look like?
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** Actually, one needs to understand that mental illness is very different from physical illness. We can see and diagnose physical illnesses - for example if a person has fever, we can measure the temperature with a thermometer; if a person has a cut, one can see the wounds. But when it comes to mental health- one can’t simply gauge the severity of anxiety or depression by just externally viewing the situation.
|
||||
|
||||
So, the first thing to do is, approach the professionals so that they can then decide what kind of treatment is required for that particular situation, after taking into consideration various factors. In the case of depression - an aged person would display different symptoms as compared to a child. A depressed adult may feel sad, may be slow to react, or he may even say he doesn't feel like doing anything. But in the case of a depressed child, it is different. A child may be a bit aggressive while depressed and may also show tangible effects like poor performance in school. So, the symptoms and severity vary from person to person and depend on age as well.
|
||||
|
||||
**AA:** One very important thing to address is our society’s wrong perceptions about mental illness. There is a norm of labelling a person “crazy” if they display ‘deviant’ behaviour. So, our main responsibility is to identify the problem in the initial stage itself. Usually, we are not able to do that. Especially in the case of anxiety and depression. If it is identified and solved in the initial stage- it won't render the person too dysfunctional. A mild level of depression or mild level of anxiety is easily treatable with psychotherapy or some kind of medication. But, if because of the social stigma surrounding these issues, one hesitates to meet the mental health professionals, the mild anxiety issue may become extreme. This is when the person becomes dysfunctional, starts having suicidal thoughts or loses the energy to do anything. And so, there is a great need to reduce these myths from the community. Answering the final part of your question regarding the treatment - basically, there are two models we usually follow. One is psychotherapy, where the counsellors interact with and help the person cope with the anxiety or try to alleviate the depressive state. Second is medication, wherein we basically prescribe medicines to try and reduce or cure the symptoms.
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** Collaborations in which psychologists, counsellors and psychiatry all work together give really good results. Currently, in IIT Roorkee, we are doing the same thing with the counsellors and consulting psychiatrists.
|
||||
|
||||
**So in IIT Roorkee, do we now have both psychologists and psychiatrists in the Wellness Center?**
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** Yes, the physiatrists are available in the IITR hospital and we counsellors are available in the Wellness Center. Sometimes the counsellors may accompany the student to the psychiatrist at the IITR hospital to make them comfortable.
|
||||
|
||||
**AA:** The point was to emphasise on the collaboration we do, that we collaboratively work along with psychiatrists. We are not working independently- and so when we consider doing an intervention, the psychologists discuss the case with the psychiatrists and vice versa. So we are on the same page, and have a proper module for our intervention.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** How frequently do the students and members of IIT R visit you? How open and frank are they during these visits (in terms of wanting to discuss their issues)?
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** *At present we have around 8 to 10 students visiting the Wellness Center daily. They come to not only discuss their mental health issues but also if they have any kind of academic, financial or scholarship related problems, wherein they do not know whom to approach.* We are now planning to establish some more activities in the Wellness Center so that students feel free to come and discuss any problems. These activities that will be organised will be done in hopes of removing the social stigma and spreading awareness.
|
||||
|
||||
Now regarding the second part of your question. The level of frankness and familiarity depends on the rapport achieved between us and the student. First of all, we try to establish some rapport with the student and that might take more than one session. Once that is done, the students are more at ease and are more open in discussing their concerns and their feelings. Usually, with psychological problems, childhood history (i.e the growth period during their school days) is also very important. So, gradually they open up about themselves, and how they feel about their family, friends etc. A lot of ‘trust’ barriers need to be passed before the student is able to communicate freely with the counsellor.
|
||||
|
||||
**AA:** So earlier, the concept of counselling focussed on just treating mental illnesses. People came to the counselling center with just their mental health concerns. However, now we are also looking at something called ‘positive psychology factors’, where we help the students answer questions like- “How can I be more attractive in my personality?”, “How can I be more self-confident while working?” or “How can I bolster my warm relationship with everyone?”.
|
||||
|
||||
Basically, apart from mental illnesses, we are also taking care of other areas like personality development. The first step was that we changed our counselling center name - now as you know, it's a wellness center. The message being that we take care of the entire well being of the student.
|
||||
|
||||
<br />
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Based on your experiences so far, how would you describe the mental health literacy of IITR when students come to visit you? Are they educated in terms of what they are feeling? Do they know that these illnesses are legitimate?
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** Well, usually students do a lot of research using the internet before coming to us. So, they are not entirely unaware of their symptoms.
|
||||
|
||||
The entire Wellness Center team is working hard to remove the stigma surrounding these issues, and spread literacy about mental health issues. The aim is that students should be able to recognise symptoms of anxiety, stress or depression early on, and should feel free enough to approach us immediately. Then we will be able to take care of their mental health smoothly during the early stages of the illness. And secondly, in my opinion, every student body in IITR should come forward and help us in our mission to stop this spread of social stigma regarding mental health. The members of the wellness team can't achieve this on their own. When all the bodies come together and collaborate, work is done more effectively. For example, Wellness Center has their own web page, Facebook page and we regularly upload mental health-related articles. I feel the team should consist of more students, to work better and effectively.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**AA:** I think we really need to appreciate the activities and work done by Team Wellness because it's a students’ volunteer body. They're working hard to spread mental literacy. *In the last two years alone, Team Wellness has conducted almost 30 programs in IIT Roorkee. It's almost like one program per month, and each was related to mental health. So I can say with some confidence that IIT Roorkee is quite literate about mental illness.*
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** I want to give one example - in 2018, the Dramatics section put up a street-play “Jimmedar Kaun” (Who’s responsible?). In that, they addressed suicide and related concerns.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**AA:** I would like to add that this time, Wellness Center conducted and organized the Orientation Program. This was really helpful, since we were able to introduce ourselves to the student community from the very first day, and were able to convey the message that we are there to help them, to facilitate their well being. I think you all must have also received emails regarding the lectures, bhawan visits and various competitions we organize from time to time. Therefore we're now taking an active stance to promote literacy about mental health.
|
||||
|
||||
<br/>
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** What are some policies that the institute has adopted regarding mental health issues? For example, what is the institute’s policy when it comes to prescribing medication for mental illnesses?
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** Mental Health Act 2017* has given us the proper guidelines, and normally we and the psychiatrists follow those. Sometimes we need to take help from the administration - e.g. suppose a person is having self-harm or suicidal tendencies, we may need to inform the parents. Before doing that, we - i.e. the counsellors and psychologists - together assess the situation. After informing the parents, the administration also accommodates the family on campus so that they can stay with their wards to provide emotional, psychological support and also take care of the treatment. I have seen sometimes that students stop taking their medicines or forget to take them. That is not good, this might worsen the student’s situation. We involve the administration when there is a threat to somebody’s life - only in severe cases like severe depression, drug abuse. In those particular cases, we need to inform the parents. That is because we prefer the parents to come to stay with their wards to take care of their emotional and mental health as well as supervise their treatment. So as far as confidentiality is concerned, we maintain confidentiality throughout the whole session, it is only breached in certain rare cases.
|
||||
|
||||
<br/>
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** To break the stigma surrounding the treatment of illnesses, could you tell us what life for students after being diagnosed with illnesses like anxiety and depression looks like in terms of how they carry on with their daily life, how often they need help etc.?
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** Following good lifestyle practices like having a proper balanced diet, doing regular physical exercises and most importantly sleeping for a good 6-8 hours is essential for improving and maintaining mental health. In IITR I have seen that students often don’t follow a proper diet and sometimes believe that just three or four hours of sleep is enough. But now more and more research is being conducted which says that six to eight hours of sleep is necessary for every adult, in order to work efficiently. Another important advice for those who are prescribed medications to combat anxiety or depression - they should not stop or change their medicines without any supervision or guidance.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**AA:** We use either psychotherapy and pharmacological management (i.e. medication) to treat the student. In psychotherapy, we have different modules like cognitive behavioural therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, behavioural therapy. These are very, very effective, in reducing or removing altogether the depression, anxiety and mood disorder symptoms. How some psychotherapy modules work is that they help people cope with their daily stress which lightens their mood and brings in positive emotions. So when they get this hope, this positive emotion actually reduces the chances of going back to the same illness. For example, suppose someone failed an exam. This might lead them to have a mixture of constant negative emotions like irritability, disappointment, sadness. But they need to understand that it's okay, they just need to strengthen their strategy to get a better score next time. If one thinks in a positive manner, of course, they will have the energy or positive emotion to make more such steps and eventually get more marks. The first step in the positive direction matters.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** Yeah, one more thing I need to add is that in anxiety and depression, one should change his own thought processes and perception. For example, if you have a friend who called you, but you don’t pick up right away as you’re busy. If your friend has anxiety, he/she might think that you didn’t pick up the phone on purpose, because you’re trying to avoid the person. This is quickly followed by a negative and harmful rationalisation in the person’s head. So the ones suffering from depression/anxiety ultimately need to change their perception, need to turn their thought processes from being negative to being positive. *A lot of daily situations can be viewed under a negative light or a positive light. It therefore depends upon the person, and therapy and medication strive to inculcate these positive thought processes in the person.*
|
||||
|
||||
<br/>
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Movies like Requiem For A Dream, and TV shows like Bojack Horseman have been successful in portraying mental illnesses/substance abuse problems and bringing mental health to the forefront of social discussions. What is your stance on such movies and shows?
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** These types of movies and shows are very good. They break the stigma surrounding such taboo topics and spread awareness regarding mental health. For example, movies like Padman have made it easier for people to talk about menstrual health issues. In fact, I feel showing such movies to the student community would do a great deal in breaking the stigma and spreading more awareness too. I firmly believe that if the whole student community comes up and takes even the smallest step to spread awareness it will have a massive positive effect. The concerned student groups can recommend such movies and get them screened. “A Beautiful Mind” is an example.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**AA:** These movies and series can be highly impactful. I would recommend “The Aviator” which depicts OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). These movies are highly influential because of the way they depict a person afflicted with an illness, and the struggle they go through before eventually getting better. Movies like “Requiem For a Dream” and “Udta Punjab” show the transition between stages of the lives of the subjects that occur due to substance abuse. Series like “Breaking Bad” and “Bojack Horseman” also depict some very harmful drugs. But movies can be double-edged swords.
|
||||
|
||||
<br/>
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** Meme culture and meme pages are ubiquitous and rampant. All of us have been exposed to the same at various points in our life. In light of recent events (like the expose of a private, misogynistic and offensive social media group ‘Boys Locker Room’), how do you think the psyche of students across the country have been affected (men and women)?
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** In the case of “Boys locker room”, we need to create more awareness among the parents and students at the school level. Also, accountability on digital platforms must be increased.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**AA:** This problem is typical in the millennials. Adolescents are in the midst of an identity crisis. They are unable to conceive their place in society. So, they prefer being on social media in order to conceal themselves, and are content with projecting a different identity. It is similar to how children experiment with smoking in order to appear similar to adults. The ability to put out content anonymously is proving to be quite dangerous.
|
||||
|
||||
<br/>
|
||||
|
||||
**WO:** The Mental Health Wellness Centres at universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have a rigorous and well maintained online presence in terms of the documentation of these illnesses, their treatments, the university policies, session booking mechanisms etc. Are there any plans for doing something similar in IITR?
|
||||
|
||||
**SJ:** Currently, an online Google Form can be used to book a session and we are providing online counselling also. During this pandemic, we are providing the online sessions in the form of video, audio or chat; with confidentiality maintained throughout the session.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
We maintain records as well, but only to be used during sessions as a reference, in case of a change of counsellors. We are available 24X7 (YourDost for normal cases and counsellors for emergencies)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
We do have a web page and we are currently working on this domain. Our web designers are collaborating with us and completing all the relevant details there. Soon, the information regarding psychiatrists, counsellors and speech therapists will be uploaded there.
|
||||
|
||||
[Link](https://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/Mental%20Health/Mental%20Healthcare%20Act,%202017.pdf)
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,82 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: " Summer Diaries: Google STEP"
|
||||
image: "ishita-kaul-1.png"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Ishita Kaul"
|
||||
category: summer2020
|
||||
excerpt: ''
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Like most of the second year students, I was clueless about what I wanted to do in the summers after my second year of college. I talked to a couple of seniors and close friends. They all advised to either go for a research or a corporate intern. Both seemed rather good options. But for a research intern you need to know which specific field you are interested in. But all I knew was that I like computer science. I had explored a number of fields like Computer Vision, Software Development, OS, Competitive programming, etc (I have been doing a lot of exploration since my first year!). And I found all fields rather interesting. So, I finally realised that a company intern would be the most appropriate choice for me.
|
||||
|
||||
Then I again talked to a few seniors (I keep bothering them!) and finally got to know about the Google STEP programme. For me Google was one of the dream companies I wanted to be a part of. So, I sincerely started preparing for it. And after 3 rounds of interviews and a few weeks of waiting I finally got a call saying I have received the offer. I was extremely delighted. I could see months of efforts finally paying off.
|
||||
It was amazing being a part of Google family via STEP Internship programme. This experience has been very enriching and will go a long way in shaping my future.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
# What is the STEP Programme?
|
||||
|
||||
Google Student Training in Engineering Program, or commonly known as STEP Internship is a programme for 1st and 2nd year undergraduate women who are passionate about technology and computer science.
|
||||
|
||||
# Selection Procedure
|
||||
|
||||
The process of application started in the first week of December. In the first round the students were shortlisted based on their resume and transcript.
|
||||
I was amongst the few selected candidates. We were told about the programme details in an informative session after being shortlisted. We were also given tips on how to prepare for the upcoming interviews in the session.
|
||||
|
||||
Second round was the technical Interview round. I had 3 interviews (number of interviews vary from person to person) each of 45 minutes. Interviews were conducted on Google hangouts and we had to write our code for the problems on Google docs. There are usually 1-2 programming questions per interview (This may vary based on the interviewer). I was asked 1 programming question in each interview. If you are asked less questions compared to your peers it doesn't necessarily mean that you don't stand a chance!
|
||||
|
||||
After these interviews your candidature is sent to the hiring committee for review and then within a few weeks you get a call / mail regarding your candidature.
|
||||
|
||||
# Preparation Tips
|
||||
|
||||
So, this is the most important part & most probably why you are reading it!
|
||||
So, let me walk through my journey of preparation.
|
||||
I love to solve riddles and math problems. So, when I started my first semester, I was introduced to competitive programming by my peers. This field absolutely took me by surprise. It was everything I was looking for. Challenging problems and coding contests! So, I became an active participant on a number of coding platforms like codechef, codeforces, atcoder, etc.
|
||||
Apart from that I also kept exploring other areas like computer vision, OS, basics of software development and so much more. Computer Science never stops to amaze me with it's diversity and practical applications being put to use. I did a couple of self-projects, and a few projects under professors at IIT Roorkee.
|
||||
Also, at IIT Roorkee we have this amazing culture of campus groups. In my opinion, working under various campus groups can also be a great way to enhance your skills in different fields. But on the other hand, not being part of groups cannot stop you from achieving what you want. Just be curious and explore! (that is what is college meant for right?)
|
||||
Coming on to the interviews, I gave a couple of mock interviews with my friends to get better at it. Listening to the problem carefully and being vocal about your thoughts and ideas even when they aren't the most optimised solution to the problem is extremely important.
|
||||
For increasing your problem-solving skills, doing competitive programming on a regular basis can be very helpful.
|
||||
But the most important of all is ENJOY THE JOURNEY.
|
||||
|
||||
# Challenges due to COVID-19
|
||||
|
||||
My first and foremost worry was if the internship would get cancelled or not. I was really worried about it. But soon we came to know that Google had shifted the internship to the virtual mode. This was a big relief for me. Though I was a bit disappointed that I would not be able to visit the Google office, being a part of Google even during these trying times was an awesome feeling.
|
||||
|
||||
To my surprise I received a laptop and a big screen monitor a day after my internship started. I could never have imagined that I would be getting all this amidst the pandemic. Now, I actually started feeling like I am working in an office at home!(I created a small work-desk for myself at home).
|
||||
|
||||
Another change was that most of the projects were open-source and not google's internal project. But the projects were quite varied and exposed us to a variety of new concepts.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
|
||||
|
||||
We even got goodies delivered to us at our home like t-shirts, caps and a lot more.
|
||||
One of the things that worried me was if I'll be able to interact with other interns and Googlers because of the virtual mode of the internship. But that was also very well-planned by the company. We had regular meet-ups with other interns and had many fun talks and activities that kept us engaged throughout the internship.
|
||||
Many online tech-sessions, with Google leaders, were also organised about various fields in computer science and its impact in the near future.
|
||||
We even played a lot of online games! It was amazing and far beyond what I had expected from a virtual internship.
|
||||
|
||||
# My project
|
||||
|
||||
I was part of the GPay team at Google. I worked with 2 other amazing STEP Interns.
|
||||
|
||||
My project was aimed at developing an application which would reduce the waiting time spent in physical queues outside a shop. The project was targeted for a pandemic-like situations.
|
||||
|
||||
Every project group was allotted a mentor and a co-mentor. These are the people who guide you throughout your internship. They monitor your progress and also give you frequent feedback about what needs to be improved. They are the people you would most often interact with during your internship.
|
||||
|
||||
Both my mentors were super-awesome and all of us had a lot of fun together!
|
||||
|
||||
# Work Culture
|
||||
|
||||
Work culture is very amazing at Google. I never felt like an Intern. I always felt like I was an employee. My opinions were heard and valued. There were very constructive discussions regarding what is best for the project. Each person in our team brought different insights to the table. This really increased the depth of my thinking.
|
||||
The work hours were very flexible and we got weekends off too.
|
||||
Respecting each other's opinion and valuing great ideas are the core values of Google's culture.
|
||||
|
||||
# My Key Takeaways
|
||||
|
||||
In the beginning the entire project seemed daunting. But you learn along the way and get better at it. Just having the confidence that "you will figure it out" goes a long way.
|
||||
|
||||
I realised that I should never shy away from asking doubts and questions. Everybody was more than willing to help when I was stuck.
|
||||
|
||||
Working in a team gives exponentially greater results than working alone. This is something I learnt while working there. People with so many varied ideas and views lead to an amazing product that can be used by millions of users.
|
||||
|
||||
Making mistakes is nothing to be ashamed of. It's part of learning and growing. I made many mistakes, but I always made sure never to repeat them.
|
||||
|
||||
The entire internship experience was very astounding and satisfying. I was already overwhelmed by the experience when, a few weeks later, I received a call informing me that I have received a PIO (Pre-Internship offer) from Google. This was an icing on the cake. :))
|
||||
@ -1,59 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Filter coffee: Sidharth Thomas"
|
||||
image: sidharth.png
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
excerpt: "Sidharth is a recent graduate from the department of ECE (Batch of ‘20) and has worked extensively in electronics research. After two foreign internships and a smashing BTP, he will now begin a PhD at UCLA, working with THz circuits."
|
||||
category: filtercoffee
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Sidharth is a recent graduate from the department of ECE (Batch of ‘20) and has worked extensively in electronics research. After two foreign internships and a smashing BTP, he will now begin a PhD at UCLA, working with THz circuits. Here is an excerpt from our conversation with Sidharth.*
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!** - What is the craziest thing you have done on campus?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sidharth** - I have several crazy but fond memories from IITR. During one particular birthday celebration, we painted an old Thomso banner with some questionable graphics and made a friend wear it.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!** - What do you do in your free time?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sidharth** - I usually don’t get much free time, but when I do, I spend my time reading or watching some random sitcom. I have also started practising the piano recently.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!** - You changed your branch from Chemical to ECE in your first year. What were your reasons behind this and was it on your mind since the outset of the 1st semester?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sidharth** - Like any other first-year student, a branch change was on my mind the moment I started at IITR. I did not have any interest in chemical engineering, and strangely, my original plan was to shift to Mechanical. However, towards the end of the first semester, I followed the questionable CSE>ECE>EE trend, with no particular expectations. Eventually, I landed in ECE, and I believe things have worked out pretty well since then.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!** - For a multitude of reasons, research is not popular among the UG junta, so much so that most people would not even know about their own classmates doing exceptionally well in research. What do you feel are the problems that result from this? What would you suggest as a means to improve this?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sidharth** - Yes, I feel IITR has a poor research culture among undergrads compared to other top IITs. There are multiple reasons behind this, but mainly, I think this is because of our hugely popular coding culture, and students wrongly associating a high GPA as a prerequisite for research.
|
||||
This creates a herd mentality where students rarely explore their departments. Professors also develop trust issues with undergrads and become reluctant to provide them with good projects. Moreover, IITR has very few collaborations with reputed universities. Some institute policies make things difficult for students doing foreign internships or semester exchanges.
|
||||
I feel first-year students should be provided more opportunities to be involved in research, such as a paid on-campus summer internship. Course projects and assignments need to be more open-ended and design-centric. There should be a greater amount of academic flexibility and more international collaborations and tie-ups. At the ECE department, we discussed making the BTP optional so that students interested in research get more attention and resources. That being said, things have been steadily improving in the last two years.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!** - You did two research interns abroad, in Israel and Canada. How was your experience? What do you think are the differences between research abroad and in India in electronics?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sidharth** - I had an amazing experience at both places. These internships helped me understand how it is to pursue research as a career and was instrumental in me deciding to join grad school. I met some great researchers and had intriguing discussions with them. Besides this, I feel living independently in a foreign country has helped me gain a broader perspective.
|
||||
I feel there are equally talented people in India and abroad. But there is a vast difference in funding. Funding is critical in cutting edge research. I also noticed a high level of collaboration and interdisciplinary research. For instance, the group that I worked with in Canada had partnerships with a hospital. Most of the research groups had close associations with the industry. This ensures that the projects they work on are relevant. Besides this, people were very professional and treated me as their peer and not as a student.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!** - How did you decide that you wanted to do a PhD? Having worked with different types of circuits, how did you narrow down your area of interest?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sidharth** - I think the two internships helped me get a good taste of research. It is, at times, frustrating, requiring long hours of reading and a ton of patience. But the result is worth it. A job in the industry would mean that you work on a part of a random project, but in a PhD, you usually get to decide and design your own project. It is ‘your’ brainchild, and you become the absolute ‘expert’ in your domain. This holds a certain beauty. I am also open to pursuing a career in academia. So, I feel a PhD is the right logical choice for me.
|
||||
As an undergrad, it’s quite tough to find an area that interests you. The only way is to keep an open mind and explore. I tried my hand at ML, computer architecture, and device physics, before switching to circuits. And then, I studied circuits, working on different applications. I was always interested in 5G/6G communication technology and how circuits behave at such high frequencies. This eventually led me to the domain in which I am pursuing my PhD.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out**! - You are among the few on campus to work on RFIC and THz circuits. What advice would you give to others who would like to do research in areas where local guidance is scarce?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sidharth** - This is a good question and is especially important, considering the current pandemic situation. In the absence of local guidance, you probably will not be able to work on a project directly in your area of interest, but you can work on similar or complementary areas. There are several directions to approach a problem. If one particular direction requires guidance, which is scarce, you can try a different one. All this adds to the experience. You can also try pitching your idea to a professor. He/she might be interested in exploring this area with you, and in fact, this is how I started my research at IITR. Also, look for internships. I would recommend reading as much as you can. Try reading papers, PhD theses, and books, anything you can get your hands on. Participate in online discussion forums. Look for pioneers in the area, what they are doing now, their peers, etc.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!** - Considering that you moved to Roorkee from Kerala, what were the main challenges, if any, while adapting to the culture on campus, including language and communication barriers. Do you think that some groups struggle more in adapting to college life, even though there’s a pan India populace on campus?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sidharth** - I struggled a bit during my first year due to some communication barriers. I left two campus groups during my first year since I could not follow their conversations. There were also labs where I got fewer grades since I could not communicate answers in Hindi. I did adapt eventually, but to answer your question, yes, there are groups that struggle in adapting to IITR due to language-related issues.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!** - If you had the time and resources, what campus group would you start and why?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sidharth** - This is not something that I would be interested in. However, I wish people at IITR would stop joining groups merely out of peer pressure or for a POR, and instead, follow their interest.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!** - As a member of the IEEE Student Branch SIG, what is the best thing about the group? What do you think is the future of the group?
|
||||
|
||||
**Sidharth** - The purpose of the IEEE Special Interest Group is to bring together a group of students who are interested in electronics. We have tried to create a culture where there is no ‘secretary’, ‘associate member’, or even a ‘sir’. Anybody can drop-in, interrupt, or leave a discussion. I like this informal nature of the group. Last year, we helped organize a project demo for the first year ‘Intro to ECE course’. It was a fun experience, and our juniors had some amazing projects on display.
|
||||
|
||||
**Watch Out!** - Customary question: What do you think of Watch Out!
|
||||
|
||||
**Sidharth** - I think you guys are doing a solid job. I remember reading Watch Out ‘Summer Diaries’ back in 2016.
|
||||
That being said, this interview has been fun and unexpected. Thank you!
|
||||
@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
category: filtercoffee
|
||||
---
|
||||
Some files were not shown because too many files have changed in this diff Show More
Reference in New Issue
Block a user