add post

_data/categories.yaml

@@ -55,3 +55,5 @@
       title: Summer 2018
     - name: summer2019
       title: Summer 2019
+    - name: summer2020
+      title: Summer 2020

_data/categories_name.yaml

@@ -20,4 +20,5 @@ summer2016: Summer 2016
 summer2017: Summer 2017
 summer2018: Summer 2018
 summer2019: Summer 2019
+summer2020: Summer 2020
 memoirs: Memoirs

_posts/2020-09-10-summer-diaries-ishita-kaul.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 layout: post
 title: " Summer Diaries: Google STEP"
 image: "ishita-kaul-1.png"
-tags: [wona, column]
+tags: [wona]
 author: "Ishita Kaul"
 category: summer2020
 excerpt: ''

_posts/2020-09-13-filter-coffee-siddharth-thomas.md

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+---
+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! 

_posts/2020-09-16-summer-diaries-ajitesh-shukla.md

@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: " Summer Diaries: NTU Singapore"
+image: "ajitesh-shukla-1.jpg"
+tags: [wona]
+author: "Ajitesh Shukla"
+category: summer2020
+excerpt: ''
+---
+
+I recently did my 9-week summer internship remotely at NTU Singapore. In this article, I will be summarising how I got there and my experience during the internship. 
+
+# Before applying
+
+My interest in the research field developed during my 2nd-year internship at SPARK, IITR. I worked in the domain of Computational Mechanics for the analysis of inflatable membranes used in space structures. I had a good experience and wanted to explore more in the research field. I had in mind from the start of the internship season that I wanted to do a research internship, and I had a decent research experience to back that up. I also applied for some core R&D profile companies, but had no luck there.
+
+# Making It There
+
+![pic1](/images/posts/ajitesh-shukla-2.jpg){: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
+
+I applied for the specific internship programs DAAD, Mitacs, and NTU-India Connect. I also mailed professors working in the domain of my interest in some of the top universities in Europe. I got selected for the NTU-India Connect program and also for Summer Fellowship at EPFL, Switzerland. I’ll give a brief about how I got selected in both the universities.
+
+I started mailing from the start of October and sent personalised emails to about 30-40 professors. I glanced at their recent work and mentioned how it relates to my interests in the mails. I got a few replies pertaining to lack of funding, no openings, etc., but it was good that they were giving time to read my application, and I kept going. A professor from EPFL showed interest and scheduled an interview with me in January. It went great, and he was willing to take me for a summer internship. He couldn’t provide me with funding, so he asked me to apply to one of their internship programs, the EPFL Excellence in Engineering (E3) fellowship, for funding. In the application, I had to submit a Statement of Purpose (SOP), (which I had already prepared before I started mailing), my resume, transcripts, and the choice of Labs where I wished to work. I got through the preliminary screening, after which the professor selected me. I came to know afterwards that many good universities had similar internship programs for international students. Knowing them beforehand could be of great help to the students, so I would advise you to do your research and always look for new opportunities.
+
+In NTU-Connect, we had a similar procedure. Here, we had to first get recommendations from the institute before applying. The application requires three project choices (out of about 25 in Mechanical Engineering), a list of our achievements/projects, two Letters of Recommendation, transcripts, and any additional documents we wish to add. Here, I attached my 2nd-year internship project report, and I suggest other applicants to prepare a project report of your previous work to increase your chances. I was directly selected for the program, though one might expect an interview screening as some of my friends were asked for the same. 
+
+The key for selection that I found in NTU as well as in other programs such as Mitacs, apart from the usual suspects such as academics and research experience, was project selection. You have to select a project that most fits your interests and previous works. If you don’t have any prior experience, you have to present yourself to be extremely enthusiastic about the field of work you chose in your SOP.
+
+# Challenges due to COVID
+
+Among the two programs, I was willing to do the Swiss internship mostly due to the chance to visit Europe, as the projects were almost on the same line. But COVID happened, and the Swiss internship got cancelled while the NTU Programme got postponed indefinitely. I couldn’t do anything about the Swiss internship, but as we were supported by the institute in the NTU-India Connect program, I asked the International Relations Office to help me get it done remotely, and they did so. I am incredibly grateful for them as well as my project supervisor’s support for making it happen in these tough times.
+
+Though my project was both experimental and analytical, we had to drop the experimental portion, and I worked only on the Simulation part.
+
+# Work
+
+My project was in the broad domain of Computational Mechanics and Finite Element Method in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NTU Singapore. The aim was to prepare a robust model for the static and dynamic compression analysis of materials with random geometrical imperfections. In the previous studies, the simulation results were highly inconsistent with the actual experiments due to various defects present in the setup and specimen. My work aimed at modelling those imperfections that could happen in real experiments and bridging the gap between numerical models and actual tests.
+
+Initially, my supervisor didn’t have many expectations from me as we were not in direct contact, and he thought much productive work couldn’t be done in the current situation. But the project progressed well with continuous support and guidance from him. Since I was working from home, the time of work was relaxed. We had regular meetings, and he was very friendly and supportive. I completed the project under the time constraints, and I am still in contact with my supervisor as we are currently working towards a publication of that work.
+
+# Summing Up
+
+Overall, I had a good experience. Though there were setbacks due to COVID and I couldn’t get the chance to travel abroad, the work was unaffected due to it. I was able to work productively as per my comfort and learned a lot that will help me in my career.
+
+For students who wish to apply for research internships, here are some tips:
+- Apart from applying to the specific programs, also mail professors in your domain of interest for summer internship. The selection in programs is dependent on a lot of factors, not in our control, but contacting professors will sooner or later work.
+- Many universities have internship programs for international students that most people are unaware of. Look out for these opportunities and apply to them as well, as they have a better selection rate than DAAD, Mitacs, NTU-Connect, or Charpak.
+- Prepare your Statement of Purpose, Resume, and Cover Letter before starting to apply and give dedicated time to this task. They play a significant role in any application, whether you are applying for an internship or higher studies. 
+

_posts/2020-09-20-summer-diaries-hardik-taneja.md

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: " Summer Diaries: Reliance Industries"
+image: "hardik-taneja.jpg"
+tags: [wona]
+author: "Hardik Taneja"
+category: summer2020
+excerpt: ''
+---
+
+Hi! I am Hardik Taneja, a final year student at the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, IIT Roorkee. This summer I had an opportunity to intern at Reliance Industries as a GET (Graduate Engineering Trainee). This summer has turned out to be really productive in terms of learning and experience as I had the opportunity to connect with industry leaders.
+
+# The Application Phase
+
+Reliance industries comes to hire interns in the second phase of On-campus internships.
+For the current session, the company came for internships on campus on 17th January, 2020. There was no CG cutoff for applying which is indeed a good news for many applicants.
+
+The first round of the selection process consisted of an aptitude test which also included sections of core mechanical engineering. The later rounds were interview rounds, the first being technical and the next being HR. 
+
+Coming onto the preparation part, one needs to practice questions based on quantitative and verbal aptitude for the written test. There is no particular syllabus for the mechanical section and one could just brush up on the basics of thermodynamics and engineering drawing. For the interview round, what helped me were projects that I undertook at my department and a core internship that I did in my second year. Also, be very clear of your areas of interest and be well prepared. Stay confident and be patient while answering the questions. The basic skill-set that Reliance demands is your ability to work in a team and time management. My interview lasted for about 20 minutes. I was asked questions on my areas of interest, why I wanted to join Reliance and regarding my future goals.
+
+
+# The Work
+
+Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Reliance owns businesses across India engaged in energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail, and telecommunications. 
+
+My domain of work was related to core metallurgy. The project assigned to me was "Study of different metallurgy and its applicability in the refinery". I was expected to study corrosion and various other damage mechanisms involved in the Crude Distillation Unit in the Jamnagar refinery. Due to the COVID crisis, it was a virtual internship. Generally the duration for the project is two months but it was reduced to a month for us i.e from 1st July to 31st July.
+
+The working culture at Reliance was very good and we had full support and assistance from our mentors at all times. The work was demanding as we were expected to work 7-8 hours per day. We had to study reports and research papers, make presentations and discuss our advancements with industry leaders.
+
+My journey at Reliance was full of learning experiences which will be handy in the future. It was a great experience to understand the working of a refinery and the challenges that come with it. For people who are gunning for this internship, my suggestion would be to do at least one project in core metallurgy so as to have something to speak about in the interview.
+
+# Word of Advice
+
+Prepare well beforehand for the test and remember, practice is key. The rest would be to be confident during the interview and prepare a nice introduction for the interview. Don't hesitate to ask if you are unsure of something or some specific term during the interview. Revise your resume thoroughly and give a firm handshake while entering the room.
+

_posts/2020-09-24-summer-diaries-chinmaya-chawla.md

@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: " Summer Diaries: PwC"
+image: "chinmaya-chawla-1.png"
+tags: [wona]
+author: "Chinmaya Chawla"
+category: summer2020
+excerpt: ''
+---
+
+
+# Brief Introduction
+
+While everyone was coding and developing their way towards the upcoming internship season, I, on the other hand, was intrigued by the field of management consultancy. Being a part of ShARE IIT R, I had a good idea of how the industry looks, which drove me to try for real-life corporate work experience at the end of my second year. Time and again, I had second thoughts about whether I should just code and secure an internship on campus or really try something that interests me. I didn’t find many seniors who insisted on the latter, so I thought of trying a consulting internship in my second year, and if I don’t feel like doing it anymore, I’ll code and sit for on-campus placements and internships.
+
+Building upon this, I started applying through connections (personal and Linkedin) and tried every other means to get in touch with consultants at the firms I wanted to work with. My target firms were not limited to any category, but Tier 1/ Tier 2 consulting firms don’t usually hire UG sophomores, let alone students from non-target schools, So I started applying for them as well as other boutique firms and Big 4 consult firms. Through a connection, I bagged an interview at PwC India for the management consultancy profile and cracked it. Just to give a background, PwC is one of the four largest professional services firms across the world, collectively known as “The BIG 4“. The experience was a real learning experience majorly in terms of corporate work culture.
+
+# Selection Process 
+
+PwC, like almost every other consulting firm, doesn’t have a structured procedure for hiring for internships as well as jobs. The selection process is generally getting an interview, and based on how that pans out; they have their further rounds with no limit to scope and number of interview rounds. 
+
+In my case, it all started with receiving a mail asking for a time slot to schedule my interview for the internship. I had applied to PwC (Gurgaon Office) through a personal connection two weeks before that, who had forwarded my resume to the HR department. So I had my first round of interviews over a video call. Most parts of the interview were based on my resume and why I wanted to pursue management consultancy. Having mentioned the secondary research analysis I did as part of ShARE, the interviewer asked me to make a 5-page slide on the topic “How would Consulting look like in 2030“ for the next round of interviews. So I had two days to prepare the deck that I submitted and waited for a couple of weeks. After that, I received an email stating I was selected for the next round. The next round kicked off with a couple of guesstimates, which I did well at. After that, the interviewer questioned me on one of my previous projects, and we had an in-depth discussion on it, which felt like we were solving a real-life case problem. I received an offer letter one week later. :)
+
+# Preparation Tips
+
+I think for applying to consultancy firms, you don’t require many tangible skills. Every consulting firm believes its real value is in its people. Since almost no tangible skills are required, obviously, your **resume** becomes an important factor in getting an interview. So keeping in mind no consultancy firm comes to Roorkee, resume screening is very crucial for off campus applications. So how they analyze your resume is through an **ACTL framework**.  
+
+A - Analytics (experiences showing your analytical/problem-solving skills) 
+C - Communication (how good can you communicate in written through resume and verbally later in interviews)
+T - Teamwork (experience in showing your ability to work and coordinate in a team) 
+L- Leadership (experience where you led a team or were at a PoR. E.g. Led the consulting club at campus)
+
+I think I should not go deep in the resume analysis. However, anybody who wants to know more can get in touch with me.
+
+Now for the interview part, they test you on how smart you are, how well you can structure problems, and recommend solutions. Besides the resume-based questions, there are majorly two ways consulting firms do this with slight variations on where you are applying. 
+
+1. **Guesstimates:** Guesstimates are problems where you make smart guesses to estimate numbers related to real-life scenarios. For example, “Calculate the capacity of a second airport at New Delhi” is a guesstimate. What guesstimation requires is building a structure and plugging in assumed (obviously, sane) values. Generally, interviewers are not interested in the final answer, but the approach and assumptions you took. 
+2. **Cases:** Cases are simulations of real-life business problems where you solve a real-life problem using smart thinking. A case problem statement example is “Company XYZ is facing a decline in profits, find the possible reasons and make recommendations.“ Again, what matters is how well your approach to the problem is and how well you use the consulting concept of MECE (Mutually Exclusive Completely Exhaustive).
+
+
+As resources, there are very good books like Case Interviews Cracked, Youtube videos from Victor Cheng. Apart from these, you can start applying structure to your thoughts in real life. For instance, try calculating (without measuring :P) what is the length of a road in the IIT Roorkee campus next time you are roaming around campus.
+
+Overall, you need to sell yourself to the company. Not only do you need to be good at cases, guesstimates, etc. but you also need to be smart and sound smart during the entire course of the interview. 
+
+# My Project and Challenges due to CoVID
+
+Since PwC doesn’t have a structured internship program for lateral hires, it was quite likely that my offer would be revoked. But with laptop delivery not possible due to the RedZone restrictions, they introduced a global software allowing the new hires to work from their personal laptop till delivery was possible. It was amazing to see how invested the firm was in its employees. 
+
+Post the virtual induction of 2 days; I was assigned a people’s manager and a buddy mentor. The buddy was my go-to person in every problem I faced. People’s manager was at a more senior position; however, he too was always all ears to whatever obstacles I was facing. 
+
+I was assigned to a project which was a part of a number of projects with the client, a multilateral development bank, and we were advising them on improving the maritime trade between 7 Southeast-Asian countries under the SASEC (South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation) umbrella. My project focused on improving port logistics across 20 ports in these seven countries. Overall, my internship had **3 phases of work**. 
+
+In the first phase of work, I worked with the team to conduct secondary research, profiled ports, identified pain points, and compared them with international benchmarks.
+
+The second phase was relatively short, consisting of forming the hypothesis theory. This was the most interesting part where the teams brainstormed about what could be the possible reasons for the identified bottlenecks and recommended possible solutions.
+
+The third part consisted of validating the secondary research and our hypothesis through primary interviews with different stakeholders. This part was the most challenging as getting insights from very short calls is quite difficult.
+
+# Work Culture
+
+![pic](/images/posts/chinmaya-chawla-2.png){: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
+
+As for the work culture, the people at PwC were very helpful at every step right from onboarding till the LWD. Although the life of a consultant is very hectic, the team still took out time to get on video calls having chats over coffee. I was treated like any other employee in the team. Sometimes, my insights and work went right into the client-ready deck, which felt very nice. Moreover, my team recommended to my people manager for an extension of my internship by one month.
+
+# Way Ahead and Key Learnings
+
+As I mentioned earlier, this internship consolidated my interest in management consulting. This experience not only helped me see corporate life but also insights into how the life of a consultant looks like. In a nutshell, the experience was very enriching for me. 
+I am pleased to share with you all that I have a Pre-Internship Offer (PIO) from PwC India. Thanks for reading. Feel free to contact me in case of any questions or comments.

category/summer2020/index.html

@@ -1 +1,3 @@
---- category: summer2019 ---
+---
+category: summer2020
+---