add post summer diaries in harvard and iiith

add table in new lhc post

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 PLATFORMS
   ruby

_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/2018-06-06-architecture-at-iit-roorkee.md

@@ -118,7 +118,6 @@ If pure, unadulterated architecture is what you are interested in, IITR is perha
 <br>
 In case you have any doubts regarding the course that you wish to get clarified, feel free to call any of the people listed below:
  
-**Komal Maheshwari (2nd year)**: +91 9330949212<br>
 **Divyang Purrkayastha (3rd year)**: +91 9560588732<br>
 **Ramachandra Reddy (4th year)**: +91 9557902784<br>
 **Lanka Adarsh (4th year)**: +91 9410577752<br>

_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.

_posts/2020-09-29-summer-diaries-deep-behal.md

@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: " Summer Diaries: Bombay Shirt Company"
+image: "deep-behal.jpg"
+tags: [wona]
+author: "Deep Behal"
+category: summer2020
+excerpt: ''
+---
+
+This summer, I worked at Bombay Shirt Company as an intern in their product team. Launched in 2012, Bombay Shirt Company is the first online custom shirt brand in India. Since their inception, they have operated primarily offline with 12 stores in India, one in New York, and one in Dubai. But recently they decided to ramp up their online presence, automate their supply chain, and use technology to transform the offline experience in their stores completely.
+
+# Getting there
+
+I want to preface this by talking a little about Product Management as a career option straight out of college. One has to  understand that Product Management is currently a niche in the Indian startup ecosystem. There are three primary reasons for this (nonexhaustive obviously)
+
+1. 	Only recently this title has been adopted industry-wide until a few years back there didn’t exist a designated Product team in many firms. Traditionally the work of a PM was handled by different teams and wasn’t very organized. Due to this the individuals who became the early Indian product managers were ones who had worked in domains like tech, business, design, marketing, etc
+
+2. 	Given that having a Product team requires the evolution of a firm’s structure and working and firms don’t necessarily evolve in the same way or with the same pace, the role of a Product Manager highly varies from firm to firm
+
+3. 	In countries like the US, firms recognized the advantage of hiring fresh graduates in Associate Product Manager programs some years back, and as a result, firms like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Tesla have very coveted APM programs. Only very recently have Indian startups started to adopt such programs
+
+Thus it’s essential to recognize that opportunities for Product Management are very limited straight out of college and as a result, however “cool” Product Management sounds, students considering this as a career option should be extremely careful and mentally prepared for having many panic attacks at the thought of having a very bleak future (or maybe that’s just me lol)
+
+It’s my firm belief that the primary purpose of an internship is to find out what you ‘don’t’ want to do in life. So, after having a great experience at my second-year internship with the product team of Zee5, I was fairly sure that Product management was something I wanted to do in the near future
+
+(note: you have to keep in mind that the things you’ll want in life are always going to be malleable and will change based on your immediate circumstances, so it’s always better to plan for the ‘near future’ so that you can deal with unexpected changes in life)
+
+# Getting there (really this time)
+
+Landing internships in product management is not a straightforward job and there is no sure shot way to get an internship. But the way that seems to be efficient for most people is using LinkedIn. I started preparing a list of firms in mid-January while keeping many parameters in mind. Some of these were:
+1. **The sector of the firm.** I was particularly fascinated by B2C (Business to Customer) firms that were primarily driven to provide services to average customers. This includes E-commerce firms like Amazon, Fintech firms like Paytm, Concierge service firms like Urban Company, etc
+
+2. **The products** they have,especially important as being excited about a product is essential in being able to give your best and learn the most
+
+3. **The Product team.** Making meaningful connections is extremely important not just for future networking but for being able to seek mentorship. Hence, it’s important to try to gauge at who can act as great mentors in Product teams of firms that you are applying in
+
+4. History of hiring interns or freshers for full-time jobs, to be able to calibrate your expectations
+
+After having finalized my list, I started connecting with people at the highest product positions in both the HR and Product teams of these firms. After this, it was all about striking conversations and perseverance. By the first week of March, I had interviews set up with many excellent start-ups, and things were looking really nice for a change.
+
+But that’s when the Covid-19 situation in India was starting to become a crisis. Suddenly I was back home and all my interviews were canceled. I’m going to be completely honest, I didn’t try to do anything else in hopes for things getting better for at least a month (was just living in denial)
+
+But once things got fairly certain that remote internships are the best things we can hope for I started seeking out firms to see if they were hiring. Unsurprisingly most had frozen hiring for at least a quarter. Luckily when I spoke to my manager during my Zee5 internship, he told me all about how he had quit Zee5 and was now the Chief Product Officer at BSC. After a lengthy discussion, he offered a remote internship at BSC with their product team (Remember when I spoke about the importance of making meaningful connections?)
+
+# Work at BSC
+
+The business side of BSC was pretty dead. Due to the lockdown restrictions in Maharashtra, their entire supply chain was forced to come at a halt. Seeing these conditions, the folks at BSC decided to ramp up the entirety of their development. This involved redoing their entire website, finetuning their measurement algorithms, digitizing manual aspects of their payment’s infrastructure and expanding their online infrastructure to account for migrating from just selling shirts to different custom apparel and accessories.
+
+I worked on two projects in my three months of working with them.
+
+1. 	I drove the entire revamp of the ‘Store Stylist Journey’ on the ERP system. For some context, each BSC store has a few stylists who would assist individuals who would come to their stores to customize shirts to suit their needs. Stylists used iPads to show customers various customization options. But this journey was extremely disjointed and very different from the website journey. My responsibility was to do a complete overhaul of this journey to make it more seamless by replacing physical measurement by their proprietary measurement algorithm, integrating payments, and changing the UI/UX of this process to closely resemble that of the website to increase customer confidence, allowing for better online migration. I was solely responsible for conceptualizing the user flow and wireframes after conducting stakeholder interviews, and I led a team of UI/UX designers and developers to build solutions
+
+2. 	I also led the integration of a new mPOS payment provider for the 12 offline stores across India and the integration of a new Payment Gateway. They gave better opportunities for seamless integration, better reporting, and automating the refund process, saving 30+ manhours per refund
+Remote work was quite challenging and not as enriching as I’d hoped, as the most critical aspect of product management is being able to communicate with various stakeholders not only within but also outside the firm. But what did make the experience better was the fact that the team at BSC was accommodating and approachable
+
+# Key pieces of gyaan
+
+1. 	Networking and making connections is a skill that comes super in handy
+
+2. 	Nothing is more valuable than the ability to grind and persevere
+
+3. 	As cliched as it sounds your career should be at an intersection between what makes you happy and what makes you money. So use your internships wisely. Try to find that intersection, I guess? But know that it’s fine if you aren’t able to find it very soon. All this social media crap about “summer sorted” and “machau” may give you the perception that others have successfully found their intersection but trust me everyone is just winging it. Take your time

_posts/2020-10-07-summer-diaries-texas-instruments.md

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: " Summer Diaries: Texas Instruments"
+image: "mayank-mehta-3.jpg"
+tags: [wona]
+author: "Mayank Mehta"
+category: summer2020
+excerpt: ''
+---
+
+I am pursuing my bachelors in Electronics and Communication Engineering. I developed a keen interest in the courses being taught in the department. Also, there was a laboratory course where we were introduced to the tool (Cadence Virtuoso) that gives practical insight into the working of semiconductor devices and circuits. During that time, I already knew that Texas Instruments is one of the best companies working with semiconductor devices. So, I started aiming to intern there.
+
+I was already in touch with the seniors who secured their internships at Texas Instruments last year. I enquired about the main topics that I should focus on and started preparing for that.
+Most of the topics are usually covered in the departmental courses, so I knew my first plan of action. 
+
+
+# SELECTION PROCESS
+
+Texas Instruments visits our campus every year in the beginning, so I applied via TPO. The application process was as follows:
+
+1. TPO shares the job profile, stipend, and other details to the students on the Placement Portal.
+2. Students can apply with their resume on the Portal itself.
+3. The company then conducts a test. The test was of one and a half hours and comprised of 3 sections - Analog, Digital, and Aptitude. The duration for each section was limited, and there was negative marking for wrong questions also. Attempting maximum questions with highest accuracy would be the key to perform well.
+4. Then the shortlist was announced by the TPO and soon, the interview was scheduled.
+5. There were three rounds in the interview process, one for the Digital domain, the second for the Analog domain, and the third was an HR round. The important thing is that you should be confident and interactive with the Interviewer. They are not here to judge your skills and knowledge only, they would also focus on your attitude and your approach to the problems.
+6. After the interview was over, the interviewer talked with the selected candidates and asked them about their preference in case they were selected for both Analog and Digital domains. The result was soon uploaded by the TPO as well.
+
+The eligibility criteria were that the student is pursuing either Electronics or Electrical Engineering as their majors and should have a CGPA higher than 7.
+
+
+# GETTING THERE
+
+For preparation, I would suggest that you have a good knowledge of the ECE department’s courses. Digital Logic Circuits, CMOS Circuits, Op-Amps, Sequential Circuits, MOS Device Characteristics, RC Circuits, and Analog MOS Circuits are the main topics to focus on.
+The books you can refer to for these topics are Digital Design - by M. Morris Mano and Fundamentals of Microelectronics - by Behzad Razavi.
+
+Apart from this, if you have any hands-on experience of the tools or have done any project related to the field, it is considered a plus point.
+
+Texas Instruments in one of the leading companies in the world working with semiconductors and electronics. The headquarters are located in Dallas, Texas and its office in India is situated in Bangalore.
+
+![pic](/images/posts/mayank-mehta-2.png){: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
+A picture of the Campus which I wanted to visit but couldn’t because of the Pandemic.
+
+
+# WORK
+
+My project was to design a failsafe GPIO (General Purpose Input Output) working at 1.8V and verify it across the PVT (Process Voltage Temperature) variations. It started with a literature study of the concepts and working of different blocks and familiarisation with the tools, specifications, and requirements for the design.
+
+In a CMOS circuit design, the main parameters are performance, area, and power. My goal was to achieve a significant decrease in any of these parameters.
+
+The work culture at Texas Instruments is very supportive. Everyone is easily approachable and helpful to the interns. Due to COVID, the internship was remote and therefore, many great experiences were missed by us. But the HR team worked very hard to make sure that we get the best that is possible. They organized virtual meeting sessions with leaders across the globe. They even organized sessions with some NCGs (New College Graduates) who joined TI this year only, and they shared their Internship experience with us and how they converted it into a successful PPO.
+
+The work hours were flexible due to the Work From Home scenario. But the emphasis was laid on the deadlines. The nature of work is relaxed, but it demands that you take maximum interest in what you are doing and give your best.
+
+Before starting the internship, the company allots a mentor to each of the interns who not only supervises your work but also helps you get acquainted with the work culture and guides you along the path. But at the same time, he/she expects you to be proactive with your thoughts and take the lead.
+
+![pic](/images/posts/mayank-mehta-1.png){: style="width:80%;height:auto;"}
+A picture was taken with the team on the Webex Platform as it was Virtual this whole time.
+
+I learned a lot of technical stuff and the details that we should focus on when working on a real industrial project that will serve millions of customers. One should expect to learn a lot of theoretical and practical knowledge on how to design a circuit from scratch and the technicalities that we have to take care of while developing and testing it.

_posts/2020-10-15-interns.md

@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Summer Sorted (?) 2020-21"
+tags: [wona]
+category: Careers
+image: intern.jpg
+excerpt: "Roorkee is a nice place to be."
+
+---
+
+Roorkee is a nice place to be.
+
+It has its ups and downs, much like any other place on this planet, but is overall a warm (figuratively speaking), amicable place to spend your college years. After 2-4 years of the rigorous monotony that is JEE, Roorkee comes with an opportunity to embrace your idiosyncrasies and explore your own individuality. There is no longer a uniform curriculum, no precise metric for progress, and no clear goals other than the ones you define for yourself.
+
+Amidst this new found freedom and the plethora of possibilities that come with it, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters to oneself, and what path one wants their journey to take once the dreamy undergrad life comes to an end. Internships are important not only for the compulsory credits but also because they provide students with irreplaceable real world experience, essential networking and above all a chance to better understand their interests & inclinations and reconsider their successive career steps accordingly.
+
+In 2020,  the Covid tremors have affected a number of firms and policy changes around the world. In the following analysis, Watch Out! aims to highlight how this shift has affected internship opportunities for the batch of 2022, with some educated guesses about how some of these changes may or may not carry over into the upcoming placement season or subsequent internship drives.
+
+<h2>Talking Numbers</h2>
+
+The on-campus internship season starts around mid-august and is reserved exclusively for pre-final year students. This analysis considers data upto 8th October 2020. Companies continue to visit campus until around mid-february, but drawing from previous years’ data, a major chunk of the total hirings would have been wrapped up until this point. Thus this data can be extrapolated for fairly accurate insights into the overall internship scenario for the current academic session. Regardless, any projections made hereafter are little more than educated speculations made by Watch Out! based on data from previous years and should not be considered as concrete claims 
+
+**Number of recruiters: 91**
+Compared to a total of 134 from 2019-20. But with 4 months remaining for more recruiters to show up, this number may very well catch up.
+
+**Hirings: 278**
+Based on channelI notices from 2019-20 (which cover most, though not all companies coming to campus), the period from August 1st to 22nd October accounted for approximately **70%** of the total seats offered. Assuming similar trends, the total hirings for this session are projected to reach anywhere from 350-400 by the end of the session, as compared to 421 from 2019-20
+
+**Pre Internship Offers: 7**, compared to 5 in 2019-20
+
+<h2>Crunching Numbers</h2>
+
+Contrary to initial speculations on what effects a global pandemic might have on employment opportunities around the world[1], as well as survey statistics indicating a diminishing scope for prospective interns [[2]], the on-campus internships in IITR seem to be more or less unperturbed.
+
+A closer look however, reveals a peculiar shift in hiring trends.
+
+Out of the **68** (The remaining 23 have yet to come out with results) firms that have hired at Roorkee so far, only **49** (If different positions from the same company are to be considered separate) are recurring visitors from last year. But these **49** entities account for **222 of the 278** offers so far. Comparing only these to their previous visits, the number of hires has gone down from a total of 235 to 222. A lot of them have cut back on the number of interns hired, with some hiring upto 50% less interns than last time. Adobe also made a notable decrease in the number of direct offers to students excelling in academics, moving down from 16 to only 2 this year.
+
+<iframe class="highcharts-iframe" src="https://app.everviz.com/embed/DGFHZVinL/" title="Chart: Recurring recruiters" style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 500px"></iframe>
+Note: Profiles for some companies have been clubbed together for the sake of visualization
+
+So why does the big picture look undisturbed?
+
+The reason for the relatively insignificant decrease (13) in the total number of offers amongst the recurring firms can actually be attributed to a handful of tech giants upping their intake by upto 100%
+
+Revisiting companies opening up with more positions/profiles than before, leading to more diversity in profile distribution among the interns.
+
+A number of new small-mid level firms decided to come to Roorkee (Zomato, Disney Hotstar, Codenation, Citrix to name a few).
+
+While not much can be concluded from point 1, the latter two may very well contribute to positive trends in placements as well. Whether by God’s grace or due efforts by the Administration and TPO, IIT Roorkee seems to be doing just fine in this regard.
+
+Similar trends have been observed in sister IITs as well[[3]][[4]]
+
+<h2>Logistics</h2>
+
+To the chagrin of all R-esidents, the ‘on-campus’ internship season wasn’t really conducted on campus, as all of us are confined to our homes with no weekend outings or late night snack breaks to ease the deathless pain. As such, all tests and interviews were conducted virtually which called for robust infrastructure for evaluations, instantaneous updates and super secure proctoring solutions ;). For the most part, IIT Roorkee delivered well
+
+However, this being a first for both IITR and the companies conducting their tests, some issues were bound to arise. 
+
+For one, the privilege gap within the student populace widens as those without access to a stable internet connection were placed at a significant disadvantage, both during the internship season and in the context of the semester as a whole.
+
+Secondly, a number of students reported technical issues during tests, such as the websites freezing, or compilers failing altogether. The public slack workspace did help, but these hiccups still led to a lot of unnecessary delays.
+
+The usual problems with the lack of diversity in profiles, continue to persist. With the establishment of Design Studio, Finance Club, DSG and VLG, it’s clear that the student community is striving to expand into a number of different fields, but this enthusiasm is yet to be reflected in the profile distribution amongst recruiters. 
+
+<iframe class="highcharts-iframe" src="https://app.everviz.com/embed/LlmjXBy0l/" title="Chart: Profiles" style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 500px"></iframe>
+
+Some change was however observed this year. While software and IT continue to dominate, a decent number of finance positions were seen. We also saw design offers on day 1 with a monthly stipend of 200k (Sprinklr Product design and Visual design)
+
+<h2>The Free World</h2>
+
+Most branches in IITR have a compulsory 2-3 credit course in their final year, which requires students to have completed an internship in their pre-final year. Yet, the on-campus hires for previous years constitute less than half of the total batch strength.
+
+“But what of the remaining pilgrims”, you ask?
+The answer is, there’s a free world beyond the boundaries of our beloved campus. A free world full of opportunities for off-campus applicants, research internships and more. These off-the-book hires are what might get overlooked when people talk about the internship season, as these opportunities have been hit much worse than the stats on channelI would have you believe.
+
+Although the number of companies hiring remote interns has gone up by about 24% during the pandemic[[5]] (with some like Facebook going completely virtual with their summer internship program), a number of firms still choose to go with either in-office interns or a mix of the two. This spells trouble for anyone with aspirations for a machax summer abroad.
+
+<h2>Not so free anymore</h2>
+With increased travel restrictions around the world, which may not be fully lifted even as infection rates begin to subside, a number of companies have either outright refused to hire international interns, or stated that citizens will be given preference. This means a severe disadvantage for anyone applying to foreign positions.
+ 
+<h2>Perils of Research</h2>
+Fortunately, major research programs for undergrads, such as DAAD, WISE, MITACS GRI, continue to function normally. But the situation is highly volatile for those in contact with advisors through individual mailing. This is based on anecdotal data and shall therefore be taken with a pinch of salt but a number of professors who don’t wish to hire remote interns have started to ignore or reject applications from international students under the current situation. A significant number of students from the batch of 2021 also had their offers revoked for similar reasons.
+
+<h2>MAGA</h2>
+In the case of the U.S specifically, the problems run a lot deeper than a bunch of corporates deciding to hire traditional interns. A series of proposed changes to H1B visa regulations have recently been approved, making work visas much more restrictive[[6]]. H1B visa can only be used for staff in specialty occupations. Until now, foreigners with a bachelor’s degree were eligible for specialty occupations. However, now, they must specialize in their exact field. For instance, an electrical engineering major cannot fill a software engineering position. The open-for-all tech culture of IIT Roorkee is likely to take a major hit from this decision, as a significant chunk of opportunities is now permanently closed for students with non-core interests. The new regulations may be even more troublesome when it comes to niche engineering fields like Artificial intelligence or Cybersecurity[[7]] as not many universities offer dedicated courses in these disciplines and the positions are usually filled by professionals from loosely related fields.
+
+The combined effects of these three factors, highlight an underlying issue with the idea of relying solely on the campus internship statistics to decide if the season was a success. Even if the numbers somehow manage to catch up with last year, it won’t be enough to make up for the drop in off-campus opportunities. With so many great options being lost to Covid, compromises are inevitable.
+
+All that being said, Roorkee is undoubtedly doing well against all odds. We hope that internship season 2020-21 will serve as essential experience to be leveraged for a smoother placement experience for everyone. Things aren’t perfect and the ideal internship/placement season is still a ways to go but we believe we’re on the right path. Until then, best of luck to everyone that’s chasing the high of having your peers post on your timeline, the ultimate expression of approval there is. 
+**#SummerSorted**
+
+
+<h2>References</h2>
+
+[1]: https://www.hindustantimes.com/more-lifestyle/covid-19-internships-get-cancelled-or-go-virtual-because-of-pandemic/story-ZFGb78WvQl8Pfj5LBYMm4I.html
+**1.** [https://www.hindustantimes.com/more-lifestyle/covid-19-internships-get-cancelled-or-go-virtual-because-of-pandemic/story-ZFGb78WvQl8Pfj5LBYMm4I.html](https://www.hindustantimes.com/more-lifestyle/covid-19-internships-get-cancelled-or-go-virtual-because-of-pandemic/story-ZFGb78WvQl8Pfj5LBYMm4I.html){: style="text-decoration:underline; color:blue"}
+
+[2]: https://www.glassdoor.com/research/internship-hiring-coronavirus/
+**2.** [https://www.glassdoor.com/research/internship-hiring-coronavirus/](https://www.glassdoor.com/research/internship-hiring-coronavirus/){: style="text-decoration:underline; color:blue"}
+
+[3]: https://www.business-standard.com/article/jobs/iit-delhi-ends-phase-1-of-virtual-internship-hiring-with-over-300-offers-120092901442_1.html
+**3.** [https://www.business-standard.com/article/jobs/iit-delhi-ends-phase-1-of-virtual-internship-hiring-with-over-300-offers-120092901442_1.html](https://www.business-standard.com/article/jobs/iit-delhi-ends-phase-1-of-virtual-internship-hiring-with-over-300-offers-120092901442_1.html){: style="text-decoration:underline; color:blue"}
+
+[4]: https://www.business-standard.com/article/education/152-students-from-iit-madras-get-internship-offers-from-20-companies-120090700553_1.html
+**4.** [https://www.business-standard.com/article/education/152-students-from-iit-madras-get-internship-offers-from-20-companies-120090700553_1.html](https://www.business-standard.com/article/education/152-students-from-iit-madras-get-internship-offers-from-20-companies-120090700553_1.html){: style="text-decoration:underline; color:blue"}
+
+[5]: https://blog.internshala.com/2020/06/intern-hiring-trends-covid-19-2/
+**5.** [https://blog.internshala.com/2020/06/intern-hiring-trends-covid-19-2/](https://blog.internshala.com/2020/06/intern-hiring-trends-covid-19-2/){: style="text-decoration:underline; color:blue"}
+
+[6]: https://qz.com/india/1914128/how-donald-trumps-new-h-1b-visa-tweaks-will-hurt-immigrants/
+**6.** [https://qz.com/india/1914128/how-donald-trumps-new-h-1b-visa-tweaks-will-hurt-immigrants/](https://qz.com/india/1914128/how-donald-trumps-new-h-1b-visa-tweaks-will-hurt-immigrants/){: style="text-decoration:underline; color:blue"}
+
+[7]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-announces-overhaul-of-h-1b-visa-program-11602017434
+**7.** [https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-announces-overhaul-of-h-1b-visa-program-11602017434](https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-announces-overhaul-of-h-1b-visa-program-11602017434){: style="text-decoration:underline; color:blue"}
+
+*Picture Credits: Kritagya Nayyar*

_posts/2020-10-20-filter-coffee-nipun-gupta.md

@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Filter coffee: Nipun Gupta"
+image: nipun.jpg
+tags: [wona, column]
+excerpt: "Nipun gupta (batch of 2020), a.k.a fsociety can safely be considered to be amongst the best student hackers in India. He first discovered his love for understanding and breaking down systems shortly after coming to Roorkee.."
+category: filtercoffee
+---
+
+*Nipun gupta (batch of 2020), a.k.a fsociety can safely be considered to be amongst the best student hackers in India. He first discovered his love for understanding and breaking down systems shortly after coming to Roorkee. Fast forward countless national and international CTF (cybersecurity competitions) wins as part of team InfoSecIITR and a smashing research intern, he’s now working as a cybersecurity researcher at Payatu. Here’s an excerpt from our conversation with the elusive haxxor.*
+
+**Watch Out! -**  In an environment where programming, and by extension tech, is almost synonymous to competitive programming and software development, cybersecurity seems to be the road less taken. What was it that nudged you towards a career in this surprisingly niche field?
+
+**Nipun -** When I first started playing CTFs ( specifically https://backdoor.sdslabs.co), I never thought of cybersecurity as a career,  but rather as a hobby which later turned into a profession. During my initial 1-1.5 years, I was playing CTFs just because they were fun and I was learning a lot about hacking and how computers work in general. Around this time ( my 2nd - 3rd year in college ), we were playing lots of CTFs, both online and on-site, that's when I realized that there are a lot of opportunities, and I got involved with a few of these.
+
+**Watch Out! -** Setting aside the leet haxor ‘fsociety’ for a minute, what is it that Nipun Gupta gets up to in his free time? Any crazy exploits (pun intended) you would like to share from your college life?
+
+**Nipun -** In my free time, I usually read blogs or waste my time on twitter, youtube or netflix. When I am not on the internet, I usually play snooker or travel with my friends.
+One crazy “exploit” that I would like to share is how I “pwned” the swimming pool with my friends. This happened when we were in our first year and one of my friends came up with the idea of jumping over the fence of the swimming pool at night for a quick swimming session. At around 8 pm we went to count the number of guards around that area and to find out the possible entry point. After figuring that out, we came back at 12:30 and jumped over the fence. At that moment, one of us went ahead to look if there were any more guards nearby, but it took him a few minutes and we thought that he ran away. As we were already scared, we started running from there too. One of my friend was already swimming by that time, and as soon as he found out, he jumped over the fence with just one hand (his other hand was fractured at that time) and ran to grab his cycle which was in front of the main building stairs. He was so scared that he forgot to wear his clothes, and was half-naked in front of the main building stairs. This is probably the funniest and craziest thing we have ever done in college. I dare you too try that something (without the naked running of course)
+
+**Watch Out! -** You came to Roorkee in 2016, the same year that InfosecIITR was founded and have been an integral part of it ever since. How did it help you in your endeavours and what is your most memorable experience with the group?
+  
+**Nipun -** Just a correction here, I joined InfoSecIITR in 2017. Without any doubt, InfoSecIITR played a huge role in helping me get an internship and a job in cybersecurity. As I told earlier, we used to play a lot of CTFs during that time and most of the skills I have are because of those weekend CTF sessions when we used to play them overnight. I certainly learned a huge amount of things from my other teammates ( mostly when I used to act as a rubber ducky to help them solve the challenge they were stuck at). 
+It is hard selecting just one memorable experience with the group because we traveled a lot for on-site CTFs and every trip was somehow memorable. But one that tops the list was CSAW-2018. It was my first on-site CTF and we (Paras, Faizal, Aditya, and me ) went there with very little hope that we would be in the top 3 ranks, but to our surprise, we stood 1st in the Indian region. There was also a moment during that CTF when we were 1st in the world on the leaderboard when Paras and Faizal solved two challenges. We were so excited that we ran to the CTF arena to click some pictures of InfoSecIITR being top on the leaderboard in the world. The whole CTF was a really good experience. 
+In addition to this experience, we had some really fun time in Gujarat , Bangalore, Goa , InterIIT and many other places.
+
+
+**Watch Out! -** You interned in cybersecurity at SEFCOM Labs at Arizona State University. How was your experience?
+
+**Nipun -**  I had a really amazing experience working at SEFCOM. To be honest, before that internship, my experience in security mostly revolved around CTFs and exploitation, but during that period of 2-2.5 months I learned a ton about real world security and vulnerability research, which further helped me gain a larger understanding of the current state of security research. The professors and my team there was amazing, and I thoroughly enjoyed my work. Apart from the professional experience, my personal experience was amazing too as I engaged myself in travelling to a few amazing cities, going on hikes, experiencing their culture and food etc.
+
+
+**Watch Out! -**  What are the differences in opportunities present for a student to pursue cybersecurity as a career in India and abroad? Being from a non circuital branch with a less than mind-blowing CGPA, did it affect your options in any way?
+
+**Nipun -** Currently the opportunities in security are increasing at a very fast pace. The job opportunities are increasing with not many people to fill that gap, that's why we can see a sudden increase in CTFs in India organized by DSCI or a few companies to hire people in security. When I applied for the job and the internship, my branch and CGPA were not considered during the interview round, so I think it didn't affect my options in any way. But if I would have considered for masters or Phd, then these things would have mattered. 
+
+
+**Watch Out! -** According to you, how is the environment at IIT Roorkee for a student interested in cybersecurity with respect to the opportunities available? Are there any specific changes, administrational or otherwise, that you would like to see take place in the future?
+
+**Nipun -** I can confidently say that IIT Roorkee has the best security culture among all the IITs and NITs. I sincerely thank the seniors who started the group. But in terms of opportunities I think we can do a bit better. There are a lot of opportunities for security but when it comes to looking for a job or internship students here are mostly on their own. Last year we organized a CTF during InterIIT Tech meet, which was a really good initiative. After that Tech-meet a few other IITs started their own security group. I would really appreciate it if the placement team could reach out to the few places that are hiring people in cyber security, that would really give some students a sigh of relief.
+
+**Watch Out! -** As opposed to typical coding contests, a CTF can last anywhere from 12-48 hours at a stretch and requires consistent effort from the entire team; throughout the duration to come out on top. What keeps you going through the sleepless nights and painful glaring contests with your computer screen?
+
+**Nipun -** I can surely say that it is not easy OR healthy to stare at your computer screen for 12-48 hours. But when we used to play as a team, I had some equally dedicated hackers along my side ready to stay up for the whole night just to reverse-engineer a shitty Virtual Machine written in assembly or to read a file from a computer system just using compiler flags ( shaddy :P ) just to get some Internet Points, that's what kept me going through those nights. Those points were a dopamine hit for us. 
+
+
+**Watch Out! -** Now that you have graduated, what is the one thing that you’re going to miss the most about Roorkee? Having lost almost a complete semester to a certain global pandemic, is there anything you wish you could’ve done before graduation but didn’t get a chance to?
+
+     
+**Nipun -** There are a lot of things that I am going to miss about this place but the one thing that I will miss the most is the campus life. Apart from that I will miss the friends that I made here, the internet, my room, college fests, easy trips to rishikesh, InfoSecIITR meetings, etc.
+As a part of our group we always discussed that the group InfoSecIITR had a curse which disallowed us from travelling abroad for any CTF finals, even after we qualified in the first round. In our third year it was mostly because the CTF organizers were not able to sponsor our travel and stay. But in our final year we finally qualified to 3 events abroad ( Singapore, Vietnam and Russia ) and the organizers were sponsoring travel and stay, but due to this pandemic everything was cancelled. We all were really looking forward to these trips, but were unlucky. I hope InfoSecIITR makes some international presence sometime soon. 
+
+
+**Watch Out! -** Can you share some details about your present work, future goals and so on?
+
+
+**Nipun -** I am currently working at Payatu, as a Security Researcher. My area of interest is exploitation, so my current research is inclined towards browser exploits and VM escapes. We are currently trying to find bugs in related open source applications by fuzzing various components of these applications. I don't have any solid future plans for myself right now, but I want to increase my knowledge and experience in fuzzing and exploitation. For those of you having trouble understanding, I am trying to hack some apps.
+
+
+**Watch Out! -** Customary question: What do you think of Watch Out!
+
+**Nipun -** I have been following a few categories - tech, summer diaries and memoirs. I personally love reading memoirs, but other articles are equally amazing as well. I think you guys are doing an amazing job and I hope to see the same in the future. 

_posts/2020-10-20-newlhc.md

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "The Innaugration of the New LHC, HVAC and STP"
+tags: [wona, column]
+category: bigstory
+image: newlhc.png
+author: "Shruti Gour, Jigyasa Kumari, Spandan Gera"
+excerpt: "The New Lecture Hall Complex (LHC), a sewage treatment plant (STP) and a chiller plant (HVAC) were inaugurated on the 13th of October, 2020 in an online event."
+---
+
+The New Lecture Hall Complex (LHC), a sewage treatment plant (STP) and a chiller plant (HVAC) were inaugurated on the 13th of October, 2020 in an online event. The event witnessed the presence of the Union Minister for Education, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ and Mr Sanjoy Dhotre, Minister of State for Education, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology as the guests of honor. 
+
+The Dean of Infrastructure, Prof Umesh Sharma, described upgrades in the infrastructure that would bring them on par with global standards. 
+
+# New Lecture Hall Complex (LHC)
+
+The new LHC has been benchmarked in terms of design and utilities it shall be providing. The main attraction of the complex is its sustainable design with the use of daylight and natural ventilation with the building orientation planned to complement it.
+
+The construction of the LHC started in 2016 and cost about INR 80.25 cores. With a built-up area of 13,254 sq. m, the building has the capacity to accommodate up to 4480 individuals. The capacities of individual room classes are given below. 
+
+![pic1](/images/posts/lhc-table.png){: style="width:40%;height:auto;"}
+
+All classrooms are centrally air-conditioned and are equipped with state of the art amenities like audio and video conferencing, digital podium, laser projector, motorised projector screen and digital writing board.
+
+# Centralised Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning plant (HVAC)
+
+This plant has been built to cater to the air conditioning requirements of three buildings - Lecture Hall Complexes-l and ll, and the Convocation Hall. It uses Chilled Water Cooling technology and the project cost is estimated at around INR 14.35 crores. (Source: The Pioneer)
+
+The main highlight of this project is the ‘control through remote’ mode via the Building Management System. The system has been designed considering capacity optimization and energy efficiency.
+
+# Sewage Treatment Plant (STP)
+
+With a capacity of 3 million litres a day the STP is located in Solani Kunj near the C-class Club in the IIT Roorkee campus. The plant has a built-up area of 1,800 sq. m, and its estimated construction cost is INR 27.73 crores. The STP is based on a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) for the treatment of wastewater. It is equipped with a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA ). It uses a fill-and-draw cyclical protocol including aeration and non-aeration sequencing. The system provides high-quality effluent for safe discharge or non portables reuse witty minimum space and power requirements. The unique feature of IIT Roorkee STP is the additional odour control and advanced tertiary treatment facility due to its settling in the residential area. 
+ 
+The Minister for Education expressed his immense pride in IIT Roorkee's progress as an institute. He appealed to the Institute to produce viable methods to reduce human-animal conflicts that have become common in surrounding areas and the Himalayas and to contribute to scientific-social responsibility.
+
+The Director, Prof Chaturvedi pointed towards ongoing infrastructure projects at IIT Roorkee - the HSS and Math buildings, a faculty housing project (expected to be completed within 9 months) and a new hostel for students. Additionally, a renovated Chemistry department, the Western Academic Block and another student hostel are currently in the design stage. The office of the Associate Dean of Infrastructure Projects has been created to speed up the progress of infrastructure development. 
+
+The Institute is continuing its trend of upgradation and development of campus infrastructure. We hope to make the best of these developments, once we return to the campus.
+
+Image Credits: Sanjeevani Marcha
+
+
+

_posts/2020-10-31-prof-john.md

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "In Conversation With Professor John Schwarz"
+image: profjohn.jpeg
+tags: [wona]
+category: verbatim
+excerpt: "John H. Schwarz is the Harold Brown Professor of Theoretical Physics in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy"
+---
+
+*John H. Schwarz is the Harold Brown Professor of Theoretical Physics in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Dr. Schwarz majored in mathematics at Harvard (BA, 1962) and then went to UC Berkeley for graduate work in theoretical physics. He is regarded as one of the founders of string theory. His work with Prof. Michael Green led to the so-called “first superstring revolution”. He has received various awards throughout his career. He received the Dirac Medal of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in 1989. He shared the Fundamental Physics Prize with Michael Green "for opening new perspectives on quantum gravity and the unification of forces." in 2013.
+On 17th October 2020, Prof. Schwarz was invited by the Institute Lecture Series Committee,IITR to deliver a webinar lecture as part of the “The Mysteries of Universe” lecture series . The topic of the lecture was “The birth and Development of Superstring Theory”. Watch Out! had the chance to inquire into his thoughts about theoretical physics and find out more about his journey through his years of research.*
+
+
+**Watch Out!**: What inspired you to pursue theoretical physics? At what age did you know that this was what you wanted to do?
+
+**Prof. John Schwarz**: As an undergraduate I majored in math. However, during my junior year I decided to apply for graduate school in physics. I felt that describing the real world was a more exciting challenge that would utilize my math skills.
+
+**Watch Out!**: Being one of the pioneers of string theory, what were your feelings every time you had a breakthrough, for example, superstring theory?
+
+**Prof. John Schwarz**: Two examples particularly stand out in my memory. When Scherk and I realized in 1974 that string theories are quantum gravity theories that could also describe the other forces, I was very excited. At that point I was convinced (correctly, as it turned out) that I knew what I would be working on for the rest of my career. My collaboration with Michael Green culminated in a breakthrough in 1984 (the anomaly cancellation result) that was also very exciting.
+
+**Watch Out!**: Both your parents are PhDs in different fields. Do you feel having parents from a scientific background gave you an edge as a researcher?  
+
+**Prof. John Schwarz**: My parents were very supportive, though they did not try to push me in any particular direction. Being raised in a family in which science was appreciated was certainly a big factor in making me the person I became. I feel very fortunate.
+
+**Watch Out!**: In one of your interviews, you said, “discovery of supersymmetry would be more profound than life on Mars” why did you say this?
+
+**Prof. John Schwarz**: Perhaps that was a silly thing to say. However, I do believe that the discovery of supersymmetry would have a revolutionary impact on particle physics – both theory and experiment.
+
+**Watch Out!**: Is the string theory our only hope at present to lead to a unified theory?
+
+**Prof. John Schwarz**: I am unaware of any promising alternatives, though there are people trying.
+
+**Watch Out!**: What drives the scientific pursuit on a personal level for scientists? Is it curiosity and intellectual challenge, or does it include the urge to be remembered?
+
+**Prof. John Schwarz**: I think it is almost always the former and that is the way it should be.
+
+**Watch Out!**: If you weren’t a theoretical physicist, what do you think you would be doing?
+
+**Prof. John Schwarz**: Probably mathematics.
+
+**Watch Out!**: Science will surely outlast humankind, but what do you think would be the next ‘holy grail’ of science once we reach the ‘theory of everything’? And do you see it happening anytime soon?
+
+**Prof. John Schwarz**: Even if superstring theory is the correct fundamental theory, we are very far from a complete understanding of our physical Universe. Some features are a matter of chance and others have deep explanations. It is not always clear which is which. In addition to accounting for particle physics, we also want to understand the origin and evolution of the Universe. This will require the guidance of our experimental and observational friends. I have no idea whether a complete understanding will ever be achieved. I don’t know what would come after that. Exobiology?
+
+**Watch Out!**: You mentioned in your talk that after the development of QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics), a community of several hundred practitioners was reduced to a handful, which of course, included you. What made you stick with it in those times?
+
+**Prof. John Schwarz**: Scherk and I felt that such a beautiful mathematical structure must be good for something.  Once we thought in those terms, it was not hard to realize that it is a quantum theory of gravity.  This happened within a year of the widespread acceptance of QCD. It took a decade to  convince a significant part of the community that this was a promising direction to explore. The  support of Gell-Mann helped to bolster my self-confidence during that period.
+
+**Watch Out!**: In one of your talks in 2007, you stated that you did not consider gravity to be significant enough to incorporate in string theory till the mid-1970s. What made you propose the usage of string theory as the quantum theory of gravity?
+
+**Prof. John Schwarz**: As I discussed, string theory was originally developed to describe the strong nuclear force. In those days gravity was not studied by particle physicists, so it was not really on our minds. We knew that it is incredibly weak, and completely negligible, at nuclear and atomic scales. So the shift in viewpoint did not come easily. The discovery of QCD actually helped to motivate the search for another use of string theory.
+

_posts/2020-11-03-green-living-in-the-campus-community.md

@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Green Living in the campus community: Eco Group IIT Roorkee"
+tags: [wona, column]
+category: bigstory
+image: ecogroup.jpg
+author: "Soma Gorai, Deepal Tiwari"
+excerpt: "Eco Group, IIT Roorkee is a group of enthusiastic trendsetters working together to integrate sustainability in IIT R and inculcate Green Living in the campus community. The group functions under the aegis of the Institute Green Committee"
+---
+
+**Eco Group, IIT Roorkee** is a group of enthusiastic trendsetters working together to integrate sustainability in IIT R and inculcate Green Living in the campus community. The group functions under the aegis of the Institute Green Committee. Their vision is to bring sustainability to the campus by *brainstorming new ideas which reduce the carbon footprint of the campus by reducing the unnecessary usage and reusing and recycling resources wherever feasible.*
+
+Watch Out! spoke to the members of the ECO Group:
+
+*“The idea for the group came up during the lecture class of environmental engineering when the professor was informing us about how nature is being devastated by our reckless actions. We together observed that the very place where we live required some changes. The first rudimentary problem we observed was lack of Integrated Solid Waste management on our campus. Segregation of waste at source was lacking on the campus. We developed a model to segregate, transport and treat the waste generated and proposed to install separate bins for inorganic and organic waste inside hostels. The proposal was accepted by the Institute Green Committee whose chairman is the institute Director. Currently, the bins have been installed at Rajendra Bhawan, and have been planned to be installed in other locations in the campus as well. The Organic waste collected will be used to make compost with the help of Rotary dump composter in the institute, while the inorganic waste will be sent for recycling. The second basic problem which we discovered was no management for Electronic waste. At present, separate bins have been installed all around the campus especially for Electronic waste by an electronic waste recycling company.”*
+
+The ECO Group also conducted an enlightening series on Sustainability for the IITR junta, which was received with great appreciation. The series saw three prominent figures in the field of sustainability and waste management share their experiences and knowledge.
+
+The first talk was delivered by **Ms Saloni Goel**, an alumna of IIT Delhi and the  London School of Economics. She led the sanitation work during Kumbh 2019, delivering an open defecation free, garbage-free, and odour-free mela. She won a Guinness World Record for undertaking massive sanitation. She is currently engaged as a Climate Change Specialist with the NITI Aayog.  The event was also graced by Professor Barzley of London School of Economics, who helped Ms Goel document her work for the Kumbh. 
+About sustainable solutions, she said *“Developing a technical solution is the first step in solving a problem. You’ve to go ahead and connect to the ecosystem so the solution is accepted and implemented.”*
+Ms Goel emphasised on the importance of **source segregation of waste.** In a poll conducted during the talk, most people agreed with the concept. However, *the majority of those who were polled weren't aware of the different bins for different wastes.*
+
+*“Waste management is still an unorganised sector - the ragpickers, kabadiwalas should be taught about safe and healthy waste management practices. Their health should be a priority. Proper waste management systems also generate jobs, in addition to being eco friendly. Though gradually, the government is working towards integrating proper waste management in the smart city models.”*
+
+The second speaker was **Mr Prabodha Acharya**, Chief Sustainability Officer of Jindal Steel Works, and an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur. He gave us a glimpse of the definition of sustainability for the corporate sector. He emphasised their vision of Economic, Social and Corporate governance, their ideology of meeting everyone’s needs and not compromising on the future requirements. *“Corporate sectors should focus on reducing their consumption of harmful plastics and improving their product’s sustainability,”* he said. 
+
+When asked about the idea of zero waste, he mentioned how it is technically not feasible to always recycle or possible to avoid by-products and treating them as feeders for other products is the most sustainable way to go.
+
+On how sustainability affects business, he said *“Sustainability boosts business growth - sustainability optimises the resources. Industries can produce more with less resources through a sustainable thought process.”*
+
+For the third event, **Mr Ashish Sachdeva** of Green Dream Foundation gave a presentation on Waste Management in India. He has given talks in Global Conference of Waste Management & Recycling (Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi), Global CSR Summit 2019 (Sarawak, Malaysia), and had also visited IIT Roorkee for iFest(2012) previously. He provided us with a lot of insights on the prevailing waste management issues in the country and the statistics of India as compared to other countries. Mr Sachdeva also discussed innovations using plastic in building roads, and the new EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) policy which will strengthen waste management policies making companies responsible for the recycling of plastic they produce. He also warned against feeding mixed waste into waste-to-energy plants, as they lead to the formation of toxic by-products which cause pollution.

_posts/2020-11-05-summer-diaries-harvard-university-and-iiit-delhi.md

@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: " Summer Diaries: Harvard University and IIIT Delhi"
+image: "keerat.png"
+tags: [wona]
+author: "Keerat"
+category: summer2020
+excerpt: ''
+---
+
+This Summer(and a little beyond that), I participated (remotely) in the capacity of a research intern in two research groups, at Harvard University and IIIT-Delhi. At Harvard, I was working at the Lichtman Lab, with Dr Jeff Lichtman while at IIITD, my work was in collaboration with Dr Tavpritesh Sethi and Prof Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, in their joint initiative for COVID-focussed research, CoronaActionIndia. 
+
+# Why these? 
+
+Being from a PCMB background in senior school, I was keen to identify a stream wherein I could work on Biological Systems using Mathematical and Computational tools. Having Civil Engineering as my major, I wasn’t too confident about the switch initially, but with a little push from some wonderful seniors on campus, I started exploring and working on projects by the end of the first year. There is a lot you can work on in Computational Biology, and the myriad of options was slightly confusing, to begin with. 
+During my search, I came across a workshop on ‘Machine Intelligence and Brain Research’  held at IIT Madras earlier this year(they have a centre called CCBR specifically dedicated to Computational Brain Research), where I got to interact with professors working in labs around the world. Being the youngest and amongst the only few undergraduate attendees of the workshop, there was a lot I came back with after spending 10 days at IITM. I then decided to proceed with Computational Neuroscience as my first stop. The choice to do a second internship was impromptu, and was mainly because I wished to take part in research using AI in public healthcare- what better chance than to work against an ongoing pandemic?
+
+# Getting there (well, not IRL)
+
+ Application for both these internships was done through mailing. 
+I started shortlisting professors working in Computational Neuroscience in January and began mailing (I had been mailing professors since the end of October previous year but with much less clarity on my field of interest). Knowing a few seniors who had already interned in related projects, I got in touch with them to enquire about the labs they had visited. By the beginning of February, I had been offered an internship at the Lichtman Lab. I was a little short on time wrt planning for funding, getting my visa, accommodation in the US, etc and then Coronavirus decided to make it all simpler by leaving me with a remote intern instead :3
+I mailed TavLab@IIITD in June, and the response time was much lesser-I started working(remotely) within 2-3 days of my application. 
+
+# Work at Harvard 
+
+![pic1](/images/posts/keerat-2.png){: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
+
+My project was to predict synaptic connections in the mouse cerebellum using a Deep Learning pipeline, with appreciable accuracy. This falls under Developmental Connectomics research, where the motive is to reconstruct how the brain is wired and use the connectivity map (called a Connectome) so obtained to study how the organism develops over time. The entire project involves the 3D segmentation of all different parts of the brain. My focus, however, was only on the synapses- the points where two neurons meet, crucial to establishing neural connectivity. 
+The beginning was a little slow, with various challenges to a remote intern presenting themselves one after the other. Once I had access to the remote server and got used to the Lab’s workflow, however, the project gained pace. 
+We had regular lab meetings, where one particular group in the lab presented their progress each week. There were weekly meetings within our group, headed by the post-doc researcher whom I was working with, where we presented our weekly progress and planned the work for the upcoming week. We also had the chance to attend talks by other neuroscientists. Despite the difference in time zone, communication was smooth and prompt. 
+
+![pic2](/images/posts/keerat-3.png){: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
+(Seminar by Prof Jeff at the Centre for Brain Science, Harvard University) 
+
+# Work at IIITD
+
+![pic1](/images/posts/keerat-4.png){: style="width:90%;height:auto;"}
+
+I worked on two projects during the course of my internship at IIITD. In the beginning, I joined an ongoing project on Agent-Based Modelling and its usage to simulate the spread of the Coronavirus. The idea was to see how the virus would spread in the Indian states, after modelling their socio-economic conditions and then project the number of expected cases for the upcoming months, which could further be used by the governmental bodies for making action plans. Post conclusion of this work, I co-led the development of a reinforcement learning framework that optimises the distribution of vaccines (a scarce resource)  amongst different parts of the population based on their characteristics. This was an attempt to deal with questions like ‘Who should get access to the COVID vaccines first?’ anticipating the need for a fair and efficient distribution mechanism upon their arrival in the market soon. The papers for both these projects are currently under review. 
+Work here was much more fast-paced than at Harvard, owing to the field under study more than anything else. We had very frequent meetings, sometimes multiple in a day and the excitement to see if their work was making any difference kept everyone motivated and on their toes. 
+
+# Key Takeaways 
+
+The sharp contrast between the nature of work done during both my internships gave me a lot of insight into what I want to focus on next. Work at Lichtman Lab was at a microscale, often true for research in Computational Biology where you try to make sense of processes in your body by going at the cellular level. Seeing members of the lab present their work every week, I realised the nature of this research requires a lot of patience and diligent effort spanning over a considerable amount of time before patterns are observed and conclusions are drawn. If you enjoy being a part of something much bigger and derive pleasure out of the process of building your way towards knowledge, then this is for you. 
+On the other hand, research at TavLab was more holistic- I was a part of the entire pipeline, which was less dependent on physical experiments, and more on ideation. Quick visibility of results, and the feeling that what we’re working on might potentially be used for public welfare, often instilled a rush of excitement and kept me going. 
+These comments are obviously based on my perception and limited exposure during the course of the internships, but I feel they’re the most important takeaway, possibly over any other piece of knowledge I gained throughout. 
+
+# A Few Pointers  
+
+I think it’s a much better idea to walk into an internship with some expectations of what you want to walk away with once it’s done- it could be a skill or simply more clarity on your field of interest. That being said, there are a few things I feel one could pay attention to during their search for a suitable internship:
+
+1. Do not indulge in cold mailing for the sake of getting a response; targeted and personalised emails are much likelier to payback - It’s also a good idea to reach out to any alumni (from any IIT, in fact) who may be working in the concerned lab, ask them about the research and lab environment, and cc them in your mail to the professor. That serves as an excellent backup system in case the professor does not read your mail or forgets about it.
+
+2. Talk to people- your seniors, professionals you may know who’re working in your field of interest or anyone who you feel can give you an informed opinion. Do solid research before you apply anywhere, and get your initial emails proofread by your seniors. Your email is one of the first things you’re going to be judged by as a candidate, so it’s important to ensure you do a good job. 
+
+3. Twitter is a great place to follow relevant research and get updates about openings, and one that many don’t use. 
+
+4. One advantage of everything going remote is the increase in access to many international events. There are a lot of open-to-all workshops and meetups being organised regularly which serve as good opportunities for learning as well as networking. 
+
+Being confined to our homes and no longer having the privilege of knocking upon our seniors’ doors for some much needed free gyaan, lack of guidance can often make things a little scary. I hope this account helps, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions :) 
+
+
+
+

about/index.html

@@ -7,14 +7,50 @@ layout: layout
 </div>
 
 <div class="category-posts container about">
-<div>Watch Out! is the official campus media body of the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee run by students under the aegis of the Dean of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy (SRIC), IIT Roorkee. 24 years after its conception, Watch Out! has grown to offer news and commentary from around the campus on its website in conjunction with a semesterly print issue.</div>
+<div>Watch Out! is the official student media body of the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee run entirely by students under the aegis of the Dean of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy (SRIC), IIT Roorkee. 26 years after its conception, Watch Out! has grown to offer news, commentary, opinions and editorials from around the campus on its website and social media platforms in conjunction with a semesterly print issue.</div>
 
 <h2>History</h2>
 
-<div>Founded in 1993, we trace our roots back to an attractive looking poster pinned to Govind Bhawan’s notice board. Started off by two entrepreneurial third-year students of the erstwhile University of Roorkee, our first issue was the handiwork of a humble team consisting of seven people and was printed under the kind patronage of Govind Bhawan’s Warden.</div>
-
+<div>The brainchild of two enterprising third-years Anurag Gupta & Harjeet Khanduja, Watch Out! was born from the desire to provide IIT R (then the University of Roorkee) its own student publication with news, interviews and entertainment. The name is courtesy of the (then) Chief Warden of Govind Bhawan and our first patron, Prof C. P. Agarwal. 
+With the pioneering efforts of the first editorial board and their colleagues at the Institute Computer Center, the first issue hit the shelves of the Govind Bhawan mess in 1994. What started as a fun little project managed to become the official student body of the campus in a few years. Watch Out! has remained the voice of IIT R ever since, and has evolved and expanded from a 7-member team to its present self.</div>
+    
 <h2>Contact us</h2>
 
-<div>To get involved, email us at <a href="mailto:watchout.iitr@gmail.com">watchout.iitr@gmail.com</a> or talk to any of our members.</div>
+<div>To get involved, email us at <a href="mailto:watchout@iitr.ac.in">watchout@iitr.ac.in</a> or talk to any of our members.</div>
+
+<h2>The Team</h2>
+
+<div>
+<b>Co-Presidents</b>
+<br>
+Atharva Shukla &nbsp;&nbsp; Mohit Sharma
+<br><br>
+
+<b>Executive Editors</b>
+<br>
+Aditya Ramkumar &nbsp;&nbsp; Agastya Varahala &nbsp;&nbsp; Manish Prasad
+<br><br>
+
+<b>Chief News Coordinator</b>
+<br>
+Divyam Goel
+<br><br>
+
+<b>Chief Web Coordinator</b>
+<br>
+Jayati Shrivastava
+<br><br>
+
+<b>Chief of Design</b>
+<br>
+Prakhar Kothari &nbsp;&nbsp; Shivam Maan
+<br><br>
+
+<b>Chief Multimedia Coordinator</b>
+<br>
+Mohammad Zaryab
+<br><br>
+
+</div>
 
 </div>

category/summer2020/index.html

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