Merge remote-tracking branch 'original/master'

_posts/2017-07-10-summer-diaries-berlin.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ excerpt: "This was my first experience of foreign travel and a research internsh
 
 ### Making it there
 
-While I was applying for internships on campus, I was also searching for foreign internship programs like DAAD, EPFL, Charpak, Mitacs, Viterbi etc. Seniors help a lot in getting you familiar with these programs and letting you know the particulars of each program. Generally, the procedure for all foreign internships is similar. They ask you to fill in your educational details in a form and upload your résumé, statement of purpose (SOP), motivation letter, no objection certificate (NOC), letter of recommendation (LOR), passport, transcripts and finally give your choices for the projects out of the given choices or of your own. In Mitacs, you were given many options for the projects in multiple universities across Canada. In EPFL and Viterbi, you have to find your institute of interest and give your idea about a project of your choice, which is tough if you don’t have any. However, DAAD has a very different selection process. To apply for the program, you need to be in the pre-final year of your course and have an SGPA above 8.5 in every semester. First of all, you have to send emails to the professors of government universities of Germany (which was the most tiresome part), and if they agree to become your mentor, you ask him/her for an invitation letter and a German host confirmation letter. You have to upload these documents along with the other documents mentioned above and some of your personal documents to the DAAD portal. 
+While I was applying for internships on campus, I was also searching for foreign internship programs like DAAD, EPFL, Charpak, Mitacs, Viterbi etc. Seniors help a lot in getting you familiar with these programs and letting you know the particulars of each program. Generally, the procedure for all foreign internships is similar. They ask you to fill in your educational details in a form and upload your résumé, statement of purpose (SOP), motivation letter, no objection certificate (NOC), letter of recommendation (LOR), passport, transcripts and finally give your choices for the projects out of the given choices or of your own. In Mitacs, you were given many options for the projects in multiple universities across Canada. In EPFL and Viterbi, you have to find your institute of interest and give your idea about a project of your choice, which is tough if you don’t have any. However, DAAD has a very different selection process. To apply for the program, you need to be in the pre-final year of your course and have an CGPA above 8.5 till the current semester. First of all, you have to send emails to the professors of government universities of Germany (which was the most tiresome part), and if they agree to become your mentor, you ask him/her for an invitation letter and a German host confirmation letter. You have to upload these documents along with the other documents mentioned above and some of your personal documents to the DAAD portal. 
 
 DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) is a German government funded program which helps students of different countries experience internships and masters in Germany. The scholarship is 650€ per month plus 525€ for travel. The application process has a deadline almost every year on 1st November and the results are declared in December or January. But the process is longer than just filling the form. It is better to start sending emails to the professor from the month of September as the professor may take time to respond or may not respond at all. I made a list of all the top ranking universities (based on QS world ranking) and searched for professors whose research area matches my area of interest. It is advantageous to read their research papers or articles, as it helps you know the professor better and enables you to mention in the email the specific work you would like to do under him. The professor would also feel good that you are taking interest in his/her work, which increases your chance of getting a reply. An email should consist of your introduction, your interests, any of the professor’s work that interests you, what you expect from the internship and lastly a mention that your internship would be funded by DAAD. 
 

_posts/2017-07-30-jashan-uom.md

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Summer Diaries: University of Manchester"
+image: Jashan1.JPG
+tags: [wona, column]
+author: "Jashan Singh"
+category: summer2017 
+excerpt: "Research is serious professional work and is treated as such. Although the British atmosphere and culture felt quite weird at first to a student such as me, with having lunch at 12pm, dealing with excessive rains, sunbathing if the sun ever shines (3 days out 7), the 9 to 5 work culture and then having dinner as early as 6pm, health and safety induction programs that stretched the entire week (apparently, prevention is the best cure, literally), celebrating weekends, and Happy Hours (it’s exactly what you think it means) after a conference at the department with the professors, you get used to it soon."
+---
+
+### Prologue
+<br>
+“Biotech waale toh sab foreign intern maarte hain” was the phrase I had constantly heard since my first year. Since the placement office doesn’t fancy the “Core Biotech Internship Program” if there ever was such a thing, <b>we</b> have to make do with Europe, North America and Australia over the IT rich cities of Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Gurgaon. 
+<b>we</b> = Biotechnology, Metallurgy, GT/GPT, etc
+Since DAAD, EPFL, Charpak, Mitacs and Viterbi are well known to send students off for internships on a full stipend to universities abroad, many people end up applying to such programs. And if you know anything about the Indian education system, there is bound to be some major competition which entails higher GPA requirements, a resume adorned with previous research projects and blessings from The Almighty Himself/Herself (feminism). 
+To sum up, getting a foreign intern is almost as tough as JEE Advance or changing your branch!
+<br>
+### Making it there 
+<br>
+Students forget that the internet can be used for other things as well. If you have convinced yourself that you want a career in research (just to keep you going through the process), here are some useful <b>intern-ey</b> things to do/keep track of while you are online:
+1. The new semester usually starts from September in the EU region so that’s when the professors are looking for kick-starting new and interesting research projects.
+2. Look out for funding agencies like the British Council (again the requirements are pretty much the same as stated above), but apply anyway.
+3. Search for reasonably high ranking universities (according to your status)
+4. Search for professors whose research interests align with yours
+5. (If you don’t have one, pick the topic that you have studied the most)
+6. Prepare a Cover letter (primary email) and a resume (not a CV; they are different things).
+7. SOPs (Statement of Purpose) are highly specific to the research area that you want to go to and usually, professors tend to ask for it in successive emails (if you get there), so no need to prepare it beforehand.
+8. Just have a friendly conversation with the prof (over email or Skype), subtly ask for a stipend and Voila, you are there.
+9. Apply for the passport that you lied about having. (If already have one then proceed to step 10)
+10. Acquire the Acceptance letter from the University and make sure it states “Visiting PGR student” or something similar and not an “Internship”. (Needed for step 11)
+11. Get a short term student visa (at least 15 days before your flight).
+12. Fly!
+
+
+![pic2](/images/posts/Jashan2.JPG){: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
+
+### Life at UoM
+<br>
+People expect a scenario similar to certain American college movies, but that’s just superficial.
+Undergraduate life is the same in almost every part of the world, only the work culture, hangout spots, night-outs and party plans change. It is important to remain in touch with that part of your being when you are on an internship abroad. 
+Research is serious professional work and is treated as such. Although the British atmosphere and culture felt quite weird at first to a student such as me, with having lunch at 12pm, dealing with excessive rains, sunbathing if the sun ever shines (3 days out 7), the 9 to 5 work culture and then having dinner as early as 6pm, health and safety induction programs that stretched the entire week (apparently, prevention is the best cure, literally), celebrating weekends, and <b>Happy Hours</b> (it’s exactly what you think it means) after a conference at the department with the professors, you get used to it soon.Fortunately I befriended some undergrads to get me back in the groove and really explore Manchester as though a first yearite would. It’s the after work/dinner social life where things get interesting.
+Remember when I said it was all superficial? <b>I lied. </b>
+<br>
+### Exploring the country(s)
+<br>
+Before leaving for my internship, people usually told me to roam different cities, look at the famous attractions, click loads of photographs, and basically be a tourist. This, really, is not a bad idea, because you can easily go on pre-planned, cheap trips across Europe and manage 2-3 countries on long weekends.
+But to me, it was all about being a traveller, exploring the culture and the people while having someone awesome keeping me company. We would take it slow, a country or a city in a weekend like the way it is meant to be done. We could never see as much a tourist would in a single day over the entire weekend and we never wanted to either.
+<b>Honest opinion</b>: Do some sightseeing on Google Maps 3D and then plan your trips, you would definitely enjoy more.
+<br>
+### Epilogue
+Keeping it simple, an internship to an overseas university is a must for all students as it teaches you not only how much research means in the world but that opportunities are limitless for the so called “non-core” fields.
+
+

_posts/2017-08-01-summer-diaries-visa.md

@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Summer Diaries: VISA"
+image: princi1.png
+tags: [wona, column]
+author: "Princi Vershwal"
+category: summer2017 
+excerpt: "I made it to Visa Inc’s internship program through an off-campus attempt. Like many good companies do, Visa conducted an online coding contest on HackerRank, but this was open only for women. Similar to many other contests on Codeforces, it had five coding questions. Post the contest, they invited the top-50 participants for a couple of interview rounds in their Bangalore office."
+---
+
+### Making it there
+
+I made it to Visa Inc’s internship program through an off-campus attempt. Like many good companies do, Visa conducted an online coding contest on HackerRank, but this was open only for women. Similar to many other contests on Codeforces, it had five coding questions. Post the contest, they invited the top-50 participants for a couple of interview rounds in their Bangalore office.
+
+There are many companies like Cisco, Morgan Stanley, and Codenation, that conduct such online contests during the internship season, so keep a check on the HackerRank calendar. These contests usually have a stiff competition, as students from various colleges and branches all over from India participate in such competitions. For preparation, practice ceaselessly on online portals like Codechef, Codeforces, HackerRank, and HackerEarth.
+
+For this year, however, Visa is planning to come to the IIT Roorkee campus for hiring interns. The campus hiring process would probably be similar to the other companies, that is, one coding/aptitude round followed by a series of interviews.
+
+![pic2](/images/posts/princi2.png){: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
+
+### The Work and Culture 
+
+Visa genuinely cares about its employees, which is something that was evident with the way I was treated throughout my tenure here.
+
+![pic2](/images/posts/princi3.png){: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
+
+As far as the projects go, it all depends on the team you are assigned to. There are real time projects related to the work going on in the teams. Interns usually work the same way as a regular employee does, apart from the ton of guidance regarding their work. I worked on an individual project, but there were other projects which had people working in teams of two or three.The working hours are flexible, but most of the interns work from 9 am to 5 pm. Most of the teams have daily standups which help keeping the work on track. 
+
+Apart from all the serious work in the team, our two months were full of team outings and social events within and outside the office. Additionally, special events which were arranged only for interns (including booking the entire movie hall). Visa also provides all the luxuries including a good place to stay, daily travel, and food. This is a big advantage for first-time Bangalore visitors like me.
+
+Moreover, every year, Visa has a Global Intern Summit (it was in San Francisco, USA this year) where we had a chance to meet Visa’s interns from more than 14 other countries, 	the CEO (Al Kelly), and the CTO (Rajat Taneja) of Visa, along with the other great people working at this company. 
+
+![pic2](/images/posts/princi4.png){: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
+
+### Words of Advice
+
+If you are a non-CSE student, getting an internship in a coding profile might seem difficult to you. However, with the right amount of dedication and meeting the right people, you can make it to impressive heights. For instance, here is a conversation I had with my mentor Sean McArthur, who is a full-time employee at Mozilla.
+
+
+<i>Sean: So what kind of a student are you? Are you a topper or a backbencher at your college?</i><br>
+<i>Me: Actually, I’m average. I don’t enjoy my subjects as much as I like to code, which is why I study all of my departmental courses just before the exams to survive. I have had just one course in C++, that too in my first semester and I managed to get an A in that.</i><br>
+<i>Sean (surprised): No other course? Nothing at all?</i><br>
+<i>Me: No</i><br>
+<i>Sean: Oh my god! Really? That’s so cool! I am so impressed! Then how do you know so much about this field?</i><br>
+<i>Me: The internet at our college is pretty fast!</i>
+<br><br>
+That is it! If you learn to effectively exploit the facilities our college has, you’ll be good to go. Additionally, here’s some other advice I can offer 
+<br>
+
+- Do a coding internship only if you are interested in it, otherwise don’t waste your time. Anyone who has a good knowledge of the subjects related to Computer Science can get hired by a good company, irrespective of his/her branch. However, a good CGPA is always important and you will, very soon, get to know this in the coming internship season.
+
+- Do not run behind campus placements (especially for internship). Explore more. There are way better options.
+By the end of my 6th semester I had four internships, all in different fields of CS and in different companies (Fuzzy Logix, Visa, Morgan Stanley and Mozilla(Outreachy)), and I’m a student of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering with a CG of 7.4! So, learn more and explore as much as you can. Read blogs, see what all opportunities are there, find out where your interest lies, and do not be afraid of making wrong choices, you are just in the 2nd/3rd year of your college. This is the time to learn and not run behind an internship.
+
+- Being a student at IIT Roorkee, you are surrounded by some of the best coders, developers, and researchers. We have people from all branches and fields of science who have expertise in various domains of CSE. Connect to people around you and talk about their experiences and work. 
+One of the major reason I could have such an amazing summer is because I met the right people at the right time. 
+
+- Ask questions. No question is ever dumb. Go out and talk to people, take random trips to SDSLabs, MDG or any other room in the hobbies club. People will always welcome you. 
+
+- If you ever get a chance to attend any good conference or event, (like, I went to Google I/O this summer), go there and explore even if it is being hard on your pocket. These experiences are completely worth the money.
+
+- If you are planning to do a remote project like GSoC/Outreachy, try not to wait till third year, it will be better if you do it in your second year. Honestly, if you are doing it for the sake of learning(and not earning) do it after 2nd year, as at the end of your 2nd year you have a lot of time to learn.
+
+- Use your 2nd year summer breaks wisely. They form the springboard for your 3rd year internships.

_posts/2017-08-03-summer-diaries-nig.md

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Summer Diaries: National Institute of Genetics, Mishima"
+image: sonali-1.png
+tags: [wona, column]
+author: "Sonali Srijan"
+category: summer2017 
+excerpt: "The National Institute of Genetics, Mishima is a research institute that serves as a host to the DNA Data Bank of Japan. It provides post-graduate education under the Department of Genetics, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), and is a hub for international and domestic research collaborations."
+---
+
+### About NIG
+
+The National Institute of Genetics, Mishima is a research institute that serves as a host to the DNA Data Bank of Japan. It provides post-graduate education under the Department of Genetics, SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies), and is a hub for international and domestic research collaborations.
+
+### Making it there
+
+I’m currently availing the Honda Y-E-S (Young Engineer and Scientist) Plus scholarship (2016-17) that funds Y-E-S awardees to pursue a ten-week (or more) long research-based internship or masters in universities of Japan. The Honda Y-E-S award (India) is a recognition granted to academically inclined pre-final year students from a list of IITs shortlisted every year.
+
+<b>Selection:</b> The Y-E-S is an initiative to disseminate green technology, and aims to strengthen technical prowess among the Asian youth, holding competitions along the similar lines in countries like India, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. 
+
+After going through the online registration, the applicants (third-year undergraduates) are filtered based on a cutoff-C.G.P.A (greater than 7.00 GPA in each of the first four semesters). This is followed by a written round, which requires an essay on a pretty broad topic that allows you to connect with your field of expertise in the subject. About ten students are then shortlisted for the interview from each IIT.
+
+The interviews are based on eco-technology, and finding unique ideas to tackle current environmental issues. After getting past the first interview, the finalists received a confirmation call along with a biography of Soichiro Honda San, the founder of Honda Motors. The final interview for Y-E-S (2016-17) was assessed by Mr. Shirish Garud, Director and Senior Fellow, TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute). It was a really interactive session, where we were asked questions based on our technical competence, the write-up, general awareness and co-curricular activities. 
+
+After the above intermittent rounds of rigorous personal interviewing at the Honda headquarters in Delhi, the final awardees are felicitated at a decorated event with a handsome prize money. Furthermore, they are encouraged to take up research internship projects in Japanese universities, through financial funding via the Y-E-S plus scholarship.  
+
+The aforementioned sequence of chapters got me interested to avail the scholarship. And after a month-long mailing session, I earned the chance to work at the Model Fish Genomics Resources Laboratory at the National Institute of Genetics (NIG or Idenken in Japanese) in Mishima, Japan. 
+
+Mail-trackers like Mixmax came in handy, given the time difference between India and Japan (the latter being 3.5 hours ahead). A befitting resume and a few crisp and aptly crafted e-mails worked for me. Keep the mails short and to the point. I would recommend using IITR webmail wherever possible. 
+NIG also accepts undergraduate research enthusiasts via a separate one-month long summer internship program called NIGINTERN. 
+
+### Work and life at NIG
+
+I chose to take up a core part of the ongoing forward-genetics research in Danio rerio (zebrafish).  My job was to rough-map/locate a chemically-induced novel heterozygous mutation in the zebrafish germline that manifests a direct impact upon spermatogenesis, for a better understanding of the shift from mitosis to meiosis in vertebrates. The job required precise liquid-handling techniques and electrophoretic data-analysis skills, and a hands-on training experience in the first week helped me get through it. The project required me to conduct multiple PCR reactions, an idea that was initially intimidating. 
+The first day at the lab wasn’t really great. The DNA extraction experiment went wrong and I ended up with a dead specimen.
+
+![pic2](/images/posts/sonali-2.png){: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
+
+I received considerable technical support from my Professor (Sensei) and the Assistant Professor that made project details lucid, along with other numerous concepts that I had previously read but forgotten. 
+
+Work hours were flexible, but given the slightly demanding nature of the project, I would often quit work late in the evenings. Every alternate Tuesday, we had a Journal Club, that’s a confluence of multiple labs presenting and discussing recent publications in germ cell research. I must admit many of the discussions were beyond me, given the fact that developmental biology is not part of our curriculum in the strictest sense. Despite the same, the discussions apprised me of the general flow and also to the format of a typical research-oriented presentation.
+
+Added to that, I was lucky enough to attend the NIG Retreat: an institute-level symposium that takes place every two or three years, where activities like poster-presentation events, research overviews, general discussions and sumptuous meals are organized at an enticing location. It was an amazing experience for me, all the fantastic presentations and the authentic Japanese cuisine made it an unforgettable event. It was also a wonderful opportunity for me to socialize with international researchers. 
+
+During the second month of the internship, lab visits were organized for all the visiting interns. The experience was indeed very enriching. 
+There doesn’t exist a discrete “buddy” system there, but people in my lab were very thoughtful to send me details about the Indian researchers at NIG. Moreover, my sensei gave me a ladies’ bicycle (called “Mamachari” in Japanese) to travel around conveniently in Mishima. NIG is located on top of a hill, and it was always overwhelming, cycling down the descent with the view of Mt. Fuji. 
+
+![pic3](/images/posts/sonali-3.png){: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
+
+The first few weeks were pretty challenging. One of the main reasons being the language barrier. I couldn’t really make the best use of my rudimentary Japanese acquired by a two-week long self-learning program. NIG, being very receptive to foreign students was luckily very sensitive towards this issue, with all seminars conducted in English. Despite that, there were underlying issues in explanation of concepts, doubt sessions, troubleshooting etc; stemming from lingual differences. Especially outside the campus, problems were very visible. Google translate came in handy, though it does translate many words in a wrong way. Sign-language was my last resort in worst-case scenarios. The locals helped me a lot to cross this language divide.
+
+Another reason was the food. But after a few days, I adapted to it quite well and in fact, came to develop a taste for many of the local dishes including Japonica variety rice, unagi (eel), okonomiyaki, omu-rice (traditional omelette-rice), and sushi among other delicacies. I would often eat lunch at the campus cafeteria, and prepare breakfast and dinner by myself. This ensured I developed the skills to cook decent food on my own. 
+
+After my project was complete, I got the chance to attend an international research symposium on Regulation of Germ cell development in Kyushu University, Fukuoka. The brilliant talks with some very innovative sessions were quite resourceful and insightful. 
+
+### What’s to love about the place
+
+Everything!
+
+![pic4](/images/posts/sonali-4.png){: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
+
+![pic5](/images/posts/sonali-5.png){: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
+
+After five hectic days of work, I would always save up time to travel during the weekends. Japan is a country that can boast about the best of scenic landscapes. Be it volcanoes/mountains (oh yes, I climbed to the summit of Mt. Fuji in a very bad weather, covering a significant portion of the ascent all alone. Yay!), hot sulphur springs and black hard-boiled eggs (Hakone), sandy beaches (Atami and Numazu being closest to my prefecture; though rich Honshu-dwellers head straightaway to Okinawa), high-rise concrete jungles with clean air with lots of places to shop and party (Tokyo: Akihabara, Shibuya, Shinjuku; Osaka, Fukuoka etc.), shrines and monuments of cultural and historic importance (Kyoto, Hiroshima), Disneyland and Universal Studios, thrilling roller-coasters at FujiQ highlands, the very popular Shinkansen (bullet train)... And the list goes on and on. 
+
+Apart from these places, Mishima, the place where NIG is situated, is no less. A very peaceful town with the majority population as sexagenarians, it’s very close to nature with some very picturesque riversides, and offers a spectacular view of Mt Fuji. Located in Shizuoka prefecture, it is home to Japan’s longest skywalk, and is surrounded by cool getaways. 
+
+### Key Takeaways
+
+The internship was amazing in every sense of the word. Science and symposiums, huge culture exchange, travel, hard-learnt punctuality lessons, indispensable life-skills, a sense of accomplishment that follows completion and a resolve to learn the Japanese language. That‘s the many takeaways from this other-worldly experience. 

_posts/2017-08-06-summer-diaries-itc.md

@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Summer Diaries: ITC"
+image: soumajit-1.png
+tags: [wona, column]
+author: "Soumajit Sen"
+category: summer2017 
+excerpt: "The projects at ITC are real world business problems which the company is currently tackling. The expectations from KITES interns is enormous and they reciprocate with the freedom the interns are given to carry out any experiment, contact any OEM, install any equipment and even design any machine. Any insights put forward by KITES interns are taken up with utmost concern and discussions are also held on the same."
+---
+
+### About ITC
+ITC is a multi-billion-dollar Indian conglomerate which was established in 1910 as the Imperial Tobacco Company of India. Today its diversified business includes: FMCG, Hotels, Paperboards & Packaging, Agri-Business and Information Technology. It has a market capitalisation of over US $40 billion and a turnover of around US $8 billion. 
+
+### Making it there
+ITC has an entirely offbeat selection process to scrutinise and select its interns. The process commences with the company presentation and is followed by the display of the list of shortlisted candidates. The submission of the applications had occurred on their portal 2 weeks prior to the presentation. The presentation is followed by Group Discussion. The group discussion is a case study where your opinion with supportive arguments for the given situation matters the most. Group Discussion is among groups of 9 students each. The cases in general are hypothetical situations with certain alternatives following the situation. You are expected to arrange the alternatives in order of priority.  For cracking the GD try to read the case study as fast as you can and start the dialogue. Initiating the GD, driving it to conclusion or even a sensible summary will fetch you brownie points. Next in line are two rounds of interview, the first is technical with the other being HR. The latter is taken up by the senior most professionals on the team.
+
+The technical interview is to check your conceptual understanding of the subject and how strong you are with your basics. Be prepared with at least two subjects as the interviewee is always given an option to choose any 2 courses that he/she is comfortable with. For chemical, Heat Transfer, Mass Transfer, Thermodynamics, etc could be the options. The resume will be discussed thoroughly and it is advisable to only mention projects about which you are confident. Be prepared to answer questions about your most recent internship/ project.
+
+The HR round begins with a series of clichéd questions such as, “Tell us about yourself”, “Strengths and Weaknesses” and then gradually moves onto the tricky ones like say the implications of working in a tobacco factory or about working in remote locations (Munger for example).
+
+![pic2](/images/posts/soumajit-2.png){: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
+
+### Workplace
+
+#### Aim of the internship and domain of work
+
+The projects at ITC are real world business problems which the company is currently tackling. The expectations from KITES interns is enormous and they reciprocate with the freedom the interns are given to carry out any experiment, contact any OEM, install any equipment and even design any machine. Any insights put forward by KITES interns are taken up with utmost concern and discussions are also held on the same. 
+The Projects assigned are from different disciplines, ranging from supply chain, quality control, automation to Six sigma, Image Processing and Optimization. Most of the times it so happens that the projects are not related to your domain and it becomes mandatory to step out of your comfort zone to finish the task. As for mine I was assigned two projects, one being on quality control and assurance and the other on Statistical Process Control Techniques in the Foods Business Division on a product belonging to the brand Fabelle. In my project specifically, the major bottleneck was the shelf life of the product and the time it took for the micro-organisms to enumerate and for me to receive the reports. Yes, you read it right, this summer I was working on micro-biology. My approach towards the problem was using the Quality Control Technique to check on all the reasons which summed up to the problem and to come up with practices and solutions which confirmed quality assurance and control. The second project was on improving process capability for moisture variation which demanded control charts and step-by-step analysis of the process to deliver.
+
+Reviews were held every week with the project guide in the eight weeks internship period and two reviews with the entire team which were presided over by the category head occurred, one at the end of 4 weeks and the other at the end of 8 weeks. The mid-review and final review are particularly important to track an intern’s progress and only on the category head’s recommendation will the project qualify for a review at the Head Office. 
+
+As for the offer, the intern-PPO conversion rate at ITC is around 45-50% and it’s best to not be optimistic and prepare for the worst. But once offered a job at ITC, the initial few months involve a lot of factory visits and travel.
+
+#### Work culture
+
+ITC has a dynamic work culture. It demands you to be on-the-go. One day you are at a factory and the next day at another (which is in a different city altogether) and since the company is expanding its FMCG market, the current scenario is intense. Every project being undertaken is critical to the company’s future and is the reason why when interns work on a project, it attracts the entire team’s attention.
+
+![pic3](/images/posts/soumajit-3.png){: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
+
+As for an intern’s week, I had a 6-day job since my project demanded that the majority of my time be spent at the factory. The factories have strong management practices such as the 5S’ which are carefully adhered to. Everyone at ITC is always pumped about work and always come up with innovative stuff. During my internship tenure, I also had the opportunity to visit Life Sciences and Technology Center (LSTC), Bangalore, the R&D HQ of ITC which has state-of-the-art facilities.
+
+#### People at the place
+
+We as interns at ITC are allotted a “guide” who works along with the interns on the project in addition to their day-to-day tasks. The guide is always there to help the intern with any doubt, query or regarding any clarification. The entire system is transparent. Data is shared with the interns during their tenure as required providing them with all the resources necessary in completing the project. This time a new concept of a “buddy” was also introduced who was necessarily not from the same category. Buddy had the responsibility to help the intern with any kind of issue, be it personal or to get a hang of the system protocol in addition to helping with the project if need be. I had a buddy from the biscuits category despite interning in New Category (Chocolates). Everyone at ITC is extremely helpful and easily approachable including the unit head.
+
+#### What’s to love about the place
+
+The most awesome and motivating part about ITC is the way they treat their interns be it the stay, travel, induction programme, etc. It’s a dream come true to work as an intern at ITC. It all starts with a 3-day “Mind Over Matter” induction programme at Bengaluru during the month of April. The entire induction programme along with the stay is arranged at ITC Windsor, a classic of the ITC luxury hotels chain. 
+
+At the start of the tenure we were summoned to the head office of the division we had been allocated and I had a chance to interact with the senior members including the CEO of the division (in my case Foods). Then since my base location was Bangalore, I could commence work the same day. I was made familiar with all the departments and incorporated into the factory dynamics. Although difficult to roam around during the internship tenure, Bangalore is a pretty happening place especially throughout the weekends and enough places to chill out. The weather in Bangalore is admirable with cool breezy winds and rain showers almost every day. All in all, it was a remarkable journey to cherish throughout.
+
+![pic4](/images/posts/soumajit-4.png){: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
+
+### Summing up and key takeaways
+The two-month tenure at ITC is a huge value-addition to any intern. Irrespective of the outcome, there is a lot to learn and apply within these 2 months. It might be difficult to scale your thinking but solutions presented with impacts to the business are always commendable. Life will be a bit difficult during these two months and sometimes you might feel demotivated but perseverance is the key to everything.
+
+As for the recruitment part, those individuals are preferred who display out-of-the-box thinking and therefore the term ‘Mind-Over-Matter’ is given importance. They look for candidates who step out of their comfort zone to achieve or those that have strived hard to work towards their goals. I would advise the candidates sitting for ITC to keep your calm when appearing for the interviews and the group discussion, and also to be clear and confident of what you have mentioned on your resume. 

_posts/2017-08-07-debsoc.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "The Debating Society, IIT Roorkee"
+image: debsoc.png
+tags: [wona, column]
+author: "Rishabh Jha"
+category: verbatim
+excerpt: "We are IIT Roorkee’s official body in the pursuit of debating in English language. As such, it is us who train students and represent the college in national and international level debating tournaments around the world. We follow specific formats of debating, namely the British Parliamentary and Asian Parliamentary Format, and spend as many evenings as we can on perfecting our skills in it."
+---
+
+### How is debating at college different from debating at school?
+
+Oh, it’s a world of difference. At debating contests in schools, the focus is much more on how well you speak rather than on what you speak. For most of my life as a debater at school I was flustered by how good elocutionists with rather nonsensical speeches in terms of content, trumped the rest of us in a breeze. College debating differs in that aspect. Here, all that we really care about is the quality of your arguments. If your logical abilities and case building are sound, you should be able to take the debate even if your elocution isn’t state of the art.
+
+Another major difference is the casual attitude. At school you have a panel of strict principals and teachers sitting as judges who will judge you right from the shine of your shoes to the length of your hair. At college, no one cares. The tournaments are exclusively conducted only by students. Everyone from the organisers to the speakers to the judges are students. No one cares about how you dress, how formal you are, or if you use the F-word. We only care about the argument you are making. 
+
+### What does the Debating Society do?
+
+We are IIT Roorkee’s official body in the pursuit of debating in English language. As such, it is us who train students and represent the college in national and international level debating tournaments around the world. We follow specific formats of debating, namely the British Parliamentary and Asian Parliamentary Format, and spend as many evenings as we can on perfecting our skills in it. In addition to the frequent debates, we have weekly sessions called Argumentative Weekends, open to the entire campus, meant for us to expand the scope and depth of our knowledge as much as possible
+
+### Could you explain the structure of the Debating Society?
+
+The Debating Society has 7 secretarial posts spread across the second, third and fourth yearites. After recruitments in the beginning of each year, a corpus members are recruited who are intensively trained with the purpose of excelling in tournaments.
+In addition, we conduct weekly events open to the entire campus where we welcome anyone to learn from us, teach us and hone their skills in debating.
+
+### What is the best part of being in the Debating Society of IITR?
+
+Intelligent Company, without a doubt. We can all more or less agree that each of us likes to hang out with people of a certain intellect. While I myself may not be very smart, I enjoy the company of smart people. It can often be difficult to find a high concentration of such people in a randomized social structure. The Debating Society helps sort that out for me by flocking together a good sized bunch of them in one place.
+
+### We often hear that the DebSoc engages only in *Parliamentary Debates*. Could you explain what it means?
+
+Yes. When we participate in school debates, they do not all conform to the same set of rules. There is no uniformity.
+However, there do exist standard formats of debating around the world. Popular among these in India are Asian and British and Parliamentary Debates. Each of these format has set prescriptions in terms of how many teams there are, what the number of speakers in each team is, what role each of them have to play and so on.
+
+For example, most debates we have on campus are conducted in the 3x3 Asian Parliamentary Debating Format. What this means, is that each debate will have 2 teams with 3 members each.
+
+One team will be the proposition (prop) and the other will be the opposition (opp). The topics will be given to both teams 20 minutes before the debate starts. The debate will begin with the first speaker from prop followed by one from opp and so on. Each member of the team will adhere to some specific rules prescribed for them. Every speech will be 7 minutes long. After the speeches, the first six speeches, there are smaller reply speeches. And it goes on. 
+The summation of all these rules have to be followed when you are doing such a parliamentary debate. One needs to attend our workshops on the subject to gain an in-depth knowledge of the format, but I hope this gives you an idea.
+
+### Could you name some glories and achievements of the group(both before and after you’ve been a part of the group)?
+
+In the past years we have participated in at least over a dozen debates against many different colleges and hold a victory in the majority of them. Notable tournaments were at KNC and Hansraj 2017, IITD PD – 2016 and 2017, NLU D – 2017 and 2014 along with many more.  Our team were semifinalists at the inter IIT Debating Championship and Arnav from the team adjudged the final debate of the tournament.
+ 
+### What are some of the problems you’ve faced due to the administration?
+
+There was a time when we suffered quite a lot to the administrative apathy. But thankfully, last year saw a change at the helms and we have been able to thrive since then.
+
+One problem that still remains that the admin often doesn’t understand the kind of debating we do at college. Explaining the entire structure of a parliamentary debate and the sheer effort it takes for us to excel at it is quite difficult to explain. We are often expected to garner crowds and fill auditoriums in the way that the performing sections do (and they do it quite well), except that they do not understand we aren’t at school. Parliamentary debates don’t work like debating at school where you can any number of people stand on stage and hear each of them repeat the same things that all of them stole from one book on the topic. Our debates are spontaneous and usually explore each topic to such depths that if someone lacks the context to it, they just won’t enjoy it. That we aren’t a performing section, is rather difficult to explain. Our job is to practice immensely and represent the college in debates, not to fill our auditoriums and entertain.
+
+That aside, our biggest concern remains with the need for a room. A room is the fundamental thing you require for conducive debates. We are a rare college whose debating society still decides its schedule at the mercy of the weather and debate under the open sky, often among dogs*. The explanation of the admin is that they don’t have rooms to give, or want us to inform them of a debate before the debate is scheduled, but our problem still stays. We need a dedicated space to debate whenever we want.
+
+![pic2](/images/posts/debsoc_canine.jpg){: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
+<center><i>*Proof of our canine company</i><center>

_posts/2017-08-08-summer-diaries-intuit.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: "Summer Diaries: Intuit"
+image: anushrut-1.png
+tags: [wona, column]
+author: "Anushrut Gupta"
+category: summer2017 
+excerpt: "Being called a 35-year-old startup, Intuit believes in reinventing itself time and again, making it one of the most innovative companies in tech right now. Intuit is one of the most employee friendly companies out there doing amazing work, for which it was recently awarded the Economic Times’ award for being India's best company to work for, 2017."
+---
+
+___
+intuit
+
+**ɪnˈtjuːɪt/**
+
+*verb*
+
+  - understand or work out by instinct.
+
+___
+
+With a mission of _powering prosperity around the world_, Intuit was conceived in 1983 by Scott Cook who realized that personal computers could lend themselves as replacements for paper-and-pencil based personal accounting.
+
+_“We believe in the people who do things – the hat jugglers, the to-do list junkies, the masters of getting it done faster, better and more efficiently than ever before. Whether that's balancing the household budget, running a business or paying taxes.”_
+<p style="text-align: right;">- an excerpt from Corporate Profile, Intuit</p>
+
+In this constantly evolving world, Intuit believes in not just meeting, but leading the changes, which has made them survive for more than three decades and emerge as an industry leader.
+
+Today, Intuit stands as a leading provider of business and financial management solutions, that develops and sells financial, accounting and tax preparation software and related services for businesses, accountants and individuals, headquartered in Mountain View, California, generating a revenue north of $4.7 billion.
+
+### How does one get into-it?
+My story reads a little fairy-tale like, you’ll see.
+
+Step 1: __Have a low enough CGPA__, so you get rejected by GS. But not so low that you can’t recover. So I kept it at 6.95 (by choice).
+
+Step 2: __Screw up MS’ written test.__
+
+Step 3: __Get Intuit to come to your campus__ (luckily they did, for the first time in 2016).
+
+Step 4: __Get through the primary test__, which comprises of a set of multiple choice questions focusing on several computer science concepts, especially, Data Structures, Algorithms, Operating Systems, Networks and Databases; followed by 3 programming questions with varying levels of difficulty. Luckily, you get the freedom of language and editor (Python and Vim, yay!).
+
+Step 5: __Ace the interviews__. They mainly focus on your personality, aptitude, knowledge of computer science fundamentals and experience with code. Also, they silently judge whether you comply with their ethics and make sure they don’t just bring in a workhorse.
+
+Step 6: __Get selected__ in the team of your choice. Yes, they listen to you if you know how and when to __*subtly*__ drop the necessary hints, during the interviews that is. I, hence, landed an intern with the _Innovation and Advanced Technology_ team.
+
+
+### Work, place?
+
+![pic1](/images/posts/anushrut-2.png)
+
+I always thought a good satisfying corporate job was a myth I had to believe. Well, my internship proved me wrong. Being called a 35-year-old startup, Intuit believes in reinventing itself time and again, making it one of the most innovative companies in tech right now.
+
+Intuit's approach to innovation has two core competencies that differentiate the company and allows it to deliver solutions that truly change people's lives.
+
+  * __Customer-driven innovation__, which is a mindset and methodology to uncover important, unsolved problems.
+
+  * __Design for Delight__, a process that helps create better ways to deliver what's most important to customers. This approach to innovation creates an entrepreneurial environment where small teams collaborate to delight customers and deliver awesome product experiences.
+
+"By giving our employees the freedom to experiment, we are able to bring groundbreaking innovations that solve important customer problems to market faster than ever." said Brad Smith, Intuit president and chief executive officer. "Our strong performance is boosted by the secular tailwind that we're riding toward a connected services economy, backed by continuous innovation and strong execution."
+
+After spending ten weeks, I can safely say that all of this is true and brilliantly achieved.
+
+The interns are regarded on the same level as the employees and granted all the privileges, which I’ll get into, soon. On your day of arrival, you are issued the highest end Macintosh laptop money can buy (cheap thrills, sorry) and an identification card which earns you the perks an employee enjoys.
+
+After a tedious orientation day, you get to meet your team and mentor, the ones you’ll be working with for the coming months. The people there, way too friendly (thanks to the silent judgement of ethics during the hiring process), help you around and get you acquainted in no time. You are allotted a spacious desk among other employees, mostly of your team, equipped with a desk phone and any number of accessories which you ask for; monitors, keyboards, mice, headsets and the like.
+
+![pic2](/images/posts/anushrut-3.png)
+
+The workload depends on how much you take upon yourself and there are no restricted working hours. I personally took up two main projects and usually worked from 11 to 6, but stayed back a little longer (for the food, fun and games).
+
+Being in the IAT team, I broadly worked on Data Science and Machine Learning projects, thanks to which I learnt a lot and gained claimable proficiency in the same. Being a large organisation, there are teams digging deep into each field of information technology and the work one intern gets is almost guaranteed to be good, meaningful and deliverable, which actually goes into production, like mine did in the last week of my term.
+
+Dotted throughout the months were meticulously planned and well executed events, some exclusively for the interns and some otherwise, ranging from hackathons to leadership-connects, from We Care and Give Back sessions to product-mashups. This helped us learn the ins and outs of the company and attain a sense of belonging.
+
+Good work is always appreciated at Intuit, in the form of Spotlight rewards, mementos or dine-outs. This keeps one motivated and feel like someone cares, which is something you don’t come by in giant corporates.
+
+At the end of the day (or whenever you feel like it), you can drop down to one of the recreations areas lined with numerous games and avocations, or grab a delicious bite to eat at one of the cafeterias (free food, early morning to late evening), or enjoy the luxury of the gymnasium, sleeping cells et cetera.
+
+In the last week, you present and demonstrate your work before the Architects whose judgement, in conjunction with your team, manager and HR’s feedback, determines whether you’ll be called back to work with them a year later.
+
+### Location, location, location
+
+![pic3](/images/posts/anushrut-4.png)
+
+Intuit has three buildings in the RMZ Ecospace tech-park in Bellandur, Bangalore. You already know about Bangalore, right?
+
+### Summing up
+Intuit is one of the most employee friendly companies out there doing amazing work, for which it was recently awarded the Economic Times’ award for being [India's best company to work for, 2017](http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/indias-best-companies-to-work-for-2017-at-intuit-everyone-gets-a-say-in-policies-affecting-them/articleshow/59417729.cms). One can describe the internship experience as a training period for a full time role where you can pick up right where you left off. Intuit boasts a lot, but for a reason; difficult to describe in words, but marvelous to experience.

_posts/2017-08-15-quizzing-section.md

@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "The Quizzing Society, IIT Roorkee"
+image: ruhela1.JPG
+tags: [wona, column]
+author: "Utkarsh Ruhela"
+category: verbatim 
+excerpt: ""
+---
+
+### How has the Quizzing Section changed your life?
+<br>
+Change is quite a heavy word. I’d rather tell you how it has impacted me as a person. Quizzing is a sport, and being a sport it obviously helps in flexing the concerned muscles. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to fall in love with quizzing as a sport, yet.
+
+However, I have absolutely fallen in love with what it entails, which ranges from exploring Salvador Dalí to knowing that Napoleon and Hitler were just making up for being biologically unfortunate males.
+
+I see another trait- Spontaneity, which is quite common in all quizzing enthusiasts. You know the situations where you need to make snap decisions, and I think it has helped me build that too.
+<br>
+
+### What is the best part of being in the Quizzing Section of IITR?
+<br>
+Intelligentsia. In this new world order where we are all preparing to be corporate slaves, original and eccentric thinkers are becoming rarer and rarer. I thank all the quizzing folks for showing me how beautiful and normal it is to want to know everything and think differently at a technical institute.
+
+<br>
+
+### Could you explain the structure of the Quizzing Section?
+<br>
+We are an open group, which means anyone (and, I mean anyone, with or without a team) can show up to our quizzes and participate. 
+We have a seven member core team to help us in the execution and organisation, which comprises one secretary, two additional-secretaries and  four joint-secretaries.
+
+<br>
+
+### The most memorable quiz?
+<br>
+TATA Crucible 2017. Renju Kokkatt was my teammate for this one. I was in Delhi at home when he gave me an ultimatum with his broken Hindi to come to Roorkee for the quiz scheduled the day after. We hadn’t prepared at all for the quiz. As it turns out, we made it to the stage finals. He single-handedly took us to a tie for the second-place (which we ended up losing). But, it was one of the recent exhilarating quizzes.
+
+<br>
+
+### The best quizzer you’ve seen on campus?
+<br>
+It would be a tough fight between Sripad Behera and Akshit Tripathi.
+
+<br>
+
+### Team/Solo, what’s your favourite format? If team, who’s been your favourite team-mate?
+<br>
+Team quizzing hands down, I suck at lone-wolf quizzing.
+
+\*whispers\* substandard quizzer here.
+
+Renju and I complement well in a team.
+
+<br>
+![pic2](/images/posts/ruhela2.JPG){: style="width:100%;height:auto"}
+<br>
+
+### Glories and achievements of the group (both before and after you’ve been a part of the group)
+<br>
+This is one of those enigmatic groups on the campus! I keep finding out about ancient achievements even now, well into my fourth year. At Nihilanth 2011, Haaris’s team won the Business Quiz. For those amongst you who are unaware of Nihilanth, it is the annual Inter IIT-IIM Quizzing Fest. At the last Nihilanth, the team consisting of Sripad Behera, Akshit Tripathi and Sai Varun Reddy won Arul Mani’s general quiz. We have regularly dominated TATA Crucibles too.
+
+<br>
+
+### What is one thing you’d like people (especially freshers) to know about Quizzing Section?
+<br>
+It is often believed that Quizzing is about remembering facts and trivia. I feel this a big misconception about quizzing. Sure, you need to know very basic stuff about things, but most of the times we are just making smart guesses and logically trying to work out the answer in the dark. One might feel overwhelmed initially, but a couple of quizzes and they’ll be as comfortable as we are.
+
+Plus, the sheer amount of cool art, books, and what not you encounter in Quizzing is amazing. I would have been missing out on a lot of stuff if I had not been a part of the section, and I don’t feel this way for a lot of things.
+
+<br>
+
+### What are some of the problems you’ve faced due to the administration?
+<br> 
+Previously, there were a lot of issues, from the lack of funds to the booking of a venue. However, with Prof. P. K. Jha at the helm of Cultural Council, things are beginning to change for the better. We now have funds, resources and a bigger team after the split from the Debating Society.
+
+<br>
+
+### The LitSec has now been replaced by an independent Quizzing Section, and a Debating Society. What does this change mean for you?
+<br>
+LitSec has a lot of history and a rich heritage. There was a time when a lot of people were at the intersection of debating and quizzing, but now there are hardly any interaction and overlap of the members between two sections. Fueled by the dire need to increase the team size, it was a harmonious decision that the DebSoc and the Quizzing Section took bilaterally. It means a loss of identity as LitSec and bashings from alumni for breaking from the routine, but it also means catering to larger crowd at IITR, serving people with quizzes and debates more often, and subsequently expanding our reach.
+