Internera - Akshat Zalte

 

“Research is to see what everybody else has seen and to think what nobody else has thought” - Albert Szent-Györgyi.

This article is about my research internship at the University of Virginia, USA, during my sophomore summer. I hope you can appreciate research in general and, more importantly, in chemical engineering and related fields by the end of this article.

Hello there! I am Akshat Zalte, currently a junior undergraduate from the Chemical Engineering Department. I am from Pune, Maharashtra. I spend most of my free time hanging out with friends, cycling, hiking, and playing table tennis. I am a colossal research & tech enthusiast and ever curious about everything going around me. My goal in life is to make people's lives better using my engineering and analytical skills. Research just happens to be my chosen path to it! Academically, I am a vast Chemical Engineering fan, and my interests, although not rigid, are Molecular Dynamics simulations, Rheology, Process engineering, Proteomics, and Biomedical devices. I am pursuing a minor in the Biosciences and Bioengineering department. For about two years, I have been part of the mechanical subsystem of team AUV-IITB.

I was one of the few students who did not branch change into “higher” (PS: I do not believe in the hierarchy of branches) branches despite adequate CPI and tremendous peer pressure xD. To be honest, it was not because of any inclination towards Chemical engineering but due to my love for biology instigated by BB 101 and the notion that it is closely associated with Chemical Engineering. I took up an iSURP project during the 3rd semester under Prof. Sanjeeva Srivastava to quench this thirst. With the word “Covid” buzzing everywhere, I took a project on Semen Proteome Analysis of SARS-CoV 2 patients. I implemented data analysis algorithms using various software like MaxQuant and acquired the skill of reading and drafting a research paper from scratch. This, along with CL 203: Intro to Transport Phenomena course, taken by Prof. Guruswamy Kumarswamy, led me to choose research as my niche. Another round of course projects and projects under various professors during the 4th semester, coupled with constant learning from my tech team, culminated in me going for a summer intern at the University of Virginia on a project related to Diffusion on Nanotubes under Prof. Kateri DuBay from the Chemistry Department of UVa. More specifically, I investigated finite-size effects on diffusion in confined carbon nanotubes using Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations and hydrodynamic calculations.

The selection procedure was pretty straightforward. Unlike many non-core profiles like consult, which require months of practicing case studies to crack the interviews, a research profile just needs you to know your interests well. Knowingly or unknowingly, all of you have been preparing for a research profile! It just means doing the core courses from your department and liking at least one of them. Nothing extra is required or expected, just genuine interest in a topic and curiosity to dig deeper into it. There are many ways to secure an internship of your choice for sophomore summer - cold mailing (apping), ILP by SARC, E-Cell’s intern fair, personal contacts with the industry, etc. For me, the opportunity knocked the door through the PT cell! I signed two IAFs (both from UVa but with different professors and projects). I was shortlisted in both of them based on my resume - two-page focusing on projects rather than PORs and extra-curricular. The next step was submitting a Letter of Recommendation (LoR). An LoR is signed by a university professor entailing details about the student like performance, skills, enthusiasm, and their experience with the student while mentoring a project/course. Prof. Guruswamy wrote my LoR based on my performance in the course and course project. You can ask your project guide or the instructor of the course you did well in for an LoR. It is preferred that the professor knows you personally, but this is tough given the current online setting. The selection process also involved submitting a Statement of Purpose (SoP), which is about a page long (or shorter). This is where you write about your interests and weave a story about everything you have done to pursue them. SoP low-key translates to “Enthu Dikhao Juntaaa,” where you have to convince the professor that you are very enthusiastic about their project and can go to lengths to pursue it! After submitting LoR and SoP, the final shortlist was out for the interview. My interview lasted for only 15 minutes, where the professor explained the project in detail, followed by a short discussion on hobbies xD. The experience I gained running simulations as a part of my tech team helped me understand the project well and ask questions related to it, which I think impressed the professor. I got selected and decided to accept it right away even though I had another interview lined up (for the second IAF from UVa, I had signed and got shortlisted in). 

The internship experience was alluring. Although the set duration of the intern was ten weeks, I extended it well into the semester, with the last day of the intern being the same as the first day of our midsems. This was possible due to the virtual mode of the internship. 

Coming to the details of what I did as a research intern at the DuBay Lab, UVa… The project’s goal was to quantify something known as the finite-size effect while calculating the value of diffusion constant. One can calculate diffusion properties by careful experimentation, but this method is tremendously expensive. Hence, we turn to Molecular Dynamics simulations! Many MD simulations involve dividing the domain into small elements generating a mesh or net-like structure, and then solving the governing equations in these discrete elements. The size of these small ‘boxes’ determines the quality of results while calculating properties like Diffusion Constant. The deviation of simulation results from experimental values due to the wrong choice of box size is known as the finite-size effect. Throughout the summers, I ran countless simulations using LAMMPS (Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator), deciphered their results, visualized the flow, and tried to quantify this flow by using Fluid Mechanics learned at IITB. We had daily meetings with the prof to give updates and clear my doubts. The intern ended with a final presentation of my findings, results, learning outcomes, and future plans to the entire lab. 

My motive was to explore my newfound love for research and get the exposure of working as a part of an international team with similar interests. I believe that this internship gave me a fair idea about research and intrigued me to pursue a research intern for 3rd-year summer too! The skills I learned helped me get selected as an undergraduate summer research fellow at Purdue University.

To the minority of people who think they have found their passion, pursue it fully! Time is a precious commodity, so if you have even a tiny bit of clarity about what you want to do, my advice is to leverage it. Go on to become the best one can be in the field you are passionate about. At the risk of giving an unpopular opinion… DO NOT EXPLORE a lot! That being said, do not define yourself by what you do but by why you do what you are doing. This will help you expand your skill set as and when required. To the ones who haven’t found their interests yet, you are not alone. Explore to find your niche. It is not an understatement to say that IITB offers an infinite number of opportunities, and you can excel in anything of your choice. Do what feels best at the given moment. Practically speaking, it is a good idea to start with the fastest booming fields like Computer Science, Finance, etc. If you ask me, research in your core department is worth a try. It is convenient to explore and requires you to be interested in just one topic of your choice.

Thank you very much for reading the complete article. I hope it helped you gain insight about the requirements for doing a research intern and some more. Ending with a quote for dramatic exit: If we knew what it was we are doing, it would not be called research, would it?