Internera

Energy Consultancy

-Khyati Jain

 

   Coping up with the newly started semester after a long break and adjusting to the logistics of new courses? Worried about securing a good internship or a decent project before summer begins? Exploring and shortlisting different career profiles? Facing these dilemmas? Worry not, this is something all of us had also experienced and although I am just a year ahead of you, here I am to share my experience of how I moved towards breaking through these confusions during my sophomore year.

   Hii, I am Khyati Jain, a thirdie who was literally as confused and baffled about what I liked and wanted to gain experience of, or what was something which I feel is a complete no-no as most of you might be. The best thing I think I did was pestered my seniors (take my word, guys, it works ;P) to know what exactly things meant. What is a supply chain? What kind of work is expected in finance fields? How exactly does product management work? What type of skill is expected for areas like analytics as we hear them?  After talking to several people, I finally concluded that coding karni nahi hai and core thoda-thoda pasand hai! 

HEADS-UP: I would be focusing more on how I went about looking for an intern majorly in this article.

APPING

I started searching for something on similar lines- something away from coding and something aligned to the core. Generally, internship opportunities for sophomores along these lines are rarely available through the PT cell, and so I had to go about finding one for myself. This was when having an up-to-date and developed LinkedIn profile came in handy. Keep your LinkedIn up-to-date and organized because for an outsider wanting to know whether they should hire you or not, LinkedIn is the first thing they look at, apart from your resume. Make sure it is descriptive of your personality, apart from simply stating facts and listing down your PoRs. I looked for companies that worked in the most common ChemE core fields like pharma, oil&gas, polymers, etc. and found our alums working there. A few chrome extensions like Prospectin, Kendo, and Rocket Search help you find Email IDs and send bulk messages on LinkedIn. Contacting your own alums gives an added benefit and probability of response, although this process is like shooting an arrow in the dark, to be very honest.

I created appropriate databases and contacted people. Some responded, some had pre-requisites I could not offer, and some rejected my application. So, I was exhausted and irritated in around a month of this process that I had begun in mid-February. Then again, the ‘lovely seniors’ came to my rescue :). I was suggested that I should leverage my own (and my family’s) contacts in the industry because, at this point, the main aim should not be money or brand but the skill and experience that I would get. My father is in the medical field, so he had contacts in the pharma sector, so I tried that as well and was offered one internship in the operations domain. However, I was somehow stuck to core-core that I did not avail it… 

We were approaching the month of May. Summer break was pretty close, and I was still unaware of what I would do to not while away my time. Then I remembered an event organized by the ChEA council- Time Capsule, which talked of different career diversifications. I contacted one of the alums on its panel working in the clean energy domain. He took a small interview to know what I was expecting and explained his expectations, and after a thorough discussion, I finally took up the opportunity. (Takeaway: Whenever you interact with a person via any event, and you like their work or feel that connecting with them could be fruitful, do so without hesitating!)

THE INTERNSHIP

I was working in a Singapore-based firm focusing on clean energy solutions named ‘Feyn Partners’. It is headed by our alums from the batch of 1995, Mr. Amit Pathare and Mr. Umesh Bhide. It is basically a consulting firm that provides inputs in renewable energy practices. So the dual benefit here was that I would be working on the core competencies of the projects, energy analysis, chemical processes, etc. while experiencing the dynamism of a rigorous consulting environment. So, it essentially acted as something on the crossroads for helping me whether I wanted to go towards the core or the non-core side of things. 

In this internship, I worked on a project on green hydrogen for assisting the market entry of a billion-dollar MNC manufacturing hydrogen electrolyzers into the Indian market. So my core area of focus was analyzing the electrolyzer technologies suitable for the Indian landscape and the company. I also did extensive market performance studies to assist competition and market research. During the last 15 days, when the project deliverables were complete, I suggested a revamp of the company’s decks which helped me understand various aspects of formal presentation as well. 

P.S. The interaction sessions with the alums were the best where they gave me constructive feedback on how I could improve on certain aspects. They would also share stories of their college time. In the end, my promised stipend also doubled as an incentive for the effort I had put in.

LEARNINGS

The various things I learned can be divided into two parts:

During the Internship: 

1. People generally say consulting is a hectic job, and it is true. You may be expected to work at any time of the day, and the deliverables should meet a certain standard of professionalism and accuracy. 

2. Always keep yourself open to learning new things as opportunities can come your way anytime. You just need to be vigilant enough to grab them. 

3. Take feedbacks positively and try to understand and clarify why and how you need to incorporate them.

During the Process: Getting to understand your own interests and being able to work on something on similar lines is a challenging task, especially with the limited exposure we have during the second year. LinkedIn is a great place to connect. Be active there and keep updating your profile as well. Do not restrict yourself to specific fields because you feel that way without experiencing them even once. I never had consulting in my mind, but this internship changed my perspective towards it, and I actually enjoyed working in that fast-paced environment.

   Also, keep note of what you want to see yourself growing into. It might change over the months but helps you track your development. Always look back and consider the skills that you have acquired. It definitely helps while deciding the next step in your journey!

   Lastly, do not ever hesitate to ask things you do not understand. Your DAMP and ISMP mentors are there, and just talk to any senior you feel you are comfortable talking to. We had been in similar positions, and we can understand the confusion. And sorry for such a long read :P I hope I did not bore you :)

Tech Consultancy 

-Muskan Jain

   Hey! I am Muskan Jain, and I am currently a third-year student in the Department of Chemical Engineering. I did my 2nd-year summer internship at Ernst and Young Global Limited(EY) as a tech consultant.

   Like everyone else, my 2nd year went online, managing Acads, PoR work, and reading many novels. I knew that I wanted to explore something outside my branch, something that could give me a professional platform to ideate. And summer was the time for it. There were two ways to explore, internships and projects. For a non-core profile, internships were a better option. But again, there are not many internship opportunities for 2nd-year students via placement cell, so I started apping to both universities and companies.

   For universities, COVID played its part. Nobody was willing to offer an online internship, particularly in my domain of interest, and the offline project was out of the picture due to uncertain travel restrictions. Then comes the companies; I was kind of bored of studying chemical-related stuff for two online semesters, so one thing was obvious in my mind that I want to explore a non-core professional experience like an analyst maybe. So, I got a list of companies that hire interns from my ISMP, DAMP mentor and a few other seniors. The list went to around 50 such companies in different sectors like finance, consulting, FMCG, etc. The next step was to mail them all, and luckily, I got about ten replies, amongst which I accepted the one at EY. Their requirements and project seemed perfect to what I was looking for. Also, the reviews from the seniors, I knew working there, were good. So, I decided to give it a try. Apping can be challenging, but you need to maintain your patience. It took me around four months to find the right opportunity for me.

   The manager liked my profile; they conducted a short interview and offered me the job. The selection process wasn’t arduous, as it was an unpaid internship for around three months. 

   Working under a technology consultant, our primary job was to understand and pitch the available platforms for various processes. Once we have a clear idea of what a particular tool does, we can pitch that to clients. This involved giving out presentations, simulation sessions, understanding the clients' needs, customizing accordingly, and above all, doing a lot of market research. The experience allowed me to build a good network across the organization. And of course, the presentation skills, people skills, and strategic thinking came along with it. The best part was that we were the front-end workers of the project, so giving out presentations and meetings was an everyday task. This not only helped me gain confidence but also allowed me to explore the daily life of a consultant. So, it was a fruitful summer after all. This ultimately helped me decide my interests amongst various non-core fields, and the skills helped me grow as a professional. 

   So, during my 3rd year internship season, I figured out what roles would work for me. Also, the confidence and speaking skills ultimately got reflected in my interviews for the same. So, I would definitely recommend you all explore as much as possible if you are unsure about a field as you would ultimately reach a conclusion on whether it excites you or not. Either way, it is helpful. You can have a checklist of the fields you are dicey about, and then the next step is to talk to seniors in that area of interest. Seniors would help you find a way to explore it via internships, projects, startups, etc. We have a lot of opportunities in our way. We just need to be vigilant and grab them at the right time. We have an excellent network of people around us. One just needs to put oneself out there, get the right advice and explore.

   Many firms give internships to 2nd-year undergraduates, provided you have basic knowledge, a lot of enthusiasm, and a sense of commitment towards it. You can reach out to people (alums preferably) via mail or LinkedIn for such opportunities at companies. For universities, you need to narrow down the areas of your interest and search for professors working in it, maybe by going through some of their research papers. Again, be patient, be consistent with your mails, send in weekly reminders, and put your best foot forward. As we are in the post COVID era, many firms are hiring aggressively, so it is advised to start early, especially for university interns. Once you get a reply, be sure to ask about the role before jumping into it. Rest it’s all about walking on random paths until you find your destination. 

   Thank you!

Research 

-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?

Fast-moving consumer goods

-Dhruv Patwa

 

Hey there! 

I’m Dhruv Patwa, a 3rd-year student in Chemical Engineering, and I interned at PepsiCo. in the summer of 2021. This article would be an account of the experience of a very confused senior, who explored a lot of things to figure out his interest (Still doing it :P)

The Intern Quest:

It was the month of February. Hearing from seniors that a 2nd year internship in your interest area does help to some extent in securing a relevant 3rd year internship, was the first time I started thinking about an internship during the coming summer. But, it wasn't easy for me to search for one as I was interested in a lot of profiles and wanted to explore everything. 

So, at first, I started applying to professors in various B-schools in the fields of strategy and operations. Probably till that time, I wasn’t very sure of the exact kind of work I desired. But soon realized that I preferred an environment where the work I do is implemented and can generate results. I was quite interested in the fields of Supply chain, Operations as well as core chemical engineering.

I knew that these fields were unconventional/less explored, and had fewer opportunities than software or analytics, especially for a 2nd-year internship. But this didn’t stop me from exploring my interests. So, I started applying to various FMCG companies by messaging IITB alumni or simply the HRs working in those companies via LinkedIn. I also applied via websites in a few companies but failed to get a single positive response. I had also mailed a few scientists in National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune, for an internship, but they weren’t hiring interns that summer due to Covid :(

It was already the month of April, and I was feeling anxious about not having secured an internship offer for summer when an IITB alumnus working in PepsiCo. who earlier didn’t have any opportunity reverted to me saying that he wanted to hire an intern for a project in the field of supplier performance management (A subfield of supply chain management where we assess the performance of suppliers of a company to facilitate better decisions). As such, there wasn’t any prerequisite for the role except enthusiasm to know more. I was asked to write a 1-page write-up on my understanding of the field. Then, there was an interview in which they mainly asked questions on my resume and a few basic things on supply chain and logistics. 

The Internship:

My internship project was divided into two parts. First was identifying some Key Performance indicators (KPIs) for the logistic/transportation suppliers of the company (For Example, the percentage of deliveries on time), and the other was creating an automated dashboard to rate the performance of suppliers on the identified KPIs. I had to learn to use Power BI from scratch and so faced a lot of difficulties in that, but in the end, everything fell into place. The dashboard also had a lot of visual analytics features to facilitate an easy understanding of the complex data present in the system.

It was a 2-month internship. During the period, I learned a bit more about supply chain and logistics and a lot about Power BI. I also interacted with a few stakeholders inside the company while setting up the automated system to input the data into the dashboard. My mentors were always very approachable and also connected me to a couple of analytics specialists working at PepsiCo. South Africa to sort some of my queries in Power BI.

Overall, this internship could give me more exposure to my fields of interest while also letting me know more about analytics. Working in such a large FMCG company itself provides a lot of exposure to how various steps work, right from placing orders to different suppliers, transporting the supplies, manufacturing the finished products, and finally supplying them out to the market, along with digitally capturing real-time information of moving goods. I think this experience played a significant role in the selection procedure of my 3rd-year internship at Piramal Pharma Solutions.

For the Summer Break:

Apart from an internship, you can also pursue SURP (Summer Undergraduate Research Program) and iSURP( in-Semester Undergraduate Research program) projects which are a great way to learn new things under the guidance of professors of any department you are interested in. During the summer, I was also working on a SURP project under Prof. Rahul Nabar and Prof. Sandip Roy in our department. It was about Analytics and Database creation of accidents in the chemical industry. 

Words of Advice:

Thanks for reading till this point. I hope you gained something from this blog. Lastly, the only message I want to give is that you might feel overwhelmed by others’ achievements on some days. That’s absolutely normal, and everyone passes through such phases in life, but try not to let that anxiety creep into your private mental space, as everything that looks glamorous from outside has its other side as well. Do not let go of any opportunity to explore stuff that interests you. Talk to your friends and family regularly and enjoy whatever comes your way.

That goes without saying, you can reach out to me (via messenger or my contact number 8890789269) in case you want to discuss anything.

Cheerio!

Strategy and Product Development

-Siddharth Surana

 

Hey! This is Siddharth Surana, currently pursuing my 3rd-year undergraduate degree in chemical engineering. I reside in Nagpur, Maharashtra. I have always been attracted to the product development field and wanted a hands-on experience. At last, I got this opportunity from Gupshup in summer 2021. In second-year summers, I searched for different profiles. Being from an operations background, I learned more about the execution part and team building. Due to the online nature of the internship in summer 2021, I could complete two internships, one at Gupshup and the other at Dusminute. Profile at Dusminute was that of a strategy intern. We will go through my journey of the internship at Gupshup in brief!

From the freshie year, I explored different sectors and profiles to get hands-on experience and get some industrial connections for the future. The internship in freshie year was more in business development profile, and it was a good experience. I wanted to explore the product segment where you can interact with the product development team and improve it from the basic functionality to benefit the end-user. In the Product Management profile, you need to understand the functioning of your product and have a deep understanding of some collaborative applications such as the miro board, slack, and Gsuite.

I got to know about the product management intern at Gupshup via the Internship blog, and the procedure of selection and duration was provided on the blog itself. The selection process at Gupshup was pretty simple and interactive. We had two rounds of interviews. Before that, there was a resume shortlisting based on one’s experience and academics. In the two rounds of interviews, the first one is held by the respective manager or director you are supposed to report to, and the HR team takes the other one. The questions in the interview rounds followed a small case study type format. They wanted to know about your overall knowledge in the product management sector, what one knows about this field and how it serves the ultimate goal of satisfying the end-user. Most of the questions could be answered by instinct and a not-so-detailed knowledge of product management.

My internship was two months long, and I was asked to focus my attention on the non-coding AI bot, one of the prime segments in Gupshup. I basically worked on making different flow diagrams for the non-coding bot in different sectors such as Hospitality, Healthcare, and Banking. I played a significant role in finalizing the flow of the chatbot with a competitive market analysis.

Some of the key takeaways from my product internship: you have to get the product right, and even after launching your product, there are still many phases where you will be required to make changes that you feel are the best in the interest of the company. This gives an insight into how continuous process improvement takes place. You will get this habit of understanding the problem and looking for solutions. You will check if the solutions are viable economically and in terms of usability. Getting the solutions correct with these limitations is a cumbersome process and takes time. Effective time management is something you will learn from this internship. Through case studies in open group discussions, I also learned to work in a group and come up with innovative ideas to tackle the same problem statement.

I started approaching companies in the operations and product management profile via LinkedIn apping. I made a list of companies in the electric vehicle domain as I had some previous experience in the same domain and my PoR in IITB racing aligned me to get more chances in the same sector. 

I would like to say one thing to all the sophies out there looking for internships- Try to get hands-on experience. I have seen my colleagues getting internships, but they could not get the experience they expected. Startups or MSME companies are the best to approach to get the best experience. If you did not get an opportunity to intern by any chance, don’t be sad or doubt your ability. Use the two months summer break to explore different tools like python, AI/ML. If interested in the consulting sector, try to solve as many study cases as possible. For data analytics, try learning different tools like power bi, tableau, power query, etc. If anyone is interested in the core field, they can approach respective professors for a summer research intern and try their luck there. You also get many free subscriptions in the summer period, so you can complete as many courses as you want and brush up your skills for the 3rd-year summer intern.

That’s all from my side. I know it has been a bit lengthy. I hope you guys get good insights from this. Also, if you have any doubts regarding any points above or otherwise, feel free to approach me. I will try to resolve it to the best of my abilities.

Thanks !!!!!!

Marketing

-Kriti Chaturvedi

 

Holaaa!! I am Kriti Chaturvedi, a 3rd year undergraduate in the chemical engineering department. I am pursuing a minor degree in management as well. Since my first year, I have had interests in both core and non-core, so I tried to explore both of these domains through my internships.

I did a core research internship at Pfizer and two non-core interns in the marketing domain at IIM Ahmedabad and Sugar Cosmetics.

I did a course in marketing management, which interested me in marketing, so I wanted to explore its practical application. Hence I pursued two internships in marketing. The one at IIM Ahmedabad was on market research, and the other at Sugar Cosmetics was about digital marketing.

I learned about the IIM Ahmedabad internship through my senior, who had previously worked at IIM A under the same prof. The prof had a vacancy, and she asked him to share it with interested students. I grabbed the opportunity and applied. I had to send my resume to them via mail. This was followed by a short interview which consisted of some basic questions about social media marketing and the cosmetic industry, which was the subject of the research project. After the interview, I got the call that I was selected. The internship was two months long (January-February). I got an opportunity to learn how market research is actually performed. I assisted the professors in the company officials’ interviews and helped them formulate a comprehensive report summarizing the observations. I also took a few interviews myself, where I developed a ton of soft skills and the art of getting relevant information from the client and connecting with them. This internship gave me a deep understanding of how a business works as we studied the company from a startup stage to the state it is in. You can apply to similar internships by mailing profs from different universities and departments. While sending a mail, you can highlight your interests in why you want to pursue the internship, what you will gain from it, and what you will provide them. If the prof has a vacancy, they will definitely revert back and if not, try your luck and keep mailing! 

Sugar Cosmetics was the company IIM Ahmedabad was researching on, so I was present in the interviews with officials, and they got to know me by name. After the internship was over, I had sent a mail to the Marketing department regarding my interest in social media marketing. I chose social media marketing at Sugar, as it has a substantial online presence. I got a call for the interview and a test. The test was a basic aptitude test, and the interview was more of them explaining their work and gauging which area I was interested in working. I finally worked at their Instagram and YouTube accounts. The work involved competitor analysis on these platforms and ideation of new and innovative content. Sugar treats its interns as employees, so I was involved in every team activity, which helped me build a huge network. There I got to know how a company’s social media marketing domain is considered one of the most crucial departments to display its presence in the market. It was a 2-month summer internship.

My internship at Pfizer was in the worldwide research and development department. I learned about this opportunity through my professor, under whom I was doing a research project. He referred me to it and asked me to appear for the interview. The interview was just an ordinary conversation, gauging my interests. Then I got a call that I was selected. It was a wonderful experience for me to work at Pfizer. The supervisors were very helpful. My job role entailed the development of new computational tools to increase the efficiency of the post-processing of a Bohle coater. This required extensive python skills and sufficient knowledge of the Discrete Element Method.

It was a two-month summer internship that got extended till mid-August. 

All these internships helped me understand that I want to pursue something that is a mixture of core and non-core, as I enjoyed both of them equally. So during my third year, I applied for the healthcare department consulting role, which was a significant overlap of my interests.

In the end, I would suggest you all to explore everything and then decide what you want to pursue. Be open to opportunities and leverage your connections a lot in the apping process!

Thank you!

Finance

-Mitanshi Mehra

  Hey everyone!! I am Mitanshi, a third-year undergraduate student in chemical engineering, pursuing a minor in Management. I hail from Jodhpur, and I love dancing, eating, and binge-watching sci-fi TV series. I'm writing this blog about my winter internship journey in the finance-marketing profile at the Indian School of Business. I hope it helps you in some way. 

Disclaimer: It wasn't an offline internship XD (False hope=disappointment)

Motivation:

   It was during the days when COVID gave us too much time to kill when I was intrigued to delve into the field of finance. I started by reading articles, doing several MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), and then attended the finance boot camp organized by the Finance Club of IIT Bombay. I participated in Manch 4.0 organized by Deutsche Bank, which further gravitated my interest in this field. Along with the technical development in my interest, the fact that I did not want to waste my winters, and the fact that I wasn't sure whether I wanted to do a corporate job or an MS later, I finally decided to start with a research internship. 

Apping exp:

   I had decided to do a research internship, and I started by asking my seniors how and where to start. With the tips I got, I began by writing a cover letter that included my brief introduction, motivation, technical background, and CV, of course. It is essential to keep your emails short and to the point. I found the process of apping a bit tedious and was sometimes too lazy even to continue. But trust me, doing things you find boring always bear fruit XD. After taking days to write my cover letter, I started making a database of the professors I wanted to contact. My main focus was IIMs and ISB. Now coming to how to make a database, the first step is to go to the university's website and, under the faculty section, start reading about the professors and the current areas they are researching. Then I started making a database of the professors and their email-id, research area, and their websites. The databasing process is exhausting, and after making a database of around 30 professors, I started sending out the emails. I had mailed about 27 professors, out of which four replied, and only 2 of them were interested. 

   Out of those 2, one of the professors was quick to set up an interview, and his RA also sent a few research papers to read before the interview. The interview was mostly about my motivation, a few questions on my resume, and they also explained a lot more about their research topic and what I would learn from it. 

Internship Experience:

   My internship was a month-long, and yes, just four weeks are not enough, but I did develop some skills from this internship. The research objective was to understand why we have such a less number of female executives and to understand the innovation under a female CMO. If you google it, you'll find that firms like Fresh Del Monte and Fossil Group have 0 women as the high-rank officers while others like Coca-Cola or Colgate-Palmolive have very few female executives.

   The key work during the first half was to collect and structure data of the executives using excel for around 70 firms. The second half was more about predicting the effect of female CMO on innovation by extracting Consumer Packaged Goods firms' innovation data for 90+ firms. The major takeaways were that I am an excel pro now and can work without using a mouse lol. I know a lot more about the corporate world, and also the stipend was good, and the professor also sent us new year gifts. Overall the fact that it wasn't an offline intern was disappointing, but the online experience was not too bad. 

Gyaan ki Baat: 

   With the minimal experience, one has in their second year, you can still try to get some exposure as those giving interns don't expect you to know it all. IIMs and ISB professors mostly look for people with good coding and statistical skills from IITs, so if you are not interested in finance or marketing, there are still a lot of opportunities. If you think you can manage your time well, you can also apply for an in-sem internship.

Conclusion:

   My experience was good, and I did learn a lot from it. In some way, this research internship actually motivated me to seek a corporate job later as, after all, it was research on the corporate world. 

   Don't stress yourself too much and try to keep learning and have fun at the same time. Just be persistent, and if you do get an internship, try to build a strong network with other people you are introduced to. Lastly, it's completely okay if you are unsure about what you want to do, be open to opportunities, and explore as much as you can. 

Feel free to approach me for any kind of help! Cheers!!

Computer Vision

-Omkar Ghugarkar

“And I knew exactly what to do. But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do.”

― Michael Scott

Hello, I am Omkar Ghugarkar, a third-year student at IIT Bombay with majors in Chemical Engineering and minors in Data Science. I am from Pune. I am into ML with an interest in Computer vision and like to create real World applications. I am also a huge fan of Cricket, and pre-covid used to enjoy playing cricket, but now my hobbies include binging Web series, playing online games, and watching football matches. I also invest in the stock market, although I am just a beginner.

What to do in second-year breaks?

To make oneself more credible for future internships, jobs, etc., one would indeed require skills and knowledge other than the courses undertaken. The breaks are the best time to acquire those skill sets needed. 

What important choices does one need to make in second-year breaks? It starts from the very root. Which field should I focus on? Core, Non-core. If it’s non-core, then what…. And the list goes on. Second-year winter break probably is the best time to narrow down your interests and pursue one or two things in which you surely can see yourself progressing. You surely don’t want to be “Jack of all, master of none.” What you should try is to master atleast one. 

How to make the most of the second-year breaks?

Once you have narrowed down the interest, what are options one can perceive? Learning and mastering skills, project with professors within the institute, research intern, or an intern at a company. All these aspects require different levels of skill sets and also depend very much on the individual. The main focus should always be on learning. 

“Your only competition should be with the person you were yesterday. Improve everyday, so your past self doesn't win.”

My second-year Winter intern

I also work as a Senior Computer vision Engineer at SeDriCa, UMIC. Having explored and pursued Machine learning and Deep Learning since the first year, I was in good shape to explore the real-world problem. My main motto was to get hands-on experience and do something more significant than a toy problem.

The problem now is who will offer me an internship. There are very few options from the PT Cell for second-year students. Pursuing ML and being in Chemical Engineering does not help. I once heard a talk and learned about the website, which offers interns for some newly established startups. https://angel.co/. Internshala never looked ok to me because there is one post, and you can see there are 200-300 applications. 

I applied for around 10 ML jobs and got a response from only one. Being just a sophomore and non-CS background simply doesn’t help. I was fortunate enough to get at least an answer. 

The application procedure was simply to apply via resume and fill in the extra details if asked. The interview was based entirely on my resume. I was asked to explain all the structures used, losses, and optimizations for the various projects on my resume. And guess what... Everything went well, and I was offered the position. 

The name of the startup was “Machine Learning Studies.” The idea was to make recorded lectures and videos, which are 2D in nature and turn them into 3D. My task was to work on 2D faces. Everything started from absolute zero- from gathering datasets to cleaning them, preprocessing them, and finally, learning a model for the required output. We did implement some papers from scratch, and there was intensive learning. I learned about the pipelines that are followed in real-world applications and implemented some research papers from scratch. Last but not least, the satisfaction you get when your thing works. 

My second-year Summer Intern

It got this intern through PT cell. The company’s name is “Vedantu'', and I worked as a Data Science intern (yeah, I was not teaching XD). The structure was very standard—a coding and aptitude test followed by an interview. The coding test consisted of two questions. I was able to do one question completely and passed some tests of the other. The aptitude test was somewhat easy. Fifteen students were shortlisted for interviews. And again, like the previous interview, it was based entirely on my resume. I was also asked about my work experience of the earlier intern and some ML questions that were very close to what I have done. Out of the fifteen students, three were selected. 

It was a three months internship. The earlier half was based on the Computer vision aspect and after that on audio. We developed a modulation system that can output the quality of speech without considering the discussed subject matter—this is a combination of many Deep Learning models and audio techniques that I eventually learned over the intern duration. 

This internship was vital because it was a matter of discussion in the interview for my third-year intern and played a significant role in securing an internship at Daikin, Japan. 

What if I had not interned (My Backup Plans)

When it comes to learning new stuff in ML, I always had the SeDriCa work passing by. Along with this, I had a plan to take on projects with a Professor within the institute. iSURP and SURP are excellent for this. One best thing about the ML field is that, once you are done with the basics, you can always read research papers and implement them from scratch. And if you feel you are missing something, go back to basics!

To summarise, one should utilize the second year breaks to gain a good amount of knowledge in a particular field. It might be through interns, through self-learning courses, projects with professors.

I hope you have an excellent Sophomore year at the institute:)