Hey! This is Pratham Srivastava, a final year undergraduate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, pursuing (probably) an honors degree in mechanical engineering, and a minor degree in physics (I know, wakanda combo).Let me take you on a broomstick ride (recent fan of Harry Potter experience at Universal Studios) through my journey of the internship season, and my research internship at Arizona State University, US.
Triassic Era (Pre-intern Season)
During the summers after the 2nd year ended, I was confused about what to do. I hadn’t taken up any PoR in my first and second years, and hence wasn’t in touch with any of the seniors except my ISMP and DAMP mentors. I talked to my friends and checked the intern blog to see what are the kind of opportunities available. Also I began approaching Insight seniors for more context. Insight is renowned for its consult shortlists, but I wasn’t interested because I didn’t understand the concept of consulting. I also observed people running behind CS & DS minors (half the mech batch is there). I believe I did despised things which were too popular.
At the end, I had to decide which profiles I can keep as options. Since I had some background in coding from high school, I decided to develop some ML skills. I realised my Physics minor is not going to help me anywhere, unless I try for higher studies later (and even in that case, my minor grades aren’t that good, and physics PhD applications would definitely prefer an EP person rather than me). But I still like physics so I am still pursuing it (minor is supposed to be something you want to explore, and probably something that refreshes you after your major courses). I could try for mechanical core, but there were students who were better candidates due to their tech team background. So, DS was the major profile I was going ahead with. I studied ML through online courses, and practiced DSA as well. I approached a professor from University of Tokyo for a project at the intersection of engineering and ML, and he was kind enough to allow me to work on a computer vision project in remote setting.
Jurassic Era (Intern Season)
With good academics, Insight PoR, and an international exposure project, I set my foot on the path to an internship. I made a resume, but didn’t get it reviewed by a lot of seniors. With a thik-thak resume, I continued. I didn’t get any Day 1 shortlists (Tech/Non-tech) even with thik-thak peaks. Hence, started focusing back on good DS companies, and continued preparing for the tests.
I did get a few shortlists in good DS companies, but couldn’t make it to the final selections. I gave a lot of tests, and performed above-average in most of them, but couldn’t secure many shortlists. For the companies I did get an opportunity to sit for the interviews, I prepared well, but at the end, kitna hi prepare karloge. Mind started becoming foggy with the amount of knowledge and rejections. And after mid-October, the stipend and the quality of companies declined as is expected to happen. I stopped applying to companies through PT Cell.
The best path I could think at the time was to try Univ intern. It could enhance my core/tech resume for placements, and may even be a good point in terms of international exposure for non-core profiles. Since my resume was on the core and tech side, I thought I had a good chance. I applied for MITACS, got a little late to start aping for DAAD-WISE, so ditched, later applied for EPFL E3, as well as apped to a number of professors. While apping, I would skim through at least one of the professor’s research papers and write a small paragraph in the mail saying what I liked about what he is doing. Majority of the responses were negative saying either they don’t have the capacity, or don’t have the funds.
I also apped to professors for ThinkSwiss, and I luckily got a response. There was a new thermal-fluid lab in EPFL looking for a UG intern. I got an interview, which was more of a discussion. The PhD student who actually took my interview was a graduate from IIT Madras. They were interested in accepting me, but later realised that due to logistical issues (summer in Switzerland starts later than ours, which would give me only 6 weeks from Mid-June to July end to work on the project), they couldn’t support my internship.
This is January end now.
I had applied for a program called ASU SURI (Summer Research Initiative) whose applications opened in the first week of January. I was entirely devastated now, I didn’t know if I should app to professors or to companies now. The future seemed too dark. I realised rather than a sunny summer, “winter is coming” (grammar overlooked for reference purposes). Kya ukhad liya IIT aake.
Midsems were approaching, but thik hai, kya farak pad raha hai kya grades milenge, jab internship to mil nahin rahi. CPI 0.1 ya 0.2 giregi bas, abhi to shayad koi recruiter bhi nahin hai jo transcript dekhega mera.
On the beautiful lonely night of Valentine’s day, my roommate and I were cursing intern season. And suddenly mid-talk, I check my mails and see a mail from ASU. I opened it expecting (99%) to read “You are a good candidate, but unfortunately, we will not move ahead with your application.” But it read “Congratulations!…”
I quickly went out of the room and called my mother at 1:30 AM of the night, that I am going to US. Later, I went back inside my room, but decided to tell my roommate the next day about this (given we were both sad about the season). Next night, I was about to tell him that I got an offer, but our conversation again started with cursing the intern season, and on looking at him down-hearted, I got confused whether to tell or not. A couple more nights passed, and then I finally told him. And then the word spread to other friends in H5, and 7 days after the offer, I was subjected to 7 rounds of GPL with one more (8th) concluding round, on accounts of keeping it a secret from the brotherhood and delaying the treat.
The days after this were quite relaxing.
Cretaceous Era (Post-intern Season and the Internship)
The VISA process was a little BT-ful, but I will give the details some other time. I had received my visa by April end. At the same time, I had booked my flight tickets. One of the drawbacks of a foreign research internship is that you have to put money from your own pocket for the initial expenses, which do get compensated by the stipend later.
My internship was going to start in the last week of May for 8 weeks, so I had some spare time in May which I used entirely for leisure purposes (the intern war had ended). I read blogs and watched videos to get acquainted with immigration process and things to carry (took a few days to finalise the packing). My parents dropped me at the Mumbai airport after travelling all the way from Pune. I had three connecting flights (Mumbai > Dubai > Los Angeles > Phoenix (capital of Arizona state)) with a total travelling time of 40+ hours.
The accommodation was provided. It was a dorm room with two people in each room and an attached bathroom. The room was air-conditioned and 4 times the size of H5 room. We were also provided with meal allowance which we could use in the campus eateries. There was also a common kitchen where we would sometimes cook food, often with other international students. You could find pretty much all kinds of Indian food in shops and restaurants there, just that they would be slightly expensive compared to Indian prices. My everyday meal was a Subway and a Starbucks drink for lunch, as these were the closest eateries to my lab, and no one wants to walk outside in the sun for long.
As for the program, it was well designed. We had guest lectures every Thursday, and people either from ASU or industry would take these workshops. We were familiarised with how PhD looks like, which did help me to understand about the possible paths in a research career. One major takeaway here was that PhD graduates often go into industries and are in high demand, and they may later choose to shift to academia. Apart from these, there were three social activities: play golf, watch a baseball match, and experience indoor sky-diving; all of them equally fun and unique in their own sense. At the end of the program, we had to present a poster on our research work to industry experts and ASU professors.
My project was in the domain of structural batteries. It was part of a larger and longer umbrella project. I was provided laboratory training, and a majority of my work involved using laser machines. The title of the project was “Laser Additive Manufacturing of Foldable Origami Lattices using Carbon Fiber Fabric Composites” (I know, a lot of words). My work primarily involved preparing origami net samples using carbon twill weave composites through laser cutting and curing processes. I then folded them into 3D structures and baked them to retain their shape. If you add electrolyte and sandwich between two layers of carbon fabric, it will act as a battery. Thus, its final use case is to manufacture chassis of vehicles and aircrafts, so that the chassis itself can act as a battery, reducing the weight of the vehicle substantially. The professor encouraged me to pursue PhD if further work in this project interests me.
The campus was large with numerous research departments and high-end equipment in almost all of the research frontiers. The major problem was the weather, as it would touch 45 degrees Celsius with 0% humidity. You could feel yourself cooking in the heat. So definitely carry caps, umbrellas, and sunscreen with you.
The Beautiful Comet before Mass Extinction
In the week of 4th July (Independence Day of US), we planned a trip to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, two of the most beautiful cities with their own vibes and cultures. We roamed the Vegas Strip for two days, visiting every Casino hotel possible. We also bet one dollar in a machine, and won another dollar (that was the extent we gambled). In LA, we visited the famous Beverly Hills (Julia Roberts’ fans), Hollywood area, Santa Monica Pier (GTA fans), Universal Studios, and much more. A few days before our final presentation, I visited the Grand Canyon, and its vastness is truly beyond imagination. That was an exhilarating experience.
Finally, the internship ended, and I returned back to India (another 30+ hours travel time with two layovers at New York and New Delhi). It was an amazing experience to set foot in US, and stay there for this long, and experience their lifestyle, infrastructure, and culture.
A few concluding points I would like anyone seeking an internship to keep in mind are:
- Intern season is a critical and scary time, and the best way to prepare for it is to talk to a lot of seniors and be aware of what is coming.
- Never think that your internship is worse compared to someone else’s internship. Different internships even the good ones may not teach you much. Learning depends on you; of course, a good company will open more doors, but take the internship period for learning and exploring if you would like to do this work for at least the next couple of years full time.
- Lastly, when applying for univ interns either through programs or apping, I have observed that “Asians prefer Asians”. I am not sure what may be the reason, but an Asian professor would usually prefer an Asian student (example, a Chinese professor having an Indian student, as in my case, or an Indian professor choosing a Korean student etc.), I believe due to the good work ethic that Asians have.
Don’t worry a lot, and do well in whatever goals you set for yourself.
For more information about the VISA process and other details about the internship, you may follow the link: EnPoWER Session – Univ Intern.pdf
