INSIGHT, IIT-BOMBAY PRESENTS : THE INTERNSHIPS LIVE BLOG

I was really surprised by the fact that an internship/project in IITB could be tremendously fun and a brilliant learning experience. While everybody else was busy traversing greener pastures in Europe, I was working (also, chilling at Prithvi with batch mates) on my project in IITB. Everyone around me thought I was demented to do an internship in the Institute especially since I had been to ISB and LSE the previous summer.

The reason for my staying back in the Institute was largely due to the following factors:

a) My department made it compulsory for us to do an aero-internship and I didn’t have the guts to get a “farjee” or a fake certificate.

b) My professor made me an offer I couldn’t refuse; he said to me  — “You complete this project and you will definitely have a publication to your name”. This got me carried away and I started building castles in the air with thoughts ranging from how future generations would search for my name on Scopus for my research work, to how I actually contributed positively to the field of science after 3 years in IIT. Primarily it was about the fact that I could enjoy how much ever I wanted and do work at my own speed with no pressures and tensions.

My professor made it very clear in the first week that I could work as much as I wanted and that there was no need for a hurry.  While most people would see this as the opportunity to cut slack and relax, I took this opportunity to learn and sharpen my skills as much as I possibly could.

The project was titled “Flame propagation in radial micro-channels” and dealt with simulating flames in radial micro-channels. The projected involved numerical methods, coding on C++ and usage of plotting software (I used this brilliant plotting software called DPlot). The numerical method used for the simulation was the Predictor-Corrector method and I had used it for 100,000 grid points for varying time cycles ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 time cycles. I had initially worked on a 1D case and then perfected the code so that it could be implemented for a 2D case. While coding for the 1D case was easy, the 2D case was tricky and I had to use all the help I could get from the few CS junta to make the code efficient and look better. Eventually code ran without glitches and generated interesting results which are being investigated further and I will be working on this through the current semester.

This was my first attempt at research and I enjoyed it. This was largely because of the  stress free environment I got to work in and also because of the continuous motivation from my professors’ end. Contrary to most peoples’ belief that the institute is a “boring” place to work in, I found it to be the best place to work in.

In addition to the work, I spent countless hours watching plays in Prithvi, on a couple of treks, lazed around, chilled with friends and went to town every weekend. It was possibly one of my best summers.

Eight Weeks at IISc!

Three months of summer vacation is too much. Way too much. I don’t
have an eight-week intern imposition from insti. After all, I’m a
to-be thirdie

I’m spending eight weeks of this summer at IISc Bengaluru though. In
the Centre for Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences (yes, yes, my B.Tech is
in Civil Engineering). CAOS, it’s known as. I’m working on a project
related to the Bay of Bengal. My professor says this work (if
completed) will be appreciated by the Indian Meteorological
Department. Hehe. The idea of something I do being appreciated by an
institute of national importance is almost comical. Hehe.

Anyway, I got here through this Summer Fellowship Programme conducted
by the Indian Academy of Sciences. Details about that will be conveyed
later to interested people. They’re arranging my accommodation and
transport and paying me a stipend, so I don’t have to worry about much
in this (reasonably) badly connected city. Plus IISc is a nice place.
You know how we keep going on and on about big and jungle-like IITB
is? Well, let’s just say, IISc is bigger and is MUCH more of a jungle
than IIT is. And of course, no Tum-Tum or anything on those lines.
Poor ole me ends up walking a distance of H10 to H6 just to get a
meal. It’s all part of a ploy to keep their researchers healthy and
well-exercised. Speaking of which, the IISc gymkhana has welcomed my
friends and me into their Aerobics sessions. There’s nothing to do
where I stay, so instead of taking the first bus back (like I
religiously did in my first week here), I now hang around in the
gymkhana in the evenings. Just next to the gymkhana are these two
fancy auditoriums. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (the Art of Living Guru) was
here the other day. Ratan Tata came over two days after that. There
was this grand lunch arranged for IIScians that day. For the record,
summer fellows don’t count as IIScians. Needless to say, we snuck over
in typical Valfi-Coupons-Jugaad style. After that meal, I’m quite
convinced that IISc is rich. I mean, rich enough to organise such
stuff at a decent frequency for the whole insti. Shame it doesn’t
happen in IIT. The caterer wouldn’t know what hit him.

Anyway, a little about my work now. I’m forced to use Linux here;
something I was delighted to see the back of after my first semester
encounter with CS101. A little coding is also imposed on me, in a
software I don’t know, so my partner and I worked our way round that
by appealing to our sympathetic Project Assistant. As it turns out,
research is slow and pretty painful. It’s like trying to find your way
out of a dark room. You keep hitting things and trying new paths (and
in my case, counting the hours). I thought the world has come a long
way from such days, but apparently not. A lot of fields are still in
their infancy and crude methods are adopted there. Sort of surprised
me a bit. And there’s infi ghodagiri. (I’m SO glad I’m a summer fellow
and not an all-year-round Research Assistant). By the way, it’s also
my first encounter with a nine-to-six schedule, and I’m afraid I’m not
such a fan of it. Going to have to work my way round that when I start
working. Any ideas, people?

All said and done, I’m halfway through my stay here, and the slow,
peaceful life of IISc has sort of sunk in. I can’t say I love it..
it’s too slow and quiet (and lazy). Plus there’s no HN outside to keep
beat any blues. On the other hand, I don’t dislike it..it IS, after
all, peacefulMAX. And it keeps me busy in summer. And it’s always fun
exploring a new city and a new campus. Especially a city as cool
(climatewise ONLY) as Bengaluru, and a campus as beautiful as IISc’s.
Come to think of it, it’s almost like someone’s paying me to beat the
Bombay heat. Plus, I’ll be clearer on what I don’t want from life
once I’m done, right Moti?