INSIGHT, IIT-BOMBAY PRESENTS : THE INTERNSHIPS LIVE BLOG

Formalities first. I am doing my intern at Forschungzentrum, Karlsruhe (lit: Research Center, Karlsruhe). It is more like a Summer Project, and I have received funding for this from DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).

The Details, and some Fundae:

DAAD is an organisation that funds students who wish to study/intern in Germany. For interns at Undergraduate level, DAAD has a WISE program which funds students from Engg colleges who will be interning in German Institutes for a period of 2-3 months.

DAAD does NOT help students get internships in Germany; it only funds them. So, looking for an internship is your job, and it’s best if you start around August itself.

• The last date for submission was 30th November last year.
• The DAAD application form needs to be sent along with many documents (all in triplicate) which include letter of invitation from the German host and Bonafide certificates from IIT, details of the project that is going to be done and lots of other stuff. Each of these documents entails quite some red tape, so it is best if you start working on getting all of them ready well before the deadline. Plus, remember that Oct-Nov time is Diwali, and hence vacations, time, so take that in account too. The moment you get the thumbs up from your German mentor, send him the Form that needs to be filled by him so that he gets sufficient time to get the stuff completed while you secure the other document.
• Last year, the deadline was extended by a fortnight, but don’t rely on something similar happening this year too.
• The funding (as of 2009) includes € 600 to cover travel costs, and € 650 per month.
• You also need to submit your CV and a letter of motivation along with the form, and 2nd year students should start drafting their CVs too, if they haven’t already done so.
• There isn’t a fixed number of students who are awarded the scholarship. It depends purely on merit, but generally, most IITians get it.
• I suggest those who do not have a passport should apply for one immediately. The procedure can take up to 2 months or more and it’s best that you don’t have to deal with that when the Deadline is hanging close.

I’ve completed 2 years of my B.Tech. (Engineering Physics) and am doing a 12-week internship at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen, Germany.

Why Optics? and How I Got Here

To be honest, Optics wasn’t my first choice - I would have liked to spend the summer working in an engineering job in a railways-related firm (for bizarre, inscrutable reasons beyond my own comprehension). Full of enthu and optimism, I began applying in September or so, not to receive a single reply other than a couple sent by automated non-humans. I gave up on the railways angle some time in December.

Not knowing what I generally wanted to do in life, I was stuck. I was never really “in” to physics or science or tech or anything, unlike many of my E.P batch mates - a totally awesome bunch, for the record- the epitome being this one person who’d been reading about Quantum Mechanics since he was in class VII.

As a part of my core curriculum, I had done a course in Optics the previous semester, which I quite liked, and this gave me a place to start. I’d found various Optics principles rather elegant, perhaps even aesthetically pleasing. And oh, yes: I knew working with Optics meant bright shiny lights, which I am a total sucker for - I’m even more attracted to them than your average household insect. I spoke to the instructor for my Optics course, Prof. Kailash Rustagi (Dept. of Physics), who was very helpful, and suggested various places I could apply to- one of which was the Max Planck in Erlangen, where I finally am.

Being all Optics-enthu, I registered for Prof. R. K. Shevgaonkar’s (Dept. of Electrical Engineering) course on Fiber Optic Communications (Spring 2009), courtesy the Biswas Committee (bless their souls multiple times) and the flexibility offered under the new B.Tech. curriculum. This would prove to be very helpful during my intern (and possibly in procuring it as well!).

After a month or so into the semester, I began applying seriously to various Fiber Optic Communications groups across the world. I sent about 15 applications in total (quite low by IITian standards!), got maybe 5 replies - all negative, but a couple of very nice ones. I decided to diversify a bit in terms of “acceptable” fields of work, and wrote, on Prof. Rustagi’s suggestion, to Professor Philip St. John Russell, F.R.O., inventor of the Photonic Crystal Fiber and generally a bigshot celebrity in the Optics world.

Surprise, surprise, I got a response- asking for a letter of recommendation from Prof. Rustagi, whom he knew professionally. After at least a month of waiting, I got a response- negative: no internship positions available. Disheartened, almost depressed, I gave up on the whole foreign internship thing. But in late March, most unexpectedly, I got an e-mail from a post-doc in Prof. Russell’s group at the Max Planck in Erlangen, Germany offering me a paid internship. And of course - I jumped at the offer akin to how hungry lions in Circus Maximus would jump at unfortunate people (for want of a better analogy).

Next up: Work, food and other things.