The extra 'i' is worth it

After learning about my seniors going abroad for research internships which are fully funded, I couldn't take my mind off it. I dreamt of visiting some amazing foreign university and doing research with their cutting edge tech. But with this rush of adrenaline came a sense of the amount of work I’ll have to do so that I get selected. This realization was during my sophomore year. In the following summers I started my BTP (BTech Thesis) inclined towards robotics which I wished to explore. Luckily, my BTP was in the interdisciplinary field of multi-agent systems (MAS) and robotics. I aimed to get my research published by the end of the year which would strengthen my research internship application. Oblivious to the fact that this would lead to so many sleepless Nights.

Before the summers ended, I faced this huge dilemma of whether I should sit for campus internships or not. I was never inclined on interning in a company, especially when there were only a couple of ECE companies, but nothing to lose for giving their tests. With this casual approach for campus internships I would’ve never got any internship and I did not (although I had an interview round with Mathworks folks and believe it or not they didn’t take me, maybe I talked too much of robotics which wasn’t there field). This worked in my favour as our college is really strict about internships. If you get campus internships then you CANNOT apply to any other place - no foreign internships, nothing, pheww.

As summer ended and with only three months left for the conference deadline, I gave all my time to BTP research. Side note: internships are really important after your junior year as it affects your future whether you’ll sit for placements or pursue higher studies.

This was going to be the most hectic semester of my four years, I had taken tough ECE courses and a 2 credit overload of another tough course. So in jist on paper I had 22 credits spanned by 6 courses and a BTP (the BTP in reality was equivalent to 8 credits). As each month passed in proportion the hours of sleep at night decreased. From 7 hours in August it came down to 4 hours in October (never try this). In November, I missed the deadline of the conference I was aiming for, everything seemed lost and meaningless for full 10 minutes. After which my professor told me that we’ll be submitting to another conference whose deadline is after 2 weeks. SAVED!. We finally submitted in that conference, this was a relief. Coming to the application part, I had applied at the following places/internships: EPFL Switzerland (did not get) , S.N. Bose (eligibility is branch topper), Viterbi (only accepts people with >9.5 gpa), CMU RISS (my dream internship, robotics oriented), Personal Contact (my paper’s co-author and shall remain disclosed), NTU (not so robotics oriented). My GPA at that time was 8.8 and so straight away 2 out of 5 were gone. Then I received a negative from EPFL and NTU. Now only RISS was left and which is the toughest of all. Wow!

I thought about all I could do so that CMU accepts me: I resorted to mailing the professor at CMU who specializes in multi-agent systems but I had to draft an awesome mail here. I took the help of my senior who had interned at CMU the previous year, he guided me through every step: reading the mentioned professor’s papers, showing your own work and publication, how you have similar interests and etc.

After sending the mail I could only wait....... . I was skeptical that I’d even receive any reply and thought that I should start looking for alternatives. Waiting was tough (you know what I mean). Around the end of January, I got a reply from the CMU professor, and guess what? She wanted me in her lab. Woahh!! There were more things written which I’ll avoid mentioning here. I’d be interviewed by two of her PhD students before things get finalised. Soon after this I updated my senior and he lit with joy as according to him, this meant that I’m 90% in. After a very long time it felt like it was all worth it.

My interview happened and I exchanged several more emails with the professor who wanted me to come and start working under her asap. Finally, everything was decided and I was accepted. This meant spending 3 months in USA at the best robotics university in the world and without paying a dime! All things done, I will be pursuing M.S. in Robotics from CMU (Carnegie Mellon University), a two year (super hectic) research program (course-work + research + thesis defence). My internship there totally helped me. I am really grateful that back in 2016, when everyone in my family (a typical business family with no engineers) except for my father were adamant about IIIT, he told me to go to the college which I liked. And with this I froze my branch (ECE); on the off chance that during the other rounds I may end up at NSIT (no way). This was a life changing decision for me, although for the rest four years I did crimp a lot about IIIT.

The best thing about IIIT is that the college is ready to give you everything, you just have to be willing enough to pursue it. For me this was firstly, interesting and upto date courses and research; secondly, badminton (court, shuttles, etc.) and surely I got both of them. The number of courses offered each semester is so massive that it makes you sit down and make a ranking table for your desired courses as you are free to take any course!

I still remember that during our first three years there was no indoor badminton court and so the college allowed us to practise on the expensive Siri Fort courts. We used to go there whenever we found the time and then pester Ravi sir everyday for refunding the amount. The sports trips we made every semester are unforgettable, travelling in batches of 100-120, getting to know the true nature of your seniors and juniors alike, cheering for them, meeting students from other colleges, especially hearing your folks cheer for you is a different feel altogether. I still remember the echoes of everyone singing IIITD during our badminton finals at IIITM Gwalior, how the place was divided into two halves: Delhi and Gwalior. After every single point, the sledging would follow which would be so loud that nothing else could be heard. That’s why I couldn’t leave badminton even if it meant putting a lot of extra effort because it is totally worth it.

Lastly, I would just like to say that I’m really thankful and lucky to have been a IIITian, the extra ‘I’ was totally worth it. I want to thank all the professors for being so kind and approachable that they’d take out the time for you always. I owe all my friends (some are now like brothers) and seniors without whom I wouldn’t have been able to cope with the hectic schedule and find the balance between fun and work.