Ekalavya Programme experience at IIT Bombay! Let’s learn more about it, from Bharat Reddy . . .
InternFeel: Please tell us something about yourself. Where and What are you studying currently?
Bharat Reddy: I’m Bharat Reddy currently pursuing B.Tech in Computer Science from NIT Calicut. I’m an executive member at CSEA (Computer Science and Engineering Association) of NIT-Calicut. I love Competitive coding, and apart from that my hobbies include playing basketball, traveling and talking about various abstract things.
The characteristic that makes me different is my attitude towards life, no matter in which situation I am in, I always believe in myself and try to be the best in whatever I’m doing.
IF: Give us details about your internship – a process of application, stipend, duration, and place?
BR: I did my summer internship at IIT Bombay as a part of the Ekalavya programme 2018 under the guidance of Professor D.B. Phatak. The internship offers projects under Computer Science as well as Electronics department and students are selected on the basis of academic quota (excellent academic performance) or software quota (coding rounds). Students have to fill a form on the Ekalavya IIT-B website. The application process begins from January end.
The duration of the internship is 8 weeks. Earlier they used to offer a stipend but from 2015 onward no stipend is being provided by IIT Bombay. The internship lasts for 8 weeks and students can stay on the beautiful IIT-B campus.
IF: How competitive was the selection process? According to you, which qualities have helped you have an edge in the selection process? Also, what were the key things that selectors were looking for?
BR: The selection process was based on 2 criteria – academic quota and software quota. The academic quota selection is purely on the basis of the application form while the software quota selection is on the basis of coding skills. In 2018 around 3281 students applied from various colleges in India and after the screening round and coding round, finally 73 students were selected from all over India and I was one among them :D. So you need to stand distinguished in order to compete with so many applicants.
Few technologies which I knew while applying for the internship are Ubuntu, GCC, C, C++, Python, Scheme, x86-Assembly, GIT, MATLAB, HTML and CSS. Along with these, I had a few web development projects and finally, I had a class highest CGPA of 9.52 which I guess helped me grab this opportunity.
IF: Could you please highlight the work/research you carried out during your internship period?
BR: I worked with Fundamental Research Group(FRG) of IIT Bombay. My project was to build a Real Time Notification System to an existing portal called Collaborative Communities. Used Django-Channels, WebSockets and other Polling techniques to make the Notification System real time. Developed Unit Test cases for the system with the help of “Django unittest” module to check if the code meets its design and behaves as intended.
Additional Work: Developed Selenium test cases for other project named “Event Logging System”.
Regular meetings with Mr. Nagesh Karmali, our mentor was always very helpful where anyone idea developed was brainstormed to just prove it. My coding part of the project was in the Django framework and my research was on how to make a real-time and efficient Notification System.
IF: Can you give us interesting details about your experience – good and bad? (It could be something like the amazing location of your internship, the friends you made for life, a bad senior, accommodation given in case of an outstation internship and something along those lines.)
BR: The best part of the internship was that I got to know about the work culture at IIT Bombay and the quality of student life over there. I made some really good friends; every one of them was from the different institute and different region. Since the finest students from the top institutes get selected for the internship, there is always a lot to learn and a fair share of ideas and innovations. And the last and the most important thing would be the location -“MUMBAI” which is obviously a dream city. It has some of the best locations to visit and the reverence for the city never dies. The institute campus itself is too huge and exquisite– it has a beautiful lake within, the student gymkhana to take care of all the student activities and the best canteens.
IF: How do you think this internship has helped you grow? In other words, what are your key takeaways from the internship?
BR: The internship has given me the insight to deal with the real world problems, completing the work within the specified deadlines, the spirit of teamwork and an opportunity to work with the best students from all over India under the guidance of distinguished mentors. Apart from the fun learning experience, it has given me long lasting memories with the friends. Of course, punctuality and sincerity are encouraged in the institute where students work in labs from 9am to 6pm and sometimes even at night. The professionalism and the feeling of meeting up the deadlines was an amazing factor and everyone should experience this before going to higher or placements.
IF: Has this internship had a decision altering impact on your career? Do you now think of a different future path as compared to before doing the internship?
BR: I always had an inclination towards developing software and web-based applications and this internship provided me with an opportunity to build the same for a leading institute. This has surely helped me in some way to shape my career. I got acquainted with the latest technologies. I got a chance to learn and work on some new stuff. So ultimately this internship has acted as a boost to my interests and will help me build a career in this field of software development.
IF: Lastly, do you have any words of advice or caution for students aspiring for this internship and reading this piece?
BR: I would like to suggest all the aspirants that they should be very clear with the basic concepts of Computer Science like the basics of C language, Object Oriented Language, database concepts, etc (for Computer Science students). Also, try to maintain a good CGPA as it will help you land with some internships at elite institutes.
Finally, I would say that Work hard, chase your dreams and never give up. You might face many failures in your journey but you should not let those failures define you. As a great man once said
“You Don’t always get what you want in life, but you will eventually get what you deserve.”
I would rate this internship experience an easy 10. (In fact I want to rate it even more than that :P).
Few Comments on InternFeel:
You guys are awesome, the work done by you guys is helping thousands of people (especially students) out there. Personally when I first joined college in the first year, I got to know about this Ekalavya internship by reading your blog and from then onwards I worked hard and always dreamed that “One day even I will bag this Internship and write my Internship Experience so that thousands of students can take me as an inspiration”. You guys are providing an ideal platform for these kinds of activities. Keep it up guys, forever grateful to you 🙂
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Related Internship Stories of Eklavya Programme
http://internfeel.com/eklavya-iit-bombay-internship-computer-science/
http://internfeel.com/internship-experience-arushi-sharma-iit-bombay-ekalavya-programme/
http://internfeel.com/internship-experience-smriti-iit-bombay-ekalavya-program/
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