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InternFeel ID: IF15036
InternFeel: Hello Sharad, please tell us about yourself. What makes you different?
Sharad: Hi, I am 7th semester Civil Engineering B-Tech student, from NIT Jamshedpur. I like listening songs, hanging out with my friends and yes I love travelling. I think my view point is quite different from others. Further I like to help myself as “God help those who help themselves”.
IF: Which internship you got the chance to take? What is it all about? Stipend, duration, place?
Sharad: I was selected for “Student Mentorship Scheme” under INAE (Indian National Academy of Engineering). This internship is more about research work under INAE fellows who are spread all around the country and worldwide. The fields related to this programme is engineering and sciences. The stipend is Rs 20,000 for two months (8 weeks) + travel allowances. And in some cases accommodation and fooding are also provided, like in my case.
IF: How you came to know about the internship? To what all sources you kept yourself connected?
Sharad: One of my senior told me about INAE. Since this internship is known to very less people, I visited it’s website to know about the exact details. At the same time Utkarsh, a group on facebook also helped me a lot in knowing about several other national and international internships like DAAD, Charpak scholarships, S.N Bose, IAS Bangalore.
IF: Tell us on the procedure to apply for the internship. Who all are eligible to apply for this internship?
Sharad: The exact procedure for applying to this internship is nowhere mentioned. First of all find about all the INAE fellows related to your field on their website. Then prepare individual letters for each of the fellows and mail them. You can mail it around in last week of December of every year because the last date for it is around 15th January of preceding year. One more thing Keep your mail good and never attach your C.V but paste it in your mail. Once this is done, you will start receiving replies from all fellows who are interested in you. Then, you have to make a SOP (statement of purpose) which is nothing but an abstract of your topic of research. Again this has to be kept good. After this, download an application form from INAE website and fill it up, get it signed by H.O.D and along with your SOP send a soft copy to your INAE fellow. A governing Council committee meeting of INAE will take place and if you are suitable they will select you. Engineering students of all branches are eligible for this program.
IF: Let’s talk about how competitive is the selection process.
What qualities of yours, you believe helped you in having an edge over the selection process? What key things you feel were looked for by the selectors?
Sharad: I think my C.V was quite good. I had earlier done one project form my college on “Bearing Capacity improvement of loose granular material”. Besides these, I had my one paper published in the conference of IAEECC -2014. I believe that the selectors want good academic profiles. Further your SOP act as a catalyst in this process. One more thing, your selection in this internship does not solely depend on your CGPA.
IF: About when you got the news for the selection? How was the celebration?
Sharad: I got the mail from INAE in the mid-march. It was quite late but when it came I was quite glad .It was the time of Holi and I was in my home. For last few days I was checking my mail constantly and then one fine day, my final selection was confirmed. I told my parents about this thing. They were delighted and so was I. I also told my friends about this. Overall I was contented but not so much happy as I aspired for foreign intern, which I couldn’t make it though.
IF: What all preparations you did (academic/otherwise) after the results in view of the internship?
Sharad: After knowing about the result, I mailed my mentor to send some good pdfs and study material over the topic of my internship. It was something of new kind so I devoted some time on learning the basics before joining it. And yes this helped me a lot in completing my work before time. My project work finished in just one month 10 days. Rest of time was devoted in making report and proper editing because ample amount of time was available.
IF: So Sharad, could you please highlight us with what work/research project you carried out during the internship period? It’s application in near future and your work in it?
Sharad: My research work was over some complex topic of “Control of vibration in tall buildings”. I need to stretch it a little. Actually in tall buildings (of more than 200 storeys) like Taipei 101, Pentronas Tower and Burj Khalifa, people in top floors feel sway movement. This happens because as we move up in high altitude, the wind speed and hence wind induced vibrations increases exponentially. Because of this there is continuous sway motion felt by residents of the buildings. My project consists of controlling these vibrations. For controlling these wind induced harmonic excitations, we use “Tuned Mass Damper”. This damper is tuned to vibrate out of phase motion with the building. That is, if the building will sway in left direction the TMD (Tuned Mass Damper) will move in right direction, thus counter – balancing the effect of wind. I had designed a TMD for SDOF (single degree of freedom) undamped building. I had achieved it by optimizing the mass ratio of TMD and several other parameters like frequency ratio, H1 and H12 terms using softwares like MATLAB. My project is a part of the subject “structural Dynamics” which is being taught in M-tech course. In the coming future, our country will see a large need for the construction of tall buildings, because it not only reduces the problem of land scarcity but will also prove to be a symbol of developed country. I hope that some work over the design of TMD over damped MDOF (multiple degree of freedom) structures can be made.
IF: What was the best thing about the work culture and the internship? What all things you liked there?
Sharad: Well, the work cultutre of CBRI is quite good. There you can find a lot of instruments. It is a complete place of learning. The scientists over there are highly educated. And the best thing was you can interact with them even if they are not your mentors. A number of projects was going over there like that of Taj – Mahal, Quitab Minar , Fatigue Analysis , Beam testing and Tsunami mitigation model. So, I like all these things and it was truly a very good opportunity for me to get such an exposure. Further the environment and the offices were well maintained.
IF: Were there any special events during the internships?
Sharad: From time to time, there used to be a colloquium, in which scientists have to give presentation in front of Director of CSIR-CBRI. And I, along with other scientists use to attend it. It was really very fruitful and we have the opportunity of open discussion with them. Further on working days they use to call me whenever any demonstration of instruments was given. On weekends we use to go Hrishikesh, Haridwar and Maussorie. These places were quite near from us. And we enjoyed with rafting and exploring new places.
IF: What was the guidance provided by your guide? What all support you received from intern institute administration?
Sharad: My main mentor Dr. Prem Krishna, chairman Research Council CSIR-CBRI, former Dean and HOD (Civil engineering Department) of IIT roorkee was very helpful to me. He not only taught me with my project but also helped in taking decisions. My mentor at CBRI was also good. He use to conduct a meeting with my mentor scientist and talk about my progress in the project. And where ever I was wrong, he helped me to get a better solution. Apart from this the administration supported me in getting good accommodation and provided me all the best facilities in the campus.
IF: Let’s now talk about some negatives.
What problems you or your friends faced, regards to the internship, which your juniors may be able to avoid?
Sharad: Truly, there is no such problem associated with this intern. But the work pressure is very high. You have to work for from 9.00 a.m. in the morning to 5.00 p.m. in the evening. Sometimes it used to extend 7.00 p.m. Further, you have to keep your work in time and up to date. They can call you any time for presentation. You need to hear a little curses from scientists if you do something very wrong. Rest I think this place is best safe for girls. They have well-furnished quarters for boys and girls separately. One can get well served food either in the canteen or in hostels of IIT r. I would advise the juniors to do all the work in time. And everything follows well then.
IF: Anything you would like to tell us please. Feel free to share any interesting thing that happened.
Sharad: Yes we use to watch news, cricket or any new happening in the office. Once or twice my mentor saw me doing fb or some other stuffs on screen, but before allowing him to say anything over it I use to close it. So, even after that I continued with this thing but with little caution.
IF: To which all people you would, like to thank in context of this internship?
Sharad: I would like to thank my senior, Rahul Raman for letting me know about this intern. Then I would like to thank my mentor Dr. Prem Krishna, my scientist mentors Dr. Achal Mittal and Siddharth Behera.
IF: How much difference this period of 2 months made in your intellectual capabilities and mindset. In broad terms what are your gains from this?
Sharad: This complete set of 8 weeks was a source of learning for me. I came to know about professional and research life. In other words, the dimensions of my mind has increased. When I came out of it, my way of thinking and approach of problem solving increased a lot. I gained a mature and professional mind-set.
IF: Advice for juniors? Which can help them in getting internships in their future college life and also advice for making the best out of it.
Sharad: I would advise my juniors to not only focus on their pointers but also do something extra. Mere possession of pointer is of no use until you sandwich it with your extra projects and technical skills. Then focus more on technical aspects and clear all basics related to your subject. One more thing, whenever you apply for any intern, see its requirement and accordingly update yourself. Keep your SOP best because that is the only thing they want apart from pointers. Make good C.V and yes choose good topics for your project or the research work.
IF: What are your future plans after this internship and how much impact this internship will have on it?
Sharad: When I was leaving CBRI, my mentor advised me to work more over my topic. So, I will think of some sort of higher studies (like M.S) . This internship accelerated my academic career and would help me a lot in my pursuing my higher studies.
IF: Any views about this initiative of InternFeel, and how beneficial it would be? Any suggestions for improvement?
Sharad: I think that InterFeel is doing a marvellous job as most of the time we do not know about opportunities in internship. This particular portal provides help in this respect. Further, by sharing the experience of students, it help us to know the exact situation of any intern. We are exposed to the procedure of applying to an internship, we get to know the skills required for it and yes how hard it will be to survive in any particular internship.
IF: So Sharad, we are at the end of the interview. From the entire team of InternFeel, we thank you for sharing your experiences with us, for everyone and we wish you best of luck for all your future endeavors.
Sharad: Thanks a lot for giving me an opportunity to share my internship experience. I hope this will help a lot of people in knowing about this particular internship because very few people are aware of this. Thank you very much for your good wishes. It was pleasure talking to you.
Tags: INAE Research internship
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