Summer Internship with NTU Singapore – Anerudh Balaji from NIT Durgapur
This is what Anerudh Balaji, a Computer Science and Engineering Student from NIT Durgapur, thought before doing a research internship but was overwhelmed by excellent work culture of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University .This story is about what made Anerudh change his mindset and inspired him to foray into the world of research. With this inspiring story he enters “Winner of the day” Hall of Fame on Internshala. Congrats, Anerudh! Next step – “Winner of the week”!
Daily Winner for: – 1st Aug 2011
Name of the intern: – Anerudh Balaji
Institute: – NIT, Durgapur
Organization interned with: – Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Research is one word which makes half the world’s engineers groan and moan in agony. I was expecting to be grilled, fried and made a hamburger (out of) during my research internship at Nanyang Technological University as a research assistant to one of the faculty from the Electrical department, but was greeted with the exact opposite!
I landed in Singapore with droopy eyes and huge yawns as my flight had been delayed by four hours. Singapore airport was as clean as a whistle and appeared like one of those highly sophisticated buildings right out of big budget sci-fi movies. The accommodation was sorted out prior to my departure and I had no hassles in settling down in Singapore.
Nanyang Technological University had shuttle buses operating from its nearest train station to help students and faculty to commute easily to its campus. The campus is spread over a monstrous area and it takes quite a while to get used to. Each department was a maze in itself and learning the routes inside EEE department was as challenging as the project itself. After roaming around in circles for half an hour or so, I somehow made it to the lab where my work station and team were already assigned . My project partners were from different parts of the globe (China, Japan and Poland) and all of us stuck to the task and jelled quite well. There was no hard and fast rule regarding work timings. You could happily snore in the lab as long as the end result was delivered. Post lab timings were fun and I had ample time to explore the city and even check out the Chinese and Indonesian cuisines! Every day in NTU was completely different and time was spent researching, exploring different canteens and perusing through the thousands of books maintained in the libraries. The work was exciting and the work culture was exhilarating to say the least. Even though the lab hours stretched on a few occasions, we kept ourselves engaged with some old fashioned leg pulling and geek humor!!
The most challenging part of the internship was to overcome the language barrier (as my professor was Japanese and was not fluent in English) and communicate effectively regarding the project. On a personal note, the stint in Singapore made me embrace cultural diversity and has inspired me to foray into the world of research.
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