Internship at Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) – Avantika from Nanyang Technological University – Technical University of Munich
A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor. Avantika is pursuing Electronics & Communication engineering and shares her wonderful experience of internship days.
Something I will cherish and be proud of throughout my life is this particular internship. Infact, I am indeed blessed to have secured my internship with high speed communication and analog circuit design research group at Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) Erlangen, Germany which was no less than a stepping stone towards my long term objective. And I truly believe if I can do it without any prior semiconductor knowledge or work experience, anyone can.
My skype interview lasted for an hour with some out of the blue circuits being shown on the computer screen with a specific question at the bottom. I was supposed to give not only the final answer but was expected to throw some light over my approach and thinking in terms of how the signal is travelling from input node to output node. It was a different interview experience altogether. But I cannot forget that particular moment at the end when the interviewer’s final remark was “Ms Singh, let me tell you, you are one of the best applicant I have interviewed so far.” It is always difficult to face the moment when your fate is being sealed and mine was no different.
Well, I joined Fraunhofer IIS (Erlangen, Germany) on 8th July 2015 and will be completing my internship period by 30th September 2015 after which I will continue for next 6 months for my master thesis. It’s a totally different work environment and work ethics here. Enormous facilities have been provided to all employees including student interns.
My supervisor a senior engineer with more than 7 yrs of experience in ASIC design for high speed communication is my role model here. He is a speedster (in terms of simultaneously handling and disposing many projects). I fondly call him the FLASH. He is never found being slow in his activities including research work, walking or talking. Just because he might get slowed down with his working pace he stands and works for the entire 8 hours at institute. That is really inspiring.
It was really difficult to match his superfast intellectual abilities and his extraordinarily fast English with German accent. So I started to record our interactive sessions so that I don’t miss out any of his instructions. It took me a month to match my frequency with his. But now that I think I am on track, I am learning more and more each day in terms of my skill set. I am equally passionate about the research work I am doing under him. It’s a potential patent project with a Non Disclosure Agreements(NDA) signed up, due to which I cannot risk talking about the challenges of my project. However, I can just say it is something new which might be used in circuit design products soon.
My entire experience sharing will not be worth without mention of my friends, two in my research group and one in a different group in Fraunhofer IIS itself. We are the fantastic 4 who jump onto research ideas, task implementations and on weekends enjoy hard. The Germans are extremely efficient with their work pace and output and I am trying my best to meet to their expectations. However, I feel jealous of them in the sense that how can they be so organized and perfectionist and concrete with concepts and implementation. I hope my jealousy pushes me hard to imbibe their qualities and turn me into a better professional.
I will describe my internship experience in close congruence with a time varying sinusoidal wave. At one instant it is at the crest and the very next it can get to the trough. I am floating because I am paddling hard each day. The point I stop paddling hard I might just sink with the challenging work. Nonetheless, I am evolving each day into an enhanced technology freak who is getting more and more passionate about scientific research.
If Avantika’s experience motivates you, you can check the latest international internships.
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Hi avantika , what is the procedure for applying for that internship
Hey Ankit,
You need to look into their website http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/en/jobs/studierende/jobs.html.
They usually post their openings on it. And then you need to apply with a Motivation Letter, CV and proof of credentials; after which they will shortlist you for a skype interview mostly for an hour.
See I have completed my btech in ece stream and I m looking for an internship for a few months.
Hi Ankita,
Sincere apology for the late response.
Visit here for internships in Electronics.
http://internshala.com/internships/electronics-internship
Regards,
Team Internshala
Could you please help me by evaluating my resume, so that I will knowing what more should be added to my profile inorder to grab this internship. Please .
And you also mentioned that you did’t have any prior knowledge about semiconductors ,then how did you get this internship?
I meant I didn’t have any prior job experience or any kind of internship in IC Design before this one. I graduated with a degree of B. Eng. in ECE in June 2014 and went ahead for M.Sc. in IC Design jointly offered by NTU, Singapore and TUM, Germany starting from Aug 2014. The course is designed such that we are open for pursuing internship anywhere in the world. So, I applied to some of my choicest research institutes and companies. Got into couple of them after clearing typical technical interviews. But, my eyes were on Fraunhofer IIS from the very beginning and so I kind of fulfilled my short term goal. I hope that answers you.
Well didn’t you plan for US
Hello mam,
Iam currently pursuing my fourth B.Tech in ECE, next semester i would like to do an intern, so can you please suggest me any good interns in India like bosch to do my final year project?
Thank you mam
Hi Munny,
To apply to awesome internships register with us using the following link –
http://internshala.com/registration/student
You can check internship in the field of Electronics here –
http://internshala.com/internships/electronics-internship
And apply to the ones which suit your profile the best.
Regards,
Team Internshala
hii avantika, first of all congratulation your success.
i have completed my BE (E&tc)in 2017. & i am looking for any internship or research internship.can you give me information about how to apply and some tips about internship ,links
Hi Avantika
Do they provide internship for 3 months and shall I mail them my application letter or is there any other portal