Summer Internship with Dublin City University — Tejaswi from The LNMIIT
Wildcard Entry for: – 12th August 2012
Name of the intern: – Tejaswi
Institute: – The LNMIIT
Organization interned with: – Dublin City University
May 13th — I arrived in Dublin — my first step in a foreign country ever in my life. The feeling that I was continents away from India just stuck in my heart sending a pulse of joy all over my nerves. I was warmly welcomed by my colleagues at the airport and was also given accommodation with them. I visited Dublin City University the next day for reporting of my arrival and registering as an intern. I went in a bus and was very much intrigued at the sight of every possible thing like the “stop” buttons in the bus, the cleanliness of the roads maintained using sweeping machines, the colonial structures, the architecture of the houses and buildings etc.
As soon as I arrived at DCU in “Dublin-Bus”, I was awestruck at the sight of DCU’s beauty — both man made and natural. Finding my Professor’s office wasn’t difficult in a huge campus which was spread over 100 acres as there were maps put up at every possible place. Thus, within 10 minutes I figured out the campus layout and went to the School of Physical Sciences building and met my Professor. He then welcomed me warmly and then introduced me to his PhD student with whom I had to consult when my Professor was not available.
I was provided with an office desk having all facilities including a PC . Then I was introduced to my short-term project work. My routine was to go to the University at 10 in the morning and return by 5 in the evening. I was told that the weekends were off. Even Professors wouldn’t reply to us (unless it was very important) during their weekend, as the weekends are for enjoying and compensating for the hard work during the whole week and for satisfying your life’s non-trivial wishes. So, I went to the University for work punctually every weekday and as soon as the weekend came, I planed for some trip or the other that covered almost every part Ireland.
About my work at DCU: I worked on the theoretical study of interaction of lasers with atoms of ne. It covers the concepts of Quantum Physics like the quantum states, couplings, angular momenta etc, coding in C++, also LaTex for documenting my project. Frankly speaking, I never liked Coding or LaTex during my past years of Bachelors, but loved Physics a lot. As soon as I came to know about “why” and “how” we use coding in Quantum Physics, I got interested in it and I now understand it. Initially though I struggled learning that coding, later on I could learn it and finally made my own code. During my work, I interacted with different people from different fields like Laser spectroscopy, Bio Physics etc. Then after a lot of interactions and discussions during my whole internship, I came to the conclusion that all the fields of study are very important and should not be compared. For proper understanding of Nature and her problems, we need all the fields to work in unison.
Also, the working environment is very good and supportive. People are very patient and clarified almost every doubt I had. I finished my work 1 week before my departure and my Professor was impressed by my accomplishments. He appreciated my efficiency at work and my grasping skills, which hugely encouraged me to pursue higher studies (till post doc). I was also well-appreciated by the Dean of Physical and Health Sciences who awarded me the internship certificate. I’m also submitting a research paper along with my Professor and the PhD student in a couple of months.
Apart from Work : I made very good friends with the Irish who are my colleagues. They are interesting people and good-natured. I found that the Irish are very friendly, joyful and welcoming. Especially their music is very energetic. During my weekends, I went for : Connomora, Cliffs of Moher, Newgrange, Adrigallin, Howth, Bray, Waterford etc. I toured all these places extensively. I used to read about that place the day before, planned the whole itinerary. All trips were awesome and each has its own memorable experiences. The best part during these trips was the guides’ commentary. They are the most humorous and sarcastic people I had ever seen. One more thing I concluded about Irish weather is : ” If you don’t like the weather, just wait for 5 minutes,” and it’s true that the Irish weather is not predictable. On one of such weekends, when the weather was not in the mood of allowing us to tour, I went clubbing for the first time. I had visited The Temple Bar, Fitzimons, the Foundry etc. Never in my life have I visited a bar or a pub. I used to have a very bad feeling about them. But after seeing these at Dublin, I changed my opinion. The night pubs are very safe and so are the midnight walks on the streets of Dublin. I enjoyed every part of the pubs – the dancing, the songs, the Irish musicals by the native people, all of it. Also, I noticed that women are very much respected. Even in night pubs, no man misbehaved with women. I liked it.
During my last month of internship, I also attended the “European Science Open Forum — The ESOF 2012” conference held at Convention Centre Dublin. This was undoubtedly the best part of my whole trip. I got to attend the lectures of four Nobel laureates including James Watson — the discoverer of the structure of DNA. I also met scientists from Colorado, Germany, NASA and interacted with them and exchanged many ideas. Different graduate and post graduate students from different places of the world attended the conference.
Overall, the internship experience can be put into one word – awesome; as I could do my project work with successful results, visited most parts of Ireland, got the chance to interact with many world-class scientists, got to know the culture and the people of Ireland very well. Hopefully I will visit that small and beautiful country soon.
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