Internship in Singapore- “It made me a different person”
Internship can be a life changing experience for some. Ayushi narrates how the adventures and happening events encountered during her internship changed her very personality.
About Author: Ayushi Sinha has done her B.Tech from IIIT Allahabad in Electronics and Communication. She interned in Singapore with the CHiPES organization at Nanyang Technological University.
Can an internship transform you into a different person? In my case, it is a YES. I couldn’t have been happier when I got a reply from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). They were interested in taking me, and so was I to work with them. Hence began my 18 weeks long internship at Centre for High Performance Embedded Systems (CHiPES).
Boy oh boy! What an amazing city is Singapore. The diverse culture and cleanliness was instantly impressive. The people were nice and helpful, and the weather was awesome (I love rain!). In the CHiPES lab at NTU, I was given a warm welcome. They helped me deal with the paper work and then came the best part- my project. I, along with Param Aggarwal, had to get a Teaching Auxiliary Board (TAB) working. This is a development board being prepared for the undergraduate students to complement the theories in the form of laboratory experiments. This is being done to bring the students at par with the commercial tools. The board had various peripherals and sensors like an accelerometer, magnetometer, microcontroller, CPLD, loudspeaker, microphone, memories, infrared transceiver and ADC/DAC. The communication among them was to be established using protocols like I2C, SPI, UART and Infrared. There were also laboratory experiments to be developed for the students that helped them understand theoretical concepts in a practical way. There was so much to learn, to observe and to do. We did all the work sincerely. The work culture was awesome and our mentors were very friendly. They not just helped us clear our doubts, but also asked for our opinions. We successfully completed our project, thanks to the mentors and my colleague. I couldn’t have found an internship better than this.
Besides working in the lab, there was an equally exciting life outside. Our mentor Dr. David Dyer gave us treats and often went swimming with us. We even went for an ice-skating session. He is one of the most impressive teachers I have ever met. He was an expert in his field. He always enriched us with his stories and puzzle games. NTU was amazing as well. The kind of creativity I saw there really blew away my mind. I particularly liked the Art, Design and Media building where there was much too much to see. Overall, I liked the culture of the university. Students were open to new ideas and there was an effort to grow their ideas into a real product. In the hostel, I did cooking. I experimented with various vegetables and other ingredients. In the weekends, I discovered the city. There was Universal Studio, Bird Park, Night safari, zoo, science museum, marina bay and so on.
After I came back from Singapore, I realized I was a different person. I try making things that look different, I can appreciate art better, I understand technology and I understand myself. I feel I have a sense of passion in me. I have a new perspective at things. I feel I am ignited. It was a wonderful experience in terms of both work and play. I so miss it!
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