Summer Internship at IIT Bombay–Harshita Jhavar from NIT Bhopal
Harshita Jhavar, a final year Computer Science and Engineering student at NIT Bhopal, expresses her passion for Language Technology that she experienced during her internship at IIT Bombay this summer. Read on to discover her interesting internship story.
On the last day of my major exam, I received an acceptance letter from IIT Bombay for my internship at their Language Technology Lab. Like any other language research enthusiast, I was thrilled and extremely excited to leave for Mumbai within 3 days. I packed my bags and reached Mumbai by Volvo which dropped me at Vikroli. From Corporate Sectors to Film Industry, from local trains to tourist spots, from research internship to life at IIT, everything was running in my head. When I entered the campus, I was thrilled with the excitement to realize the fact that I was going to spend 2 months in India’s best Engineering institute.
I quickly completed the regular formality procedure of contacting Hostel Caring Unit to securing an Identity Pass. I stayed at Hostel 10. I was introduced with my area of research by my Mentor on the very first day. He gave me some research papers to study relevant to the field. I met my fellow research intern colleagues from IIT Guwahati and Bits Goa. I was assigned a system in the Lab whose desk was always occupied by research papers, some refreshments and my to do list. I was simply amazed with the people from different regions of India with different cultures, stories, talents and above all placed in firms like google, Amazon, Oracle with research publications in Tier 1 conferences sitting in my vicinity completing their works, discussing approaches to solve various problems at IIT B.
The team at CFILT is extremely passionate about their projects. Some of them used to sleep, eat and live in the research labs itself. You are independent to go and work in the lab at any hour of day or night. I was taken aback with the scope of Language Technology Research field as painted by IIT Bombay infront of my eyes. Not only research, the people there were expert in doing LAN Gaming, playing Scrabble and Wordamant and discussing strategies to win the game. The food at Hostels was very tasty. Any student was allowed to have food at any mess of there choice at any hostel. The library in the campus was heavenly. I loved studying in the evening hours at that place. I loved the food of Gulmohar Restaurant at IIT B and of course, the yummy food of night canteen. The best achievement of my internship was when I successfully solved my research problem which cleared my doubt of pursuing research in Language Technology after B.Tech.
Every Wednesday at 2:00 pm, the entire CFILT Team meets and discusses the current status of the research progress. I used to go even on Saturdays and Sundays to work because I was passionately excited to see the numbers of my accuracy results. You are always surrounded by cool geeks around you. The team celebrates with a Biryani Party every time whenever any member achieves something great. This taught me team work and the fact that one must celebrate one’s success with those who appreciate your hard work and were there to help you during your days of struggle. One fine weekend, I visited Gateway Of India, Church Gate and Marine Drive with few of my friends from IIT BHU.
The experience of travelling in a local train which are the life lines of Mumbai was an unforgettable one. The ‘Ladies Dibba’ was crowded and people are happily hanging on the doors to reach the destination. Regular vendors sold different items in the train. The time I used to catch a local, I would get a feeling that I am living in Mumbai, especially during my struggle to enter the train. I was amazed seeing Hotels like Taj, Nariman Point and appreciated the beauty and ambience of the buildings there. The terror of 26/11 was suddenly in my mind. I made sure to survey the place on Google map before making a plan. I also saw the most beautiful sunrise at Marine Drive.
I visited the interiors of the famous ‘Chor Bazaar’ and was taken aback by the British Pieces of Art including Badges, Coins, Hats, Cannons in the interiors of that place. I compared the prices of bronze and ivory statues, ate the world’s best Vada Paav there. I also went to Fashion Street, the luxurious Bandra Road and shopped a lot for my friends and family.
I was lucky to see Amitabh Bachchan, Rakshanda Khan and Arjun Rampal in Bandra. I got a glimpse of Page 3 life where I saw high societal people discussing about some event when I was having my dinner at one of Bandra’s Restaurant. I also visited Iskcon Temple of Mumbai whose ambience was very beautiful. I also, attended Design and Degree show at IIT B. It was indeed one of the largest Design shows in India. I also attended Designing Summer Classes in IIT B in Summer School. My parents also visited me twice during the internship tenure to motivate me for my work. I am a Final Year Computer Science Student at NIT Bhopal. So, this internship was indeed a dream come true. When I left the campus, I promised myself that I’ll carry forward my passion towards Language Technology and will continue doing research and coming up with great results. I heartedly thanked IIT Bombay for giving me so many memories and most importantly, helping me in deciding what I wanted to do in my life.
Thank you Internshala for this amazing contest to allow me to relive those moments again.
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