Summer Internship with IIT Bombay — Navneeta from Mody Institute of Information Technology and Science, Lakshmangarh
Daily winner for: – 2nd September 2012
Name of the intern: – Navneeta
Institute: – Mody Institute of Information Technology and Science, Lakshmangarh
Organization interned with: – IIT Bombay
My internship story actually began with a conference organized at my college titled “Implications of Nanotechnology”. Although I had come across the word “Nanotechnology” previously, it was only through the conference that I came to know the divine novelties it could offer. I still remember the way one of the scientists ended up his conversation “Small wonders, big frontiers,”. This truly had a deep impact on me. Then there was nothing stopping me. I kept on reading articles, journals, papers to boost my knowledge in nanotechnology. It had such a great impact on me that I would read about it even during exam times when my fellow class mates were busy mugging up the exam course contents.
In my second year of college I had worked in a PSU. Also I had undergone short term winter courses during winter vacations just to keep myself engaged. This summer I was willing to work in some field which could be a fun learning experience. After doing a lot of research I finally laid my eyes on “Summer Research Fellowship Programme” organized by Indian Academy of Sciences. The good thing about it was that I could get a chance to work in my area of interest. I applied for the fellowship in December 2011. On March 8, 2012, I received a mail that I was selected to work in IIT Bombay under a nanotechnology specialist. This was truly unbelievable as most of the fellows selected belonged to either IITs or NITs and I wasn’t from either of those. Now I had a chance to work in a field that had always fascinated me. This sounded magical!
On day 1, when I met my guide, the first thing she asked me was, “What do you want to work on?” This is one of the best things I’ve heard from a teacher. Instead of throwing one’s own ideas on a student, asking the students to decide what they wanted to know and learn seemed like a good idea.
Nanotechnology as we know is an interdisciplinary science involving knowledge from all backgrounds of science. But I being from Electronics background was more keen to work on semiconductor nanoparticles, i.e., basically quantum dots. For the following week I was asked to read journals and articles for the literature review and thus my work was now on first gear. Apart from work, I was astounded by the beauty of the campus. The lush green gardens, the serene Powai lake , the sky-covering trees were enough and more to take my breath away. I was meeting people from different zones of India, coming from different streams of engineering and science. I had made friends hailing from Kerala, Kolkata, Delhi , Varanasi, Dhanbad, Mumbai, etc. During tea breaks, lunch hours and dinner time we used to discuss and share our views on different cultures in the country with respect to food, clothing, festivals, lifestyle, etc.
Meanwhile, I had also started with my experiments in the lab. While the other labs had at least 2 to 3 interns, to my dismay in my lab I was the only intern. In the first two weeks I wouldn’t spend much time in the lab but rather go on long strolls with hostel friends. Everyday I used to pass by people discussing their research progress with each other. Some of them seemed so engrossed in their work that they even wouldn’t take time out for weekends. They weren’t bothered about getting a shave done, or being dressed properly. All they knew was “Love for work”. In my lab,there were 7 PhD scholars, all with different research interests, coming from different parts of India but great friends of each other. Prior to coming in IIT, I always assumed PhD students were boring and alienated. But my impression had vastly change after spending time with them. They were in fact far more interesting, jovial yet hard-working than any other people I had ever known. With the passing of days I was getting more and more interested and involved in my work. Now when I shared a good rapport with my labmates I liked to spend more time in lab rather than sleeping or watching movies in the hostel. I was even willing to work on weekends. The whole work atmosphere had got so friendly that I sometimes didn’t even realize that I had spent more than 10 hours in the lab. I could freely perform experiments, use the lab apparatus accessible only to PhD scholars. This was really a great feeling.
As the last days were heading, I was certainly loaded with lot of work but that didn’t seem much of a problem. Research is something that just can’t be completed in two months of time. I had started off from somewhere and had to put it an end at some stage. Although I was struggling with the experiments on the last day, my guide was quite impressed with my work. Hearing “Good job,” from a person of such high academic cadre was one of the most pleasant things I had ever heard. On a concluding note, I can just say that my experience doing internship at IIT was not only an enriching experience in terms of knowledge obtained but it has also served as a turning point of my life. I heartily thank The Indian Academy Of Sciences, Bangalore for such a wonderful opportunity to work with great people at a great place. As an endnote, as the motto of IIT-B reads, I would just say “Gyanam Parmam Dhyeyam” (Knowledge is the supreme goal).
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