Summer Internship with Indian Statistical Institute — Naveen from IIT Kharagpur
Wildcard entry for: – 18th August 2012
Name of the intern: – Naveen
Institute: – IIT Kharagpur
Organization interned with: – Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
I am a third year student of the department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. I have a lways had an aptitude for mathematics and wanted to do some research work in this field. In my fourth semester I was introduced to the field of Statistics as a compulsory course for my undergraduate studies. It caught my fascination. I used to wonder how easily Probability and Statistics relates mathematics to the most un-mathematical world. This fascination was the driving force why I chose to do my internship in a field which is very different from my major.
I basically mailed a few professors in India who are currently working in the field of applied statistics. In total I would have mailed almost as many as 50 professors. I got a reply from almost all of them, and many of them were positive. The main reason why I think I was considered for such an internship inspite of my unrelated field of study was my performance in Mathematical Olympiads in my school days. So any student who has performed decently in Maths Olympiads and is not a full time student of mathematics can apply for such an internship. Out of the many choices I had, I chose the internship at Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta under the guidance of its Director Dr. Bimal K. Roy.
Though it was basically an interest internship and stipend didn’t really matter to me, it may noted that I was to be remunerated @ Rs 1000 per week. The accommodation and food were arranged within the institute itself. Also the office of Director reimbursed me the entire to and fro fare of a 3 tier AC train from my hometown to Kolkata. Even though I live only 125 kms away from Kolkata, I hadn’t been to the place very often. So I was completely unknown to the metro city.
My internship was to start from 15th May, 2012. So I chose to arrive on 14th May. After getting out from a cool AC train a very hot and sultry city of Kolkata welcomed me. Even though I knew the exact location of ISI; an arduous journey and the hot weather made sure that I took a taxi cab and did not travel by bus which would cost me 25 times less! I was allotted a single room in an M.Tech Hostel which was reasonably far from both the academic area and the mess. However the peaceful atmosphere, the green ambience and the proximity of a beautiful artificial pond made it an ideal place to stay for a summer research internship. It is worthwhile to note that the hostel which was allotted to me didn’t have proper internet connectivity. Only some floors had a LAN port and others had to buy a 20 metre LAN wire to access internet facility.My internship was in the field of cryptography. I studied e-stream ciphers and I finally had to make a project report on the statistical analysis of different modes of attacks that a cryptographic system may sustain and provide solutions and alternative attacks. It was both fun as well as challenging at the same time. Fun because I got to study statistics from the Director himself and challenging because I had to study a lot of computer science for my research.
Overall it was a thoroughly satisfying internship experience. I got to interact with the ISI and CMI students and had brain storming sessions with them. I also got plenty of time to see various places in Kolkata with other fellow internees. My internship ended on 6th July, 2012. So it was both educative and fun filled 9 weeks that I had. Anyone who has interest in mathematics can get an internship in ISI. I believe my story will help a lot of like minded people aspiring for such an internship.
FYI! You can view the latest Internships in Kolkata here.
