Akshat Jha (CS1)
Domain: Reasearch - Motion Planning in Geometric Settings
Interned at INRIA, France
Mode: Offline Interviewed by: Umang Badetia
Introduction
I’m Akshat, currently in my third year of studying in the Computer Science Department. I interned at INRIA in my second year, the internship being based on Motion Planning in Geometric Settings.
Brief Introduction to the Internship Role and His Work.
Motion Planning Algorithms are applied to general robotics. I tried to take them and apply them to settings in which you need to think about geometrical conformations, and how proteins move. It also involved a bunch of code, which was further added to the Standard Bioinformatics Library that INRIA hosts.
Why a second-year intern, and that too a research intern.
I had seen a lot of seniors following the traditional route of doing a second-year research intern, followed by a third-year corporate intern so that they could check every facet of their list. Of all the available options, INRIA was highly commended by every senior. When I got the acceptance letter from their end, I went through with it.
Domains that he found himself interested in. And why a domain related to biology.
I was open to doing anything; I did not have any interests as such. Every place where I thought I could be a good fit or what a senior recommended to me, I applied there. I did not have any strong and specific interest as such, to be honest.
Metrics to narrow down the domain.
If you want to do a foreign research internship, good reviews about the internship matter a lot. If you are going to do a research internship via a program, some of your seniors probably went to that place as well. Then, if you get a sense of what you are trying to do there (at the research internship) and you feel like you will be a good fit, do you want to do more coding or more mathematical analysis, you should keep these in your mind while making a decision. Also, a thing people don’t think about a lot, is the ability to manage expenses with the amount of money you have; such minor points should also be considered.
Try talking to a lot of seniors, and talk to more than just a single senior. Some seniors might have gone through the same internship program you are aiming to get into, while you might be close to some other seniors. Do account the amalgamation of their opinions while forming your own opinion. If you are close to some professors, you can also consult them, as they might be familiar with the work happening in any famous lab.
Timeline of the overall process.
Usually, in a research internship, the internship takes a lot of time; you need to be very patient. There are two types of research interns: either it is a program, or you have to send emails (cold-emailing) randomly. For me, the process was pretty quick; I applied right after the minors in my 3rd semester (around 25th Sept) and got my acceptance letter within a week. For INRIA, the application turnaround is usually quick, but it took some time for a few of my friends to get their acceptance letters.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Methodology for approaching the intern.
I was a bit uniquely situated in this aspect because I know a lot of seniors from IITD who had worked in the same labs/centres in INRIA as me, so the people in INRIA share a positive review of the students of IITD. The professor that I had approached was in touch with the previous interns (our seniors). We had sent in the emails right when he anticipated the same from us, so the timelines matched, luckily.
There are a lot of other programs as well; I received another response from a professor at Yale. I had constantly bugged him by emailing him (don’t do that), but by the time he replied positively, I was already accepted in INRIA. In retrospect, I probably should have targeted more places and broader domains, but I was lucky that I got an internship quickly.
Also, the timings matter. If you email the profs at the wrong moment, it will probably end up in their spam emails, and they will never see it.
Stark differences between 3rd Year OCS internship vs 2nd Year research internship.
It is entirely different. The third-year process is very formalised. You have to follow many rules and a fixed schedule; with third-year interns, there are a lot of tests and many more opportunities, and all of your friends are sitting in the third-year internship as well, unlike the second-year intern. The second-year process is very chill, like it doesn’t really matter if you get an internship back then, but the third-year internship is something you really look forward to.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Work Experience at INRIA, and relationship with advisors, colleagues, and friends there.
With INRIA, the location (Southern France) is enchanting. If your friends are joining you there, it is a plus point. Work-wise, it is a research project; you don’t know what to do and what to expect. You start by reading papers and discussions and slowly start getting an idea and start implementing it. For me, it was relatively chill during the first half, but it got a bit more intense in the second half when the ideas started pouring in. In the latter half, I was putting in 8-9 hours of work every day, compared to the 4-5 hours when I started.
I have observed that in other places, your advisor meets or talks to you once, like five days, but in INRIA, your advisor will be in constant touch with you (for me, it was twice a day). When starting with research, I feel that one needs a lot of guidance, and INRIA provided me with that; I really enjoyed conversing with my advisor.
As far as the environment is concerned, INRIA is a French multinational institution. There were people from Britain, the USA, and India as well, and you had lunch with them daily, so it was fun.
Non-working hours during the internship period.
We used to hang out with the other team members (not our advisors or any chief scientist) in our spare time and go around places together. The IITD students, in particular, used to roam around France together. We moved around the South France region, and went to Paris once as well. So, even outside work, we were all very social with each other (the people at the INRIA centre).
On personal experiences and balancing out work and personal life.
I had moved out of the country once (for work), and that was for about ten days with many friends and much more formal stuff. At INRIA, it was much longer; I was practically living there for two and a half months. It was similar to living in the college, except the food and climate were different. Though I had fewer friends at the INRIA centre (from IITD), I improved my friendships with everyone there. We used to chill together and work together, just like in college, and to be honest, the work here was just like solving an assignment for me.
Though my life here was more structured, I could easily pull off all-nighters and sleep between class breaks in college, but you cannot do that while working anywhere.
Personal feelings about delving into newer fields and on the conclusion of the intern.
This internship was the first time I was looking at approximate and randomised algorithms, I had heard of them, but this time, I was working with them. After that, I was exposed to a plethora of new algorithms and how they work, which was fantastic for me, at least because I might not have been exposed to them if I had stayed at IITD because the things we did there and the things we do here in college are very different.
As far as my work integrating with SBL (Standard Bioinformatics Library) is concerned, it feels cool knowing that I would be able to contribute to an extensive library with lakhs of lines of code and having my code there (actually meaningful code) that would help someone else to build something on their own, you don’t experience things like that. Had I been at some other place, I probably would not have had that much impact.
On managing both the second-year internship and third-year internship prep.
For the third-year internship prep, I mainly relied on solving maths puzzles. I revised all the relevant courses I had during that period. Whatever time I could get, particularly on the weekends or someday when I was not making any progress, I would look at some preparation material, highly guided by seniors, doing what they told me without questioning anything (they knew what to do better than me).
If I had to do something differently, I would start my third-year internship prep earlier, probably during my fourth semester, because I skimmed down a lot of parts of my third-year internship, which I could have been able to balance out.
Impact of the second-year internship on the third-year internship choices.
It had a very positive effect, not necessarily because you don’t have a research organisation coming for your third-year intern. People understand the value of INRIA if they work in a foreign firm or have little exposure to undergraduate CS research, so it is an excellent name to have in your CV.
The roles that I was looking forward to didn’t change much, as I had a prior idea beforehand that I wanted to do either Software or Quantitative research (and I ended up choosing that only). Still, I developed a stronger preference for it being there.
Any regrets about the second-year internship process or the prep for the third-year intern.
I probably could have explored more or focused a bit more during the research internship or could have tried a few new things (or managed my time more efficiently), but if I look back 6-7 months back at what I was hoping to get out of the intern, I believe I largely achieved that.
INRIA has a great work culture, so we had little to no spare time. I witnessed many of my friends, who were also in Europe, travelling a lot across Europe, which isn’t possible with INRIA, so that would be one of my regrets.
Monetary implications of the internship.
INRIA doesn’t pay for your flight (French Govt. rules), which is a big problem. If you get the Charpak Scholarship (a scholarship that the French Embassy in India provides), you get an extra 1400 euros while working in France. Strangely, no IITian could secure the Cherpak Scholarship during my year.
Whatever I earned covered my food, flight, and other expenses (probably overshot by a few euros), but all in all, I netted zero off my internship, which is fine because you are not expected to do that anyways. If I factor out my flight tickets, I might have made 500 euros, but factoring it in, it is a net zero (without the Cherpak scholarship).
ADVICES
Any tips for the juniors.
Rely on your seniors a lot; they know how things work out, and they have been through that process, so they have connections in the lab itself. They would be beneficial to you in guiding you through the process.
If you are in the third semester, keep a high CGPA. Many opportunities open up right after the fourth semester starts, so a high CGPA greatly helps.
Enjoy your courses as well, which will help you out for your second-year internship and in everything.
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