Exchange Diaries  

Vinit Kumar Singh | Physics

Purdue University, USA

From where did you get the motivation? How did it all start? How did you handle your preparation for your academics?

First of all, I’m from the Physics Department, so it was basically from the start that I wanted to do a Ph.D., so there was no confusion related to this from the very beginning. I didn’t even sit for CDC Internships because I was sure that I don’t want to do a job. I also did a couple of foreign internships: The first one in Korea, then in Australia, and then in the USA. So, this provided a clear gateway towards doing a Ph.D. Balancing with Academics was difficult. This balance that I was trying to have been also hindered by COVID-19. I always intended to do a decent amount of work for academics, so that I don’t fail in any of the subjects and lose my Ph.D.

What is the process of interdisciplinary studies? How easy was the switch? What motivated you for the switch?

Yeah, so once you get involved in the Ph.D. thing, you will realize that very few people study pure subjects. The majority of people mix things up. In my case, I was mixing Physics and Computer Science. Physics was my major. Computer Science was an acquired skill for me. So, while searching for my first internship, I was highly interested in something which is the superposition of these two skills, and basically, that’s how the interest in me for the mixture of subjects grew rather than the pure subjects. In my case, my field was something called Computational Physics and then after some time, I found a particular sub-part of that field called Quantum Computing. This evolved in a certain fashion, I can say there was no switch in my case. Rather I would suggest people try out different fields and see how they can blend things in.

Did you apply to multiple universities? If yes, can you please elaborate on the differences in the selection process of the universities? In universities in which you were not selected can you please share what you felt you lacked, what could you have done better?

Yes, I applied to multiple universities. I got selected at Purdue and Brown University. But there were really good colleges. Yeah, I got a lot of rejections from various universities. Well, my grade point is around 9. So, I believe this is one of the reasons why I got rejected from universities. These universities are looking for good academicians, so you cannot just go before them with a grade point of 8 or below and say that you are good in academics. But in my case, this might have been a small factor because my research background was really good. I was involved in 2 publications and I had foreign internships. Apart from these factors, it also depends upon the professors in those universities; I mean their research field must match with yours. So basically, if you are not that good a student, but if it’s a good college and the research field of the professor matches with yours, then you have a high chance of being selected. So basically, the role of the professors is very important in most colleges. So that was what I was looking for. I didn’t believe in low-ranked or high-ranked colleges; I was just looking for good professors.

How are you planning to manage your finances? Have you applied for any scholarships? What were their procedures?

Yeah, for the first part, in India the scholarships are way too low even if you scale them up according to the purchasing power parity. If you are trying to do anything inside India, you won’t be paid enough for that. In my case, I have two scholarships that would cover more than I would need for living there. It is like twice my living expenses. So, there’s no issue with the management of finances for me. I think for Ph.D., most of the programs will give you the funding. But in the case of Masters, it’s a bit difficult. You have to get a loan. In the case of Ph.D. programs, you get scholarships on tuition fees and all. So, Ph.D. is basically like a job where you get paid.

Role of your CGPA?

My CGPA was 8.95 which is on the verge of 9. I think instead of talking about CGPA, one should concentrate more on the specific subjects in which one is interested. Suppose you have a CGPA above 9, but you are applying for Ph.D. in certain fields like Quantum Computing and you have taken certain courses related to that and you’ve got D grades in all those courses so that weighs a lot. So, all I’m trying to say is that having a good CGPA is not enough, you should also be really good in the particular field of interest.

How is your university going to manage everything in this confusion of COVID-19?

Yeah, the pandemic situation has affected Ph.D. applicants. It had a two-fold impact on us: There was deferral. People didn’t go to college last year. So, they are applying again this year and this increased the number of applicants, and simultaneously a shortage of seats was observed because the colleges don’t want so many Ph.D. scholars. Now speaking about how my university is dealing with it: They are saying that as the US is almost vaccinated, and they are ready to conduct offline classes. Since the situation here in India is much worse, I don’t think I can go there now. I’m planning to join my Institute by the end of August 2021 and if I cannot join by August, then it has to be January 2022.

How did IIT KGP benefit you in your journey?

A lot. It helps. People there know that IIT Kharagpur has a great research culture. So, when you are applying for Internships, people would be like “Oh! You’re from IIT Kharagpur, so you must be really smart.” So basically, foreign people have a notion that Indians are good in Mathematics, so, if you mention that you are from an IIT, this creates an image that you are really good in Mathematics. So, they have this unique system to determine your actual value which depends upon your CGPA, your college, your degree, and all. They use this value to determine how good you are. This is where the brand value of IIT works.

What are the opportunities after the Ph.D. course?

That’s a long path. So, after the Ph.D., in my field several industries are opening up, each of them is racing towards building a perfect quantum computer. Quantum computers are like exponentially superfast computers so if we can build that, we can revolutionize the field. Big tech giants like Google, Amazon are jumping into this field and these companies have creative positions which require a Ph.D. as a minimum degree. This is the industrial side of it. But if you look at the academic side, you can become a professor and can continue your research in the field.

What message do you want to give the juniors today who are interested in pursuing similar courses?

If you want to get into my field, there is already a group at IIT Kharagpur, it’s called “The Quantum Computing Group”. Some seniors can guide you because if you have to do research you first need to study a lot. I would like to suggest to my juniors who are interested in my field that they should be really good in Algorithms and High-Performance Computing. If it helps, take a minor as well. I have a minor in CS, it helped a lot in getting the Ph.D. And then you can blend in with your core subjects. For example, in Aerospace, I’ve seen a lot of people researching computational fluid dynamics. If you are interested in any field just try to be ahead of the crowd. And if you are interested in getting a good placement then I would suggest starting coding (I would recommend Python). You can try to learn Data Structures and Algorithms, Machine Learning. What I’ve seen is that in the 3rd and 4th year, there is a lot of rush among the students as they hear these terminologies for the first time. Essentially you can easily avoid the rush if you start early.