Exchange Diaries  

Yogesh Chawla | Agricultural and Food Engineering

Washington State University, USA and Purdue University, USA

Research Area: Precision Agriculture

What was the University and topic of research that was taken up by you during the FT?

I did two research internships, first one was at Purdue University, and the research topic was “Determining the generalizability of object detection networks in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) acquired images”. The Second research intern was at Washington State University, and the research topic was “Determining the performance of object detection models for calculating Missing Index in Mulch Plants using High-Resolution Images “.

Why is an FT important? How would one compare research in Indian universities and foreign universities?

FTs are important because you get the opportunity to work upon state-of-the-art projects with international professors and graduate students and you also get a whole around exposure. If you want to pursue higher studies, then the FT provides you with the complete experience of doing research that you might be doing in a Ph.D. or MS.
There are very few universities in India that do research involving modern technologies like AI in agriculture. Moreover, the resources which we get to work upon in foreign universities are also not up to that extent in Indian universities. The research culture in foreign universities is very rich, they spend a lot of time in the field testing practically, reading literature reviews and in some universities the graduate students spend a whole lot of a week teaching “How to do the research ?” to undergraduates, which is quite amazing.

FT vs corporate internship, what are all the things we are missing out on, and what are we gaining more?

The main difference lies in the work culture. In a corporate internship, you get an insight into how the company works and you have to work according to some predefined regulations, even sometimes you have to work upon their chosen platform. On the other hand Research Internships are more interesting as it requires a lot more initiative on the part of the student and the scope of learning new concepts and theories is much more. You get many opportunities to explore your ideas and perform experiments for the same. It can really be a significant exposure to change the career path of students and make them realize whether they could continue a career in research throughout their life.

Near the end of my FT in Purdue, I performed an experiment whose results were very strange from the problem statement but still, I got encouragement for that and my graduate mentor decided to change the problem statement a bit to incorporate those results.

Should BTech students aspiring for higher studies from abroad opt for an FT?

Of course. A student aspiring for higher studies should try for an FT abroad as it gives him/her a greater opportunity to explore his/her area of interest. If you worked well then it will also fetch you a letter of recommendation from the professor which would be very helpful in applying for higher studies.

What exactly is the application process for the FT? Are there any important documents one must keep?

I applied through personal mailing. First of all your mail content must be remarkable. It should contain your introduction, a brief on their past research work and the things which you liked in that, at last, you must write “ how your interest overlaps with that of the professor”. Another important thing is a Letter of Recommendation as it matters a lot to have one. You could ask a professor to write a Letter of recommendation to help you get a research internship as the stronger the Letter of Recommendation, the better your chances of getting accepted. Focus on your CV and try to include as many quality projects as you can.

You should know that you might have to mail a lot of professors so you should maintain a proper sheet for the same, start finding the professors of your area of interest as soon as possible and create a database and be consistent with the work.

How did the process get affected due to the online nature of the applications?

The process of training has changed a lot this year. Previously interns used to visit the labs and perform experiments along with the professors. One gets a better understanding of how things work in labs. But in the remote internship, all the lab and fieldwork was done by my graduate mentor who was present there.

Also, the timezone difference creates another problem sometimes. So, the process did get affected a lot due to its online nature but still, we get to learn a lot of things by working remotely too.

Did you have to mail the professor personally for the project? For how much time did you wait for a reply?

Yes, I mailed a lot of professors. Hence, it is very beneficial to maintain a record/sheet of all professors along with their research area and university and then mail accordingly. It will prevent you from any sort of confusion and will make the process much simpler. Generally, if they are interested in your profile then they will reply within a week or two. But still, if they don’t reply within 15 days, you should send them a follow-up message.

When should one start applying for an FT? How long did the procedure last till you got the desired FT?

Anyone who is looking for FT should start applying as soon as possible, preferably by October and you should continue until you get an adequate project. How long the process can last is quite variable and completely depends on the student and professor but I think the upper cap should not exceed 3-4 months.

What is the role of CGPA in the selection process?

It’s always good to have a decent CGPA and even more. The role of CGPA is minimal according to me if you are applying through personal mailing as there are no CGPA criteria like that of DAAD and other programs. The most important thing while applying for an FT is the overlapping of research interest and your work. If the professors find that you are interested in the project, he will not reject you solely based on your CG.

How did the pandemic affect your application for the project? Did the pandemic have any positive impact on the project?

The application process was very similar to that of an offline semester. The only drawback while applying was that some professors were not interested in hiring a remote intern, so they rejected without looking at our CV and some positively replied that your profile is impressive but they won’t be taking any remote intern. The positive part was that I was able to manage to do FT in 2 universities simultaneously which might not be possible in an offline semester.

Where should a student, who is unaware of the entire application process, look up information about professors and their research work for opportunities?

First of all, you should find the universities which are performing research in your preferred field, then in the department web page search for professors who are pursuing research in that field of research and are interested in providing FT. After that, you can find all the publications and research work by searching the name of the professor on Google Scholar. Another way is that you can directly search on Google Scholar using filters of your preferred field. Another very helpful way could be to ask your senior who has already done a research internship in the same field.

How should a first-year student prepare beforehand for his FT application in their subsequent year?

The most important thing is that you should have a clear picture of what you want to do.

After that, you should work on developing your skillset. Once you have an idea of the required subject, you can take a project under a professor. Doing some projects adds to your CV when you are applying for an FT.

Does belonging to IITKGP provide any added benefits for getting your FT?

Yes, IIT KGPians always have an upper hand over other colleges. Foreign professors usually know about IITs and IIT KGP is the only IIT that offers courses in Agriculture and Food Engineering. Moreover, my mentor at Washington University was also an alumnus of IIT KGP and my mentor at Purdue University was an alumnus of IIT Gandhinagar.