Internfeel: Tell us about yourself. What are your hobbies, interests. Where are you currently studying?
Vishnu: I am Vishnu Kant Pandey currently I am in 3rd year; pursuing my B.Tech degree in mechanical engineering from SRM university. My hobbies are playing pc games, chess and reading current affairs magazines. I’m a mobile techie.
Internfeel: Which internship did you get the chance to take? What was it all about? Stipend, duration, place?
Vishnu: I got chance to my winter internship at IIT Madras which I got conformation through mail from a professor. I got a chance to work in TDCE lab in which I performed experiments on droplets and their burning rates and evaporation constant. There was no stipend for the provided duration of about 10 weeks, that was winter internship from December til Feb and venue in Chennai. There was no stipend, it was a voluntary based research internship. Stay wasn’t free too, as I was the only intern there, I preferred my PG over the hostel.
Internfeel: How did you come to know about the internship? To what all sources you kept yourself connected?
Vishnu: Basically most of the IITs won’t provide an official internship in winter so was left with mails and mails. I was very much active in sending mails as my area of interest was already fixed which I got from the previous internship at NIT, MEGHALAYA . I mailed to more than 50 professors in top IITs and got replied from many, stating that we won’t be available that winter so I could apply for summer internship next time. But I got some positive replies in which I was interested to be in Chennai. Sources : basically I was in touch with Seniors of our college and other colleges like Jadavpur University and SVNIT.Apart from that InternFeel also helped me a lot in guiding me about the procedure to apply for the same. Internshala, engineering internship and competition, Internlelo, Eduinfo etc.
Internfeel: Any common mistakes which you feel students should avoid while searching and applying for internships?
Vishnu: While searching for an internship they should timely check websites of all the IITs and other research institutes regularly. They should subscribe to websites likeInternshala which regularly provide you mails according to interest which you have mentioned on the websites. The students should be very particular about their area of interest because if you give a project proposal to professor then your chances of getting selected is more thee while mailing a prof. They should check the area of interest of professor. While mailing the professor you should have good knowledge about the area otherwise that internship will be mere waste of time. Don’t get upset if you are not getting any kind of replies from profs. But keep trying is all I can say
Internfeel: So Vishnu, could you please highlight the work/research project you carried out during the internship period in as much detail as possible for you to explain? Its application in the near future and your work in it?
Vishnu: As my area of interest is combustion. The professor provided me a problem statement in which study of droplet combustion was carried out with a MATLAB software. We can find the size of droplet that is in its initial size and with what rate it is becoming smaller and gets diminished. Apart from that we used ImageJ software to find out initial diameter of droplet. That is with ImageJ software, we can study the regression rate manually. And I forget to mention two high speed cameras were used, one for shadowgraph images which was used in MATLAB and ImageJ software. And other camera for capturing normal burning of droplet. Thus by proper use of these softwares we can determine the rate of regression and by doing further calculations we can find out evaporation rate. Its application in future is we can optimize and select the fuel which will have a good regression rate and effects of burning over the droplet by surrounding environment where it is burnt.
Internfeel: What qualities of yours do your believe helped in getting this internship and making best out of it?
Vishnu: My hardwork and believing in myself. Assistance from friends and seniors helped a lot in fetching this internship. From the month of August itself I started mailing professors and obviously they took a lot of time in replying. For few days it was like I should give up. I won’t be able to get it But my friend Sidharth from HBTI, Kanpur helped me. Stating, they do take time in replying mails. I do agree I was able to make the best of it from morning 9am to 5pm. Taking readings and performing experiments was enjoyable and fixing camera, taking videos with the same with such a clarity was just awesome experience. Doing calculations in system plotting graphs gave me a good knowledge. I can say definitel the environment of IIT Madras is one of the best for research.
Internfeel: What was the best thing about the work culture and the internship? What were the things you liked there?
Vishnu: The professor provide me a chance to work under one of the best MS student of TDCE(thermodynamics and combustion engine lab). He used to help me a lot in performing experiments and taught me many things related to research. I have never received such fast replies from professor. One time II mailed a doubt to prof around 11:30pm. I got reply of the mail at 1:00 am. That time I was very happy and he always used to ask me how the work was going on. Further he would give suggestions and asked us to update him about each and every day of whatever we were doing. So this type of work culture was really awesome.
The facilities of lab were really worth to carry out good experiments and the beautiful campus where deers, monkey, antelopes, black buck are always roaming here and there with such a greenery of the campus. It made me feel more enthusiastic. Mess facilities were also good
Internfeel: Were there any special events during the internships? (events can be academics related like field trips etc and also non-academic, relating to your hostel life or alike)
Vishnu: Yup, I was lucky to do my internship in winter duration where two big fests were conducted by IIT Madras. They are shaastra-15 and saarang-15. But unfortunately I was busy with my work, that’s why I couldn’t make much out of them. But there were good pro shows.
Internfeel: Were there any kind of problems you had to face while the peroid of your internship?
Vishnu: To be frank there were no such problems
Internfeel: What are your future plans after this internship and how much impact this internship will have on it? How much difference this period of 2-3months made in your intellectual capabilities and mindset?
Vishnu: With this internship I made lots of contacts and with LOR of prof I might get some good MS opportunities in US or Germany. This internship totally gave me in depth idea about research work and how much a person should be dedicated to their work to get good results out of those research works. Got to learn new things like ImageJ software, MATLAB software handling of high speed camera and how to approach a problem. Searching for apparatus and adjusting them properly which really do take lot of time sometimes a whole day, which in turn increased by patience level, got an opportunity to see various research works carried out by prof. And yes now I am able to study thesis and research papers properly 
Internfeel: Which other internships have you done before? Can you brief out details about them?
Vishnu: I had my previous summer internship at NIT, Meghalaya for a duration of one month and an implant training at ESSAR STEEL, surat for(20days).In NIT Meghalaya, I learned CFD(computational fluid dynamics) where I performed various simulations with different fluids. And in ESSAR STEEL ( central maintenance shop ) where whatever failures occured in the plant had to be rectified by this dept where I saw 8m lathe CNC machines, big boring machines and various instruments used for inspection to check minor cracks.
There were issues of housing for me, in Surat I was staying at home, and I guess company wasn’t providing any accomodation as of that time. In NIT Meghalaya, I lived in the hostel for free.
Internfeel: Whom all would you like to thank in concern of the internship ?
Vishnu: I would like to thank Siddharth(HBTI, Kanpur), Rakesh Bhaiya(NIT, Rourkela), Kshitij Shah (SVNIT, surat), Sudeepta Mondal(Jadavpur university), Prachi (Gujarat National Law University), Manjunath More(IIT, Madras) and my parents who always supported me and last but not the least my college Seniors.
Internfeel: Any views about this initiative of InternFeel, and how beneficial it would be? Any suggestions for improvement?
Vishnu: Internfeel initiative is really a good step made by you guys. I had personal chat with you guys in Sept or Oct 2014 regarding applying procedure which was very much helpful for me in getting internship. With your initiative the people who are not experienced in this can get knowledge about the internships shared by you peopleon your page. Improvements : if possible you can also start mailing the students who have subscribed you.
The post Internship Experience of Vishnu Kant Pandey (MED) : IIT Madras TDCE lab appeared first on InternFeel.