Our experience at IndiaConnect@NTU Research Internship

IndiaConnect@NTU is a research internship program of Nanyang Technological University at Singapore attracting students from all fields from India. This program runs throughout the year in three terms: Spring (5 months), Summer (2 Months), and Fall (5 months). We applied for the summer term in order to complete the internship requirement after the completion of our 3rd year of B. Tech. The exact internship period can be found on their website along with the application period. This internship is usually on-campus but due to the pandemic, it was conducted online.

We got to know about this internship by searching online. We completed our applications towards the end of December of 2020. The application is done through their online portal. You need to submit your transcripts, resume, two academic referee letters (recommendation letters), and a recommendation letter (NOC) issued by the Office of International Affairs. It is recommended that you have your passport ready for the application. You will be given a list of projects and supervisors and you will have to decide on three projects in an order of preference. As it is a research internship, you will need a good CGPA to apply. The two referee letters will be provided by your professors. Note that they will only provide the letters if they know about you and your performance. Doing a project under a professor will be really helpful for getting the letter and it will also bolster your resume. After completing the application process, the supervisor might want to ask you for an interview. However, it was not the case for us. We got our offer letters in April 2021.

Ayush’s Experience

My internship was at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering under the supervision of Prof Huang Wei Min. On my first day, I got added to a WhatsApp group of all the interns under the supervisor. I was briefed about all the projects that I could take up for the internship. I got some time to research and decide, and I chose the project “Surface Patterning atop Shape Memory Polymer (SMP)”. I had to simulate the indentation, polishing, and recovery on a SMP substate to create surface patterns. We had meetings scheduled every Monday. We had discussions on the previous week’s work and the way forward for the project. The exact target of the project became progressively clear as weeks progressed. In between the meetings we maintained contact through WhatsApp. I used to send reports and figures through WhatsApp to get them evaluated. My work was completed by mid-July. We wrote a paper on the project and submitted it for publishing. Overall, I had a good experience in my internship. One thing I liked the most about the internship was the freedom to apply any method to solve the problem. It also helped me to get experience on how research work is conducted.

Nirmal’s Experience

I was an intern at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Xie Ming. I had my first meeting with the professor within a few weeks of getting my offer letter. During the meeting, the professor let us know his expectations from us, and also briefed the interns about different projects that can be done as a part of the internship. I teamed up with another intern and we worked on the topic “Object detection algorithm using Longformers”. We had meetings with the professor on Microsoft teams and maintained contact using emails. We sent our reports through to inform the professor about our progress. My internship got over in the first week of August. The professor always inspired us to think like researchers and have an out of the box thinking. It was an overall good experience.