RIYA@OSU: The best learning experience I could have had during a global pandemic!

The Ohio State University’s Research Internship for Young Academics (RIYA) is an internship program for mechanical engineering students from India. Established in 2014, this 10-week program offers internships to around five to eight undergraduate students from India every year. Ideally, RIYA scholars get to travel to OSU and carry out research in different laboratories there. However, due to the ongoing pandemic, the RIYA program was conducted in the virtual mode this year.

The application process for the RIYA program was straightforward. The preliminary application is a form on the RIYA webpage that demands some basic details like personal information, current GPA, and some short essay questions like information about any ongoing research project, career goals, alternate plans for internships, etc. The deadline for the application was around late October. I was shortlisted and sent a formal application form which called for more detailed information, Letters of Recommendation, transcripts, and narrative essays on research and career goals, and biographical information. I was also asked to express my interest in any three of the existing research facilities and laboratories at the OSU.

At the time of the application, I had already been working on a research project on nonlinear dynamics with Dr. Sriram Sundar at IIT Tirupati. Though I hadn’t taken a course in vibrations at that point, a few pages of Mechanical Vibrations by Meirovitch and a couple of lecture videos by Prof. Vandiver from MIT were sufficient to kindle me an interest in the field. I expressed the same in my RIYA application and made my interests very clear. It is perfectly alright to not be aware of what field you want to pursue, but having spent two years in an undergraduate program, you may be expected to have a predilection for some fields. Working on projects and reading books/articles that interest you are some small steps towards finding your niche.

After submitting the form, I went back to working on assignments, course projects, and other tasks characteristic of a hectic online semester, and I didn’t find it hard to forget about my application. Soon after, I was informed that I will be interviewed separately by Prof. Singh (Founder and Director of the RIYA program), and Dr. Tambe (Director of the OSU Indian Gateway at Mumbai). Both the interviews were right after my end-semester examinations, so I didn’t have much time to prepare for them. Surprisingly, the interviews weren’t about testing my knowledge of the subject at all! The questions were more inclined towards my interests, things I had been doing, and my expectations from the RIYA program. I do remember Prof. Singh mentioning near the end of the interview that the selection process takes time and “no news is good news”.

After nearly a month, I received a mail from Prof. Singh which said I had been selected as a RIYA scholar to work remotely in the Acoustics & Dynamics Laboratory with Prof. Singh and Prof. Sen (Prof. Sen is an OSU alumnus, and an Assistant Professor in ITU, Turkey). I had also applied to other research internship programs in Indian and foreign universities, but I felt the RIYA program was a good fit for me, and I accepted the offer without much second thought.

My internship started somewhere in the middle of May, after the commencement of our summer vacation. However, I was asked to get in touch with my mentors a month prior to the start and get an idea of what I’d be working on. Prof Singh had made it clear that “the RIYA program is adaptive, just like the GRE- the more you progress, the more things you can learn”. I started with getting acclimated to a basic nonlinear system (Duffing system) and explored its dynamics. Soon, I started working on a system that ended up becoming the crux of my project, a vibration absorber with nonlinear paths. As the name suggests, a vibration absorber is a small mass attached to a larger structure to limit its response to external disturbances like seismic activity, winds, etc.

For me, nothing beats an offline experience. But frequent communication and interaction with my mentors enabled me to learn as much as I would’ve learned in the pre-pandemic era. I had weekly meetings with my mentors in which we would go over my work, and they would provide critical feedback and suggestions to move forward. Prof. Singh also arranged group meetings where all the RIYA scholars discussed matters relating to research (academia and industry), ethics and conduct, career options, and other relevant topics. We also got to listen to talks by entrepreneurs and experts in the field, and interact with them. I didn’t really have any complaints about working in the online mode. One challenge was to avoid burnout, as it is tempting to remain sedentary and work for hours together. Nevertheless, I was also able to spend some time with my family while working from home.

To make a long story short, the RIYA program is much more than completing a research project. I would highly recommend any mechanical engineering student at IIT Tirupati with an interest in research to apply to the RIYA program.

I am grateful to Prof. Singh and Prof. Sen for their constant guidance and valuable inputs through numerous discussions, and for making the internship the best learning experience I’ve had to date. I would like to thank Dr. Sriram Sundar for motivating me to apply to the RIYA program. Working with Dr. Sundar has taught me a lot of aspects about research, and a lot of it has definitely helped me in my internship. I am also thankful to Prof. Kishore and Dr. Venkataraman, whose courses on rigid body dynamics and solid mechanics sparked my interest in the field in the early stages of my undergraduate journey. I hope to carry forward what I’ve learned so far and pursue a career in vibrations and nonlinear dynamics.

PS. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any specific questions. You can read more about the RIYA program and previous RIYA scholars at Research Internship for Young Academics (RIYA) Program | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (osu.edu)