Internship Experience at Texas A&M University

Hi! I’m Abhishek Bharadwaj from 4th year Chemical Engineering. I have been doing my internship at Texas A&M University for the last two months. It was a research-based virtual internship. To begin with, I got this opportunity through the Institute placement team, and the primary condition to apply for this internship was to have a minimum CGPA of 8. Since my grades were enough to satisfy this criterion, I applied for it. Although I thought the selection would be just based on CGPA, to my surprise, I was required to submit a write-up describing my internship in a particular field, the skills that I have and the works that illustrate applying those skills.

As I’m coming from the Chemical Engineering Department, part of our curriculum is the course called Applied Process Engineering, which takes care of applying core skills to industrial-level problems. The project for which I applied required core skills as well as programming skills in MATLAB or Python. So, how to convince them that I am well equipped with skills in these areas? Well, I started learning DSA and python a year and a half ago. Alongside, I also developed Machine Learning and Deep Learning skills and have done a few portfolio projects in these areas. This is what has helped me describe my programming knowledge. Fortunately, the professor who was offering that project accepted my write-up and gave me the opportunity to work under him.

My project was about modelling the formation of Hydrogen Cyanide from Methane and Ammonia on a Platinum catalyst. Currently, many researchers have modelled this process but only for a specific set of conditions and to compare how different catalysts would affect the performance of this reaction. Adding to that, I had to develop a more generic model with more parameters. I developed the model by solving a set of non-linear equations representing the reaction. The final results of the model were a bunch of plots representing the rates, selectivity and yield of hydrogen cyanide at different temperature and pressure conditions. The whole modelling part was done using Python. Speaking from experience, I would like to take this opportunity to emphasise the importance of learning Python and MATLAB for Chemical Engineers.

One thing I can confidently say is that during my internship, the core skills taught as a part of the curriculum helped me learn and implement many new concepts that were extensions to what was taught in the course. But I wish I had started focussing seriously on the core concepts along with programming and other stuff, at least when I entered my 2nd year. One important thing I want to point out here is that, although grades matter, it is not the only criteria for getting the internship. One’s profile is a lot more important than CGPA. In my case, I had a CGPA of more than 8.5, and some of my batchmates whose CGPA is more than 9 have also applied for this internship. So, I would say that I got this internship only because I could describe myself better, which is another crucial factor while you build your CVs and LinkedIn profiles.

Apart from getting a higher CGPA, focussing more on core subjects also would have made my internship work easier. I had to go back to the notes I made a year ago when I frequently got stuck in the early stages of my internship.

The bottom line is that at least for good internship opportunities, ensure you give your best while learning core courses and try to maintain a CGPA of more than 8. Also, start to learn DSA, programming and other things you are interested in right from the 1st year. It becomes harder to dedicate more hours to non-core skills in 3rd year. Take enough time to shape your public profiles and resumes appropriately.