A Summer at Precog

Prof. PK visited my college, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus in March 2018 and gave a talk. The last slide said that he wanted interns and that was an opportunity I wasn’t going to let go. I applied, and after a task and an interview, I was in. The internship process was really smooth and all issues were dealt with promptly. IIIT Delhi does not let bureaucracy hinder work and progress. I love this fact about IIIT-D. There are many such small conveniences that make a big impact by easing out students’ and researchers’ lives. Everyone’s time is valued here.

The best things about Precog is its people. There were RAs and PhDs who led projects and discussions. Research sometimes can be solitary work and often prone to small setbacks. For someone like me, who was venturing into research work for the first time, the support and help from the RAs and PhDs was very necessary. I’m pretty sure all the interns felt the same. The people at Precog intellectually feed off each others’ brains. The internal mailing lists are a proof for this. I learned new things everyday. Where else will you get paid to learn a lot 🙂 ? I’ve learnt from each and every person during the 2 months I spent in Delhi.

The culture at Precog has been influenced a lot by Randy Pausch. For those who don’t know him, stop reading this right now and read ‘The Last Lecture’ or watch the talk on YouTube. I adored the Randy Pausch memorabilia scattered throughout the lab and PK’s room. We used to have a WhatsUp, a short meeting where everyone told the status of their work, every alternate day. I felt that the WhatsUps were like Scrum standups, except every alternate day. They were helpful since anyone who was stuck could explain his/her problems and ask for help. People also got a general idea of what everyone was working on and they would pass on relevant research papers or articles around. About once or twice every week, PK would ask someone to summarize a research paper. I did that a couple of times and loved doing it. From never reading a research paper to summarizing long papers, I feel I’ve come a long way.

At Precog, we had our share of fun too. We regularly went out to Nehru Place(good food ftw!) in the evenings. PK hosted a party for all interns at Barbecue Nation, and it was great! PK couldn’t be with us then, but he made sure to video call us. Many such small gestures show his love for the team. At the start of the internship, Prof. PK told us “Work hard and have fun too.” The people here made sure we followed that 🙂 . A new habit that I picked up here was playing board games. I was introduced to Catan and Small World. The fact that they still work together after playing Catan just shows how strong their bond is! (Those who’ve played the game understand this 🙂 )

The work at Precog has a direct social impact. Work on many diverse projects goes on simultaneously. Just listening to others talk about their work helped me learn a lot more than I expected. Isn’t it great to learn stuff without putting in a lot of effort. I was lucky to see the speed with which the WhatsApp lynchings problem was attacked. Seeing your solutions affect the world is a really satisfying thing. The Lab windows have research papers authored by Precogers taped for people passing by to read. Looking at the amount of effort the people here put in, I’m sure the window is gonna be full soon.

I’m writing this blog a month after my internship was completed, and this has helped me understand and appreciate the things that I worked on and learned in the summers.

I would recommend undergrads to do a research based internship for the experience. The lessons that I’ve taken back are helping me a lot. One of the most important thing that I’ve learned is that you have to be patient to solve research problems. Getting such an attitude adjustment early on in one’s career is like finding a treasure. Feedback from the RAs and PhD folks helped me a lot with setting expectations. Expect too much and you’ll feel overwhelmed/discouraged. Expect too little, and you’re squandering away your talents. I appreciate the help with finding the thin line in between. I now notice that full time research work is a bit different than working on a project with a professor during the semester. Make sure you like the latter if you are considering a research based career.

During my initial interview with PK, I told him that I wanted to see if a career based in research was the right thing for me. The internship at IIIT D helped me confirm that it indeed was.

I really thank Prof. PK and Prof. Arun for this great opportunity!