{"id":1938,"date":"2018-01-29T15:32:25","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T15:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/precog.iiitd.edu.in\/blog\/?p=1938"},"modified":"2019-01-23T17:22:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T17:22:21","slug":"precog-the-google-of-research-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precog.iiit.ac.in\/blog\/?p=1938","title":{"rendered":"PreCog : The Google of Research Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

I feel ecstatic to write this blog post today as I complete an year at PreCog. I would like to use this opportunity to write about my journey till and through PreCog, with all the fantastic and memorable experiences I\u2019ve had during this time. Jump to section III to know why I think PreCog is the \u2018Google of Research Groups\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

I. Getting In<\/b><\/p>\n

It was late 2015 and I had barely started my second year in college when I decided I wanted my UG life to have as many diverse experiences as possible. So, I started participating in various activities in college, which included founding and heading a student chapter of The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) at MAIT. As a chapter, one of the first major events we planned was a Distinguished Speaker talk and after going through the speaker\u2019s list, we found that the talk title of Prof. Ponnurangam Kumaraguru (PK) of IIITD – \u201cPrivacy and Security in Online Social Media\u201d would resonate the most with the students and would be an awesome kickstarter. We decided to invite PK for the talk and PK graciously accepted. This is the point when I started following PK on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Summer of 2016 was approaching when PreCog opened their summer internship applications, and I applied. Without knowing anything about research, I applied just for the sake of exploring, and because the area of research sounded super exciting. I got rejected. It wasn\u2019t a shock, I was expecting it. Fortunately, I got through one of the SDE internships at a startup for the summer. But, I made a mental note that research is something I want to explore before graduating and this is one area I felt very passionate about. <\/span><\/p>\n

I enjoyed my SDE internship and as soon as it got over, I was determined to pick up on the \u2018Required\u2019 and \u2018Recommended\u2019 skills I lacked the previous time I applied to PreCog. I also started working on the SOP before the applications even opened. I really wanted to make it this time. And this time, I wasn\u2019t applying elsewhere. Early applications opened, I applied, got through the rounds and got accepted. The process was extremely streamlined and everyone was professional. I was definitely on cloud 9 after getting the \u2018S\u2019 on chat from PK after my interview with him (after much thought, I decrypted \u2018S\u2019 meant \u2018Selected\u2019). I had made it in, and we had decided I would start as soon as my semester got over.<\/span><\/p>\n

II. The PreCog Journey<\/b><\/p>\n

A. Work
\n<\/b>Getting the best start to the year one can imagine, I joined PreCog on 2nd January 2017. At the onset, I got the chance to witness the best of \u2018The PreCog Culture\u2019 (more on this later) when the group celebrated their 6th birthday on 4th January 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

As per tradition, the newest members cut the cake.<\/i><\/b>
\n(L-R) Me, Dattatreya, Viraj and Vedant<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The next day, PK introduced me to my mentor – Srishti Gupta<\/a>, with whom I would be spending most of my working hours thereon. I was assigned a problem which was still in the ideation stage. We collected and explored the data to get a better idea of what the problem statement might be, but even though we did not reach a definite statement, we did get interesting observations and could see scope for exploring further. During the same time, I joined Srishti to work on a completely unrelated problem, on which I spent most of the rest of my time at PreCog. We worked on it through the spring semester and submitted the first draft as the semester ended. I joined back in the summers, this time staying on campus 24×7, which marks the start of best summer I\u2019ve ever had (more on this later).<\/span><\/p>\n

All the interns had an introductory session where PK gave a brief lecture on \u2018Research Methodology\u2019. Srishti and I continued to work on the draft we had submitted, while Vivek (a fellow intern from IIT-KGP) joined me and Srishti on the first project. During this time, I was also introduced to our awesome collaborators – Prof. Mustaque Ahamad (Georgia Tech), Dr. Payas Gupta (Pindrop, Atlanta). We were later also joined by Dr. Manish Gupta of Microsoft Research, Hyderabad. It was an ineffable feeling to be working with such big names and it is now that I realize how much I have learnt from their thought processes with the limited interaction I have had with them. We worked on it through the summer and the fall semester and submitted the second draft too. At PreCog, Srishti is someone I have spent most of my time with, and also learnt the most from. She is the<\/strong> most hard working individual I have ever met, (dare I say) with an almost bot-like work ethic. Personally, she is the sweetest person, and the absolute best friend one can ask for in a professional environment. She is always<\/strong>\u00a0there for support and tries really hard not to get annoyed with my endless queries. \ud83d\ude1b<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"As part of routine activities, we regularly had WhatsUp (status updates) and DeepDive sessions (detailed status updates) along with hackathons in an all-hands-on-deck style (as in picture).<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, to the interesting part.<\/span><\/p>\n

B. The PreCog Culture<\/b><\/p>\n

Starting at PreCog was a cultural shock for me. I had never seen such a close-knit group of fun-loving \u2018smart creatives\u2019 who lived like a family, and worked like a team. PK was nothing like a professor (take it as, it would be a really difficult task to identify \u2018the professor\u2019 if you meet the whole group) and PhD students were nothing like the typical \u2018nerds\u2019 one would expect. Don\u2019t get me wrong, they were super into their work and obviously knew a lot, but they didn\u2019t \u2018look nerdy\u2019. Some cool memories I have:
\n<\/span><\/p>\n