{"id":2579,"date":"2018-09-21T14:58:59","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T14:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/precog.iiitd.edu.in\/blog\/?p=2579"},"modified":"2018-09-21T14:58:59","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T14:58:59","slug":"a-summer-at-precog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precog.iiit.ac.in\/blog\/?p=2579","title":{"rendered":"A Summer at Precog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prof. PK visited my college, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus<\/a> in March 2018 and gave a talk. The last slide said that he wanted interns and that was an opportunity I wasn\u2019t 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\u2019 and researchers\u2019 lives. Everyone\u2019s time is valued here.<\/p>\n

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\u2019m pretty sure all the interns felt the same. The people at Precog intellectually feed off each others\u2019 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 \ud83d\ude42 ? I\u2019ve learnt from each and every person during the 2 months I spent in Delhi.<\/p>\n

The Team <3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The culture at Precog has been influenced a lot by Randy Pausch. For those who don\u2019t know him, stop reading this right now and read \u2018The Last Lecture\u2019<\/a> or watch the talk on YouTube<\/a>. I adored the Randy Pausch memorabilia scattered throughout the lab and PK\u2019s 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\u2019ve come a long way.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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 \u201cWork hard and have fun too.\u201d The people here made sure we followed that \ud83d\ude42 . 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\u2019ve played the game understand this \ud83d\ude42 )<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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\u2019m sure the window is gonna be full soon.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

I would recommend undergrads to do a research based internship for the experience. The lessons that I\u2019ve taken back are helping me a lot. One of the most important thing that I\u2019ve learned is that you have to be patient to solve research problems. Getting such an attitude adjustment early on in one\u2019s 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\u2019ll feel overwhelmed\/discouraged. Expect too little, and you\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I really thank Prof. PK and Prof. Arun for this great opportunity!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019t 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\u2019 and researchers\u2019 lives. Everyone\u2019s 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\u2019m pretty sure all the interns felt the same. The people at Precog intellectually feed off each others\u2019 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 \ud83d\ude42 ? I\u2019ve 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\u2019t know him, stop reading this right now and read \u2018The Last Lecture\u2019 or watch the talk on YouTube. I adored the Randy Pausch memorabilia scattered throughout the lab and PK\u2019s 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\u2019ve 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\u2019t 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 \u201cWork hard and have fun too.\u201d The people here made sure we followed that \ud83d\ude42 . 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\u2019ve played the game understand this \ud83d\ude42 ) 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\u2019t 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\u2019m sure the window is gonna be full soon. I\u2019m 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\u2019ve taken back are helping me a lot. One of the most important thing that I\u2019ve learned is that you have to be patient to solve research problems. Getting such an attitude adjustment early on in one\u2019s 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\u2019ll feel overwhelmed\/discouraged. Expect too little, and you\u2019re 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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-experiences","category-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/precog.iiit.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/precog.iiit.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/precog.iiit.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/precog.iiit.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/precog.iiit.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2579"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/precog.iiit.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2585,"href":"https:\/\/precog.iiit.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2579\/revisions\/2585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/precog.iiit.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/precog.iiit.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/precog.iiit.ac.in\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}