25/07/2020
๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ, ๐ฅ๐๐ฎ๐น๐ถ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐๐ฎ๐ท๐ฎ, ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐๐ง๐, ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐น๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฆ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ป๐๐ฒ ๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ต
At the time of joining my Bachelors in 2016, I was strongly attracted to the mechanical branch as the problems in the field surrounding climate change, coal and traditional energy practices were of great interest to me. I was eager to learn about these topics in greater depth and play my part in tackling these challenges. Inspiration for the same came in various forms such as the HULT prize and my research internships. The former was a particularly rewarding experience. I got to know about it through a fellow student and on reading about the theme, โBringing electricity to ten million people in a sustainable manner.โ I knew instantly that I wanted to be a part of a contributing team. Early stages involved largely random discussions which grew into a more robust idea supplemented by the views of all team members. We ended up winning the intra college round, thereby securing entry into the regional round in Singapore.
Each summer between years was unique and taught me something different about myself. I focused on co-curricular in the first summer like playing the key-board. I also realized that I was more inclined to R&D in the future as opposed to the conventional job route. I thus tried to secure a research internship in my second year, which proved to be difficult due to a lack of technical expertise in the mechanical branch at the end of the second year. I ended up taking a project at the institute in Aero-dynamics but it failed to live up to expectations as we were to learn the same subject in subsequent years anyways.
For my third year internship, I got into Purdue and my work was based on Lithium Ion batteries. A pivotal moment in my stay at Purdue was an introduction to Dr. Hamid, a PhD fellow from Georgia Tech. He delivered a presentation about all the projects heโd undertaken through his PhD and this served as an eye-opener for me and brought to light my relative inexperience in the field of Energy at that point in time. I made a valuable connection with Dr. Hamid. The second month of my internship proved to be more fruitful as I got to learn a lot more about the new technologies in the field and gained exposure to the rest of the spectrum. I finished my project in time and published a paper as well. A takeaway for me from the months I spent at Purdue is the relatively small proportion of researchers that partake in development owing to the difficulties associated with it.
And Now, Iโll be doing my Masters in Energy science and engineering at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, which is a multi-disciplinary Energy Science course focusing on mechanical engineering and energy economics.
โ๐ฟ๐๐ซ๐๐ก๐ค๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ฃ๐ฉ ๐๐จ ๐๐๐ง๐๐๐ง ๐๐จ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ง๐ ๐๐จ ๐ฃ๐ค ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐จ๐ช๐๐๐๐จ๐จ ๐๐ค๐ง ๐๐๐ซ๐๐ก๐ค๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ฃ๐ฉ. ๐ ๐๐๐ข ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ช๐จ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ง๐๐จ๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ฎ ๐ค๐ฉ๐๐๐ง๐จ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐๐๐ซ๐๐ก๐ค๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ค๐ง๐ก๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ค๐ช๐ก๐ ๐ข๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ข๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ช๐ก ๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ง๐๐ฉ๐๐๐ง ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฃ ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ฅ๐ก๐๐๐ฃ ๐ง๐๐จ๐๐๐ง๐๐.โ
I started a โThink Talkโ initiative in my branch to have a platform to discuss ideas. Outside of academia, I took part in multiple co-curricular activities over my stay. I played basketball as a primary sport throughout due to a strong interest I had developed in the NBA shortly before arriving on campus. In addition I was part of the music club at college, Vibes, and I served as coordinator for the club in my third year. I picked up the keyboard at first to fill in for a shortage of players for the instrument in the club. My interest in learning the guitar, however, was purely personal as the club has an abundance of skilled guitarists. Some of my best memories on campus are the night-long jamming sessions in the music room at ODF. I also started learning music production which was not very constant as I had to apply for Visa, but now Iโll get back to it and hope to learn something.
"๐๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฉ๐ช๐ฃ๐ช๐ต ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฉ๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ข๐ด๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ณ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด; ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ถ๐ค๐ค๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฃ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ช๐ญ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฎ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ."
If thereโs a parting lesson I can deliver to my juniors, Itโd be to avoid falling into a daily routine and consciously experimenting on a regular basis. Additionally, I believe that there is a need for a platform to discuss โbig ideasโ beyond the curriculum and everyday existence. I hope it proves to be a stepping stone to a bigger stage that encourages out-of-the-box thinking.
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