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I did my first internship in IIT Delhi. It was in summer break after my second year, 2012. Around a month was gone in exams. I attended some classes initially and completed assignments but the timing of end semester exams was so screwed up in my time that everything seemed to be unmanageable. So in short I had around a month to actually code up things, make a report, show the demo. I didn't even knew a word of JAVA and the other technologies my project was using like REST calls, e.t.c.I mailed my professor mentor that everything is seemed to be unmanageable and I don't think I can do it in this less time and as the program supports extension if a intern has exams during the internship, please give me that. He said no. He said, it is fine if I won't be able to complete the project, I will go with learning a new language. It now seems fine. But that time I took it in a pretty wrong way. That encouraged me to work like hell on the project. I didn't discuss anything with anyone after that reply I got.I learnt Java, Java Swing, REST Calls, WISEKAR structure. I read a lot about Travelling Salesman Problem and how to solve it using Simulated Annealing. I successfully submitted the project with all the functionalties. The Java Swing application beautifully compares the Brute Force and Simulated Annealing algorithm to solve Travelling Salesman Problem on nodes fetched from WISEKAR.I learnt I can manage things.I can handle pressure.If someone says a no, I now knew I can get things done by myself.I did my second internship in Qualcomm, Hyderabad.My work was to create to log packet which helped them to shorten the domain, when they are not able to give the speed to the user, they promised. There are many small subprocesses that happens during uplink and downlink data transfter. I made a graphics of that. I used C and Perl.During this internship I learnt a lot of nice C tricks. There was a lot of bit manipulations in the code base that was given to me. I learnt Perl.I learnt how single line change can affect things in such huge code files.I learnt that compilation is not seconds process that we do in college.I learnt to write emails.I learnt to call people who were 20 years elder to me by their first names. I can now reason why they made me do it. But at that time it was a pain. I can't even a call someone who is one year elder to me by their names.We were one of the last batch who joined during the summer 2013 due to the poor timing of end semester exams. We missed many fun activities.I learnt I never need such things to make myself happy.Not everyone was nice with me, I cannot say much butI learnt many things which I decided I will not do with anyone, ever!I learnt many things that people in power says "it's okay" are not actually okay, some of them need change. Complete change.After this I did Outreachy internship after I completed my Bachelors. It follows the same structure as Google Summer of Code (GSoC). During the application period I contributed to different open source projects. Before this I knew some Git commands that's it. There was no one with whom I can talk to, who would have encouraged me, someone who knew the things that I was planning to do. I read.I learnt, I can read like hell, if I want to know things about something.I contributed to Linux Kernel, Debian Sources, AirMozilla Dev, X.Org. I learnt IRC. I learnt a lot of Git, some GitHub. I learnt some new things about C pointers that I understood wrong previously.During the internship, I learnt a lot of things from my mentor.I learnt to reply to all the mails I get. She replied to all the emails anyone send to her, even when I can imagine how busy she would have been.I learnt how to be nicer. As I was nice, already.I learnt that no question is stupid. You will learn. Everyone have their first time and that can be at any moment, at any age. If they are curious and want to know about something that is more than enough.I learnt I can get things done. I learnt more about my self other than the CS concepts.

Excellent!I was interning with 2 friends at ICO Asiapacific Pte. Ltd. at their Singapore HQ in 2016.ICO Asiapacific is an inspection company providing NDT inspections, training programs and consulting services to some of the biggest oilfield and petroleum giants based in the Asia-Pacific region. It currently operates in 11 countries over the world.My 2 friends, Aradhya and Mihir are also my classmates at MIT, Pune. We are presently junior students studying Mechanical Engineering.Our Stay;We were really excited to be in the financial hub of the world. Singapore is an awesome place full of diverse people. They follow rules and regulations strictly. I was amazed of how efficient, clean and law-abiding Singaporeans and their government is.Our stay was fantastic in the Loyang area which is near the East Downtown. The transport system of Singapore exhaustively covers most of the public venues very conveniently. We got a chance to visit few of the world famous landmarks; some of them were:The Bay Area:(I learnt that the pedestrians have the right of way; if a pedestrian is crossing the road, the car will wait!)The Garden By The Bay:Universal Studios:The Cuisine:When dining out, Singaporeans often eat at Hawker Centers or Food Courts rather than eating at restaurants, due to its convenience, wide range of options and affordability. These hawker centers are widespread, cheap and usually feature dozens of stalls in a single complex, with each stall offering its own specialty dishes.Some of the best delicacies in the city were available at:Tampines Mall: Sushi Express served us a variety of Sushis out of which some of the best ones were Salmon Rice, Salmon Floss and Octopus with Wasabi. (Although Aradhya and Mihir were not much fond of Sushi, I loved every bite of it!)Chocolate Waffles and Mushroom Satays were also very tasty and were available at the mall.Food Courts usually kept soups and rice varieties which were generally served with a portion of meat. Two soups I loved were the frog soup and the authentic Tom Yum Soup.Little India area in the city hosted many Indian-cuisine restaurants which served both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. We also learnt how to cook traditional Indian food! We would often be in the kitchen (after work) chopping garlic cloves, stirring curries and steaming vegetables! I can proudly say that I can now cook some delicious butter chicken! :)Finally the Internship experience:The first two days were mainly orientation and icebreakers. We were introduced to the extensive theory classes conducted to teach us industrial NDT inspections thoroughly to get us prepared for the ASNT LEVEL 2 examination towards the end of the internship! We also got the opportunity to learn and get a first hand experience of MT and PT at ICO’s field site which was a wonderful experience mentored by the best professionals in the oil field industry as well as expatriates from other countries. We as interns was grasping all the knowledge that we could get from the work going around at the field and studying the on-site inspections extensively by observation.Each field visit used to drain all the energy from the body but then the company took great care of us! We were treated like any other employee at ICO, and all the expenses were well taken care of.ICO Asiapacific had an excellent work culture which was the charm of the company. Be it an intern, an employee or a crane operator, all were treated equal. We had to responsibly fill up the Daily Activity Logs listing every activity and learning outcomes during the day list like every other employee of ICO. There used to be yard meetings every afternoon where everyone present at the yard had to be there and it was like a big family discussing their daily agendas and issues. We also gained new skills and learnt about verification and calibration techniques of various monitoring instruments required for oil field services.ICO Asiapacific gave me an introduction to the MNC work culture and their ethics, which is something very basic many companies lack at, but is an important thing for anybody working in the industry. Now it’s quite certain that in future when I pass out of the campus, I certainly would give a company’s work culture a high priority on choosing my career path.

Edit (16/04/2021): The paper resulting from the work I started in my second summer internship is available now here: How Robust are the Inferred Density and Metallicity of the Circumgalactic Medium? .Edit: Updated for fourth (and final!) summer. Finally, I can say that I've answered this question to my satisfaction, although it's unfortunate that things couldn't end at their highest note thanks to the pandemic. But here goes:First Summer:My first summer internship was at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) - Mumbai, in the field of experimental soft condensed matter physics. Firstly, coming to why I chose to do my internship in this field, as that’s a question that I usually receive first.Well, according to me, the first year’s summer internship is a summer of exploration. Essentially, if there’s a field you wish to know more about, in a bid to just increase your knowledge, or explore potential specializations which you can pursue (or in some cases, specializations you can decide to avoid!), then this summer is for that.For me, condensed matter physics was something I never took the time to explore, and I was basically confused regarding what exactly was being done in this field. Add to that the opportunity to work at TIFR, which is one of the best places for research in India, and I was sold!My professor, although a very strict guy, was extremely helpful, and taught me what I later understood, was the essence of experimental technique. He designed a project for me, which encompassed me building my own apparatus from other equipment (which involved a lot of failed trials, mini explosions, and broken stuff, mind you!), gathering loads of data, developing a program on MATLAB to make sense out of the data, and then presenting the observations in an understandable format, i.e., with plots, error calculations, possible explanations, etc.He was an intense observer, a relentless worker, and a perfectionist, and I got to learn a lot from him, in terms of how to look into a problem from various angles, and the importance of the fact that there are still problems related to things as basic as frictional interactions, that we are yet to solve.The internship also brought along a host of other experiences, such as living in a PG, managing for food (I wasn’t provided hostel facility at TIFR, as that’s only for students who are interning through the VSRP program), getting to know new places and people, etc.Overall, it was a fun experience, with a lot of learning, and I was somewhat reassured as there were a few senior students from IISER Mohali, who were there too, through the VSRP.Second Summer:For the second summer, I was determined to now foray into my core interest, i.e., astronomy. From my first year’s experience, I realised that I had an affinity for the experimental and observational aspects of science, as compared to the theoretical aspects. This was significant because a vast majority of “glamorous” subjects, in astronomy and astrophysics, are mostly theoretical in nature, and thus what I had been most exposed to till high school, was theoretical.But one of the stalwarts of astronomy in India, Prof. Chitre with whom I had the opportunity to interact with, had reminded me time and again, that, “Don’t go after glamor. Go after what truly intrigues you, and make it glamorous for the world.”Taking inspiration from that, I spent my second year interacting with professors from across the world, reading research papers, and developing myself, in order to hone my interests to a select set of subfields of astronomy, which I would like to explore over the summer.Approaching individual professors was a difficult and long drawn process, but I eventually finalised on an internship at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where I worked in the field of observational extragalactic astronomy, with my work focusing mainly on the Circumgalactic Medium.This has been an amazing experience so far, as it is my first time at the United States, and every day is filled with exploration and challenges.Luckily, I got a really nice place to stay, renting a room at the house of a family, who have been incredibly helpful. At my internship too, my professor, and the rest of the people I work/interact with, have been really nice and supportive, and the work is extremely interesting.I was required to learn how to run simulations on a software primarily used by astronomers, known as Cloudy, which is built using C++. This had seemed challenging at first, but now I am almost effortlessly running at least the basic simulations, and we have proceeded to the next step of my project.While further elaboration is possible, it is better suited that I do that after the completion of this internship, as that might give a more concrete and all round image of my experience. But till now, it has been amazing, despite the difficulties of living 2 months away from friends and family, in a totally new country, and the challenges that come along in day to day life.I hope this helped!Edit 1: I decided to keep logs on this question, just so that my answer remains updated. I recently had my birthday, and my host family ensured that I had a blast! They took me out for dinner, ordered cake (unfortunately, the bakery guys decided to christen me as “Anfhuman” because why not), and even gave me a couple of well thought out gifts. This weekend has been filled with a lot of fun activities too, thanks to them.As for my work, I must share this funny incident. On Friday, I had a discussion with the post doctoral student whom I am mainly working with (my professor only supervises our work and gives suggestions), which ended at 5 pm, the time when I (and almost everybody else) usually am expected to leave. Thus, he suggested to me that I can begin implementing what we discussed onto my work from Monday.“Maybe I can work on it for 5 minutes, before leaving.” I thought. When my brain decided that 5 minutes were up, I turned to look at my watch.It was 6:45 pm.That, in my opinion, is the reassurance that I am indeed doing what I love!Edit 2: So the experience of my second summer internship had been truly amazing, and over the past year, I have continued collaborating with people at UCSB, mainly for the project I started there during my internship. My simple simulations on Cloudy have now become integrated into a master code run on Python, which runs simulations on Cloudy, gathers data, analyses it, eliminates outliers and provides results in the form of graphs.While I have avoided going into details, this project has seen me grow in experience, as I improve my skills in physics, astrophysics and programming. I shall still be continuing to work with my collaborators at UCSB, as we hope to obtain some amazing results which I could hopefully share with you all soon.Now though, the main reason for this edit:Third summer :While I had the option to returning to UCSB (and given how well it treated me, I would have loved to!), I decided that I should not let myself get complacent, and explore further into astrophysics. Primarily, I was interested to delve into computational astrophysics, as it acts as the binding mesh that connects the world of observationalists and theorists in astrophysics.Along with that, my experience in programming made me want to gain a better understanding of the computational aspects, as they are fast becoming one of the necessary skills for most projects in astrophysics, if not all of them.Thus, this summer, I am working at ARI (Astronomisches Rechen-Institut), of the Zentrum für Astronomie at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, fully funded by the DAAD WISE Fellowship program. I am working on analysing and using N-body simulations to understand the behaviour of Super Massive Black Holes during galaxy mergers.Given that these are the primary sources of gravitational waves, it becomes exciting as we can know beforehand about which black holes will merge when and how, and understand their properties, assisting upcoming gravitational wave detectors (or if LIGO and VIRGO advance enough to begin detecting SMBH mergers) in their hunt for black hole mergers.Edit 3: The experience in Germany was nothing short of amazing, as I developed code for analysing and understanding data generated by the N-body simulations used to basically smash two galaxies together. Each of them had a central supermassive black hole, and their interactions with each other as well as with the rest of the stars of the galaxies was what I was supposed to study, and basically take note of how physical the simulations were being, and what predictions we can reasonably make from them.Edit 4: And the paper for the same is out now! Properties of loss cone stars in a cosmological galaxy merger remnant .Fourth summer :Due to the pandemic, this summer saw the cancellation of most internship offers for students.While the good thing about astrophysics is that it can be done remotely, as long as one has a decent internet connection to access data, the benefits of an onsite internship are definitely immense. Firstly, there's the fact that not all data can be accessed remotely. The bulkiest of files, or even data which is not publicly available, is only accessible through the local network of a place.Secondly, and more importantly is the necessity of in-person interactions, which not only helps in better understanding of the topics discussed, but also assists in building better relationships. That of course leads to the last point of networking, which is necessary to know whom we can work with, in the future.That being said, despite everything, it's best not to lose an opportunity. Thus, I decided to start working remotely on a summer project, that shall also lead to my Master's thesis. For this, I'm currently working with my project guide at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University, as well as my local guide at IISER Mohali. If the visit would have been possible, then I shall have been a paid employee fully funded by a grant from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. However, that's on a pause for the moment, given the pandemic.This time, I decided to try something different, to cover one last base in astronomy that I had ignored till now: dealing with actual observations.While theory based computation and simulation design is good, I thought that as someone interested in astronomy, it would be nice to actually have some experience working on real data too. It's, in my opinion, much more taxing, for several reasons. First and foremost among them is the fact that real data will have errors, whose sources would be completely unknown to us. Understanding them and working with them is an important skill, and I hope to develop the same over the course of this project.I began working on this from the last week of May, and hope to continue the “summer internship” aspect of it till July. Beyond that, I shall have to work towards an extended project, which shall lead to my Master's thesis.While there are a lot of things that I need to do, the basic idea about my project is to study stars in the X-ray spectrum, mainly focusing on the coronae (I promise the pandemic reference was not intentional!), and taking note of its variability. Beyond that, if there's a transit by an exoplanet of the star, then that could lead to some interesting results about the properties of both the star as well as the planet.I'm currently learning how to access the data, understand what it means, and then extract the spectrum of a particular star and analyse it. The software tool I'm using for this is CIAO, or Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations, which also has another tool called Sherpa for graphical and statistical analyses.Shall update further soon!