Connected and unwell!

Oh well!

Perhaps, having internet at home is not such a good thing after all.

This year, I am one of the coordinators of the summer research programme at our institute.  We received a very large number of applications by email [1] and by spending an hour everyday, I was gradually processing them and forwarding them to the concerned faculty members [2].  With internet at home, however, I spent all of Sunday (morning till late night) working on this, forwarded about 500 remaining applications in one go and felt happy and relieved (and grateful to have internet at home).  Today morning, I woke up with a severe headache and could not hold myself together after teaching my morning class.  So, I had to take a day off.  Come evening and I am down with fever :-(

Oh well!!

   

[1] Yes, I am aware that a smarter method of processing applications for academic activities is by encouraging web based applications, which also sorts them out and prepares databases.  Our team of coordinators totally underestimated the number of applications that our summer programme will receive and have learnt this the hard way!


[2] This has been an interesting learning experience.  I now know the key research areas of many of my colleagues.  I also know that those colleagues who have words like cancer, nano, cosmology, neuro  or anything "quantum" on their research profiles are likely to receive the maximum number of applications from students with very ambitious research programmes.  For example, one student, who applied to work with a faculty member specializing in neural science,  wants to explore how to make dead men speak!  

Connected and safe!

I have not been able to blog in the last few days.  This is not because of lack of time or lack of issues to blog about [1].  Mainly, it is because by the time I am done with my academic and administrative work nowadays, it is very late.  A few days ago, I had a scary experience while returning home at night - I encountered two snakes and a (possibly) drunk biker who kept tailgating me.  Since then, I have been very particular about returning home on time.

Given the very remote location of my house, internet at home was out of the question before!  However, thanks to the efforts and initiative of some of my colleagues who take care of the networking needs of the institute, those of us who live on campus now have access to the institute network at home.

Apart from the many benefits of having internet at home, I can now blog more frequently, in the safe environs of home.  I hope I can be more blog-productive now.



[1] For readers at N1,  ;-) 

Solicited advice

A former summer student has written to me seeking advice with respect to the situation described below.  Since many readers of this blog are engineers pursuing research, I would truly appreciate some feedback on this matter:

I was recently offered an internship in Country X. It is sponsored by the Indian Government and only very few students have been selected from all over the country. I am in a great predicament. I realise that this a wonderful opportunity but feel that the quality of research is much better in India. I have decided to do an MS after my B.Tech. So I want to do a good internship which can help in getting an admit to a good university [1].

I am speaking to people and trying to get their opinion on the same. I am confident of getting a good internship in India (results aren't yet out). I am unaware of how much foreign exposure will matter in getting admission to a good MS programme. The university where I have been offered the internship isn't very well known. I have always wanted to do an internship in the area in which I am planning to pursue my higher studies. I am definitely not going to take up the topic in which I have been offered this internship for my higher studies. I mainly want to know the criteria on which I should be selecting an internship and things that will matter in getting an admission offer from a university.






[1]: She is probably referring to universities in USA.