Batch/Branch: 2017/Mechanical
CGPA: 9.78
GRE: 328; IELTS: 8.5
Masters: MS in Computational Science and Engineering at MIT
PS1: IGCAR Kalpakkam
Extra Curriculars: MEA Secretary, Football A team
Q. Could you give us a brief introduction of yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m Aditya and I’ve recently started my Master's Degree in Computational Science and Engineering at MIT. It’s a two-year-long research-oriented program that concludes in a Master’s thesis and I’m currently working as a research assistant with an oceanography professor. My interests lie in finite element methods and mathematical modelling, specifically, I'll be working with a class of finite element models called hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin methods in the context of ocean models and predictions. Computational Science is essentially an intersection of applied mathematics and engineering, and I would say it’s a field of research in its relatively nascent stages. In simple terms, it involves numerical methods to solve partial differential equations that model various physical systems and make predictions. In my case, the PDEs model ocean dynamics.
Q. How did you get into computational science?
When I joined BITS, I knew that my interests and strengths were in mathematics and physics. I'd gone through the course structure of mechanical engineering so I had at least a vague idea about what I was getting into. But I realized my interest in computational science only after 2-2. I spent most of my second year talking to professors in my department about research, and checking out their projects. I googled a lot, trying to understand their work and what entails being a researcher. Later, I came across computational fluid dynamics (CFD, a popular subset of computational science) through my fluid mechanics lecturer. I talked to him and tried to understand his work, and even joined his research group for a while. However, my biggest inspiration was during my PS1 at Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research, at Kalpakkam, Chennai, in the summer after 2-2. Those were probably some of the best months of my college life. I had amazing company and I got to experience a proper research environment for the first time. I had a great mentor who introduced me to finite element models, and I got to work on a cool project. I loved the atmosphere, the lab visits and listening to people talk passionately about a range of research projects. That's when I kind of realized that this is the kind of place I can see myself working in the future. I learnt loads and got solid motivation to further pursue this interest, and altogether it was a crucial experience for me.
Q. What role does computational mathematics play in the industry and where is it applied?
The nice thing about computational science is that you can learn methods to numerically solve PDEs in a very general sense. The PDEs can model a range of complex phenomena from ocean dynamics to biomedical devices to financial models. The group I'm working with makes predictions for ocean explorations, fishing communities, plastic pollution and even helps submarines navigate treacherous underwater currents. Back in college, I worked with a prof on flapping devices to harvest energy from fluid flows which is another completely different application. Another project that I worked on at IGCAR, was related to magnetohydrodynamics. They have a couple of reactors at IGCAR, and liquid sodium is used to cool the reactors. We worked on simulating the flow of the liquid sodium through the pumps that are used for circulation. More commonly, several engineers use similar numerical methods to deal with structural dynamics, like maybe designing an automobile to see how it reacts to a crash or working with deformations that a structure can withstand. So it's up to you to decide what you're interested in and what to apply the numerical methods to.
Q. Are there any prerequisites to get into your field of work?
As I mentioned, an inclination towards math and computing could be regarded as a prerequisite for computational science. Being comfortable with a couple of languages like MATLAB or Python and familiarity with linear algebra would eventually be necessary for research in this field. In terms of courses at BITS, the first course I did was fluid mechanics, which didn’t deal with numerical methods, but did help me understand physical models and systems. As a mech student, I then did a heat transfer CDC, which dealt with finite difference methods. I would strongly suggest taking the graduate-level finite element methods course, which I took in my 3-2. It serves as an introduction to numerical methods and comes with lots of interesting assignments. You get hands-on experience with implementing solvers and on the whole, Pardha sir does a great job of teaching it. Apart from this, I also did a course on partial differential equations, which is a 3-2 CDC for math majors, that dealt with analytical treatments of PDEs. There are also a couple of relevant courses I couldn’t take including, numerical methods for heat transfer and fluid flows, which sadly isn't offered every semester and a course on numerical analysis from the math department. I would definitely suggest someone who's interested in this field to take these courses up if possible.
Q. So were you sure by the end of your second year that this is the field that you want to go into?
Firstly, a general piece of advice from me would be to try not to feel a need to rush things when it comes to figuring out your interests. You’ll always have students who are doing cool internships and projects and seem to have everything figured out really early. I felt that way towards the end of my second year and so did many of my friends, and it can be demotivating. You just have to realize that as long as you're actively trying to figure out what you're interested in, you're in the best place you can be in at the moment. Coming back to my case, yes, by the start of my third year I decided what I wanted to do and I started seriously working on a couple of projects and looking for internship opportunities for the summer. I was lucky to find two different projects in my department in this field and I worked on these projects right until I graduated last May.
Q. How did you go about finding out more about the field you were interested in and how do you think resources at BITS helped you?
Well the projects I worked on of course helped me understand the field of research very well. Apart from that, a lot of googling professors’ profiles online and having a look at a couple of their papers. You also learn a lot about prospects after college and things like that from talking to seniors involved in research. Furthermore, I feel people think professors aren’t very approachable, but from my experience, they’ve mostly been incredibly kind and helpful. I knew most of the professors in the mech department by the end of college, and they've all often provide valuable insight. So yeah, the faculty are often under-utilized resources at BPHC in my opinion and I’d encourage students to make conversation with them maybe after lectures just to get an idea about what entails being in research and academia. Especially, faculty might be able to point you towards internship opportunities that could be immensely helpful. My PDE lecturer was kind enough to suggest, based on my interests, a few professors whom I could email for my DAAD WISE application and that ended up working out for me.
Q. Which semester did you do your thesis? And how do you go about bagging the research internship and thesis?
So I did my thesis in my 4-1 with a professor from RWTH Aachen on a project related to rarefied gas dynamics. I actually had plans to spend the summer and 4-1 at Aachen working on my thesis before the pandemic ruined all my plans. Like most people, I started emailing profs looking for internships and thesis opportunities around my 3-1 September. I got super lucky and got accepted for my internship/thesis by my second or third email, but that’s definitely not the case usually. The process is quite straightforward I think, you just got to do a lot of research online, make a list of profs working on things you’re interested in and start emailing them. Personally, I had a good academic background and that probably helped me bag my thesis opportunity. Good grades definitely attest to a solid work ethic which in my opinion is mostly what profs look for in an undergrad researcher looking to learn. So, keeping your grades up in the first couple of years can definitely open doors for you later once you’ve realized your interests. Once Covid hit, I had to settle for a remote thesis but luckily for me, in my field of research, there aren’t too many downsides to working remotely. While I did miss the personal interactions with the professor and labmates, I was still able to get on with my thesis work and I was quite happy with my work by the end.
Q. How is your thesis funded?
I ended up doing my Bachelor thesis remotely so I didn’t have a need for funding. But before the pandemic hit, I was supposed to go to Aachen on the DAAD WISE scholarship for the first 3 months and the prof had agreed to support me for the remainder of my stay.
Q. Any tips on cold mailing professors?
So the first step would of course be to make sure you’ve done your research about the group well before you email professors. Running your email and CV by some seniors or friends before sending them would obviously help. Like I said earlier, using professors and other students as resources to find internship opportunities is something you don’t wanna overlook. So again you need to be open to approaching different people and looking for different resources when you're looking for these jobs. Reminding yourself that this process does tend to take a lot of time and not giving up is important too. I know many friends who spent ages emailing but eventually ended up with great opportunities.
Q. How can one go about getting a project in the mechanical department?
Well, the first project I got was literally by walking into a professor's office and talking to him. It’s important to realize that professors need students just like students need professors. They also want to get their project done and push their research forward. I think people sometimes tend to forget this. So you can directly approach professors about projects either in-person or through emails. What’s important is to make sure you do find the work interesting and you’re straightforward with the prof about how involved you wanna get. Of course, SOPs, DOPs and LOPs are also good opportunities to get involved. Choosing your courses properly and having a decent profile in terms of familiarity with relevant software and languages would also be beneficial.
Q. What were your GRE and TOEFL scores?
So I took the GRE and IELTS. I scored an 8.5 on my IELTS and a 328 on my GRE. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with my GRE and I feel 330 would usually be a good target for most students. I gave the IELTS exam because some programs I applied for specifically asked for it.
Q. How did you prepare for your GRE?
I had enrolled in the Princeton Review classes that they offered on campus. However, when the pandemic hit, the classes moved online and exam dates weren’t available so I stopped preparing for a bit. Later, I mostly used the Princeton Review portal and that was probably my entire preparation. I also found the Magoosh mobile app very helpful in building my vocabulary. IELTS or TOEFL after your GRE requires next to no preparation.
Q. How can one go about getting an LOR?
LORs are definitely a crucial part of your application, and typically US universities ask for 3 LoRs and European universities ask for 2. Therefore, it’s important to make sure you have at least a few advisors/mentors you can ask to support your application when you apply. Getting a good LoR entirely depends on your work and interactions with the prof and it’s up to you to make sure you act professional and display a good work ethic during your internship or project. So long as you’ve worked hard and been sincere you should be able to get your LoR. Obviously, personal interactions are important too. Having a couple of professors whom you personally interact with on a regular basis will be useful when you’re looking for someone to attest to your personality and qualities outside of work. In my case, I tried to make sure that the different LORs I submitted highlighted a different attribute of mine. For example, one was from a prof I mostly knew in an academic setting who talked about my academic competence, another from a prof I worked with remotely, who mostly talked about my research capabilities and a third from a prof I met in-person regularly. That made the most sense to me. When preparing your applications, I think it's always good to think about the admissions committee's perspective, like what would you look for in a student if it were up to you.
Q. How does the funding work? Does it come from the professor, or does it come from the university?
Most of the funding comes in the form of Research Assistantships, Teaching Assistantships or Fellowships. The specifics of the funding varies from university to university. I currently hold a research assistantship here and this is funded by a combination of the university and the project grants under my advisor. Luckily, in my university, funding includes a full tuition waiver and a stipend even for MS students but this is not a constant across universities. In some places, they give you a scholarship before you get admitted. But in my case, I got admitted and spent about a month talking to different professors and eventually, I was offered a research assistantship. The US is indeed almost unreasonably expensive without funding. Therefore, I had also applied to a set of programs in Europe that were a lot more affordable and also provided great research opportunities.
Q. Were you a part of any technical clubs?
I was in the Mechanical Engineering Association from my first year and I was the secretary during my third year. I had a good time with the other members and, honestly, being part of MEA didn't come with a lot of work. Most of the work was concentrated during ATMOS and Tech week when we organized a bunch of events that I thoroughly enjoyed each year. Apart from that, I wasn’t involved in anything else.
Q. How did you manage your academics and being on the football team?
Well I didn't have much else going on other than football and academics so it wasn’t like I was juggling many things. Most of my time was just spent between either of these and hanging out with friends. I feel I was pretty good at managing my time throughout college and that helped me get through daily lectures and football practice without too much stress. Having a stable 6-7 hour sleep cycle probably helped me utilize my time well too. Apart from this, just constantly being aware of how I was spending my time and making sure it aligns with my priorities I guess. I usually planned things ahead to ensure that I could maybe miss a quiz for a tournament without compromising on my grades and things like that. Of course, in my third year, my priorities had changed and I decided to drop out of the team and work on projects and applications and stuff. I also generally tried to make sure that I didn’t do things out of boredom you know, like there’s a difference between watching a TV show just coz you’re bored and watching one you’re intrigued by or one you’ve been waiting for. On the whole, I’d say the key is to regularly think about your priorities, whatever they may be, and make conscious decisions.
Q. So is there any year-wise advice you'd like to give to people?
I would say an important thing to do after getting into college is to find people with similar interests, ambitions and work ethics. That's something that's very crucial because it'll make pretty much every stage of your college easier to get through and keep you on track. Going year-wise, I would say in your first year there’s definitely more to learn outside the classroom than inside so it would mostly be settling in, meeting new people, getting lots of new perspectives and identifying your friends and all that. With that being said, attending classes in your first year is definitely not a huge task and it’s unlikely you have better things to do at that point so I feel more people should be up for it. There are a whole bunch of things I love about the BPHC culture but taking classes lite isn’t one of them. First-year summer and early second year is probably a good time to start thinking about your interests and reflecting. If you’re interested in research, 2nd year would be the best time to get a taste of some of the ongoing projects which should help you understand your interests and strengths better. In case you've got an inclination towards a field of research by the end of 2-2, the following summer would be ideal for a solid internship either through PS1 or externally. Third-year would be a good time to work on some projects and start thinking about what you wanna do after college and start preparing accordingly. Following this, the third year summer and 4-1 would be your first full-time research experience which can be loads of fun. Of course, if you’re thinking about graduate studies, you’ll probably spend most of this time stressing out about applications too. Ideally, 4-2 would be a chill last semester on campus with friends and coming to terms with the fact that you’re leaving. I got a poor man’s version of this on a lonely campus for 2 months, but I’m grateful for it anyway.
Q. Are there things you think you could’ve done better in college? Any regrets?
Oh my biggest regret would definitely have to be the fact that I wasn’t able to go back to college for a normal 4-2. It really is sad that we didn’t have a chance to say our goodbyes to everyone we knew one last time. Apart from that, maybe the fact that I never attended a PEARL. In my first year, I went to SPREE and in my second year, I went home. I thought I had 2 more PEARLs to go, but then COVID happened. So maybe trying to plan things out all the time isn’t the way to go. I can’t think of anything else, I had an amazing time at college.
Q. Would you like to give any final advice?
It’s very important to acknowledge the fact that different people work things out at a different pace. So try not to get too worried looking at other people figuring things out before you and just focus on yourself. I was in a similar position in my second year and I was stressed out because I couldn’t seem to figure out what I wanted to do, but you just got to be optimistic and believe that things will work out eventually so long as you’re putting in the effort to figure it out.
Disclaimer: The points given above are the views and steps taken by the individual. They are not fixed steps and guidelines to base your college upon. Our hope is to inspire students so they can take the necessary steps hereafter. We hope you like it!