A turn of events

A simple search online gave Siddharth an opportunity to work and learn at Harvard University, MIT, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital

March 09, 2019 12:17 pm | Updated 12:19 pm IST

Since my third year of college, I was inclined towards doing a research-based internship. So, I did what anyone would do in this situation — Google search! During my search, I came across an internship portal. After my initial search, I found an internship at IIT Bombay in the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering. They were working on Lab-on-Chip and had collaborations with a few research labs overseas. This piqued my interest. After months of research, I finally came across a topic which resonated with my interest in mechanical design and my knowledge of CAD, 3D printing, and bioinks.

For the entire semester, I learnt more about the domain and kept looking for internship opportunities simultaneously. I applied to more than 100 labs and got around 10 confirmations. Out of all these confirmations, the internship at Khademhosseini Lab, a joint lab of Harvard University, MIT, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was the most exciting. The selection procedure for an internship at the lab was quite tedious. I submitted a statement of purpose followed by two interview rounds and a few written rounds. I was asked a lot of questions during the interview related to mechanical engineering and design. I was given a problem statement wherein I had to devise a mechanism for figuring out the stalling torque of a DC and stepper motor at any given RPM within a minute.

Enriching

Walking into MIT, admiring the view and finally reaching the lab, for a moment I had to assure myself that it was actually happening. The day started with a brief introduction to Dr. Ali Khademhosseini and the teams. I was given a week’s time to choose which subgroup I wanted to be associated with. After speaking to all the employees, I took an informed decision to join Dr. Shrike’s subgroup as it best suited my interests. I was responsible for mechanical design and rapid prototyping and developed four different projects which were, an inexpensive handheld 3D Bioprinter for treating spinal injuries; a Rapid Multi-Material Bio 3D printer device (RMB), using scanning projection stereolithography DMD; a compressed sensing-based image reconstruction in 3D micro-imaging tool; and a 3D printed Expansion Mini Microscopy (ExMM) platform for a low-cost diagnostic kit for detecting Malaria. Dr. Shrike was a great leader and guided me throughout my internship. I learnt the etiquette and protocol of research there. During my internship, I also participated in several hackathons at Harvard Medical School, Boston University, Northeastern University, and MIT.

The lab was famous for its diversity; there were people from all across the world. When I look back, I know my career got a real boost there, and I even improved as a person. The journey that started with a simple search ended with me experiencing the work and fun at MIT.

Siddharth Kumar Sah, a student of BITS Pilani KK Birla, Goa, is now working as a Research Assistant at SUTD-MIT Design Centre in Singapore.

Courtesy: Internshala.com

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.