Disclaimer - This is not meant to be a guide. It is the personal experience of a singular individual and by going through it you may get an idea of the process involved. The contents of this article are not the universal truth, please make an informed decision based on your own reasoning.
I am Dhananjay Rao T S, a single-degree student pursuing ECE by choice. Yes, you read that right. I chose ECE over CS because I wanted an understanding of what goes into building the various components of the computer from the ground up. Curiosity has always been a significant factor in learning for me. Also, when considering the good number of opportunities in the field, both in industry and for pursuing a higher degree, choosing ECE became easier each time I pondered the decision.
However, my first semester, which was online, did not go as planned. One primary reason for this was my extreme introversion. I cut myself off from everybody and made no friends, resulting in a lack of motivation. With the news of college resuming offline, I was frankly terrified. For the first time, I would be out of my safe bubble. However, I did have a newfound determination to work hard and invest time into my degree. I had no specific plans for anything other than working for a great CGPA, in a way, sticking to my mindset of the good 'ol coaching days (weirdly also in my comfort zone). In hindsight, yes, I am glad I worked hard for my GPA. Still, I feel that the most precious takeaways from college were the friends I made by opening up to them gradually and the courage to make bold decisions I would never have dreamt of making initially, coming out of my comfort zone and self-imposed constraints.
I started my 2nd semester with a drive to learn and improve my CGPA after having (literally) slept through many classes in my first online semester. This was important since I aimed to pursue another degree after my B.E., for which a good CGPA can help. I made this work by paying attention in classes. Another aspect that helped me was that I was always an inquisitive learner, so I started enjoying the classes. I attended classes and tutorials for all the courses (Except EVS), including HUEL, which was like storytime in between the hectic schedule. You never know when any piece of knowledge might help you out in your career. I focused entirely on my academics and classes for 1-2 and 2-1, which paid off. I managed to get a fantastic CGPA while gaining a special liking for digital electronics after the Digital Design (DD) course. That said, by February of my 2-2, I realized that I had not explored anything outside the curriculum and started to tense up a bit. I decided to seek a project in the digital VLSI since I had basic CMOS knowledge after DD and MOSFET knowledge from Electronic devices and Microelectronics. I also knew I would take up Analog and Digital VLSI (ADVD) in my 3-1, which would help. I also knew the basics of Verilog HDL after DD before approaching any professor. A few professors experienced in the field were Prof. Syed Ershad Ahmed and Prof. Chetan Kumar Vudadha, as per my information. There were Prof. Sayan Kanungo and Prof. Surya Shankar Dan, who were more into device-level research. I ended up approaching Prof. Syed since I had heard of seniors doing a good amount of work under him, and also because I knew him from attending MEC classes by then. You can approach professors by simply mailing them about your interest in pursuing the project and requesting a face-to-face meeting. You can even walk into their rooms if they are available. Professors in the EEE dept. are generally excited to discuss projects, and I would advise students to approach professors in their second year.
I approached Prof. Syed Ershad Ahmed for an informal project, "Low power ternary logic circuits." This project required learning about a tool, Synopsys HSPICE. However, my rigid mind just wouldn't let me deviate from academics, and I ended up postponing this task, and eventually, my semester ran out. During 2-2, after having a pretty high CGPA after my 2-1, I made one more conservative decision: I chose my PS-1 station, IIRS (Indian Institute of Remote Sensing), over the research-focussed CEERI, Pilani, as this was an online station (Remote Sleeping!), despite the projects not being remotely related to hardware. Unfortunately, the organization contacted the students almost three-fourths into the program duration (Around mid-July!), and I hardly got any work done in such a short time despite my efforts.
In hindsight, there was a silver lining in my online PS. I heard about a program called MITACS from a LinkedIn post of a senior. MITACS allowed bachelors to experience research in a field of their interest in Canada for a few months during the summer. This program immediately caught my eye since I was very curious about how research labs functioned, and having such an opportunity at a bachelor's level would be very beneficial for any further studies you have planned. Simultaneously, I started to ponder on an alternate path for my next summer: to try for a Summer Internship in a corporate company. The events that helped me make up my mind to try for an RI exclusively are as follows:
Another option for the following summer was to prepare for placements and upskilling. Taking this decision would have saved me all the application hassle as well. However, there was the prospect of further studies always in the back of my mind and I felt that an RI would add a lot more to my profile. In the case things did not go my way, the application process itself is an experience since I would have to compose cold emails and SOPs and would have the motivation to finally work on projects.
After discussing with my family, I decided to try for an RI for the coming summer. The next hurdle was contacting seniors to take their blessings! :) I say hurdle since I was an extreme introvert and was shy to approach anyone new to me. Luckily, through my wingie in Quiz Club, I had previously spoken to an outstanding senior, Kokil Singh, who had gotten into programs like MITACS and Khorana. I clarified many doubts about the RI programs with her over a call. I got contacts of more seniors, Vidhi Sajnani and Sanjana Adapala (DAAD and VITERBI scholars) who helped me throughout the application process. I would advise everyone to approach seniors for help without hesitation (sensibly, of course!). I also approached a few seniors on Facebook after going through a few posts on RIs. I also started looking up the BITS MS to PhD, Thesis, and Internship groups on any information I could find on Research Internships. I guess these aspects are more streamlined now due to this fantastic Research Chronicles initiative.
Further, projects under BITS professors and PS 1 are essential to your application since these will probably be the only exposure outside your curriculum at the time of application in your semester after PS 1. Since there was no communication even after 2 weeks of the PS start date from IIRS, I knew my PS would probably get postponed by a lot, and I had nothing to show for my summer yet. So, I started learning and building basic circuits on the tool for the project I mentioned earlier during the summer before my 3-1. This was also required as I had "boldly" formalized the project as a DOP for the following semester. Since almost all RI programs also require a Letter of Recommendation or two, these projects would help the professor providing the LOR to add more substance. During the summer, I also started an informal project under Prof. BVVSN Prabhakar Rao on "Memristor-based in-memory computing," as I knew him well by then after bombarding him with doubts during the Signals and Systems course.