SACC leader Rohit Pandharkar sent following proposal for " Summer Internship Program for COEP students"
(Donation: $250/- per student)
When
The newly designed academic calendar offers about a 3 month long summer vacation to students from all years (who are not academically weak, and are not taking summer semester for making up the dropped/failed courses)
For whom
Ideally for rising seniors (entering their senior year) and in exceptional cases for rising juniors.
Where and under whom
On-campus internships (with access to laboratories in nearby Pune area as per requirement of the work) under professors from COEP who themselves are involved in research.
 What for?
1. Have a taste of research in undergraduate life.
2. Know how to conduct ‘literature survey’.
3. Know how the ‘research documentation’ is done.
4. Encourage students to have email correspondence with people in the same field and exchange ideas ( which is quite often once one enters research as a profession).
5. Titillate the budding creativity.
6. Utilize a long summer vacation fruitfully, and get paid for the work.
7. Assistance for a part of professor’s own research.
8. A powerful means to start a personal interaction between brightest of students and professors.
 The money part
Considering that hostel accommodation can be made available for these students, there won’t be any sizable extra expenses apart from ‘the cost of project work material’.
The stipend can mostly be seen as an incentive to take up internship.As per the IIT guidelines, a stipend of Rs 3000 per month shall suffice. Similarly, a suitable amount of money can be allotted for the mentor as well.
 Procedure
-Professors from departments (8 core branches) who are ready to be mentors can be identified. Professors may as well declare projects available with them.
-Call for applications for the said internships can be made around month of February.
-A criteria of CGPA 8.5/10 will be ideal to limit the number of applicants to optimal level.
- The professors can review the applications at dept level and recommend 2 or 3
students for internships based on:
1) Academic performance
2) Previous research experience of students.
3) Research capability.
4) Aspirations for higher education/ willingness to take up research as career.
-These students will then be formally awarded the summer internships, and then made to interact with their mentors at personal level.
- The student can then work with the professor with flexible work hrs of mutual convenience and present 2 reports (Stage 1, Stage 2-final) during the 2 months.
- In the last week, which is often named as the SURF week (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) in IITs and institutions in the US, the interns from all branches may gather and present their summer research presentations in front of a selected set of audience.
- Though one cannot guarantee, as well as not expect, the work might result into International/national publications by students.
 Estimates
Considering Rs 3000/month for student and Rs 1000/month for professor, and a 2
month long internship, it translates to
Rs 8000 as expenses for a stundent internship.
Two students per dept : Rs. 16000 (Approx. $400)
Hence a sum of Rs. 16000 a year for a dept.
 Contributions
The project can be either entirely funded by alumni or partly by college and partly by alumni. Moreover, we can also seek funding from companies related to the COEP family, which have already been funding other college events.
 Final Word
While vying to compete with IITs, NITs and BITS; CoEP may as well now start its own UROP. All of the other premiering institutions in India have their own internship programs.
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