Introspections on the Third Step

A series of interviews taken by Rahul, a third-year undergraduate in IISc, with his fellows across different majors unveils the beauty and the beast… Of what is going on in the lives of the third year UGs these days. It not only upholds the insights of the courses and thriving in academics and the overview of summer internships but also their motivation and interest in research as well as friendship and non-academic activities; which still make the most of us, isn’t it so?
There were eight of them across the different disciplines: Saumy, Shreya and Jay from Physics, Aditya from Biology, Mohana and Vamsi from Materials, Dattabhasvant (fondly known as Datta) from Mathematics and Amogh from Chemistry. As the course was designed at its birth, we have thesis in fourth year. Thus, they are literally at the brink of starting what is perhaps the soul of research. They also have specific fields of interests; Saumy specializing in quantum computing, Mohana interested in semiconductors and nanoscience, Aditya working in bioengineering, specifically on delivering immunotherapeutic drugs with minimal side effects and timed release, Shreya primarily interested in astrophysics and also pursuing a quantum technology minor, Jay planning to go on with either of astronomy or theoretical cosmology, Datta still exploring the beauty of Mathematics, Amogh interested in inorganic and physical chemistry with a focus on catalysis and spectroscopy and Vamsi interested in nanoscience.
When asked about their perspective on the previous semesters and how they feel now about blackboard courses no longer forming a major part of semesters, their responses were quite mixed. In Saumy’s words, the courses and exams have been ‘Pretty chill!’ but the labs were ‘Pretty hectic!’. He says “Earlier, we used to have labs, from 2 to 5 everyday, you had to spend your time in the lab, and I didn’t like that I moved towards the theoretical side, so right now, things are more relaxed.”
“So far, we’ve had a lot of coursework and some heavy lab work. Moving into actual research — coming up with project ideas and performing experiments — will be a whole new challenge, but I’m looking forward to it” says Amogh. I swear, this is something we long for when labs bang a protocol on you; ‘when will I design an experiment by myself?’