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Ing Ondřej Petruška, Brno University of Technology, ročník 5

Faculty Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Field of study Aeronautical Engineering
Field of internship Engineering, Other
Specialization of InternshipAerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical/Space Engineering
Internship period (from - to) 3.8.2015 - 20.11.2015
Internship duration (weeks) 16
Transport (means, price) Flight (16000CZK)
Insurance/Insurance company Union (5800CZK)
Visa/Work permit (yes/no) Entry visa
Price of Visa cca 1400CZK
City of Internship Zobrazit místo na mapě  India, Manipal
Internship reference number IN-2015-0106MU

About the country

Location of the place

Manipal is small university city in state Karnataka. Green hot place in south India

City

Manipal is small student city consisting mainly of university campus and hospital. It's not typical indian city as the university is private and mostly for rich indian students, therefore you can find there also bars, clubs and fancy cinema. 20min by bus there is Udupi, typical indian small town with beautiful nearby beaches.

Surroundings (possible trips, ...)

There are many options for trips. For example famous Hampi (2000 hindu temples, beautiful landscape, rocks and bouldering area), Kerala (two days houseboat trips), Goa and Gokarna (great beaches and hippie place) and many other places. Make sure to have some time after internship to travel to north India! To see Rajastan, Taj Mahal, Varanasi, Himalayas and so on. It is huge beautiful country

Employer

Employer

Manipal University, Department of Aeronautical and Automobile Engineering

Work description

My task was to program graphical user interface application in Matlab. Purpose of the app is to compute basic data for preliminary design for new aircraft. One app for fighter and one for civil jet aircraft. Based on amount of passengers, armament and other requirements the application plots constraint diagram and computes estimated takeoff weight, wing area and required engine thrust. I was following mainly one book.
My supervisor was not strict at all, it was pretty much up to me how hard I work, we met only couple of times during the 4 months, he was not curious about the project. My internship was 4 months, 3 months could be enough - and rather spend more time travelling. But I learned something, especially with Matlab (my previous experience was low) and also more about preliminary aircraft design.

It depends very much on each project, some were interesting, some interns were not doing anything at all, also their projects were totally different than they were supposed to be, few interns were hardworking quite a lot. On the other hand it was not difficult to change project and supervisor during the internship. Level of Manipal University is lower than European standards.

Salary (sufficient for local conditions?)

5000 rupees (plus free accommodation), which is price of two weekend trips. I spent about 25000 per month during the intenrship, in general trying to spend as less money as possible, but travelling every weekend. Some interns managed to survive with 5000rp, which means no travelling and possibility to cook for yourself. Otherwise everybody goes out to either student or normal restaurants (cooking at home is unusual).

Language requirements

fluent english, but nothing special. Some local professors talk quite bad english

Accommodation (price, who provided it)

Accommodation was free of charge. I was lucky with the newest international student hostel, comparable to luxurious european student housing (about 25% of us got this one). Private room, small corridor and bathroom. Air conditioning and wifi. No common areas, no kitchen or fridge (almost no accommodations have it).
We at the new hostel were obliged to be at the hostel till 10pm, otherwise the guards made troubles about that. We kept insisting we are interns and not students and after a lot of effort and long discussions we managed to break this pretty annoying rule.

Other interns were less lucky with shared moldy flats or houses, on the other hand with freedom and no stupid rules.

Social life

Meeting IAESTE members (pick-up at the airport, organized events...)

I was picked up by university taxi at the Mangalore airport, everything went smoothly.
IAESTE members were very willing and helpful. Everybody has his own buddy student who helps with any issue. Organization at the office works very well, all the paperwork or requests for changing project or supervisor are easy.

When it comes to more serious issues like prolonging visas and that kind of stuff, do not trust too much and make your own effort and try to work on it by your own as much as possible.

It's good to start with trips organized by local IAESTE. Mainly to meet all the people and understand how travelling in India works. Although it doesn't seem easy in the beginning, you will understand it quickly and then organize your trips by yourself and you friends around. Organization of trips by local IAESTE was quite bad, interns are treated like kindergarten with no freedom during the trips and it's even more expensive (mainly because of renting private bus).

Meeting other foreign students

Foreign interns were (with exploring India) the best part of the internship. Even comparing to erasmus the group seemed somehow special, probably because not everybody goes to such country. In August there were about 60 interns, in the end (end of November) about 12. We also travelled together for few weeks after the internship

Sport and culture

There is very well equipped fitness (not too cheap, I haven't been going there). Swimming pool is opened one hour for men, one hour for women and costs about 2 euro for half an year.
Not much of cultural life is available. There are only few clubs.

Food, local specialties

Food is very interesting and pretty good. Just prepare yourself for a lot of vegetarian food, not much real meat (chicken is easy, somewhere one can get lamb)

Other information

Possibilites to communicate with the Czech Republic

Wifi at the accommodation and campus (slow but usually working fine). Indian simcard with quite good prices to even call to Europe.

Recommendations for students who will go to the same place

Prepare yourself it's possible you will be shocked the first days and will not like it there - the difference is huge, just breathe and relax. Second or third day you will start to enjoy and in the end it will be experience which you will never ever forget. Do not expect much from the professional point of view (although you can be lucky with your supervisor and the project), but the cultural experience, travelling and people you will meet are going to be unforgettable. An experience which not many people have.
If you want to experience exotic country with extraordinary travelling and people, not expecting high professional working experience (although still cool for your CV) and do not mind you will have to pay much more than your symbolic salary, go for India! It is special a lot. Just make sure you will have time to travel after internship. I had 4 weeks and it was perfect and enough.

If you do not like your project or supervisor, just ask iaeste people to change the project! It's easy, otherwise it can be pretty boring or annoying.

What not to forget with you

Visa of course, Lonely Planet or some guidebook (super useful), vaccination before you travel (can take two months), umbrella (for monsoon season, but easily and cheap to buy it when you arrive), good mosquito repellent (can buy there). Very useful was small summer sleeping bag, especially later when I travelled to the colder north (south is always hot). Also because beds are often pretty dirty with no bedding

Benefits of the internship

Overall experience which was extremely awesome. Not really superb professional internship (again, depends how lucky you are with your supervisor and project), but the culture, people and travelling was totally unforgettable. If you want to experience something exotic outside of Europe, do not hesitate and go for it.

Cooperation with IAESTE in the foreign country

IAESTE people were pretty helpful with all the paperwork and organization stuff regarding the office itself, they know a lot. Trip organization was bad, good in the beginning to meet people and see how it works in India. Much better to travel in smaller group with other interns there, also cheaper.

Overall experience with IAESTE

As mentioned above :)

Student's website

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Employer's webiste

http://manipal.edu/mu.html (although I have never needed it)

Other useful links

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Other comments

do not hesitate to ask me anything if you are interested - [email protected]

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