Sanjeev Tannirkulam Chandrasekaran, PhD '21
"Working in industry as an intern taught me how to stay organized, prioritize my tasks and focus on the important aspects of the problem at hand."
Hometown: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Why did you choose to study electrical engineering at UB?
My cousin was a ’03 UB alumnus. She encouraged me to apply to the UB MS program. I later decided to extend my MS to a Ph.D. at UB.
Tell us about your internship experience.
I have been fortunate to have two internship experiences!
In summer 2019, I interned with Mythic-AI; a start-up based in Austin, TX. Mythic is developing an analog-computer assisted intelligence processing unit (IPU) for inference applications at the Edge. I was tasked with designing a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for the IPU. The DAC was intended to replace the existing technique of providing inputs to the IPU and was expected to improve the IPU energy efficiency by 4x.
In summer 2018, I interned with GE Research at Niskayuna, NY. At GE, I was responsible for optimizing an existing analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for ultrasound imaging applications.
What did you learn? Did anything surprise you?
Working in industry taught me how to stay organized, prioritize my tasks and focus on the important aspects of the problem at hand. I also learned how to communicate the results I obtained effectively in a manner that all my colleagues could understand since most of my team members were from diverse technical backgrounds.
I was surprised at how accommodating the companies are when it comes to on-boarding interns. I was assigned a mentor from the first day, and they ensured that I had access to all the resources that I would require to get my work done. I was also included in the all-hands meetings, so I got to network with all the members of the team.
How did you get the internship opportunities?
I applied for both the positions via Indeed.com. I was then emailed by the HR requesting for an interview. Mythic had two rounds of interviews (phone-screen and Skype interview), and GE had one phone-screen round.
What advice would you give students interested in internships?
Start applying for internships early, often companies begin recruiting summer interns from January itself. Indeed.com, and Glassdoor.com are great places to start. Ensure that your resumé is streamlined for the respective position you are applying to, there is no “one size fits all” resumé. If you got rejected by some company in the past and want to re-apply to the same company, reach out to the recruiter/interviewer directly, there is a higher chance of getting your foot through the door.