Intern Experience Summer - 2019  

Sukanya Kudva

University of Waterloo

Process of Securing the Intern:

I had got in through Mitacs. Mitacs is a programme for summer internship in Canadian universities. The application deadline in mid-September, interviews happen some time in November and results are out in mid-January. They have a very long application. It includes a SOP, minimum of one reco and browsing through a huge list of projects. So if you are interested, start early.

Work:

I was working in a quantum computing group that specialised in semiconductor quantum dots. We were trying to implement "virtual dots" for a double quantum dot( basically there were 2 dots on the same chip). I had to understand how applying a voltage on one dot affected the other through models. The idea behind virtual dots was to make a basis confirmation in the external applied voltage space to decouple the dots. The aim of the project was to establish a setup for future experiments in the group.

Workload and Tools used:

I was required to work 40 hours a week with the weekends off. That said, no office timings were imposed on me. It was very flexible. In fact, my prof was very encouraging too. He didnt me pursuing a small side project along. I did most of my coding on python because the instruments in their lab had an interface with it. Apart from that, I got to do some random lab work and get involved in testing their devices.

Courses that were Part of the Curriculum/Additional Courses:
I had to rely heavily on literature for modelling quantum dots. A course in quantum computing gave me a perspective but I dont think any other course made a hard pre-requisite.

Learning Experience:

This internship was a very wholistic experience. For the first time, I was fully independent. In every way. I earned for myself, cooked my own food, bought my own groceries, did my own laundry and planned out my weekends by myself too. That was a lot of freedom and also responsibility (doing household chores isnt fun:P). So the whole experience, including whatever I had messed up, was a good learning experience.

Contact Details: 
sukanyakudva@gmail.com