Hello everyone. My name is Pranav Vashisht and I’m a graduate student of Food Science. Today I’m going to tell you about my internship experience in Agriculture and Biological Engineering department at Purdue University.
It was my first international trip and I was very excited about it. On one hand, there was my enthusiasm while on the other hand there were worries of my family that how an Indian boy who is out of the house for the first time will go to survive seven seas away from them.
I still can’t forget the day when I landed at Chicago airport. All I can say about my first reaction was “it seems like someone has thrown me into the Hollywood movie”.
It was harsh winters at that time with the temperature between -200C to -300C, I experienced a lot of difficulties in surviving there but overall it was a knowledgeable and an inspirational journey for me. The high tech instruments that I had never worked on, the food I never tasted before and the English accent which I only heard in some movies and reality shows were some of the fantastic things which I enjoyed during that time.
There was a diverse culture in my lab. I worked with students from China, Brazil, Mongolia, and America. I met several professors, attend several guest lectures and visited several cities like Sky deck, Ferris wheel and The Bean in Chicago and the Time Square, the Statue of Liberty, and World Trade Center in New York city.
Everything was new for me in that department as I was from a different field. My project was on the “Development of dust sensor for the corn processing”. Initially, I was afraid as I don’t know anything about it but after some days I started taking interest in that field too. All my mates were very helpful and we usually went for the drives and parties after our hectic schedules.
I tried many new things with my mates like eating Chinese food with chopsticks, ice skating, and snow sliding. My intern period went in a blink of an eye and I flew back to India.
Though again I’m in the United States now still I miss that time. Purdue is a lovely and peaceful place and I think one should surely visit there
AGSC 5110 Research Methods 