Basic Information

  • Name: Sameep Chattopadhyay
  • Curriculum: Dual Degree (CSP)
  • Year of Study: 4th
  • Company/University of Internship: Texas Instruments
  • Year of Internship (eg. ‘23 Summers, ‘22 Winters): 23’ Summers
  • Mode of Internship (Online/Offline/Hybrid): Offline
  • Duration of Internship: 10 weeks

Getting into the Internship:

At the start of the internship season, I was mainly targeting ML/ Analytics roles, majorly due to the fact that I had done a 2nd-year analytics internship in Siemens, and I felt my resume was more suitable for such roles. I hadn’t initially thought much about core companies because I believed that they only have roles pertaining to analog & digital domains, and I wasn’t very keen on them. During my 2nd year in college, I enjoyed courses such as EE 229 & EE 325 and did well in them, so I wanted to explore the field of signal processing but didn’t know much about the internship opportunities there.

Now, when I look back, I am amazed by my lack of knowledge about the companies and profiles during the start of the internship season. My ignorance led to a few unexpected shocks. Firstly, I came to know that a few of the companies I was aiming for didn’t even take DD students for internships. This caused me to panic and apply for whichever company opened for me. I ended up applying for a few quant & FMCG firms but soon realized that these were not meant for me. Therefore, I decided to put a pause on this wild goose chase and took this opportunity to educate myself by speaking with a few seniors. That’s how I got to know about companies with Signal Processing profiles and decided to apply for them.

The first company which came in that field was Sony Japan, which had a shortlist based on resume/SoP, and I was shortlisted for the interview. I brushed up on the concepts taught in EE 229 & EE 325 while solving questions on topics like discrete Fourier transform & transformation of random variables, I also went through the basics of EE 341 (Communication Systems), which was being taught in the 5th semester. After about a week of preparation, I sat for the Sony Japan interview, which was conducted at 6:30 AM Indian time. The interview was easy, and I was very optimistic, but alas! They decided not to take anyone in that profile. Meanwhile, Texas Instruments came with a Signal Processing role, and I decided to give my 100% for the same. I thoroughly reviewed the concepts and questions from books like Oppenheim and Proakis, along with some online question banks for probability and random processes.

The TI test contained a few short numerical and conceptual questions based on the above-mentioned topics. Meanwhile, the interviews mainly had technical questions similar to the course exams, and we were expected to solve those in front of the panel while describing the steps. The interviewers were more interested in knowing the thinking process of the candidates as compared to the final answer.

During the internship:

Throughout my internship, I worked with a team that developed wireless transceiver chips for 5G/6G applications. While the work there didn’t involve much theory from the courses except for a few basic concepts, it did require a lot of the mathematical intuition that was gained through them. I really enjoyed the work there and found it to be a great learning experience. The work environment there was pretty relaxed, with flexible timings; almost everyone there was very supportive and helped me throughout the internship.

After the internship:

I recommend this internship to anyone who wants to explore the field of signal processing and do it through a corporate internship. It might not be very fulfilling for someone looking for purely theoretical work, but those interested in the application side of this would enjoy this.