University of Utah

Basic Information

Name Neeraj Prabhu
Curriculum: Dual Degree- Electrical Engineering B.Tech
Year of Study: 4th
Company/University of Internship: University of Utah
Year of Internship (eg. '23 Summers, '22 Winters): ‘23 Summers
Mode of Internship (Online/Offline/Hybrid): Offline
Duration of Internship: May to July ‘23

Getting into the Internship:

What specific domain or field did you target to get an internship in?

I was mainly looking for research internships related to digital design and computer architecture. There was also some VLSI design profiles I was looking into but my main focus was on computer architecture

What resources did you utilize to prepare for the tests/interviews?

For computer architecture, I mainly studied from my notes and slides from the Advanced Computer Architecture course. For digital design, I used wakerly and mano (but that was when I was preparing for PT cell company interns).

Can you elaborate on your interview and the type of questions which were asked?

My first meeting with Prof Rajeev was more like a discussion rather than an interview. We mainly discussed stuff related to my experience and what I had done before related to computer architecture. Then we had a brief discussion on the work that is going on in his lab and if there is anything that I should get started on reading to narrow down on a problem statement.

Were there any significant roadblocks or challenges that you encountered during the internship application and selection process? If so, how did you navigate or overcome them?

It was slightly difficult to get into the groove of mailing professors continuously, especially managing this with acads. I was also pretty confused about whether I should mass mail professors and hope for a reply or try to personalize each mail with what I found interesting in the professor’s work. Eventually I found a balance and for some of the professors, I used to go over a paper or two and mention what I found interesting from their work. This was mainly for those I really liked and would love to work under. It was also slightly difficult to figure out which professors to mail. It was taking too much effort to go over websites of universities and trying to figure out which of the professors there had good research in computer architecture. Luckily, I found a website csrankings.org which made the process easier for me.

How did you handle any rejections that you faced (If any) during the internship application process?

I had originally applied for 3 companies in PT cell, because I was worried about whether I would be able to get a university internship. However, I got rejected from all three and was pretty sad when that happened. After that, I decided that I would focus all my efforts towards applying to universities and getting a research intern externally. Initially it was difficult, because some professors just did not reply, some said that they did not have places for interns this year, some said they only take PhDs etc. Some professors also have issues with intern funding or not wanting to go through all the paperwork. I did not lose hope though and kept trying.

During the internship:

What was your specific profile or project topic during the internship?

The internship mainly dealt with computer architecture and a little bit of cryptography. The main goal of the project was to accelerate fully homomorphic encryption using a near data processing hardware system (UPMEM).

How would you describe your overall experience as an intern?

My experience was pretty great. Everyone in the lab was very helpful and guided me very well especially when I was working on things that were very new to me. The lab was not very big, so the professor was able to have individual discussions with everyone twice a week and used to check in on the progress in those meetings. The work was very interesting and with FHE being an upcoming algorithm, I got to work on very new concepts and hardware.

Could you provide insights into the organizational culture of the company/university and what your peers were like?

Unfortunately there were no other undergraduate interns with me (the only downside I’d say). The lab members were all PhDs and there was also one MS intern for the summer.

Were there any networking opportunities or professional connections that you established during the internship?

I am not a very outgoing person, so I did not really go and meet other people in the other labs. There were a few people who would occasionally come to my lab and we talked a little about the work we were doing and also found some people who were working in similar areas.

After the internship:

I would definitely recommend this internship to anyone interested in software. The reasons are already listed above but to summarize: great pay, great company, great people.