MITACS Diaries: Pydimarri Phaneendra

Mitacs has been the first and the best internship during my learning process. I stepped into an entirely new world through this research programme. I never expected to get selected so I was quite reluctant to apply. I got theopportunity to research at McMaster University, Hamilton.

My project was based on the stochastic differential equations, an entirely new area of Mathematics. Generally, we apply the statistical methods involving the density functions, expected values, auto and cross correlations without touching the random variable as such to deal with the signal propagating along the channel, reaching the receivers. Instead, my work was to directly use the random variable, forming the differential equations and analysing them. It was an amazing opportunity to learn an entirely new topic ITOH CALCULUS. My professor was a very amicable person and I had effective interaction with him as the topic was new. We used to have three interactive sessions a week where he used to teach me concepts. After ten weeks of interactive sessions, I was assigned to simulate the results using MatLab and the simulation was successful.

I witnessed acompletely new culture in Canada. I could see a clear contrast amongst the Indian and the Canadian inauguration and lunch. It was a nice experience.  These were organized by theMitacs team. They also conducted workshops and events. I visited the“INNOVATION CENTRE”, a part of the host university, where I saw how people with common interests gathered and discussed to turn their ideas into reality. We interacted with those people. They told us that the Government of Canada and other firms contribute funds for their research and start ups. We also attended a presentation about new developments and progress by a member of theuniversity faculty. During my time in Canada, after my professor and project, this presentation inspired me.Although I did not have enough time to attend the other important events, the inspiration I derived from the innovation centre was ultimate.

I made a good number of Indian friends from various institutes like IITs and NISER. I also made international friends from Brazil, Mexico and China. It was amazing to interact with all of them. We roamed around the streets, visited important places in the province, and had picnics which were a lot of fun. To mention a few, we visited Webster’s falls, trails which lead to the Dundaspeak and had a bonfire. We sang songs, played Frisbee, and lunched together. Fun with the Indian interns was unforgettable. We wentto many restaurants together. The people of Canada are also very friendly. Our mentors (mentors are different from the supervising professor) prove to be the best example of my statement. We had three mentors from Canada, India, China and they were very kind and cordial. They guided us on how to make our own living during our stay in Canada and enjoyed with us during the social events and picnics. The only thing I disliked in was the ghost hunt where I could not find anything paranormal. However, had there been something actually paranormal, I would not have shared ithere. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself with all my friendsand mentors.

I was overwhelmed with excitement and joy for most of the places I had gone to and seen in Canada. Niagara waterfalls are one of most famous the scenic landmarks in the world. My experience at Niagara was amazing. That night there was great with a lot of buzz and activity everywhere. We had a lot of fun at the carnival, played games and won a small prize. We also visited the Toronto zoo which I felt was four to five times larger than the campus. Though we could not cover it completely, we had taken plenty of photographs of animals. We had an amazing view of the city of Toronto from the top of the CN Tower. The Ontario science centre was not very great as it seemed to be suited forkids. We also visited Casaloma of Toronto, where we learnt about the lifestyle of eighteenth and nineteenth century people. I was slightly upset that I could not go to Canada’s wonderland as my research took up a lot of my time.

In conclusion, my research experience was awesome;I visited wonderful places like Niagara; interacted with an excellent professor who was very cordial and humble and formed a new group of national and international friends. In one simple expression, I loved Canada.

Pydimarri Phaneendra