The speakers for the session were:

• Aayush Agrawal - University of Toronto (MITACS)
• Pruthak Joshi - Lear Corporation
• Raj Lakhani - Lear Corporation
• Ujjwal Agarwal - Daikin Industries Ltd.

RAJ LAKHANI: Lear Corporation

Preparation:

• Core Companies expect you to get involved in some technical or core projects
• Be thorough with resume, including the numbers/data mentioned in it
• HR Questions: Why do u want to join this particular company, What can the company gain from you?
• Courses like Thermodynamics, Fluid are also asked..go through the slides once.
• Technical round sums up to how thorough you are with technical skills, resumes, courses, etc.
• General order to be followed for resumes: Scholastic, Publications, Project, PORs, Technical Skills, Extra-curriculars(This can be changed though)
• For Lear Corp., the selection process had a resume shortlist and then one round..for other companies, there may be an HR Round and other technical rounds too

Experience: Program was modified due to pandemic resulting in the Remote Internship Program.

Role: To look after the design aspect of the automated seats(used in Ferrari etc). Before the product is launched, it has to be passed through various checks like quality and technical assessment. So this analysis had to be made, using CAD.

PRUTHAK JOSHI: CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE TOWARDS PLASTIC (Lear Corporation)

Preparation:

• One should aim to tailor the resume according to the field/company one wants to get in and can consider putting it in the 4th and 5th slots.
• Sometimes core also ask for a one-page resume
• In resume, write what u know, know what u write as they can ask anything, one can’t predict
• Prepare for questions like Tell about experiences of working in a team.
• Don’t be hesitant to say don’t know, but show a willingness to learn
• Try to mold the interview on the side of the discussion and not an interrogation
• One doesn’t know about the project one would be working on beforehand, so be thorough with everything in the resume & try to quantify things in the resume

The slides used by Pruthak for the session are attached here

Experience: The work involved designing and developing various standoff and load absorbing features for Side Shields. One is not expected to know anything beforehand much, bending stress, deformation, etc,.stuff from ME201 and ME202 will suffice.

AAYUSH AGRAWAL: UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO through MITACS (Globalink Research Internship)

About the program: Program aims at motivating students to pursue research projects in Canadian Universities and offers to fund for the same Things to keep in mind while applying: (Please go through the presentation attached to know more)

• It is recommended to get an LoR from a professor and not supervisor from some company
• Follow the interest and select projects appropriately and also don’t bother much about QS ranking
• The selection process usually is very long. One gets to know the result generally by December and sometimes that can stretch to mid-March. Hence, one should wisely think about waiting for that long.

About the Interview: One can expect questions like:

• Why higher studies in Canada?
• Why Canada over the US(Ivy Leagues)?
• How interested one is in the project?
• Why this project only and motivation behind pursuing the project.

Benefits of MITACS: Gives ample funds for expenses like travel within Canada, visa application, etc. GRI Fellowship is given to one who completes the project and has plans to pursue research and further studies in Canada.

Keep in mind that MITACS finally selects the students and not the professor. So getting to give an interview with the professor does not guarantee selection.

Project: While selecting the project, the similarity with the one pursued in the Second year(Static analysis in Solid Mechanics in his case) is a very good point. AI/Robotics etc. are the fields that are usually offered along with other mechanical profiles, so it’s not really difficult to get an interdisciplinary project.

One can also look for FRT ANU, UofTOKYO programs for univ intern.

UJJWAL AGARWAL - Daikin Industries Ltd.

General Fundae:-

• They can ask anything during the interview, so, keep an introduction ready(one might look at the resume during the interview, but make sure to have content worth 10-15 mins)
• Interviews can be very random and they can ask anything from the resume: He was asked to Sing a song(NSO point)
• repare for questions like Why Japan? How would you survive in Japan? Why not another country?
• Speak very slowly as the Japanese don’t understand English well. They find it impressive to learn phrases from Japanese, they don’t find it cheesy. So learning Japanese is a plus.
• Shortlisting based on SoP: one ques: Why do you like working in Japanese Companies? One instance when u faced cultural difference and how u coped up?

Experience: Digital Engineering Department.: 2 profiles

• Fundamental Heat transfer: Incorporate ML into CFD, get CFD time to be reduced: Major Goal.
• Ventilation and Air-conditioning: Fault detection in the HVAC system of a building: Finding anomalies in a system and identify the source: High power intake so which component is at fault, etc. Devised cost reduction and energy-saving methods; Methods can be based upon ML, analytical laws.

The session recording can be found here

Session summarized by: Apoorva Agrawal