2010

DAAD WISE Scholarship Guideline

Nayaz Khalid Ahmed B.Tech., Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Trichy khalid.nitt@gmail.com nkahm@umich.edu 7/30/2010

A little about me...

My name is Nayaz Khalid Ahmed, ah hell, lets keep it short Khalid. Just turned 21 a few days back, did my under-graduate in Chemical Engineering with the batch of 2010 at our lovely campus, NIT Trichy, and now, am on to pursue the Great American Dream currently doing my integrated PhD at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. During the summer break after my pre-final year, a group of 20 students from the batch of 600 students made it to the green pastures of Deutschland. And that indeed made the passage for the Greater American Dream a much easier one. Now I pen down this little document only with the hope that many more of students go out into the world and shine and successfully attain the ROTGAD. I shall always be only an email away for your queries, but please ensure that these havent already been covered in the following text. Also note that the following text is prevalent to its own time... any updates that might have occurred wouldnt be noted. Wishing you all the very best at everything. Cheers to the spirit of NITT, Khalid 30th July 2010.

When it all begins...

Right after your sophomore summer break, while youre back after a little project, its time you start thinking about how to make it for internships abroad. You have three options at hand 1. Going to US quite a lot of hard work. Email the profs, hope to get lucky, and be willing to fund your own self. A very good option, if funding your own self isnt much of an issue. Would cost approx 2 lakh INR. However, make sure that you do not travel to the US on a J1 visa (exchange student). You get yourself into a few complications while you apply for the F1 visa (student) a year later. 2. Campus France - http://www.india-campusfrance.org/ Details about a summer scholarship spring up around November on this website. However, the procedure is almost similar to the German one, but the no of available scholarships is very less - about 50 students from the entire country, which means that you should send a Rank certificate (1st or 2nd place in dept) along with your application. 3. DAAD - http://newdelhi.daad.de/mainFrame/home/scholarship.php Look up for the Working Internships in Science and Engineering Programme in the list of scholarships. The rest of this article is only going to be about this option. I shall not be going deep into the details of the first two options, but as a side note going to the US potentially increases your chances of getting an admit at that university. Also, a recommendation from a fellow US university prof would indeed weigh a lot over other recommendations. About France, it is an amazing place to live. After all, Paris is the most popular tourist destination in the world. For anything more about Campus France, shoot an email to kidambi.rahul@gmail.com Regarding the third option, all the procedures to be completed have been very clearly mentioned in the DAAD Delhi website. The following text is more about tips on how to go through them all successfully..!!

Where do you begin...?

Step 1 Finding the university.
In Deutschland, there are 9 Technical Universities which are really famous and are called the TU9 http://www.tu9.de/en/index.php These include a. RWTH Aachen b. TU Berlin c. TU Braunschweig

d. e. f. g. h. i.

TU Darmstadt TU Dresden Leibniz Universitt Hannover Karlsruhe Institute of Technology TU Mnchen Universitt Stuttgart

Each of these universities have either faculties or institutes which are pretty much like the departments at our college. However, some of these institutes are far more specific in what they do. Also, quite often, each institute would have no more than two or three profs and their specific research groups. Knowing about this is crucial because only if your area matches with theirs, would they even be giving thought to your email. Besides these universities, there are a large number of other universities as well as Fachhochschule (FH) or University of Applied Sciences (UAS). This name mirrors exactly what Fachhochschulen are actually all about: they stand for great practical relevance and focus with strong ties to applications in the working world. So basically, perfect for industry oriented work, and not for research in theoretical sciences. And for really competitive cutting edge research, do look up Max Planck Institutes @ http://www.mpg.de/english/portal/index.html

Step 2 Mailing the right prof.

September mid would mark the end of vacations for most profs. This is your time to shoot them an email. An earlier mail might just land up with a large number of summer vacation spam mails and would get deleted without even a reading. So hold on, work with your target list of profs, and draft personalised emails. There is no hurry... Enjoy Festember..!! By the time you have marched into your pre-final year, you should be having a pretty clear idea as to which exact field of study interests you. Else ask the help of experienced profs at NIT Trichy. They sure would know the latest fields and whether you are headed to a bright future. Find profs with matching interests in the universities mentioned above. Email ONLY ONE prof in each institute (more than one institute within the same university is fine). The Dutch are very social people and hence your email could be the joke over a lunch session. Do not keep your email very long. Be specific. Say that you have worked in this field before, and are looking for some international exposure. Remark that you glanced through his research groups website and would love to have an opportunity to be there. Write down that your looking forward to hearing from him, and are willing to share information about your stellar performance through college. As a closing remark do note that you also heard about the possibility of DAAD financing your personal expenses, and so you wouldnt be a financial burden on the group. Now, dont be disheartened if you dont receive a reply. Even I might not reply back to you for your first email. After a period of about 3 working days, write back to the same profs. Remind him that

you had earlier written to him and that you eagerly await his reply. Include a remark that if he doesnt seem to find place in his group, it would be great if he could suggest you to some other group that works in a similar field. And voila, I bet you have increased your odds in favour of getting a reply.

Step 3. Telling the prof about DAAD.

Say you have found a happy mad man willing to have you there for the summer. Mail him about the DAADs scholarship offers the daily wage and the flight reimbursement. You would need him to fill up a few forms found on the DAAD scholarship page http://newdelhi.daad.de/mainFrame/home/scholarship.php . Do not give him the link; instead attach all the forms he would need on your email. Also, the prof is expected to pen down a letter of invitation. Now this is a simple letter indeed, but sometimes your prof might be too busy to understand what you require. In such a case, you could send him an email with what you want written down all he would need to do is print it on his letter head. A sample of what you need to get from the prof is attached toward the end of this text.

Step 4. Prepare the necessary documents.

The No-Objection certificate has created a little confusion in the past years. Make sure you check up with the college authorities about the dates before you send your application form to the DAAD office. Preferably try representing yourself as a batch to the administration, and request them to give you dates from the starting of one month to the end of the other. Helps you in more ways than one. Also, if you have exams till the 4th of May, you could very well apply from the 1st of May, and then not be in Germany for the first four days. Your German prof would sure understand this, but would NITTs administration be willing to give you an NOC from the 1st of May..?? The ZAV form should ideally be signed by the Dean Acad, but even your HoD could do the honours..!! Recommendation Letter quite crucial. Make sure your favourite prof writes it for you. Even better if you end up writing for yourself. Best if you ask your good friend to write. The letter of motivation tell them the truth that you want some International exposure and wish to experience the green pastures of Deutschland. You dont need to talk about your research area here. This text would be read only by the DAAD authorities and might not even be a basis for your selection. Its just a formality. CV never more than 2 pages. Attaching my own to serve as a guideline, but remember, it is YOUR CV, and should reflect the person you are. Do talk about cultural activities will surely give you an edge. If you have ever done a course in German, or if something at all reflects your love for Germany, mention it..!! Do not use TP format, keep it professional. TP format is very good for

companies that come down to college for placements as they know where to look for what. Otherwise, its a real bore..!!

Step 5. Telling the DAAD.

You should have reached this stage by mid October positively. Get all your documents together. Submit the online application and take print outs of the same. The application number that you get is very important even years after your WISE trip. Follow all the rules specifically mentioned in http://newdelhi.daad.de/mainFrame/home/wise2010.pdf or the circular for your corresponding year. Not following them might just be giving them a fancy reason to do away with your application. Send the package by either speed post or registered. Either way, you should be able to make sure that the package did reach them.

Step 6. Sit back and relax.

Do your 5th Semester exams well. Quite crucial to the ultimate ROTGAD. Enjoy your winter break. Do some studying for the GRE. Positively you would know about the status of your scholarship by February. Meanwhile, do write to your prof once in a while... write to him about your winter project, what youre doing, and how youre enjoying your work. Ask him if there is something that you could do to prepare ahead for your project there. Basically, keep him in good spirit. Now, what should you do once you get the scholarship..??

So thats it..??
I intend to be writing another article soon on tips for those going to Deutschland. Until then, all the very best. Thats all folks..!!

Nayaz Khalid Ahmed.

NAYAZ KHALID AHMED

A-3, New No 22, Old No 32, Masilamani Road, Balaji Nagar, Royapettah, Chennai 600 014 Tamil Nadu, INDIA OBJECTIVE
Seeking a job in a core Chemical Engineering competency so as to build on my engineering skills.

khalid.nitt@gmail.com (+91) 9840390364

AREAS OF INTEREST
Microfluidics; Nanoscale Science and Bioengineering; Simulation using Molecular Dynamics and mesoscopic methods such as lattice Boltzmann method (LBM)

EDUCATION
Bachelor of Technology (B Tech), Chemical Engineering National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NIT Trichy) (formerly Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli) Cumulative GPA: 8.89 / 10 Graduation: May 2010

ACADEMIC HONOURS
Offered Working Internships in Science, Technology and Engineering (WISE) scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a visit to Universitt Stuttgart, Germany during the summer of 2009 o One amongst 200 undergraduate students from various fields to have been offered the scholarship Selected as Undergraduate Summer Research Fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore for the summer of 2008 o One amongst 30 engineers from the country to be selected to work at one of Indias best research institutes o Was invited again to participate in the programme during the following summer of 2009 Merit Certificate for top 1% performance in National Science Talent Search Examination (2003) Merit Certificates for academic performance at various classes during school

PUBLICATIONS
Nayaz Khalid Ahmed and Martin Hecht - A boundary condition with adjustable slip length for lattice Boltzmann simulations Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (Online at http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1742-5468/2009/09/P09017) Nayaz Khalid Ahmed and Martin Hecht A Lattice Boltzmann study of flow along patterned surfaces and through channels with alternating slip length Accepted for an oral presentation at the 5th International Conference on MEMS, NANO and Smart Systems, to be held in Dubai between 28 th 31st December 2009 (Online at http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.2637v2) Nayaz Khalid Ahmed and Meheboob Alam Lattice Boltzmann simulation of dynamic nanobubbles on hydrophobic surfaces Presented at Pragyan 2009, the International Technical Festival of NIT Trichy

RESEARCH PROJECTS
1. Institute for Computational Physics (ICP), Universitt Stuttgart, Germany Summer 2009 o Guide: Dr. Martin Hecht o Topic: A boundary condition with adjustable slip length for lattice Boltzmann simulation. o Developed a novel velocity boundary condition which provided superior second order accuracy at the boundary nodes with no artificial slip. o Two month stay was completely funded by the prestigious DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship programme called WISE 2009 Institute for Computational Physics (ICP), Universitt Stuttgart, Germany August 2009 o Guide: Dr. Martin Hecht o Topic: A lattice Boltzmann study of flow along patterned surfaces and through channels with alternating slip length o Worked in correspondence from India o Numerically studied the angle dependence of effective slip length on a patterned surface and found excellent agreement with a recent theory describing slip length as a tensorial quantity Engineering Mechanics Unit (EMU), Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, India Summer 2008 o Guide: Prof. Meheboob Alam o Topic: Velocity Slip, Superstable Nanobubbles and Fakir Drops o Gained knowledge through study of various scientific papers on the intricacies of micro and nano flows o Used thermodynamic calculations to study the puzzling existence of nanobubbles on hydrophobic surfaces o Developed skills in Molecular Dynamic Simulations and also studied drop dynamics with specific consideration to the mechanism of Fakir Drops as well as the Lotus Cleaning Effect Engineering Mechanics Unit (EMU), Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, India Winter 2008 o Guide: Prof. Meheboob Alam o Topic: Lattice Boltzmann simulations of fluid flow past a Janus Body o Gained exposure to the lattice Boltzmann simulation method (LBM) using full slip and no slip boundary conditions of first order accuracy at the boundary nodes of the two faces of the drop o Developed my first skills in mesoscopic modelling by writing codes in MATLAB implementing the Lattice Boltzmann Algorithm and got results that matched prior CFD modelling results available from the literature

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SOFTWARE SKILLS
Programming Languages: C, C++, FORTRAN 90 Packages: MATLAB, LaTeX, Microsoft Office, AutoCAD, Fluent and Gambit

EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Was conferred upon the title Mr. RYLA 2007 Rotary Youth Leadership Award for the Year 2007 by the Rotary International District 3000 Vice-President of the Speakers Forum of NIT Trichy official debating society of the institution Member of the Rotaract Club of NIT Trichy involved in social service to the nearby village students Honorary Member of the Entrepreneurship Cell of NIT Trichy (www.ecell-nitt.org) Served as the Secretary of the Ramanujam Maths Club during my high school days