Journey of Antriksh Singh
SHORT INTRODUCTION
My name is Antriksh Singh, I did my B. Tech in mechanical engineering, and I belong to the class of 2008. I am currently working for my PhD at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich (ETHZ). My work and research deals with various aspects of country-scale power planning, energy markets and finance, and energy policy. It has been three years since I started, and with around two more to go I couldn’t be more satisfied with my career (and life) choices due to which I am in field of work. However, It wasn’t always like that.
CAREER
Prior to starting the PhD, I was working with Proctor and Gamble for two years trying to improve and optimize numerically FMCG packaging processes with focus on finite element (FEM) modeling of their Injection Stretch Blow Moulding (ISBM) process. It was during this time I obtained my Masters degree (MPhil), which was sponsored by P&G in 2010, and I spent most of my time in Belfast, UK. I chose to change as I found the field of work uninteresting and very narrow. Taking a step further back, I started with my first job with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) immediately after finishing the studies in 2008. With the title of Technical Management Trainee (TMT), I was being trained at their Gas Cracker Unit in Nagothane, Maharashtra, to manage everyday plant maintenance activities. However, since this job was only supposed to be a short break from studies, I quit after 10 months. I had no clue about what I was going to do next. In between and in parallel, I tried my hands on several things, but something was always missing and it was not satisfying.
How did I end up doing what I do?
In a few words — a consequence of elaborate introspection followed by meticulous planning, while taking uncalculated risks.
… oops, too many fancy words for nothing!
During each of my last three years at IIT Guwahati, I strongly aspired for a different career-path each time. Most of the time it was limited to the knowledge of our options, and strongly motivated by what I thought was ‘cool’ at that very moment. In the first year, I was clueless and mostly trying to form an opinion about a distant life choice. In the second year, it was all about going for an MBA because one of our seniors had nailed the 100 percentile in CAT that left many fickle minds like myself quite starry eyed. In third year I had wallpapers of MIT, Stanford and Cornell on my laptop and Barron’s on my table. By the fourth year, nothing still seemed clear except I was too laid back to worry much about anything, IAS preparation was on the mind, and I knew a break from studies was imminent.
My time spent between IITG and ETHZ was mostly focused on trying to figure out what I would love to do for rest of my life. I had the favorable circumstances in life that allowed me to take my time to understand myself and figure out my natural desires, strengths and weaknesses. After years of indecisiveness and uncertainty, I decided that I would be my best working for rest of my life in a field which 1) is heavily mathematical and analytical, 2) would help me understand human behavior, as individual and as groups, 3) is very dynamic — keeps on changing from day to day and year to year — so that I am learning all my life and never feel stagnated, 4) is in comfortable social and cultural environment, 5) has more and more money lined up at next steps (it is not a necessity but a motivation).
For all our desires we may find different answers. For me the answer was — Energy. Our primal need, availability and access to which has fashioned much of our post industrial-revolution world, and a product that everyone would buy. Before I interviewed for my current position, I knew little about energy planning, finance or policy — except for the fact that I have 5–6 years ahead of me to master it. I also knew for a fact that there are very few places in the world where I could work for a PhD in such field, and the position I was interviewing for was one of the best of the lot. Lastly, the fact Swiss PhD salaries (in general the salaries) are the highest in the world was a cherry on the top.
What do I do?
I write algorithms and codes, to help plan, develop and operate new power production facilities which will make private investors more money with lower risks and help governments to ensure security of supply while reducing the energy prices and adverse effects on environment. Many of the codes I write and the tools I use run on our cluster and often go on for several weeks and months at stretch. Written in C++, Python, FORTRAN and Shell script, they serve a variety of different purpose, for instance, from coupled long-term geo-climatic simulations to simulate electricity demand, and generation from renewable sources to allow identification of spot market prices of energy in a country and efficient use of transmission grid infrastructure; to estimation of biomass potential in a region by multi-spectral satellite image processing coupled with geo-indexed transportation model for highways to calculate transportation costs of identified biomass to any bio-electricity generator in the country.
Is the work I do all theoretical and isolated?
Nopes. My lab has active collaboration with industry, so finding right buyers is facilitated. One energy consultancy firm in Germany last year has used analysis from my tools for selection of generators. Currently we are working with government in Poland to identify potential wind farms that might attract winning bids in power capacity auctions. In parallel, we are working in close collaboration with one of the biggest energy firm in the world to analyze the affect of increased variance in power flows in grid on operation of conventional gas turbines. Moreover, a major portion of my work is being carried out in collaboration with one of the top-ranking business schools in Europe. This merger of technology, economics, and policy is one of the reasons I feel blessed to have ended up in my field of work.
Did I imagine during my time in IITG that this is what I will be doing in 5–6 years? No. Or imagined that I would love my work?
Probably not! I remember vividly being worried about my future, and had my share of struggles with the ideas of life in future. If I could I would like to say one thing to the present student population of my beloved Alma Mater — in Steve Jobs words — ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’. Things may not be crystal clear right now, but do not let this uncertainty yield into complacency or disinterest. Your life will begin once you cross the gates for IITG one final time, it is going to be a long and exciting journey ahead, and in time you will figure out the best.
