My Experience as Research Intern at Tact Labs

Hello friends myself Akula Sainadh and I am from the team friends of Naveen V and Sakthi Namasivayam K. Today I will be discussing my experience as an Research Intern at Tact Labs(Talent Accurate). Like what were the technologies learnt by our team and how we were exposed to various new fields of industry and in what aspects we got trained.

Earning a place Tact Labs:

It was in the lockdown time where me and my friends were searching about various sites to learn some new technologies and we were doing some online courses to get the respective certificates in some trending domains. Then one day my friend’s cousin Vaishnavi told about a hackathon named BIGDATABOSS. This hackathon was based on Machine learning. But the most interesting part of this which inspired us is 30% kollywood fun and 70% technical stuff will be there in this hackathon. Then we thought that we could give it a try. Then came the D-day in our tech lives was 14th August of 2020. We thought of participating to our level best in the kollywood section. To our interest the first day was full of non technical stuff where we gained some confidence that we would not be eliminated on the first day itself. As the days progressed the toughness has reached its peak level. But we have made it to the final day of the hackathon. Then there was a lucky spin wheel where the final day participants were given a chance to spin it. Our teammate Sakthi Namasivayam has spun the wheel in its first place we got an amazon coupon and then the next time we got the Intern Opportunity of Research Intern at Tact labs. We were extremely happy to get that opportunity. It was the first time where we as a team participated in a hackathon and got some positive results.

Entering Tact Labs:

When we got selected for the Intern Research we were so happy that we were going to solve some industrial issues. But it’s not that easy to be selected as an Intern at Tact labs even if we are selected.. Our Main mentor Raja CSP sir has given us some assignments in which we have explored various new technologies both in frontend and in the backend. Sir was so particular of the UI part of the assignment. After so many reviews of the work we have done sir has finally approved and on October 16th 2020 we have joined research Interns at Tact labs.

Quest for Industrial Technologies:

From the day 1 onwards we were pushed to a line of newer technologies i.e our mentors used to guide us through the installation and the advantages of the software applications in the projects. We used to do the benchmarking for the newer technologies and used to create some API’s in both the software's to test their compatibility with our project. Finally we used to decide the best technology in the industry that suits our project. By doing this we were exposed to many newer technologies which have not even gained such hype in industry. But their use in our project have made our work easy and efficient. As the beginners we were with 0% knowledge of Machine Learning. In our colleges we will be trained with the basic languages like C, C++, Java. But as we went into the Tact Labs we started learning python, visualization using python, MongoDB. These were first technologies we used in our first basic assignment. From there on our mentors have guided us step by step to reach to our next levels both in terms of technology and knowledge.

Most discoveries even today are a combination of serendipity and of searching.

Divergent way of Teaching:

Initially when we joined Tact Labs we thought that this 3 months internship would be too technical and also it would be very much difficult to continuously concentrate on the tech stuff. But to our amusement learning pattern is completely different from other internships. It is designed in such a way that the students will learn the tech stuff and get the entertainment part parallely. As the quotation goes

“Students don’t need a perfect teacher. Students need a happy teacher, who’s gonna make them excited to come to school and grow a love for learning” — Richard Feynman

The same scenario was repeated in our learning process at Tact labs, we literally enjoyed ourselves with the learning and the fun part behind it. There were frequent gaps between the continuous sessions. If the session runtime is about 3–4 hours then we used to have aps at 30 min regularly. By this our mind got relaxed and we were able to concentrate on the technical stuff.

Indulged way of Learning:

As an Intern whether it depends whether one enjoys the technical stuff or not, but I assure you definitely that one would completely enjoy the games conducted between the interval session in between the technical sessions. To our amusement we got to know that the games we were playing were created by the mentors of the Tact labs. They have a motto for relieving the stress of the students by continuously engaging them in non-technical activities. The best of the games was the kollywood related topics, since everybody would be familiar with the content of the kollywood we as a team enjoyed a lot in those fun sessions. Once our brain gets activated definitely when we play games, so that we concentrate on the technical stuff.

Punctuality and Strictness:

When it comes to the part of timeline Tact labs is one of the strict organizations I have seen. They have some basic and strict rules such as:

Do it First

Do it Right

Do it Better

Never ever say abstract deadlines.

Bad examples: Tomorrow, Soon

Always use concrete deadlines:

Format: Day/Date time time-zone

Good examples: Friday 9:00PM IST, 26th February 9:00PM IST

We have learnt that giving a deadline to a mentor is not at all a simple task. Initially it was difficult for us to meet with the deadline. But later on we were habituated with the deadline stuff. Every evening we used to have a brainstorming session on what we have accomplished so far during that day. Its always good to know what we are doing and to what level we have accomplished the work.

Weekend Hackathons:

On the weekdays it was a normal routine about taking tasks from the mentor and showing progress and solving doubts. But the real fun part comes to the game on the weekends. All the teams who are currently working as Interns would assemble on that day and we would have been given a new technology to explore and at the end of the day it was all about how much as a team we have scored points and that team would be the winner for that day. It was truly a competitive way of learning things in a indulging way.

Knowing Responsibilities:

All the working Interns would be given a chance to organize the mega hackathon BIGDATABOSS conducted by the Tact labs. In this event we can get to know about how strong we are in facing challenges and solving them in a timely manner. Mentors will be giving directions for the juniors and they have to perform the work on time otherwise the whole event would be collapsed. We the team FRIENDS were best at the coordinating things and we really enjoyed organizing such event.

Encouragement with Tact Coins:

With the term Tact coins by now you would have guessed what it means!!. Yes its the official currency of the Tact labs. Whenever a person or team completes his/her assigned task a coin assessment board will be there to judge the work done by the student. A certain amount of the tact coins will be released to the student which they can cash out at the weekend spin of the tact coins. The main motto of releasing the tact coins is to encourage the students to learn new technologies but not make them greedy about money. To ensure that a minimal amount of tact coins will be released to the assigned work for the students.

From empty blank paper to some content in it:

Though we are familiar with the technologies used in the college, when i have joined Tact labs i felt that there are many more technologies to be learnt. In that point of view definitely I can assure anyone that if you join Tact labs you will not come with empty handed.

We extend our deep gratitude for our mentors Raja CSP and Vaishnavi V.

“The big secret in life is that there is no secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.” — Oprah Winfrey

Thanks for Tact labs for starting a Beautiful and Encouraging Journey in our tech life