Aparajith Raghuvir MS’25
Aparajith Raghuvir is a graduate student at the Manning College of Information & Computer Sciences (CICS) who specializes in machine learning systems. After earning his Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Kancheepuram, he relocated to Massachusetts last fall to continue his studies at CICS.
This summer, Aparajith interned at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (MPI), Germany’s largest publicly funded body for foundation research located in Saarbrücken.
What made you interested in pursuing this opportunity?
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay in academia and pursue my PhD or get a job and begin working in the field. I thought, ‘Let’s do a summer of research to figure it out.’ MPI is a great place to do research, and it’s well-known. MPI for Informatics is a part of the University of Saarland campus, so there’s a lot of collaboration with students who do part-time research there. It’s not very hierarchical, so you can discuss ideas with other interns, PhD students, post-docs, or faculty.
I also wanted to figure out where I wanted to live in the future, so it made sense for me to try interning somewhere that was not in the U.S.
What was the process of relocating to Germany like?
It went smoothly. I had already relocated once from India to the U.S. to study at UMass, so I knew what I needed to do. It was very straightforward. They housed me in the Institute’s guest house, so I just had to book a flight and get there. Six other interns were in the guest house, and we were quite lucky that everyone got along. After a week or two, I was fully settled in. Saarbrücken is a small town, and it’s easy to get the hang of the place.
How would you describe your work at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics?
The work I was doing was in distributed training for machine learning. We started with exploring fault tolerance of distributed machine learning training systems and looked more into mixture of experts training in particular. We developed a dynamic placement algorithm where we would move experts around as popularity changes for efficient communication. I enjoyed my work, having the freedom to explore many different things, and not being pushed to work on one idea and start implementing systems.
What was the most rewarding part of this experience? The most challenging?
The most rewarding part of this experience was the social aspect—even more than the work itself. The cultural exchange that happened and the friendships that formed were invaluable. I hung out and lived with the other interns who were from all over the world. I got a different perspective through this cultural exchange, with roommates from Cyprus, Iran, Romania. When there was downtime, we would do cooking nights to share and try different cuisines from our respective countries. We also traveled together. We are friends for life.
I also liked the work-life balance. For the first couple of weekends, I felt a bit odd. I expected to work the weekends; instead, I was able to roam around. I went to neighboring places in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Once I got used to it, I realized, ‘This is how it’s supposed to be.’ I really enjoy working, but I appreciate a healthy balance. I found people are very productive there, while setting clear boundaries for their lives outside of work.
The most challenging part was the broad topic of research. It required doing a ton of exhaustive reading to understand the topic, and we’d often run into dead ends—someone would have an idea, and then we’d discover something similar had already been done. Three months is also a short period of time to explore, understand a field, come up with ideas, design, implement, and evaluate a system. The work was more exploratory; consequently, I don’t think I was the most productive I’ve ever been, but I still learned a lot and was able to explore many different topics.
What advice do you have for other computer science students who may want to pursue a similar path and explore opportunities abroad?
If you’re interested in research, considering applying for an advanced degree, or unsure of where to go next, I would definitely apply abroad. Use your network to connect with opportunities. Even if you don’t have a connection, apply directly or try cold emailing. Often, if you find a good match, they’ll be happy to take you on. The good thing about an internship is it isn’t too much of a commitment on either side. If you want to try something, a summer internship abroad is a good way to pursue potential interests.
Even if you're not planning to do a research internship abroad but are confused about the PhD question, I'd suggest applying and going to a pre-doctoral research summer school. While I was abroad, I attended The Cornell, Maryland, Max Planck Pre-Doctoral Research School in Computer Science. There were students in a similar stage of life from all over the world. We also had the opportunity to interact with faculty from the three institutes, getting their thoughts and opinions on PhDs and PhD life.