The May issue of Connect - Newsletter of IUSSTF, contained a interview with Hitesh Arora, a 2015 SN Bose Fellow, who visited Prof. Tomaso Poggio's lab during Spring 2014 and Summer 2014.

"Getting selected in the SN Bose Scholars Program to pursue research internship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) opened a door to an incredibly enriching experience for me. I worked at the Center for Biological and Computational Learning (CBCL) under the supervision of Prof. Tomaso Poggio. Having followed and being inspired by the works of Prof. Poggio, it was my dream to get a chance to work under his guidance. I am deeply grateful to him for this invaluable opportunity. I was mentored by Dr. Ethan Meyers to work on the project of analysing neural data to gain insights about the functioning of brain regions. I got exposure to different machine learning techniques and methods useful in neural decoding which I applied in my projects. Ethan always encouraged me to come up with my own ideas and do independent research, and helped me grow both professionally and personally. The lab culture was very friendly, where I learnt a lot from others in group meetings, lunches, and over a game of pool! I attended CBMM summer course on Minds, Brains and Machines where I got a great exposure to the ongoing research to understand human intelligence and brain functioning. Getting a chance to meet professors who pioneered new fields has immensely motivated me to pursue research. My internship at MIT wouldn’t have been possible without Dr. Mandana Sassanfar. I am very thankful to her for everything! I stayed at MIT dorms with other interns from around the globe, learning about their culture, sharing mine, and established friendships for a lifetime. This was one of the best experiences of my life! Words aren’t enough to thank IUSSTF for turning my dream into reality."

Hitesh Arora
Indian Institute of Technology-
Guwahati