I first heard about the India Industry Internship through flyers at the entrance of ETH Zurich. As I didn’t have any concrete plans for the summer yet, I decided to apply. Just one week after (finally) finishing up my master’s thesis, I travelled to Bangalore to start my three months at Qrera Technologies.
Myth-Busting in Bangalore
by Amanda Aho, 4.10.2018
Deserted ruins in Hampi, just one night long busride from Bangalore. (photo credit: Amanda Aho/ETH Zurich)
A cultural and professional immersion into the world of Indian tech start-ups
View from my apartment window. The half painted building on the left was built during my time here. (photo credit: Amanda Aho/ETH Zurich)
My first impressions upon arriving confirmed a lot of stereotypes about India and Bangalore: the traffic was somewhat crazy with the constant honking and cars, scooters and tuktuks passed each other left and right. At each intersection, people were selling small trinkets, flowers, and – unexpectedly – cotton candy. Cows freely roamed the streets and quite often blocked the way. The noise was definitely one of the biggest differences from living in a smaller town in Switzerland. Even in my apartment on a calm, tree-lined road, I could always hear some street seller offering their flowers, fresh vegetables, or even ice-cream.
I shared an apartment with three Indian girls from Kerala and West-Bengal. This was definitely one of the best parts of my experience, as I really got immersed in their culture by cooking together and going to the local markets for shopping and street-food. Having them around was probably the reason why I felt comfortable and at home in Bangalore immediately, and they definitely helped with the repeated language barrier when a delivery person, vendor or garbage collector only spoke Kannada or Hindi.
Qrera, the company I was working at, is a small start-up company founded by graduates of ETH Zurich and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), with just four employees and two interns including myself. Their main focus is a power and machine surveillance system for smaller manufacturing companies that may not be able to afford more expensive solutions. The power monitoring helps to easily identify machine downtime, and enables energy saving through the analysis of these reports.
The Indian way of trying to fix one of the quite frequent power cuts, with a cow overlooking the work. (photo credit: Amanda Aho/ETH Zurich)
Cows blocking the road on my way to work. (photo credit: Amanda Aho/ETH Zurich)
Calf I saw every day walking home from work. (photo credit: Amanda Aho/ETH Zurich)
My main task was the integration of a cycle counter for the power-monitoring system. This involved 3D-printed prototyping, testing, and programming the device in collaboration with my colleagues. In addition to learning these new skills, it was very interesting to see how different the start-up environment is compared to much bigger companies where I had interned before. I really got to see what everyone was doing, and experienced both set-backs and progress first hand.
Bangalore palace (photo credit: Amanda Aho/ETH Zurich)
Rangoli painted each morning outside almost every single door in my neighborhood. They are created using rice, flour, and flower petals, and are supposed to bring good luck. (photo credit: Amanda Aho/ETH Zurich)
Night-time local market just a few minutes walk from my apartment. (photo credit: Amanda Aho/ETH Zurich)
View overlooking temple ruins in Hampi. (photo credit: Amanda Aho/ETH Zurich)
Overlooking my quite calm and very green street. (photo credit: Amanda Aho/ETH Zurich)
Boulders in Hampi (photo credit: Amanda Aho/ETH Zurich)
A main difference between working in Switzerland and India that I noticed early on was the different focus on cost. At both ETH Zurich and my previous internship, while I had to make a case and keep in mind our budget I was able to order and use pretty much anything that I needed for my projects. At Qrera, I really had to retrain my brain to find more economical alternatives, which sometimes involved taking a completely different approach.
My three months here in Bangalore have flown by, and I’ll be sad to leave the city and all my new friends. Still, I am looking forward to travelling through India for a few weeks after finishing my internship, and hopefully coming back for visits soon.
About the author
Amanda Aho completed a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master's degree in Micro- and Nanosystems at ETH Zurich. From June to early September 2018, she spent three months at Qrera Technologies in Bangalore, India as part of the India Industry program of swissnex India.