I'm about to enter my 2nd year of BTech from a tier-3 college in India, where there are basically no research opportunities. I'm really interested in working with AI/ML, especially areas like reasoning, computational thinking and computer vision.
Since finishing JEE, I've been consistently learning and building small ML/DL projects, but now I want to move toward research and eventually get a research-based internship, preferably under professors (even internationally if possible).
I have a few questions and would really appreciate guidance:
- Are remote/online research internships actually possible? Can I collaborate with professors abroad without physically going there?
- Apart from reading research papers and books, what practical skills should I develop for research (e.g., conducting experiment, etc.) and also how ?
- How do I find and shortlist professors? Should I focus only on India (IITs/NITs), or is it realistic to reach out globally on universities like Georgia Institute of Technology, CMU, will the professor reject me if I am from India tier 3 or they only see passion, hardwork and dedication ?
- What should I write in cold emails to professors, and what kind of skills/projects should I highlight?
- How different is research from typical ML projects? Is it similar to using libraries like pandas/matplotlib and training models, or something deeper? Will the professor tell me to have my own topic or contribute to theirs ?
- Given that I'm currently in my 2nd semester with average knowledge of ML/DL and a few implementation projects, what should my next steps be to break into research?
Sorry if some of these questions sound basic - I'm just trying to figure out the right direction.
Thanks in advance for any help!
And please please don't downvote me if I'm silly or this post is looking stupid, I'm not active on reddit or any other social media platform so I have very low karma
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