New Delhi, At a time when the whole world is grappling with the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, 20-year-old Abhishek Agrahari, a third-year Mechanical Engineering student at TIET, Patiala has bagged multiple international research internship offers from various prestigious universities across the globe.
International offers received by Abhishek for research work in various scientific fields from reputed global institutes include - University of Oxford, UK; Pennsylvania State University, USA; University of Illinois, USA; Technische Universitat Munchen, Germany; Tel Aviv University, Israel; Beijing Computational Sciences Research Center, China; Shanghai Jia Tong University, China; Gyeongsang National University, South Korea; University of Adelaide, Australian School of Petroleum; Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain; Heriot-watt Univeristy, Edinburgh; Lithuanian Energy Institute; and Iscte-Instituto Universitario de Lisboa, Lisbon.
He has already worked with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on gas turbine engines; with IIT, Bombay on fluid structure interaction; and with IIT, Kanpur on fluid dynamics, he currently has offers from IIT, Kharagpur; IIT, Indore; and IIT, Madras too.
Speaking exclusively with IANS, Abhishek, who lives at Mayur Vihar Phase 3 in New Delhi, said, "Being a non-IITian it's been very difficult to achieve these offers. It's all about knowledge and talent. I had to do extensive research work and study exhaustively apart from my general syllabus for Mechanical Engineering. There are several rounds of tests and interviews. Once the concerned professor finds me to be good enough to fit into their scheme of things, only then they offer me to join their research team. Sometimes professors and the concerned institutes bear all the expenses, but sometimes it is not the case."
"I have been active in research in the broader areas of fluid mechanics, more specifically fluid-structure interaction theory, plasma physics, water waves mechanics, kinetic theory (kinetic equations and model like Boltzmann equations, fluid kinetic coupled model), mathematical general relativity, black holes, formation of black holes due to sudden gravitational collapse of non linear waves and gauge theory," added Agrahari who is desperately seeking and looking for sponsorships to realise his dreams as he belongs to a family which is reeling under acute poverty. His father was working in a private firm but is now jobless for many months.
Abhishek shared his pensive musings. "I would've been in the US right now, but this coronavirus has given me a temporary setback in my mission. Dispelling all the despair and desperation I've decided to look ahead with renewed vigour."