Summers 2019, University of Missouri-Columbia.

The USA, a country that I wanted to visit since I was a kid. At that time, the reasons were a lot different rather more out of curiosity seeing the country shown quite different in Hollywood then something that I was accustomed to. But in recent times, after learning about the tremendous growth in technology in the US and knowing about the fantastic research hubs that it houses made me want to visit it even more. Also, I wanted to explore research further, and thus, was on a lookout for research opportunities. Got a positive response and before I could blink, I was standing in the line of my expedited visa appointment. My visa experience was very smooth and extremely fast. I applied for biometrics on 30th May, gave my visa interview on 31st May, got my visa on 4th June, boarded my flight on 6th, and landed on 7th Midnight - A week in all.

I travelled to Columbia from St. Louis on 8th morning. After purchasing a few essentials and getting my accommodation worked out, I was ready to begin. I tried to broaden my scope of work through the opportunity. I worked on tracking, object detection and multi-object tracking. The central theme of my project involved improving single object tracking for surveillance. Though there are many algorithms available, none were as robust and accurate as per the requirement of the project. The dataset was tough as it included all the possible cases where an algorithm could fail and increased the complexity of the task. Some of the problems that were to be tackled were

1. The sudden drift of the object
2. Partial to full occlusion of the object
3. Low object to image pixel ratio Thus, to tackle these problems, we took a holistic approach and used a fusion of algorithms to create a robust algorithm. If I were to highlight the main takeaways apart from learning about the field at a deeper level would be learning about the various aspects of research. Through research, in general, is a slow process, I was lucky to be working on a project which was on a tight schedule. Thus, each day was adding a delta result to the end goal. My lab hours were very flexible, and the safety factor of a college town allowed me to work late.

Columbia is a college town and unlike the big cities in the USA, its a calm place. The college town had a buzzing downtown with all the food joints close by. The town has multiple huge parks, and I got a chance to do caving, something which I had never done before. Caving is an activity which, as the name suggests, involves exploring caves. The natural caves were quite cold, and one could feel the sudden drop of temperature on entering the cave. I loved how the independence day is celebrated in the US, the feeling of collectiveness is everywhere. I ended up attending one such meetup closeby which had band events, various shows, food and fireworks after the event.

In the end, I was leaving with countless memories with me. Another experience in my bag of experiences, Also, Its always fun going to a place alone, exploring, enjoying the local cuisine and interacting with different people. Though the time constraints limited me from travelling to the coasts, it did allow me to thoroughly understand mid-west. This allowed me to understand the history, culture and the people, it also allowed me to visit all the places at a slower pace making it an unrushed experience.