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by Lauren McNamara | October 26, 2023

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Technology has always fascinated me. I’ve always been curious about how various tech like the metaverse, augmented reality, and more keep shaping and re-shaping the world we live in. In fact, one of my main motives to pursue business school was to explore how technology and business go together. My enthusiasm for tech continued to grow as I learned more and more about Web 3.0 in my classes. Despite coming from a nontechnical background, when the time came to seek out a summer internship, I was keen on taking all the theory that I had learned in the classroom and hopefully finding a place that would allow me to explore how technologies like virtual reality and IoT (Internet of Things) solved business problems.

When I interviewed with various consulting firms, the reactions I got for expressing my passion for technology was discouraging. I started to feel that my exuberance was scaring away people during the interviews. As chance would have it, I met Angela King, the Infosys campus recruiter for the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business. Angela gave me a very unexpected response when I started talking about my interest in tech and the projects I had worked on. Instead of giving me the kind of responses that I had gotten used to, Angela’s face lit up when I began talking about the digital twin strategy that I incorporated into one of my projects.

It was almost too good to be true, but Infosys was already evaluating a project with their Partnerships and Alliances team—“Digital Transformation through Digital Twin and Digital Thread Initiatives.” This was it! I couldn’t believe that there was an opportunity for me that not only was smack in the middle of the kind of experience I was looking for, but was also going to give me the opportunity to travel to and experience India for eight whole weeks. Soon enough, I was on a flight to Bengaluru in the south of India, where Infosys is headquartered. I was giddy with excitement and wanted to ensure I made the most of my experience.  

My project was focused on analyzing the growth opportunities of the digital twin market and exploring use cases across many verticals. I was introduced to my mentor, Ramanath Suryaprakash, AVP of Partner Ecosystems and Alliances. Ram was very encouraging from day one and always made time to review my work and share his experiences with me. I was very happy to get relevant exposure to several internal and external stakeholders to understand how Infosys could position this offering within the Engineering practice. Besides Ram, Sukumar Ghosh and Aalok Bhavthankar were most gracious and helped guide me through the research phase of my internship and actually develop a go-to-market strategy for digital twins in the life sciences domain.

My experience was bolstered by spending time exploring Infosys’ Living Lab, a modern facility dedicated to helping Infosys’ clients get future-ready. This facility houses dozens of technology prototypes and demos to showcase next-gen capabilities and technology produced by Infosys engineers. I had access to technical experts who had built some amazing next-gen experiences, like the Australian Open Virtual Reality demo (my favorite), robots, and much more. I am not particularly pleased to share that I repeatedly lost simulated tennis matches against a virtual representation of Rodger Federer. The digital twin built by Infosys was as good as the legend himself.

Besides being able to actually work with people who had much more experience than I had and present a tangible strategy for the company at the end of my internship, I will fondly remember the warm hospitality during the time I was in India. Besides the fabulous facilities to work in and stay at in the Infosys Bengaluru campus, I am very grateful to Kisha Gupta and her amazing team at the InStep program, who made sure we experienced so much of India. Safaris through Bannerghatta National Park and visiting their bear rescue and rehabilitation center, as well as rafting in the Barapole River of Coorg, I experienced an India that was very different from what I had in mind. I also got to meet over 50 international students who were also a part of the internship program. I would absolutely recommend this experience to any student looking for a challenging but fulfilling internship experience, coupled with the opportunity to experience a vibrant culture like India.

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