From a Hunch to a Manuscript: Experiencing the Plaksha ARWC
I recently attended an academic research writing course at Plaksha University in Mohali from June 11 to June 18, 2026. It was my summer break, and I wanted to do something worthwhile with my time. I decided to enroll in the ARWC after hearing about it from my peers and because I missed the deadline for YTS that year. I found the course quite unique. Since I was not familiar with research, I thought it would be a good idea to participate for the opportunities it could bring me and the impact it would have on my resume. The program length was just nine days. Before going, I had heard a lot about Plaksha, especially its reputation for engineering and AI among private universities in India.
When I landed at the Chandigarh airport, the first thing I noticed was the weather. It was extremely hot and dry. It looked like the place needed rain, and the sun was beating down on us. In the evening, the winds were violently fast. They tore down the construction boarding, dustbins, and other items.
As I entered my room the next day, I was surprised to find my new roommate from Delhi. We chatted about why we chose to come here and what we expected for the days ahead. We went to the opening ceremony, where I met Professor Brainerd Prince, our leading course instructor, and my group mentor, Hasrat, who would help me throughout the course. After a short break for refreshments, we attended a POCSO awareness session and had dinner. After a night of getting to know the guys in the course and exploring the Plaksha campus, we went to sleep.
Finding the problem
We had our first session on the ontology of research. I learned what research is and that our first task was to identify a problem worth solving, abstracting a theme, and writing about it. We had our first communication skills workshop, which was fun. We learned grounding techniques. One important thing I learned that day was how hard it was to think of a worthy problem. Some ideas came, but they were not worthwhile, and I did not want to write a research paper about the others. Eventually, after conquering my urge to give up, I had a breakthrough. It felt great. The moment reminded me of the importance of sitting with my thoughts and the quote that says the harder you work for something, the greater you feel when you achieve it.
A quick mention: During the thinking phase for identifying a problem, I thought about how repetitive and common AI works were getting and how everything looked the same these days. Also, people just kept flooding platforms with such content, which I felt could be costing us our creativity. This bothered me and led me to identify the problem of AI affecting our creativity and causing aesthetic fatigue.
Developing research skills
Our research journey continued. We learned about cursor reading and academic skills. The communications session focused on new tasks, such as pitching papers, writing hooks, and using posters and templates. We had a treasure hunt in the evening.
We covered reading with annotations, representational writing, and historical discourse. I was introduced to tools to aid the writing process. We learned about citations, such as APA 7, and how to cite references in our writing. The communications class taught us about research posters and design principles. In the evening, I played basketball on the indoor court with some undergraduate students. It was a good experience, and I made contacts for the future.
The research grind
Things got hectic. We had to start writing our paper and were told to write about 700 words. Since I had been taking the previous days lightly, this day was a lot of work. We sat in our rooms, classrooms, and the library, with everyone reading and writing in a self-motivated environment. I drank three iced mochas from Blue Tokai, which was unusual since I do not normally drink coffee, but it made me more productive. Communications training served as a break where we learned and had fun at the same time. None of the students attended the evening activities; we chose to stay back and work. The course team was surprised but happy to let us focus and complete our tasks. After a long day, we spent the night playing and having fun before sleeping. What we learned and wrote about that day included dependent and independent variables, literature reviews, and contemporary debates. We found the gap to formulate our research question, which for me was: How does cognitive offloading to generative AI in creative works lead to the emergence of aesthetic fatigue?
For our ARWC tutorials, we learned how to develop a hunch into an argument, structure it, and collect supporting evidence. This day was hectic and demanding. Communications class also had assignments. Again, no one from our cohort went to the evening activity. The faculty decided to call off these events for the upcoming days, allowing us to focus on our research.
Compiling the manuscript and designing posters
We reached the final deadline for compiling and writing our manuscript. We crafted conceptual frameworks, structured the text, and did a critical reading and review for plagiarism. Everyone used this day to cover pending work, format it, and get it ready. Communications was work-heavy; we worked on our posters, which had to be submitted the next day by 4:00 PM for printing. After that, we followed our routine and moved on to the next day.
Our task was mainly designing the posters, from colors to fonts and spacing. I was not the best at Canva initially, but I learned and got accustomed to it. The process made me realize the value of graphic design. We relaxed in the evening and then started on our speeches for the conference the next day. Communications taught us about body language, posture, and how to use pointers.
The final pitch
On the final day, our posters were judged, and we had to pitch at the conference. The conference was attended by parents, teachers, Plaksha students, and professors. Our leading faculty went to each poster, giving marks and judging us to decide who had the best research poster and presentation based on our 3-4 minute pitches. That went well, and we all felt accomplished. After that, we had the closing ceremonies where Professor Shiv Isar and three others spoke and handed out awards for the best poster. I did not win, as they gave awards for first, second, and third place. I was close, almost fourth, which was a little sad, but it was part of the experience and a learning opportunity.
Overall, the experience was worth it. This nine-day academic research writing course was good. I feel it should have been extended. It is too hectic to write a 2,000-word manuscript in just nine days. The duration can be extended, but since this was the first offline edition, the timeframe is fair, and the university can work on it for future sessions.
Aside from that, I loved how fun, productive, and driven this course was. The teaching was fabulous. The Plaksha campus is still developing in some parts, but it is good. We were provided with enough meals every day, and the accommodation was very good.
We were informed that some research papers from the cohort would be selected for the next round, where they could eventually get published. At the time of writing this, I received an email stating that my paper was selected, even though it has been two months. I will go through this process now, with the goal of publishing my work.
You can read my paper and poster via the link tree provided below. Thank you for reading, and I hope this helped.
Comments
Post a Comment