I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work as a visiting scholar at the HMI Lab as part of my Anveshan Setu Fellowship program. This experience has been one of the most enriching phases of my research journey so far. I had the privilege of working under the mentorship of Prof. Jainendra Shukla, whose unwavering support, kindness, and dedication have left a deep impact on me both personally and professionally. His thoughtful feedback and encouragement have given my research a new direction and depth. He not only supported me academically but also helped me connect with other researchers working on similar research problems. He has become the greatest admiration for me to become a good researcher in this field.

I had the opportunity to work on a fascinating project at the HMI Lab that is focused on quantifying neural synchrony across a group of individuals while receiving the same stimulus. We adopted a multimodal approach that combined both physiological signal and facial expressions of the participants. This integration allowed us to study synchrony from both neural and behavioural perspectives, offering a richer understanding of shared emotional and cognitive responses. I was able to implement the deep learning models with access to GPU resources, and it greatly advanced the progress of our study. Even though I came back to my host institute, we are still working on the project remotely.

I feel grateful to have worked alongside the vibrant team at HMI Lab, who have become wonderful friends along the way. Especially, connecting with Dr. Ashwini, Saumya, Anam and Adarsh was truly a pleasure. I cherish our long conversations over coffee during the cold days. They stood by me during some difficult times, and I will forever be thankful for that. Beyond the people, I truly loved the calm and well-equipped environment of the lab and the institute.

I thank Prof. Jainendra Shukla and the entire HMI Lab team members for making this experience so special. I am happy and truly excited that I will soon be visiting the HMI Lab once again as part of my Anveshan Setu Fellowship program. I look forward to rejoining the team!