Can an undergraduate engineering student from India get a foreign research internship for the winter break?

Very difficult, if not impossible - if you expect them to cover your flight and if you're not strongly recommended. With internships abroad, a large overhead is the flight ticket. A person will agree to cover your flight expenses if the value they get from you is atleast more than the flight tickets. Let's take $1500 as a nominal value for a round trip flight. If you're not highly recommended, they assume you're good but not great. In that circumstance, they can't get $1500's worth of work in one month, and won't pay for your flight. They might agree to have you over if you cover your own flight, and if they're available. If you're highly recommended, they might take a bet, and assume that they'll get their money's worth in a month. As if life wasn't tough enough - Remember that December is Holiday season - Christmas and New Year. Which reduces December to literally 20 days. Add to that the first 5-10 days to ramp up. Can you deliver work worth $1500 in 10-15 days? Do you have proof of it. If yes, you'll get your internship. If not, go to Shimla/Darjeeling/Himachal and enjoy December. EDIT: Thanks for reaffirming my point Muddit. Muddit paid for his flight. If you're ready to do that, it's very possible.

Even summer internships in general and funded summer stints abroad are not easy to secure for mechanical engineering undergrads, principally because you have not usually learnt enough to add some justifiable value. If you are willing to shell out money from your pocket, you might have a marginally better prospect. It may help if your previous work has resulted in some tangible output like papers or patents , and if that's not the case, it will be a good idea to work towards something in that direction from an Indian institute.

Yes, a foreign research internship is possible in winters if you focus on universities that fall in the Southern Hemisphere which will have summer vacations when it is winter in India. The summer internship program of the universities and research institutes are bigger and have more intake compared to the winter research programs. You can apply for this winter research programs of University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia: http://eduinfo.asia/2014/07/uq-summer-research-program/ (Deadline: August 30, 2014) You can check the Mechanical Engineering projects of this internship here (they are actually closer to Chemical Engineering but also have something with Mechanical Engineering): http://www.eait.uq.edu.au/filething/get/8559/2014-15%20Summer%20Research%20Projects%20Chemical%20Eng%20Version%204.pdf Plus contact professors of universities like University of Auckland, Melbourne Institute of Technology etc by email. And if you do not get a foreign internship, you can always try Indian internships at IISc Bangalore, IITs, NITs etc. Tezpur University in Assam has a winter internship program. Plus you can check some more winter internships here: https://www.facebook.com/eduinfoupdates/posts/776645835690557 I would suggest you to follow my blog EduInfo (http://eduinfo.asia/). Do let me know if you need any more help. Use this form: http://eduinfo.asia/internship-help/ Best, Tanay.