Master's in Electronics Engineering — how do I make the most of it outside of coursework?

[u/VC_rowdy_farmer]

Hi all, I'm about to start a Master's program in Electronics Engineering at the University of Genoa, Italy. I'm also fortunate enough to be able to fully focus on my studies since my parents are funding everything.

So, apart from grinding through all the coursework to the best of my ability, I obviously want to join a lab, either on-site or possibly remotely, to do research and hopefully get some publications, just like I did during undergrad.

I'm actually already acquainted with a professor there. His lab and research focus on analog IC design, but mostly on amplifiers for biomedical applications, while I'm more interested in power electronics, power conversion, and energy harvesting, so our research interests don't really overlap.

Now that I'm starting from scratch in a new environment, I'm honestly pretty clueless about how to get things going again: how to network, how to find research opportunities and new lab, how to find internships, and generally how to navigate all of this in an international environment.

I mean I can't just go on LinkedIn and start clicking "Apply" on every internship I see, right?

I'm sure many of you guys in this sub have probably experienced something similar, so I'd love to hear from you: what did you do, and how did you make the most of your time during your Master's?