The days are longer, the temperature is higher and the Thursday BBQ days in the cafeteria have commenced; IBM Research - Almaden is bustling with a fresh vibrance that can only mean one thing - it's summertime!
With most of the interns being from out of state and even out of the country, a few casual discussions over free afternoon popcorn and tea warranted some interesting perspectives on the lab. When asked what their favorite part about the lab was so far, almost everybody mentioned the location, the weather, the people and the wildlife. University of Denver student DiDi Wei saw cows on her first day and "thought it was really neat." Shripad Nadgowda from Napur, India added that his favorite part is the research that he's involved in during his time here; he chose IBM for his summer internship because "IBM is the biggest technology hub. IBM technologies are very well studied in the academia. I wanted to join IBM to get chance to learn these technologies from people who invented them."
The interns come from a wide variety of scientific and mathematical backgrounds: chemistry, applied mathematics, systems, ubiquitous computing, epidemiological modeling, and robotics and intelligent systems to name a few. So why IBM?
The words
legendary, resume-builder, fun and
famous came into play. University of Washington MBA candidate, Naureen Manekia replied, "Who wouldn't want to work for such a world famous company in beautiful California? As a Human Resources Intern, I was interested in learning best HR practices from a global, high performance organization and this internship provided me with this valuable opportunity. I will be able to more effectively build my network and expand my experiences with IBM this summer. I'm looking forward to the fun and challenges IBM has to offer!"
Jorge Guerra, a Caracas, Venezuela native, expressed that "as a PhD student, IBM Almaden offers an excellent opportunity to experience research from an industry perspective, which complements the academic training I get from school. Also, I found that IBM has a very diverse group of researchers from different backgrounds and this greatly helps enrich discussions and debate on product ideas."
The internship experience in general is designed to enrich and add value to University studies, future job searches, and life lessons. IBM proves its success - Douglas Willcocks from London lamented that this is "an excellent opportunity to gain experience at a world class research lab." Sureyya Tarkan also agreed on the notion that IBM is a world-class facility and wanted to know what it was like to work in a "large research group."
All in all, their experience at IBM is beneficial in that future employers will recognize that they've contributed to a professional environment and will be prepared to take on challenging tasks. Kim Weaver mentioned that she "always thought that professors should have some experience in industry to better relate to their students, most of whom desire industry and not academic jobs. This was a good opportunity to work with some great, well-respected people."
Finally, there were some discussions on the benefits and perks of being an IBMer, even if it is for a few short months out of the year. Some of the interns are taking advantage of Great America Theme Park tickets at a discount of $20 off regular ticket price; others are enjoying free public transportation all summer long, thanks to IBM's free eco-passes. Discounted movie tickets are popular, as are the on-site dry cleaning service and on-site car wash. Almaden's full service library also got kudos, due to their excellent assistance in providing books ordered specially from other IBM sites.
While Almaden's full-time residents are doing their part in making the lab a comfortable home-away-from-home for the interns, there's definitely mutual benefits - learning, networking, and having fun all come into play during this season, for all parties involved.
Summer Intern Showcase
The wide range of business applications and discoveries developed by the interns this year were largely ideas stemming from existing research projects or those that were yet to be executed by Almaden’s research teams. With the help, enthusiasm and refined expertise of this year’s interns, many of those ideas and projects were realized in just three short months, while others gained significant momentum toward fulfillment.
Many of the interns worked on projects that were vastly different from their current course of study at their universities. Shripad Nadgoda from Stony Brook University took on a GPFS project in the storage area that didn’t align with his coursework, but changed his frame of mind to a new type of research, which he indicated "will be helpful later because I’ve been able to explore a different area and start from scratch." Yang Ye of Colombia University echoed those sentiments stating, "It was nice to learn how to solve real problems in the industry. It was hard at first, but then your mind switches, and you take off in the right direction."
Others, however, were recruited based on their expertise in certain areas. Sunyoung Kim from Carnegie Mellon University authored/co-authored several published papers around air quality research. IBM Human Computer Interaction researcher Tom Zimmerman read her paper and recruited her to join the team of Almaden computer scientists working on an iPhone app that monitors water quality. In this mutually beneficial scenario, Sunyoung was able to build on her current research focus, and IBMers were able to tap into her knowledge about application development for mobile environmental monitoring.
Interns in the Extreme Blue Program at IBM Research - Almaden shared some thoughts on camera:
Last week, IBM unveiled the first ever cognitive computing chips - designed to learn without set programming, the chips emulate the brain's ability for perception, action, reaction and sensation, and have demonstrated the ability to recognize handwritten numbers and provide its best answer for what it "sees" on the screen. The chips have also learned how to play the game Pong, in which it "watches" the ball, predicts the trajectory, and moves the paddle to block the ball with amazing accuracy.
