2015 Intern Award Winners Named
RESEARCH PARK HONORS MOST VALUABLE INTERNS OF 2015
CHAMPAIGN – A collection of Research Park’s most exceptional interns were honored Thursday, August 5, 2015 at the Research Park Intern Awards Picnic. More than 500 highly skilled students work for Research Park tenant companies, where they gain valuable work experience as well as make meaningful contributions to internal corporate research and development programs. The interns nominated for this year’s Intern Awards represent a wide range of backgrounds, and are all students at the University of Illinois. A team of Research Park professionals evaluated all nominations and voted on the finalists and winners.
The honorees are as follows:
Jae Won Choi, Most Outstanding Undergraduate, Electrical and Computer Engineering, OceanComm. “Jae is hardworking, a great team-player, and quick to get up to speed in areas he was unsure of initially. His code is 100 times faster, and since it can run on the BBB, it is 100 times cheaper than our previous system version.”
Finalists: Dylan Plecki, Dow AgroSciences; Jacob Waterman, Dow AgroSciences
Eric Marburger, Most Outstanding Graduate, Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Caterpillar. “Eric has exceeded the technical and professional expectations of his group. His current responsibilities are comparable to a full time engineer. Eric’s results are presented in a clear and concise manner. His finite element analysis saved significant time and money.”
Finalists: Kristy Du, Abbott; Boyang Hua, Abbott
Joel Kelleher, Most Advanced Marketing and Business Development, Mater of Science in Statistics, State Farm. “Joel has demonstrated creativity, initiative, and technical prowess far beyond expectations for an intern. Joel’s technical skills are among the best we’ve ever seen in an intern. These skills, coupled with Joel’s creativity and initiative, resulted in Joel being the driving force in meeting the overall objectives of his projects as well as with the small problems that arose along the way.“
Finalist: Jenna Cooley, Ameren
Jerome Davis, Best Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Startup, Chemical Engineering, Xerion Advanced Battery. “Jerome has exceeded our expectations in countless ways. He has demonstrated leadership, situational awareness, insight and extreme intelligence. Having little prior laboratory experience, Jerome effortlessly mastered the skills required to manage complicated fabrication processes.”
Finalists: Sarah Cho, Intelliwheels
Ruichao Qiu, Best Technological Innovation, Master of Computer Science, Yahoo! “Ruichao showed his prowess and professionalism from the day 1 with his quick grasping power, eagerness to learn and attention to details. Ruichao is a great team-member with patience, down-to-earth nature and a helpful attitude. He is going to be a valuable asset to any team he will be part of.”
Finalists: Chris Zwilling, AB-InBev; Abraham Dio, Quicket
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