Interns Recognized at 2020 Summer Intern Award Ceremony
The Research Park gathered virtually to celebrate the most outstanding interns across its 120+ companies on Thursday, July 28.
Fittingly, the ceremony was held on National Intern Day.
The students honored as finalists and winners encompass a variety of disciplines, majors, and colleges from across the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, exemplifying the nature of interdisciplinary work that happens at Research Park companies.
The end of the academic year and summer has posed many unique challenges for Research Park interns, although they proved surmountable. In the midst of a pandemic, interns definitely had unconventional learning experiences at the Park in comparison to past summers.
They formed connections with peers, co-workers, and supervisors while working remotely – without having the chance to meet in-person. Many of them were even in time zones around the world.
These interns have impacted the Research Park and their employers through the countless projects they conceived, worked diligently on, and followed through to completion.
Thank you to all the managers who took the time to nominate their students. Thank you to the panel of professionals who judged these awards.
To watch the entirety of the Intern Awards ceremony, click HERE.
Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Startup
Grayson Schaer, Research Associate at Editekk
Undergraduate in Aerospace Engineering | Grainger College of Engineering
“Grayson is a joy to work with because he is a receptive listener and an effective communicator. Grayson is passionate about his work and a quick learner who adapts to various challenges very quickly. Although his undergraduate training was in Aerospace Engineering, he has touched on many areas in his time with us that go well beyond this focus.”
Most Outstanding Undergraduate Intern
Harry Zhao, Engineering Intern at Caterpillar
Undergraduate in Aerospace Engineering | Grainger College of Engineering
“Harry holds a high work ethic; he started on time even when working from home and finished all committed work on time. Harry also has a high potential to be a great leader. This summer, he was assigned three tasks in one week. However, he had long term insight and ask me to change the priority because one customer is desperate to get the correct result from a 1-click tool. The internship in Caterpillar prepares him for his future career and applies his STEM knowledge in real-world problems.”
Anders Cox, Plasma Processing Intern at Starfire Industries LLC
Undergraduate in Electrical Engineering | Grainger College of Engineering
“Anders embedded himself with one of our Ph.D. researchers and became both the ‘right’ and ‘left’ arms of two different projects. Anders worked as an intern last summer, through the fall and into spring, and his dedication and commitment to Starfire, its team, and our mission show that motivation, behavior, and work ethic are valued. Anders deserves this award for his technical contribution and the personal side.”
Finalists:
Domenic Di Girolamo, Actuarial Intern at State Farm
Undergraduate in Actuarial Science | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Jessica Huang, Market Research Analyst at AbbVie Innovation Center
Undergraduate in Accounting & Information Systems and Information Technology | Gies College of Business
Most Outstanding Graduate Intern
Eric Cheng, Data Analyst at AbbVie Innovation Center
Ph.D. in Food Science and Statistics
“Eric is a conscientious student, bringing attention to detail, a strong work ethic, and a varied skill set to his position at AbbVie. He has contributed value in supporting and expanding his team’s ability to make decisions through the creation of a novel software package. Furthermore, he has supported the long-term use of his contributions with the creation of additional documentation and a more user-friendly interface for future data analysis. His advisor sums up Eric by stating: ‘As a former Professor of Preventive Medicine, I would certainly rank Eric in the top 0.5% of all graduate students that I have ever had.'”
Finalists:
Jialu Yan, Data Science Intern at Cargill
Ph.D. in Physics
Jack Massey, Actuarial Intern at State Farm
Masters in Statistics
Grant Greenberg, Neuroscience Bioinformatics Intern at AbbVie Innovation Center
Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Best Technical Innovation Award
Katherine Ritchie, Cancer Metabolic Modeling Intern at SimBioSys
Undergraduate in Computer Science | Grainger College of Engineering
“Ms. Ritchie’s work ethic, leadership, and behavior have been exemplary over the course of this internship. Despite having to work remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic, Ms. Ritchie has maintained a professional attitude and a dedication to maintaining an office environment. Ms. Ritchie is routinely early to meetings and has no trouble describing her work, presenting challenges she is facing, proposing solutions, and offering suggestions for the work of others in the company. Her diligence, intelligence, and commitment to understanding our workflow have earned the appraisal of the entire leadership team.”
Finalists:
Ali Taghibakhshi, Student Robotics Intern at John Deere
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering
Eric Cheng, Data Analyst at AbbVie Innovation Center
Ph.D. in Food Science and Statistics
Best Non-Technical Innovation
Nupur Bhardwaj, Human Resources & Community Intern at Motorola Solutions
Undergraduate in Marketing | Gies College of Business
“Despite having to work independently and remotely, and Nupur has done a tremendous job with overcoming these obstacles. She has been a self-starter and comes up with all of the wonderful ideas for these events at Motorola Solutions. Nupur deserves this award because she stepped into a role we had never envisioned – creating community – which was very different than what she expected the internship would be. However, she not only embraced the role but excelled in it, far exceeding my expectations. Her efforts made the difference between having an okay internship experience due to COVID-19 and having an amazing internship experience in spite of the circumstances.”
Finalists:
Vishaank Ghai, Project Manager at COUNTRY Financial DigitaLab
Undergraduate in Computer Science & Economics | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Anne Zulkarnain, UX/UI Designer at Cargill
Undergraduate in Industrial Design | College of Fine Arts
Most Competent and Collaborative Team
Granular Flex Team:
Jake Stahl, Undergraduate in Agriculture Business Market and Management | College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences
Jordan Breedlove, Undergraduate in Agriculture Business |
College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences
“Our Flex Team is the anchor for our Professional Services department. They have become experts on niche topics, mastered dozens of third-party platforms, and manage hundreds of quickly moving tasks week over week. Thanks to their contributions, they have significantly helped reduce the department’s workload and allows full-time employees to focus on account management. Jake and Jordan are consistently reliable, resourceful, and accountable to not only deliver on their projects but also reduce the workload of those around them. Their ability to proactively seek high priority tasks and team-wide blockers have improved the department’s delivery on contracts and service level agreements.”
Finalists:
Cloud Animal Health Shared Services Team:
Rishi Choudhary, Undergraduate in Systems Engineering & Design | Grainger College of Engineering
Fides Icalina, Undergraduate in Graphic Design | College of Fine Arts
Prit Delada, Undergraduate in Geographic Information Sciences | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Jane Kim, Undergraduate in Media & Cinema Studies | College of Media
Cargill:
Johnny Chang, Undergraduate in Electrical Engineering | Grainger College of Engineering
Jamie Lim, Undergraduate in Industrial Design | College of Fine Arts