Congratulations to Graduating Interns!
The Research Park, at any given time, hosts more than 350 student interns working for both startups and established corporations. We would like to thank the interns we are losing to graduation this spring and wish them luck in their future endeavors.
Here is a sampling of interns graduating and the type of work they do:
The Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Bioenergy Modeling Center employs student interns to perform computational work, conceptual engineering, and modeling to evaluate the feasibility of manufacturing specialty chemicals. Graduating this spring, all with degrees in chemical engineering, are Ahir Bala, Ying Hong, Matthew Neal and Pui Yim Tham; Gaurav Kaul received degrees in chemical and biomolecular engineering.
Caterpillar interns work in its Champaign Simulation center using computer-aided engineering to develop products. Graduating Caterpillar interns are: Sai Alluri, Oytun Babacan, Bryan Bell, Daniel Gualandri, Josh Hicke, Felipe Pugas, Kai Yang, Mechanical Engineering; Megan Danko and Matt Pettis, Aerospace Engineering; Anna Oldani and Brian Fehrenbacher, Agricultural and Biological Engineering; Jakob Jaster, Industrial Engineering; Jeffrey Miller and Tyler Weston, General Engineering; and John Nam, Agricultural and Consumer Economics
Nuvixa, a startup in the EnterpriseWorks incubator, is commercializing video technology developed by UI professors dedicated to creating immersive web conferences, presentations, lectures, and interactions. Intern Adrienne Downing received a degree in Fine Arts.
David Jung (Materials Science and Engineering graduate) interned for startup Silverscreen, which is developing technology that keeps milk fresh without refrigeration.
Christopher Barbaro, a General Engineering graduate, interned for Deere and Co., which employs student interns for research and design projects in its Technology Innovation Center.
Dioxide Materials, a startup developing technology for the conversion of carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals via artificial photosynthesis, graduates intern Guarav Kaul (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering).
Infobright, which develops and markets a high performance, self-tuning analytic database specifically designed to support the growing need for analytics and business intelligence throughout the business world, graduates interns Brian Kirchner (Computer Science) and Gerald Roberts (Computer Engineering).
Computer Engineering graduate Chun Yang interned with Caterva, which uses robust highly scalable technologies to track Twitter information, classify users, and provide advertisers and publishers the opportunity to target users based on real time preferences.
Computer Engineering graduate Joshua Carley interned for Cazoodle, a startup at EnterpriseWorks that provides services for deep Web search, integration and mining.
Waterborne Environmental, Inc. interns assist the company’s consulting services related to non-point source pollution and the environment. Graduates include Gregory Goodwin, Agricultural Engineering; Leigh Price, Agricultural and Biological Engineering; and Zechariah Stone, Computer Engineering.
Interns are also an integral part of the administrative operations at Research Park and help companies with short-term projects. Graduating this spring is Alexandra Thompson, who received her master’s degree in urban planning. Ali made significant contributions to the application for the EDA University Center Grant, a grant that EnterpriseWorks was awarded last fall.