Intern Awards Picnic 2014

CHAMPAIGN – Outstanding interns working for companies in the Research Park were honored Thursday, August 8, 2014 at the Research Park Intern Awards Picnic.  More than 400 highly skilled students work for Research Park tenants, gaining valuable experience while making meaningful contributions to internal corporate research and development programs.  The student interns that were nominated by their supervisors represented a wide range of backgrounds.  All awardees are students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The honorees include the following:

Sarah Frankland-Searby, Most Outstanding Undergraduate, BS Bioengineering, Abbott.  Sarah created an extensive research report regarding R&D productivity and business success and presented her findings to Abbott R&D leaders.

Finalists: Jake Roussel, The Dow AgroSciences; Michael Goldstein, Akuna Capital

Nathan Pratt, Most Outstanding Graduate, Ph.D. Nutritional Sciences, Abbott.  Nathan analyzed the subjects of a six week dietary supplemental trial and wrote an abstract and a soon to be published manuscript.

Finalists: Rachel Flood, John Deere; Scott Huang, Yahoo!

Vincent English, Most Advanced Marketing and Business Development, BS Statistics, Anheuser Busch InBev.  Vincent was instrumental in gathering external data using advanced technology and assisted with the on-boarding of new employees.

Finalists: Olivia Rogers, Serionix; Evelyn Xu, Anheuser Busch InBev

Jin Kim, Best Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Startup, BS MechSE, Serionix.  Jin contributed unique insights that enabled Serionix to rapidly iterate through a large number of prototypes.

Finalists: Christopher Johnson, ATSP Innovations; Ulzee An, Rithmio.

Jason Freeck, Best Technological Innovation, BS General and Electrical Engineering, State Farm.  Jason managed a project regarding the documentation and protection of intellectual property and his research led to a patent application.

Finalists: Jingning Zhang, Neustar; Gail Butler, Caterpillar