Research Park Honors Most Valuable Interns of 2011
CHAMPAIGN – Outstanding student interns working for companies in the Research Park will be honored August 4 at the Intern Recognition Event in the Gateway Building. Supervisors nominated broad spectrum of interns for this year’s awards; all the awardees are students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At any given time more than 400 highly-skilled student interns work for Research Park tenants, gaining valuable experience while making real contributions to internal corporate research and development programs.
Awardees will be announced at 6 p.m. and will be available for interviews at the conclusion of the awards ceremony,
Best Tech Innovation in the Research Park: Sean Hurley, Sophomore in Computer Science, State Farm
Sean is a project lead of a six-member team focused on mobile application trends. He developed a prototype for a car shopping application.
Best Tech Innovation from an Undergraduate in a Startup: Chun Yang, Senior in Computer Science, Caterva
Productive, creative, and committed, Chun developed an extremely fast algorithm to advance significant product development.
Best Tech Innovation from a Graduate in a Startup: Mert Dikmen, Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate student, Nuvixa
Mert has assumed a technical leadership role as resident computer vision expert and has able to quickly and adeptly improve product demonstration.
Most Valuable Graduate in the Research Park: Megan Danko, Aerospace Engineering graduate student, Caterpillar
Megan helped to successfully execute combustion simulation for future low-emission engine concepts and 3D oil flow simulation for energy-efficient power transmission concepts, projects typically performed by full-time simulation specialists.
Most Valuable Undergraduate in the Research Park: Jack Dintruff, Junior in Computer Science, Yahoo!
Jack has demonstrated motivation and leadership skills necessary to keep a ground-up software development project on track, driving complex features into a new framework from Day 1.
The Research Park at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provides an environment where technology-based businesses can work with faculty and students to take advantage of opportunities for collaborative research. Located on campus, the Research Park is home to more than 90 companies, employing more than 1,400 people in high-technology careers. Publicly traded firms in the Research Park include: ADM, Abbott Laboratories, Caterpillar, Deere & Company, Littelfuse, Riverbed, Sony, State Farm, and Yahoo. The Research Park is also home to 30 startup companies that are commercializing technology.