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Excellence Recognized at 2022 Research Park Intern Awards

The Research Park celebrated its 16th annual Intern Awards Ceremony and Picnic to honor and recognize the outstanding work done by the student interns across the Park’s 120+ companies. The ceremony was held on Thursday, July 28, National Intern Day, which gave us all the more reason to host a celebration for the 800+ interns working throughout Research Park. This was the first year the ceremony was held in person since 2019. The students recognized as finalists and winners are comprised of a variety of disciplines, majors, and colleges from across the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, representing the type of cross-curricular work that takes place at Research Park companies. These interns were able to make connections with their peers, co-workers, and supervisors that will last a lifetime, and they have sharpened skills that will aid them for years to come, in both their personal and professional lives. They have impacted the faces of our companies and the fabric of the Research Park through their hard work and innovation. Thank you to the managers and supervisors who nominated their interns, and an additional thank you to the panel of professionals who determined the honorees. This year, there were six awards presented.  Award Categories: Best Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Startup Best Technical Innovation Best Business Innovation Most Outstanding Undergraduate Student Intern Most Outstanding Graduate Student Intern Most Competent and Collaborative Team Best Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Startup Winner: Shivam Tailor – Natrion Laboratory Assistant Undergraduate in Material Science and Engineering | Grainger College of Engineering “Shivam has an eagerness to learn as much as possible and apply it towards the success of the company. Shivam was the only intern to have his own project, and not only did he take charge of every aspect of it, but he excelled rapidly. Within two months on the job, Shiv produced single-crystal NMC and artificial graphite tapes that are viable for commercial use, a process that is extremely long and arduous that requires painstaking optimization. Shivam is very meticulous. He has excellent attention to detail that was critical in his success in the project.”   Finalists: Sarah Hashim – TipTek Engineering Intern Undergraduate in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Tianshu Wei – LifeFoundry Embedded Systems Intern Undergraduate in Computer Science | Grainger College of Engineering   Best Technical Innovation Winner: Teja Gupta – Corteva Agriscience Remote Sensing Scientist Graduate in Computer Engineering “Teja worked on cloud masking, an important and emerging technique that is a valuable addition to our organization and the global agriculture community. He created a classifier tool and later a software package inspired by the original cloud masks. This is an extraordinary feat considering the complexity of the situation. During this project, Teja demonstrated outstanding innovation, perseverance and humility resulting in a solution that addressed an existing problem. He also demonstrated a great deal of perseverance when creating a new dataset since it took a lot of trial and error to succeed in this task.”   Finalists: Elizabeth Atkinson – Starfire Industries Electrical Engineering Intern Undergraduate in Electrical Engineering | Grainger College of Engineering Ved Shah – COUNTRY Financial DigitaLab Software Developer Intern Undergraduate in Computer Science | Grainger College of Engineering   Best Business Innovation Winner: Cindy Phung – Cargill UX/UI Design Intern Undergraduate in Graphic Design | College of Fine & Applied Arts “Cindy is the sole designer on a 3-person intern team that is working on a Cargill Protein North America project tied to our Factory of the Future Initiative, a tool that leverages data to make predictions about potential safety risks on the factory floor that day. Cindy’s role has been to discover, design and prototype the views of that data and the ways the various fabrication floor managers log the response they plan to take. Cindy has set the bar high given the thoroughness of her research, professionalism of her designs, technical acumen behind her designs also being feasible and communication skills to socialize and persuade others on her ideas.”   Finalists: Eric Goff – ADM Modeling Intern Undergraduate in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering | College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Ethan Rasmussen – AbbVie Business Analyst Intern Undergraduate in Information Systems | Gies College of Business   Most Outstanding Undergraduate Student Intern Winner: David An – Ameren Data Science Intern Undergraduate in Mathematics | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences “This summer, David was a key player in many initiatives on our data science team at the Ameren Innovation Center. David was Project Lead on their Electric Vehicle Analysis project where he took complex business needs and transformed them into actionable results. All summer, David was the first intern to show up at the office every day and he was laser-focused on his projects. He was hungry to gain experience leading people. He wanted to improve himself, both technically and as a leader. Seeing such humility and desire to grow out of an intern is impressive. Along with his drive and work ethic, he added so much to the in-person intern experience with his jokes and levity. David is such an outstanding intern that he makes me a better manager.”   Finalists: Ben Avila – State Farm Actuarial Intern Undergraduate in Actuarial Science | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Madison Park – Cargill UX/UI Design Intern Undergraduate in Information Science | School of Information Sciences   Most Outstanding Graduate Student Intern Winner: Natalie Xiong – Riverbed Data Science Intern Graduate in Psychology | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences “If Natalie has a goal in mind, she will absolutely accomplish it. Natalie is super collaborative – she listens to the opinions of others, and she is considerate and respectful to all colleagues around her. For her summer internship she essentially acted as a data science consultant where her work has helped improve a complex AI/ML product that aims to automatically find and fix IT problems for Riverbed’s customers, many of whom are fortune 500 companies. Natalie is very

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Interns Recognized at 2019 Summer Picnic and Intern Awards

Interns from around Research Park gathered on Thursday, July 25, 2019, for the Summer Picnic and Intern Awards. The Research Park community celebrated with food, games, and awards for the most outstanding interns of the year. Throughout the academic year and summer, interns gained valuable work experience while working on projects that positively impacted their respective companies. Of the 700+ interns working within the Research Park, less than 30 became finalists for the awards, and only 5 individuals and 1 group were awarded the winning prizes. The winners and finalists were determined from a pool of nominees by a team of Research Park professionals. To watch the entirety of the Intern Awards, click HERE. Most Outstanding Undergraduate Intern Derek Meyer, P&C Actuarial Intern at State Farm Undergraduate in Actuarial Science “Derek is an extremely hardworking individual, both in his work and school life. He maintains many extracurriculars, an excellent GPA, and handles the pressures of our internship with his time management, organization, leadership, and technical skills. He takes every piece of feedback to heart to try to improve upon his own skills, not just for his sake, but to help benefit his team dynamic as well. He holds not only himself highly accountable for his projects but also his team members.” Finalist: Avani Patel, Clinical Research Intern at PhotoniCare Undergraduate in Bioengineering Most Outstanding Graduate Intern Saurav Yadav, Data Scientist at COUNTRY Financial DigitaLab Master’s Student in Information Science “I believe that Saurav deserves this award because he is dedicated, treats people well, and has a high level of integrity. He continually offers to take on more responsibility and works well with all interns in the DigitaLab. He has excellent communication and technical skills. Overall, Saurav has had a huge impact on COUNTRY Financial. [Because of his] outstanding leadership and technical skills, we will be able to provide a large cost savings to the home office on 9 data-related initiatives this semester.” Finalists: Nuraini Aguse, Front End Intern at InstaRecon Master’s Student in Computer Science Zhuzhu Wang, Product Development Intern at Abbott Ph.D. Student in Food Science Best Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Startup Shaoyu Meng, Lead Software Engineer at LifeFoundry Master’s Student in Electrical and Computer Engineering “Shaoyu works autonomously without supervision. He can sort things through. He doesn’t comment about others. He can always finish all assigned tasks with a calm mind. He is very patient, regardless of what he is facing. When we were inexperienced, Shaoyu stayed very patient, even when we [were thrown a] project he worked on [for] a full month. It is a very rare personality [trait] to [be able to] look forward and discuss with us how to do better in the future. Shaoyu’s work ethic is very impressive, and it benefits both him and the whole team.” Finalists: Jugat Singh Lamba, Summer Engineering Intern at InstaRecon Master’s Student in Computer Science Xiaofan Zhang, Neural Network Engineering Intern at Inspirit-IoT Ph.D. Student in Electrical and Computer Engineering Best Technological Innovation Harshit Gupta, Data Scientist Technology Intern at Syngenta Master’s Student in Information Management “Harshit successfully created a Proof of Concept (and, after its success, a Minimum Viable Product) for Syngenta’s Global Data Science teams. This service, created entirely in AWS, will lay the foundation for how all of the company’s Data Scientists work with the latest and greatest Data Science technologies. Harshit drove change and adoption of Data Science technology on a global level for the company and across many different parts of the organization. He led and implemented the project in its entirety on his own…. He displayed incredible maturity, tact, and technical knowledge, and, more importantly, a wonderful ability to communicate. His work ethic, passion, dedication, and curiosity drove the success of this project in ways that were not anticipated for the scope of work or internship.” Finalists: Ashley Oyirifi, Biomedical Innovation Researcher at AbbVie Ph.D. Student in Nutritional Sciences Qianli Chen, Data Scientist at COUNTRY Financial DigitaLab Ph.D. Student in Civil Engineering Most Advanced Business Development Mallory Gorman, Associate Product Owner at Nutrien Ag Solutions Undergraduate Student in Agricultural Engineering “Mallory is a critical team member. She not only can complete critical tasks on-time and on-schedule, but she can also bridge the science-based world of our work with the business and marketing requirements necessary for the work to proceed…. Mallory works hard, quickly, and efficiently. She can handle stressful situations and keep her eye and the team on-task. Currently, she is supervising the entire testing plan for our platform launch. I would only trust such an activity to someone who is dedicated to getting the job done correctly and efficiently.” Finalists: Nikita Nerkar, Web Develope at Ekey Technology Master’s Student in Technology Management Sherry Yi, Idea Lab Summer Intern at AbbVie Ph.D. Student in Educational Psychology Most Competent and Collaborative Team IntelinAir Agronomy and Deep Learning Team: Xingqian Xu, Ph.D. Student in Computer Vision Research Pedro Leal-Aradillas, Undergraduate in Agricultural Engineering MangTik “David” Chiu, Master’s Student in Computer Science Engineering Kyle Adomaitis, Undergraduate in Music Kate “Sam” Ssentamu, Undergraduate in Agribusiness Jerame “JT” Jones, Associate’s Student in Precision Agriculture “Our Ag Team is essentially the eyes and ears for the rest of our company…. Our team has done an amazing job being responsive and putting in the late night and early mornings when they are needed. In coming together as a team, we’ve been very impressed with their ability to work together. You may have noticed the diversity of our team, not only in their career paths but culturally. In order for our company to be successful, our Ag Team and our Engineering Team need to work as closely as possible.” Finalists: AARP Computer Programming Team: Mohammed Faiz Patangia, Undergraduate in Computer Science Kushal Kumar Goenka, Undergraduate in Computer Engineering PSYONIC Mechanical Engineering Team: Robert Mauge, Undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering Richard Mauge, Undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering Patrick Shalton, Undergraduate in Electrical Engineering Gabe Delgado, Undergraduate in Industrial Design Dhipak Bala, Undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering

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2019 Intern Awards Finalists Announced

We are excited to announce the finalists for the 2019 Research Park Intern Awards. The winners will be named on Thursday, July 25, during our annual Summer Picnic and Intern Awards between 4-5:30PM and, consequently, will be listed here. Missed the awards ceremony? Watch the video. Best Entrepreneurial Leadership in a Startup Winner – Shaoyu Meng: Software Engineer, LifeFoundry (Masters, Electrical & Computer Engineering) Xiofan Zhang: Neural Network Engineering Intern, Inspirit-IoT (Ph.D., Electrical & Computer Engineering) Jugat Singh: Summer Engineering Intern, InstaRecon, Inc. (Masters, Computer Science) Best Technological Innovation Winner – Harshit Gupta: Data Science Technology Intern, Syngenta (Masters, Information Management) Ashley Oyirifi: Biomedical Innovation Researcher, AbbVie (Ph.D., Nutritional Sciences) Qianli Chen: Data Scientist, COUNTRY Financial DigitaLab (Ph.D., Civil Engineering) Most Advanced Marketing-Business Development Winner – Mallory Gorman: Associate Product Owner, Nutrien Ag Solutions (Undergraduate, Agricultural Engineering) Sherry Yi: Idea Summer Lab Intern, AbbVie (Ph.D., Educational Psychology) Nikita Nerkar: Web Developer, Ekey Technology (Masters, Technology Management) Most Outstanding Graduate Student Intern Zhuzhu Wang: Product Development Intern, Abbott (Ph.D., Food Science) Winner – Saurav Yadav: Data Scientist, COUNTRY Financial DigitaLab (Masters, Information Management) Nuraini Aguse: Front End Intern, InstaRecon (Masters, Computer Science) Most Outstanding Undergraduate Student Intern Winner – Derek Meyer: P&C Actuarial Intern, State Farm (Undergraduate, Actuarial Science) Avani Patel: Clinical Research Intern, PhotoniCare (Undergraduate, Bioengineering) Most Competent and Collaborative Team Winner – Intelinair Agronomy and Deep Learning Intern Team PSYONIC Mechanical Engineering Team AARP Computer Programming Team

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