Activities
Internship Program with IBM China Research Lab
For the second consecutive year, the University of Notre Dame has been running a summer internship program with IBM’s China Research Lab in Beijing. This summer, from June 13 to August 16, eight participants including the ND graduate students in Computer Science, graduate students from the City College of New York, and undergraduate students from Union College are in the program. Interns are assigned an individual project they work on throughout the summer with the guidance of a mentor. The program is coordinated through the University of Notre Dame’s Asia Office in collaboration with the the International Office, the College of Engineering, and the Career Center.
2011 Summer Interns at IBM
Jun Yi (left) and Roger Chang (right) are at work
Interns from University of Notre Dame included Jun Yi, Tian Jiang, and Zhanwei Sun. Sun is a fourth year graduate student in Electrical Engineering. At school, his work pertains to cognitive radio. His current project at IBM is the Internet of Things. Jiang is a first year PhD student in Applied Mathematics. Her thesis research pertains to numerical methods. Her project at IBM focuses on the optimization of cold chain logistics in Hainan. She is building a model to balance the remaining shelf life of fruits and the cost of the whole logistics. This is part of a larger consulting project her team is working on. Yi is a graduate student in computer science. His research at school focuses on real time systems and wireless networks, which is to provide wireless, instead of traditionally wired, real-time service to all existing real-time application domain, such as automated factory, e-home, and flight, etc. At IBM, Yi is researching on low power design in cognitive networks, aiming to provide high bandwidth and low power consumption to network users.
Matthew Graveley and Alethea Schepperly are senior undergraduate students at Union College in Schenectady, NY. Graveley, a Bio-mechanical Engineering major is researching the processes and machinery used to treat wastewater that is contaminated with solid particulates and oils. The aim of his project is to better understand these processes in order to assist with the development of a more efficient method of processing data collected from wastewater treatment systems. Schepperly, a Chinese and East Asian Studies major, is researching the integration of Social Networking and Cross-Cultural Collaboration in order to understand user behaviors.
Jay Yao and JianHong Li are graduate students in Computer Science at the City College of New York. Jay and his mentor are trying to integrate the existing data mining algorithm to the IBM spatial database software development kit. Li is writing programs to save metadata of videos in database, in order to retrieve the information back from the database whenever needed, and to count vehicles from traffic videos. Another student from CCNY, Roger Chang recently graduated with an M.S. in Chemical Engineering. His research background is in renewable energy. He also spent several years as a journalist. His project this summer is writing an article about the Smart Grid.
When being asked about this internship experience at IBM China Research Lab, Zhanwei Sun from University of Notre Dame said, “I like this IBM-CRL internship program so much. From a career point of view, this program provides us a great opportunity to work in one of the most competitive companies, with some of the most talented people in the world. Personally, I benefit a lot from interacting with people from different backgrounds and working on different projects. My colleagues here are very nice and hospitable, and the work environment is relaxed. Besides, as a native, I can enjoy the long-missing fun living in my home country and get together with my old friends occasionally.” Alethea Schepperly from Union College commented she was having a wonderful experience working with her team: “I have met so many people, all of whom have been very helpful in assisting me with my project. I think this program is very beneficial for a number of reasons. For example, working abroad is a great opportunity to gain exposure to a new culture, practice Chinese, and work with different types of individuals in a foreign environment. This program has been a fantastic learning opportunity and we're all so fortunate to have this experience.”
