Michael H. - Austin Intern
Summer 2004

Armed with a bachelor's degree in computer engineering and plans to return for his master's degree, Michael found he was well-prepared for a competitive summer internship experience at IBM. During summer 2004, he had the opportunity to work at IBM in Austin, Texas, on a multidisciplinary team--with four other technical interns and an MBA--to design, create and present something BIG.

"My team was charged with developing prototypes for IBM's new voice technology called X+V that would showcase the product's potential," says Michael. "With X+V, such mobile devices as cell phones and PDAs are no longer limited to a 12-digit keypad or a small touch screen for input and output. Instead, users can mix voice input and output with these traditional methods, opening up a whole new way of accessing Internet content."

Michael's team quickly learned that they couldn't just create a demonstration that used voice solely for the technology's sake; they had to determine its target market, design a solid business model and write a business plan to back our ideas.

"We made weekly presentations to vice presidents and distinguished engineers from all over IBM, showing them our progress and talking with them about our ideas. These sessions culminated in a two-day expo at IBM's headquarters in Armonk, N.Y., where we presented to senior executives and met IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano."

During the course of the internship, Michael says he realized just how much he was drawing from many of his experiences in the University of Oklahoma, College of Engineering. From project management to presentation skills, all aspects of his education had prepared him to work on this project.

"Many students may think the important parts of their education consist entirely of classes within their discipline, whether it's computer engineering, industrial engineering or anything other field. I learned first-hand that it isn't true. Courses like engineering leadership are just as vital to our engineering education as computer architecture in computer engineering or research methods in industrial engineering."

Michael is a perfect example of how an Extreme Blue internship can start something big. Currently, he and another member from his Extreme blue team were asked to stay and continue their application development work. In fact, their mentors say they both were a big part of a sales deal being set up with a new partner.