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On any given day in the Almaden Research Center Extreme Blue™ lab,
somebody probably was in touch with Qi, first-year computer science graduate
student. After his junior year at University
of Wisconsin, Qi was an Extreme Blue intern in the summer of 2001 working on
a Globals Services project. Now that he's at Stanford University, he still maintains close
contact with Extreme Blue staff and alumni--discussing everything from senior citizens in
Florida with Extreme Blue roommate
Brent, to bringing homemade carrot cake to Extreme Blue program manager
Lisa in the maternity ward, and going out for Pho with Extreme Blue technical
lead Steve.
One of the most important things Qi got out of the summer was the close
friends he made among the students and staff.
"I met some really bright people who are also fun to hang out with. Beyond the official trips, we
organized our own activities, from night life in San Francisco to a spontaneous road trip to Las Vegas," he says. "It was definitely the most fun summer I have ever had. And I still keep in touch with a number of them around
the country."
Qi was so impressed by his experience with IBM and the Extreme Blue program, he
interned this past summer at IBM Silicon Valley Lab down the road from
Almaden, working on a text-indexing project in the Content Manager
framework--as well as tagging along for the Extreme Blue activities. He
even wrote an article for the IBM WebAhead intranet about the Yosemite
trip. Qi credits the Extreme Blue program's abundant networking opportunities for
crystallizing his decision to pursue a Ph.D. program in database systems.
"The lab was right around the corner from the Almaden database group,
which is one of the meccas of the database field. For example, IBM Fellow
Dr. Bruce Lindsay came in the lab and gave a talk on the history of
databases," Qi says. "The highlight of my summer was when the staff helped me set up
a meeting with IBM Fellow Dr. Rakesh Agrawal, one of the key founders of
the field of data mining. We talked for over an hour and he answered my
questions about graduate school, career in research, and his work."
Besides having fun and networking, Qi also worked on a really cool
project, building an innovative knowledge access tool.
"The Extreme Blue program was completely different from my other internship experiences," he says. "First, you had
a group of computer science students working closely together building something cool
from the ground up. We were given a lot of freedom to figure out the best
way to build our components. Second, the computer science students frequently presented
to visiting executives and researchers, and worked with the MBA
student--providing plenty of opportunities to polish our presentation and
communication skills."
Qi says that IBM
Research is definitely on his short list of potential employers for summer
internships and full-time employment. Considering his experiences with IBM and the Extreme Blue program, it's no surprise that he's become somewhat of an Extreme Blue evangelist, and can often be found actively encouraging his friends to apply to the Extreme Blue program.
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