Ronan - Dublin Technical Intern Summer 2006

Tell us about being part of Extreme Blue and the project you worked on.
Three days after my last-ever university exam, Extreme Blue started off in Dublin with a bang. By the end of the first week, we had already met with senior management and architects from around IBM, giving presentations about our project in front of a room full of people, and got straight down to work researching how we were going to achieve our goals. Even in choosing our goals we had a lot of flexibility; IBM gave us the freedom to steer the project in whichever direction we, as a team, wished.

We named our project quite simply: IBM Cell BLAST. Our job was to take the BLAST algorithm — a suite of programs for searching huge databases for DNA patterns — and get it running on the new Cell Broadband Engine multi-core processor, the cutting-edge technology at the heart of the Sony PlayStation 3.

The Summer passed very quickly and, in the last couple of weeks, we had completed our base goals of re-implementing the algorithm to get it working on Cell, and were working away at optimising it for speed. A few late pizza-fuelled nights were had before we flew off to Nice in the south of France to showcase our project at the Extreme Blue expo at La Gaude. We were proud to reveal a 400% speed increase in the running of the algorithm on Cell over an Intel chip of the same clock speed. We also had the chance to meet all the other student teams from around Europe and to see what they'd been working on for the Summer. Some of the projects were really interesting.

Tell us about when you joined IBM and your job in Dublin Software Lab, SWG
Prior to Extreme Blue I had been in talks with Microsoft to join their graduate program in September, but I decided to stay put in DSL when offered a job in High Performance Computing. I worked for around six months on a project called Dynamic Application Virtualization, which was basically a grid computing solution tailored to the Financial Markets industry. I got a lot of experience in C programming on Linux, as well as further exposure to creating an Eclipse plug-in in Java as the front-end to the program.

I recently joined the Lotus Connections team. Connections works to amalgamate useful collaboration technologies which we already use internally. The core parts include a powerful forum-style application for our team to use for discussion/file-sharing, and linked in to blogs, employee directory, our personal webpage bookmarks and our communities.

Some of the stuff we're doing is really interesting. We're creating cool visualisations of data in the social computing area, and we're even working with social networking websites such as Facebook, Buzzwords like "tags", "web 2.0" and "mashups" are at the core of our project.

You recently volunteered to work on the Career Day Team? Tell us about your experience?
Alongside my main line of work, I try to get involved in extra-curricular activites in IBM. I recently volunteered to help out at the Recruitment Open Day, held in our Oldbrook House office in Ballsbridge. This turned out to be more work than expected and I was part of a small team doing a lot of running around for three weeks prior to the event. It turned out to be a huge success all the same, and we took in over 300 CVs from potential candidates. IBM is currently recruiting quite actively and it is essential that we get people on board — so I was happy to help out where I could, and it was great to get so much interest in the event.

One year on, looking back, Extreme Blue was a fantastic experience, and one I'll never forget. I benefited greatly from it also, as it gave me the opportunity to network with people outside my direct line of work, and I got to know people in Marketing, Communications, Global Business Services and Human Resources. I also learned a great deal about project management and organisation.

Helping out from time to time is fun because it's a good distraction from the daily routine. In an organisation of 325,000 employees worldwide it's very important to stand out from the crowd and get yourself noticed — this is essential to career progression and my manager was very helpful and encouraging in advising me about this.

I have furthermore attended careers fairs at universities across the country, talking to students and telling them about IBM and Extreme Blue. I volunteered also to lend a hand during the coming Summer in helping the 2007 Extreme Blue candidates get set up in IBM.

What other activities or hobbies are you involved in?
Life's not all about work, though, and IBM encourages a strong work-life balance. This means flexibility to come and go as you please — no rigid 9-to-5 schedule or managers looking over your shoulder. There are options to work from home. The holiday allowance is generous.

In the evenings I often play tennis. Now that the weather is getting better I join a group once a week in Herbert Park for tip rugby. I'm looking forward to getting back to sailing also, now that the winds are dying down and the days are getting longer.

What advise would you give to someone new to the organisation?
Starting work at an organisation as large as IBM can be daunting. There are a lot of formal procedures for everything, a lot of people to get to know, and a plethora of information on the Intranet to get through — and that's before you start getting up to speed on your new project. The most important traits are patience and perseverance. After a couple of months you get more settled in, you'll be surprised at how your network of contacts and friends has grown.

Above all, stay positive and stay happy — and if the going gets tough from time to time, your manager is always there to help out and, in my experience, managers at IBM are extremely understanding and supportive. You've also got your team to help you out on the technical side.

One year on, looking back, Extreme Blue was a fantastic experience, and one I'll never forget.