Ivan - San Jose 2005

Meet Ivan - Extreme Blue Class of 2005

Ivan was an Extreme Blue™ technical intern in the San Jose lab. He is a May 2006 candidate for a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Human Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University. Ivan is originally from Miami, FL, and has experience through past internships at Carnegie Mellon University Pebbles Lab and State Farm Insurance.

Why do you think you were selected for the Extreme Blue internship?

I think I was selected for the Extreme Blue internship as a result of my passion for technology and my demonstrated ability to work in groups through my involvement in campus organizations and past internships. What inspired me most to apply was the experience that alumni had with the program and the opportunity to work on important problems that make an impact.

Briefly describe what your day-to-day activities and responsibilities included.

On a day-to-day basis, I attended Extreme Blue meetings, and meetings with the members of the WebFountain project who are our host for the summer. Otherwise, I was writing documentation or coding for the project that we were working on.

As a technical intern, what impact did the business intern have on you?

The business intern has been helped the technical interns understand the priorities that the customers have, which in turn allowed the technical interns to prioritize the features that were to be developed. The business intern has also helped the technical interns communicate our accomplishments in a concise and meaningful manner to people who are not familiar with the technology that was being developed.

Were there any surprises about this commitment?

The biggest surprise about this commitment is the amount of resources that were available to you as an intern. In my particular project, the amount of resources that were available in terms of processing power and storage are more than I think I'll ever be able to work with anywhere else.

How did your experiences prepare you for the Extreme Blue experience?

I have always been interested in research both in industry and in academia. After my freshman year, I interned at the research division of State Farm Insurance. Following my sophomore year, I decided to continue a research project I had started during the spring semester. I think that research is a wonderful way to learn since it's one of the few places where failure is appreciated as a tool for learning. This experience with research is what prepared me the most for the Extreme Blue experience, since the Extreme Blue projects are very open-ended.