Brent - Almaden, 2001

How do you measure success? Is it by the number of servers you move? Is it by the headcount you've spoken to at that crazy conference? Is it by the thick stack of business cards you take home from your latest foray into booth-bunnydom? Well, Brent can be proud to say he was part of a successful project team when stepping up to the VoiceXML Debugger challenge during his Extreme Blue™ summer in Almaden last year. Recently featured in an article by John Swainson, general manager of IBM Software Group's Application Integration Middleware Division: Next-generation call centers: talking to the Net, VoiceXML provided the heartbeat for an IBM success story.

Brent spent his Extreme Blue Summer at the Almaden Research Center in California where he thought frequently about his dog and his girlfriend (not necessarily in that order) while working alongside the most easy to get along with students he'd ever met. Confirms Brent: "It was great to meet so many talented people who could turn on the skills at work and then turn them off to go out and have fun." His interest in the world of technology was nurtured while he attended Virginia Tech in cold, rainy Blacksburg, Virginia.

Brent's project, the VoiceXML Debugger, was written entirely in Java™ technology. As of about 3 weeks before he got to Almaden, he had never programmed a line of Java(TM) technology in his life. However, over the course of the summer he became fluent in Java technology as well as all kinds of specialized Java technologies that were employed in the project. The program helped the students focus on "the big picture" when developing their application. Because of Extreme Blue's business-oriented approach students were thinking of how to show clear value and ROI being achieved through the debugger.

After the internship, Brent worked continuously with the tools team in Boca Raton and a former Extreme Blue intern on the debugger, and posted alphaWorks last fall. Since then, Brent worked diligently to get it ready to be part of the Websphere Voice toolkit v2.0, announced in April, 2002. This WebSphere Voice Toolkit is available for free download to expedite the development process. You can download the toolkit by going to www.ibm.com/software/speech/enterprise/vtoolkit.html. Today, Brent is working on a new project in the pervasive computing arena.

What was the most valuable lesson that Extreme Blue taught our guy Brent? "Extreme Blue taught me is not to get caught up in the 'Cult of Personality' that can surround VIPs. Because of the huge number of Vice Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, and public officials we saw on a day-to-day basis during our Extreme Blue internship, we could all see that while all of these people were to be respected, they were all just regular people. I would identify having the chance to speak casually with Larry Riccardi, for example, as the highlight of my summer." And as for the skills he developed? "In the course of making so many presentations and interacting with so many executives within IBM, my presentation skills improved greatly. Also, my team interaction skills improved dramatically. I can't recall any other team effort I have done that was as in-depth and as long a duration as the development of the VoiceXML Debugger."

The big decision comes AFTER the internship, right? Where to go? Who offers the most bang for the buck? Brent felt that IBM showed off all its true strengths that summer with the Extreme Blue experience. IBM showed Brent a more humble side, willing to work with others in the industry to build standards and do The Right Thing when it's necessary. "I recently read that IBM won an award as the most ethical company in America -- and it shows," relates Brent, "There is a feeling that integrity -- both for an individual and for the company -- is extremely important".