Real world experience with a hi-tech giant

Some of the brightest students in the country are getting research experience as IBM interns, writes Ciara O'Brien

ESTABLISHING FUTURE business and technical leaders; the development of tomorrow's leaders; starting something big - whatever way IBM describes the Extreme Blue programme, it means one crucial thing to its participants: real world experience in one of the world's largest technology firms.

It's a worldwide scheme, born out of a summer internship programme that began in the US. From 25 students, the programme now attracts 360 interns around the world.

Since its establishment in 2002, Extreme Blue has hosted more than 250 strategic projects and filed more than 230 invention disclosures. As a result of the research projects carried out by the interns, 26 solutions have been integrated into IBM products or services, and contributed nine solutions to open source community.

The Dublin project began in 2003, and has an impressive pedigree. Previous projects from the Dublin programme include remote patient monitoring, a communications system aimed at an ageing population, and international standards to support access for visually impaired users in virtual worlds.

Students are given the chance to "start something big" with Extreme Blue.

Based at the Dublin Software Lab, IBM Technology Campus, Dublin, the 12-week programme will give the interns the chance to work alongside some of the best in the business. Interns have also in the past received international patents awards for innovations in technology and business. IBM, in return, gets the chance to have a crack at some of the emerging talent in the business and technical industry, right out of college.

The eight successful candidates in this year's programme were chosen from more than 100 applications from business and technology students at universities and colleges around Ireland.

Unusually, this year there are no business students on either team - they are solely made up of technical students, including overseas students. Split into two project teams by IBM, each group will work on separate projects for the duration of the programme, before presenting their results in September at a European expo. One team is working with IBM's Blue Gene high-performance computer to develop a plug-and-play application for the average, non-technical end user. The other is working to create a centralised telecommunications/IT communication system for small/medium-sized businesses.

Jakub Dostal, a third-year Trinity College Dublin student who is originally from the Czech Republic, is clear on what he expects to get out of Extreme Blue.

"Most important is probably the experience. The reason I applied for this is because I already had experience in academic research, but I wanted to see what industrial research was like," said Dostal. "We are hoping to make some kind of impact."

Stephen Purcell, a third-year Trinity student in Computer Science, is working on the communications device project. Planning to go back to college to finish his final year, Purcell is already throwing himself into the Extreme Blue project with enthusiasm. He also cites experience as the primary reason for his involvement with Extreme Blue.

"I'm used to working on small projects in college, on my own or in groups of four. But this is something that teams across the world have worked on," he says.

Laura McGlinchey, a fourth-year computing student from Letterkenny IT, is the only female participant on this year's programme. "The whole idea of developing a project and a programme interested me," she says. The male dominated environment is one she is already used to, having been outnumbered in college.

It's a steep learning curve for the students on both projects. Interns have to create both a business case and a technical solution that will make an impact on the market, before showcasing their results with other participants from the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands at the IBM Expo in Germany in September.

It's early days and the students are only a matter of weeks into their research. Jim O'Keeffe, of IBM, explains that the projects - and their success or failure - are the responsibility of the students.

Pressure - mainly from themselves - is high, and the students are determined to make projects work, even though it has required much time. "They own the development of it. They get support from the mentors - experts in the Dublin lab - who would be working with them in high performance computing, as well as working with them with collaboration skills they have. However, they own it. If it works, it works, and if it fails it's their failure," O'Keeffe says.

Purcell is working on the communications project, which has just finished its research stage. "Our official title is UC2 appliance. It's a simple zero configuration thing that a business can buy. They plug it in and all of their communications become one.

"For example, if a colleague sends an e-mail to office and it would be quicker to call her back, rather than having to look up her number and key it into your phone, you press a button and your phone rings, her phone rings and you're talking," says Purcell. "We're aimed at the SMB market; these are companies that wouldn't necessarily have IT departments, so it needs to be as simple as it can be."

The projects are tailored according to the interview each student gave on applying for Extreme Blue. Third-year computer science student Mark Allen said he would probably have been equally suited to the super computer project, but was placed with the communications team. "What I'm interested in is a lot of hardware concurrency, which maybe means I might be more suited to the other project, but I still definitely have an interest in this one," he says.

"I've had no experience working in a commercial environment, so I'm getting a lot of experience in that, and I'm going to back to college and hopefully utilising what I've learnt here, being able to apply it to my core final year project, whatever that might be."

He has been teamed up with Purcell, McGlinchey and Neil Cowzer, a fourth-year UCD student who is studying computer science. Cowzer is already contemplating his future outside his current course, mulling over the possibility of further research or getting a job. He is hoping that the IBM programme will help make up his mind on the subject. "I'm contemplating doing a PhD in distributed computing," he said.

The absence of a business student on the teams means that the technology students will have to take on some of the business role - a new prospect to many of the interns.

However, business mentors have been assigned to both teams to help guide them through this new territory.

One of the characteristics of the Extreme Blue programme is the interaction it offers with business leaders in IBM. Though most are still students, they are not treated as such, and work alongside some of the best and brightest IBM has to offer.

One of the projects, the communications device, has already been the subject of collaboration with one of IBM's teams in the US, who have put together some technology that the team can build on in their project.

"We're taking what they've done and bringing it up to a level where it's easy to use for the business market.

"They get open access to everybody from the senior executive," says O'Keeffe. Each student also has what IBM describes as a "calling card" which will get them right to the top if necessary. All they have to do is explain that they are participating in the Extreme Blue programme, and their calls will be treated with the utmost importance.

There is a quiet confidence about this year's intake that they will be able to live up to IBM's expectations. At the end of the programme, some are set to return to college to complete their final year. Others are hoping to stay on with IBM to build a career.

O'Keeffe says that last year about 50 per cent of participants stayed on to work with IBM, and it is not unusual for past interns to return a couple of years down the line, with many retaining some sort of link with IBM.

"Some will go back to college, some will stay on with us, some will stay on to do research and further their education while working," says O'Keeffe. He calls it a symbiotic relationship between IBM and academic institutions, and Extreme Blue is part of this.

In a slowing economy where knowledge is being touted as the way forward, it seems that these eight interns have chosen well.