Great Minds drive innovation -- and internships

Winter is still going strong throughout Europe, but students everywhere are beginning to consider their plans for the summer and subsequent semesters. If you are a top student in computer science or a related discipline from Central or Eastern Europe, the Middle East, or Africa, consider applying for a Great Minds internship at IBM Research.

The Great Minds initiative is a competition for internship positions at one of the IBM Research Labs in Haifa, Zurich, or Dublin. These positions provide students the opportunity of working alongside world-class scientists in one of the world’s top research organizations. After their internships, the students then bring back to their universities a unique understanding of real-world industry problems, knowledge of advanced IBM technologies, and contacts throughout IBM Research.

Here’s a look at some of our recent Great Minds interns. These diverse, motivated, and talented students recently completed internships at the IBM Research Lab in Haifa, Israel.

Ulas Adiyan

Ulas Adiyan
Ulas Adiyan is a Ph.D. candidate in electrical engineering at Koç University’s Optical Microsystems Lab in Istanbul, Turkey. He applied to the Great Minds program, in part, to have the chance to work at one of the world’s leading computer science organizations.

“Interning at IBM Research is a great opportunity to experience high quality research with highly skilled researchers,” he said.

In Haifa, Ulas worked on the Analog and Mixed Signal Group managed by Danny Elad. While at the lab, he helped the team studying terahertz (THz) detectors for computerized imaging.

“The area I was assigned to bore some similarities to my studies,” he said. “The THz gap includes a number of serious challenges, such as output power, sensitivity, and integration. We tried to come up with smart solutions to fill this gap."

Ulas also enjoyed the time he spent in Israel, calling it “an amazing place where you can experience a variety of different cultures at the same time.” 

Elif Bozkurt


Elif Bozkurt
Also from Koç University in Istanbul, Elif Bozkurt is a third-year PhD candidate in electrical and electronics engineering. At the IBM Research Lab in Haifa, she was impressed with the experienced scientists, the encouraging research environment, and the locally hosted conferences and lectures, presented by researchers from around the world.

“I enjoyed working with the scientists in Haifa and have learned a lot from them,” she said. “Supervisors let you be independent and self-directed in your research, while steering you in the right direction through feedback, encouragement, and critique.”

At IBM, Elif worked with the Speech Technologies group managed by Ron Hoory, where she researched how speech signals can help detect depression. She helped her team find depression-relevant cues in speech using speech analysis technologies and machine learning algorithms.

“The Great Minds internship in Haifa has been a great resource for me. It was a perfect match for my abilities and interests.”
Martin Triska

Martin Triska

Martin Triska is a 24-year-old graduate of the Czech Technical University in Prague. Also a long-distance runner, Martin has an MSc in Information Systems and Management from CTU and is currently considering his options for a PhD.

In Haifa, he worked on the Smart Client Platforms team, where he helped research mobile technology development.

“We investigated how mobile apps could be more easily migrated from one platform to another,” he said.

According to Martin, he particularly enjoyed the open investigative approach he experienced at IBM Research.

“My experience in Haifa was really different from anything I did beforehand; I could spend a month or two exploring a topic if I needed to.”

Overall, he says the internship “surpassed his expectations by 110 percent.”

“I had a great experience at the Haifa lab. Not just because I worked with really smart people on interesting projects, but the internship offered me the chance to meet people I never would have otherwise, such as top IBM Research leaders.”

The deadline for submitting applications to the Great Minds program is March 5, 2014. To learn more about this unique internship opportunity, visit the Great Minds web site.

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