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Student logs onto "dream job" for the summer
by Bev Betkowski

Ashish Patel

April 7, 2004 – At the tender age of 21, a University of Alberta engineering student is playing with the big boys, as he logs on for a summer co-op position with IBM.

Ashish Patel, a fourth-year student in the Faculty of Engineering, was one of just eight Canadian students selected for Extreme Blue, a new internship program launched by the computer giant. This is the first year for the elite program in Canada, which offers a lucky few top salaries, free housing and a chance to present their ideas to top IBM executives in Canada and the United States at a business exposition.

"This is virtually my dream job," said Patel, a computer engineering student who also started his own software development company last year with two fellow students and is in the midst of designing a system for a large U.S. creamery.

Patel heads to Toronto in May to begin his stint with IBM, and, working with three other team members, will have 12 weeks to design and develop new leading-edge technology relating to autonomic computing, rather like artificial intelligence.

"It is self-managed computing, similar to the human body, which does not need to be told when to breathe, but just breathes on its own," Patel said.

This year marks the Canadian debut for Extreme Blue, though the program has been running in the U.S. for a few years. American applications to the program this year topped 5,000. In Canada, more than 500 applications were considered.

"Ashish is one of the few students who made it through our extensive application selection process," said Joanne Moore, a technical resources program manager for IBM Canada. "We are committed to hiring the best and brightest for this elite program."

To be accepted, applicants had to have a minimum grade point average of 3.4, a high score on IBM's aptitude test, six months of work experience and endure an intense two-hour interview by telephone.

During that interview, Patel had to demonstrate his technical skills by doing on-the-spot programming using MSN Messenger. It was, to put it mildly, stressful. "I've never had a two-hour interview, which was so insane."

When he found out he'd been accepted to Extreme Blue, "I was jumping with joy. I ran around the house," Patel said. Typical of the young man's drive to succeed, he adds, "half an hour later, I was contemplating, ‘if this is my dream job, what am I going to do after that?’"

Now in his fourth year of the five-year Co-op Engineering program, Patel hopes to wow his bosses by the end of his internship. "Getting experience out of this is what I'm gunning for, and also maybe getting a patent or two…that would be nice, to have my name next to a patent for IBM."

Patel's excitement is shared by the Faculty of Engineering, said Linda Szekely, co-ordinator of the Co-op Engineering program.

"Ashish's success shows that the Faculty of Engineering Co-op students are extremely competitive across the country. This is the first year Extreme Blue was posted and I was happy that IBM included us," Szekely added.

"It shows they believe that we have students of the calibre who would be able to do this type of job."

Related links – internal

The U of A Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering website: http://www.ece.ualberta.ca/
The U of A Engineering Co-op program website: http://www.engineering.ualberta.ca/coop/

Related link – external

The IBM Extreme Blue website:
http://www-913.ibm.com/employment/us/extremeblue/

University of Alberta Express News
This story was originally published for Express News.