#ibminternship

Yanqing, Pablo, Claire, and Alastair during the Canadian Expo

Hello everyone! We designed and developed Project Sentinel, an intelligent profile analyzer that identifies safe connections. Before we explain our product, let us introduce the team:

Alastair Lewis

Apprentice of Queen's, the Terror of Skiers, Kafka wrestler, and records spinning Master. 

Alastair is currently gearing up for his final year of his Software Development Degree at Queen’s University. Alastair’s main role on Project Sentinel has been System Architecture where he wrestles with Kafka topics on a daily basis and types commands so fast that Linux can’t keep up. His passions aside from software and technology include hitting up the gym to work on his gains, spinning EDM records in the club (Basement mostly), and skiing at irresponsibly dangerous speeds. Fun fact, Alastair came up with the team name Sentinel after watching a mediocre at best thriller named The Sentinel. He gives it a 2/10, wouldn’t recommend. Claire Dalkie

Daughter of U of T, the Queen of Intelligent Machines, Commander of pandas and pythons, and Sage of English Language.

Claire is entering her third year in Engineering Science at the University of Toronto, where she is specializing in Machine Intelligence. Claire's role on Project Sentinel was to build the core of our Machine Learning component, which means she spent most of the summer taming dangerous programming creatures, such as pythons and pandas. When Claire isn't coding, she is reviewing the slides and scripts for our pitch: making sure we don't waste too many words when trying to convey our message in 4 minutes. Fun fact, Claire is a Harry Potter aficionado, and has spent the summer re-reading the series' books.

Pablo Nazé

Child of Rotman, The Knower of acronyms, Powerpoint and Excel Ninja, and the fear of dead composers

Pablo is originally from Brazil and is currently pursuing his MBA at the Rotman School of Management, at the University of Toronto. Pablo's main responsibility is to build Project Sentinel's business case and to steer the project's development. When not working on Powerpoint or Excel, Pablo is driving developers crazy by  reviewing some code and threatening to push his own code – you don't want to see that!Outside of work, Pablo has an interest for the arts, especially music and dance. A tap dancer for almost a decade, his most recent endeavour was to start learning to play piano during the summer. Yanqing Wu

Warrior of Waterloo, Git God, Killer of all bugs, GUI expert, and sketch master

Yanqing is in his third year of Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Yanqing's role during the summer was to manage our Github repository, review code and create our amazing graphical user interface for our demo. Without Yanqing, we wouldn't be able to convey our code and ideas into an easily accessible interface, responsible for winning the hearts of our stakeholders.  When not at the office, you can spot Yanqing drawing and making beautiful pencil sketches. Throughout the summer we worked with the Data Security team in Toronto. Our project uses Machine Learning to identify which connections attempting to access a database can be trusted, thus increasing the efficiency and visibility for system administrators.  

When not brainstorming and working on our Project, our favourite activity is to play a new sport, Extreme Foosball. Yes, you read it correctly, extreme. It is the same old foosball, but instead of one ball we play with two balls and four players. It can get pretty hectic and that is why it's so competitive fun (Also: Team Alastair-Yanqing wins most of the time!)

We really enjoyed our time at IBM and in New York, where we could meet the other Extreme Blue teams and present our pitch in the U.S

It has been a remarkable journey, tiring yet rewarding. Working on dynamic rescheduling with the next-gen AI-enabled decision making for our clients has actually led to some amazing dynamics in the team.

Photo 1: From left to right: Heena, Himanshi, Manav and Victor @ first Dragon’s Den

Changing the product name from Apptomise to WARPdrive, trying very hard to come up with an identifier to working hard on linear programming and optimization formulas, reading countless research papers on Model Predictive Control to programming Markov Decision Process, staying in the office until midnight to investigating the technical details with our mentors - it has been a never-ending yet worthwhile experience for more than nine weeks now.

Let us introduce ourselves.

Manav - Hired as one of the technical interns, he is the youngest member in the team. Originally from India, he moved to Canada last year to pursue a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo. Although being a techie, he has a keen interest in entrepreneurship and tries hard to understand the business side of the project. He keeps irritating Heena to aim for bigger profit numbers (why millions, let’s go for billions right?). Elon Musk being his role model, he is passionate about robotics and dreams to build a humanoid assistant for himself someday. He loves travelling and exploring new places, talking to people and understanding different cultures.

Himanshi - She is the technical intern of the team and currently pursuing her Masters at University of Waterloo. A big-time foodie, she loves to try different cuisines. When she is not in the office, you will find her mostly exploring the outdoors (hiking, cycling etc.). She feels that the internship is helping her learn so much about herself apart from IBM and the product. Also, let’s share the quote that keeps her going: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Victor - Victor was born and raised in the bustling city state of Hong Kong. He came to the other half of the earth seeking opportunities and looking for a new home. After studying Computer Science with Minor in Big Data Technology in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Victor decided to pursue machine learning from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, where he is currently attending the Masters of Big Data program. After being a Unity game programmer (cool, right?) for a year in the biggest game studio in Hong Kong, he challenged himself by moving into the field of machine learning as he was curious about how Watson could beat human players in Jeopardy and wanted to understand artificial intelligence in the coding and mathematical level. Victor enjoys dining, travelling, watching movies and drama series, gaming, music, hiking, exploring the nature and different cultures, writing and visiting museums. Being the technical intern in the Extreme Blue program is one of the biggest joys and achievements of his life. This Extreme Blue program is very meaningful and precious to Victor as he gets exposure to the business side of products and senior-level pitching skills where no other normal internship in Canada offers. Every day he learns new things from colleagues in different teams. Stepping out of the comfort zone is the most important lesson he has learnt in the program.

Heena - Heena is the business Intern of the team. She is currently pursuing her MBA from McGill University after starting her career as a software engineer. Working with half a dozen companies and living in 4 countries brought her here finally. Trying very hard to remember what she did in her engineering days, she tries to talk business now. And well, she is a very talkative person. In her free time, she reads and writes.

All four of us together stay in our private room at the IBM lab in Markham. We work on WARPdrive most of the time and reflect on our life decisions the other times. Sometimes we welcome our friends from other departments to come to our den.

After attending the orientation in Ottawa, we settled into our Markham lab, where our entire DBA team currently sits. Preparing for the first Dragon’s Den was challenging since our idea was in a very rudimentary stage at the time. Apparently, we had very little clue about the actual technical and business implementation. Nevertheless, we presented well and received constructive feedback. We have definitely learned a lot in the past nine weeks.

Photo 2: First day of the EB program in Ottawa!

Glamping was the highlight of the EB experience. We travelled south to Long Point Eco Adventures at St. Williams, Ontario. Setting free from laptops for three days, we enjoyed going into the wild and taking a break from work. We got a chance to enjoy the breeze and sunbathe at the beach and run for the ball in the chilly cold lake. We learned how to throw a real sharp axe and zip-line through forest canopies and over river streams. Our first-time zip-lining experience was a memorable experience. Well (don’t tell this to anyone), we lost the group games and got to sleep in the most basic glamping pods without any electricity or bathroom facilities. Yet it was exceptionally tranquil in the midnight. It gave us the chance to get close to the nature and rest in calmness. The campfire at night was full of warmth from the fire. We melted smore waffle cones and heard some not-so-scary scary tales. We all got to know more about members from other teams and played politically-incorrect board games with them. The days of the glamping trip were fun, and we were refreshed after the trip to get back and refocus on our project. We look forward to the New York trip in August!

Photo 3: The entire EB 2019 at the glamping trip at Long Point Eco Adventures

Photo 4: Us in front of our camping pods!

Dragon’s Den 2 was just in a week’s time after we returned from glamping. We prepared harder than the first time focusing on the feedback from Dragons Den 1. We were confident this time since we knew the best strategy to implement both the technical and business solution. Our mentors from the DBA team have been supporting us all throughout. We sailed through the Dragon’s Den 2 and are confident for the upcoming Dress Rehearsals in July. Thank you for reading the part and parcel of our Extreme Blue experience. We are ready for more!!

Because WARPdrive is prepared for the WARP speed!

P.S. WARP stands for Work Allocation and Resource Planning.

It’s hard to think that in less than a month we’ll be in Armonk New York presenting our project to senior executives, something we’ve been prepping for all summer. The following is a depiction of team Axis’ (Business Analytics, Ottawa) summer adventures at IBM’s Extreme Blue program and all the shenanigans we’ve been up to along the way.

Meet our team:

Marc (far right - 4th year Computer Science Student – McGill University) 

Unbeknownst to him, Marc is the comedian in the team. Without even realizing it, Marc is constantly making everybody laugh with his absurd remarks and hilarious mannerisms. Apart from being the funniest person ever, Marc is also very smart and passionate about technology and all things machine learning. He even created his own ML algorithm at glamping to count cards and it actually worked, it had everyone in hysterics. 

Rivu (second from left - 3rd year Computer Science Student – McGill University) 

Rivu holds the record in eating the most number of chicken fingers in IBM Ottawa. He is also the inquisitive in the team, constantly asking questions and looking to find out more about everything and anything. Rivu is also passionate about Machine Learning and NLP and loves research and questioning things so much that he hopes to have a future in research. 

Varsha (second from right - MBA Candidate – Rotman School of Management) 

Varsha is the rock (and the brains) of the team, she keeps the team together during the good and the bad.  Varsha is currently completing her MBA at Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. If that isn’t impressive enough, she also has an undergrad in computer science as well as a Masters from Penn (told you she’s smart). 

Joyce (far left - 4th year Computer Science Student – University of Ottawa) 

Finally, there is me, Joyce. My passions include entrepreneurship, dystopian novels and helping promote Women in Tech. I don’t exactly know what my team would say about me (probably that I'm the crazy one) but I’d like to think that without me the team just wouldn’t be as cool as it is. 

This is our story: 

The Extreme Blue (EB) program is unlike any other internship. You work closely in a team of four in a fast-paced environment. Every week, you could be swamped with meetings and workshops and you still need to finish your project tasks on schedule. It is all about stepping out of your comfort zone and collaborating tightly within a team. This internship does not just train your technical skills, but also your soft skills, such as effectively communicating your ideas. Finally, we are even paid to attend some fun team bonding events such as glamping and Future Blue day where we get to relieve some stress by attacking each other with paint balls. #Splat 

The mystery that is IBM room numbers: 

[7:21]  

In all our weeks here, there remains one unsolved mystery - how are rooms numbered?! Our true and time honoured tradition is to arrive to meetings one by one, losing team members on the journey to room discovery. We have used this to empathize with the user we hope to target with our project. Discovering relevant external data for your business is as emotionally taxing as discovering a room on any given floor in the office! 

Bonding at Glamping:

Glamping was the time when we truly bonded as a team. One fine clear night, we set out to the docks. The stars were out in their full glory and they seemed to paint the sky with their bright lights. Fireflies gleamed in the distance and we were surrounded by silence, save for the occasional burst of laughter from the other EBs. Marc and Varsha went out to swim with Sami from Team <<<<Prescription Passport>>>> and made a huge spectacle of trying to avoid the chill of the lake water by jumping in, screaming and immediately clambering out! 

Rivu, Marc and Joyce, played some great rounds of Bluff which sent Marc, our resident astronaut, on his way to Pluto. Joyce chugged down pineapple juice like water and left Rivu in hysterics, Marc’s co-pilot on his mission to the outer reaches of the solar system. Rivu and Varsha could be seen jamming in a corner to a random set of songs, forgetting the words at most places and replacing them with their favourite food items.

Jamming with Axis:

Music is essential to Axis. Every Thursday (after 5pm…), our office space turns into a coffee house, and we start jamming with our really talented mentors. Kas (business mentor)  becomes Slash to play some crazy guitar solos and Steven (tech mentor) turns into Kendrick Lamar to freestyle for the evening. Spending a lot of time with each other certainly allowed us to understand each other’s preferences in pop songs and personalities. 

At least once a week, you can hear Axis performing the following songs in order: 

Problem (Ariana Grande) 

I knew you were trouble (Taylor Swift) 

What do you mean (Justin Bieber) 

I’m the one (DJ Khaled) 

We don’t talk any more (Charlie Puth) 

Sorry (Justin Bieber) 

Closer (Chain Smokers)

If you were wondering, the set list and the order in which it is performed most certainly represent our journey in becoming the Axis as you all know today. 

Conclusion: 

At a month and a half in, things have definitely heated up in the Extreme Blue arena. After familiarizing ourselves with our teammates, company policies and standards of excellence, we have finally started coming into our own. Our business/technical mentors, managers, sponsors and program coordinators have been incredible guides along the way thus far and are an ever-flowing source of wisdom and experience at IBM.

Following a collective sigh of relief by all the EB teams after our first dragon’s den, our team ventured back to the drawing board to re-work, re-tool and re-imagine our proposition.

Presenting the Prescription Passport Team

Starting from the right, Adi is one of our two technical interns from University of Toronto, and is truly one of a kind. He studies Computer Engineering and has a strong business sense as well, having sold his first start-up at the age of 18. Adi dresses to impress wherever he is, wearing Hugo Boss shirts and dress pants on his first day glamping. He even wore a shower cap to the lake as to not mess his hair. An avid guitarist, Adi takes the music with him wherever he goes, always ready to jam. He has a knack for making people laugh and a head with gears constantly turning. His passions include Indian food, machine learning, entrepreneurship and artificial intelligence.

Alex is a Software Engineering student at McGill University who has previously interned at Nuance Communications. Exuberant and open by nature, he prides himself on teamwork and team chemistry, singing Despacito, by Justin Bieber, in front of his teammates to bring the team closer. As a member of McGill’s tennis team, Alex is a huge sports fan and is always looking for his next opponent. This summer he will be taking part in the esteemed ROGERS Cup this August.

Sami is our business intern. An MBA student at McGill University conducting a double concentration in Global Strategy and Data Analytics with varying experience in the IT solutions market for healthcare, Sami brings a unique approach and expertise to this role within the team. Years of experience negotiating with C-level executives and below have given Sami a thick skin and an extroverted edge. He enjoys debating ideas, current events, and business strategies. His goal in this internship is to follow a project through from the point of inception and siphon as much software knowledge as he can from the amazing people around him at IBM. Sami is also the team’s resident poutine enthusiast and would have it for every meal if it wasn’t for those pesky arteries!

Lastly, Akshay is a Computer Science major at the University of Toronto (which Adi loves bringing up time to time). He is infatuated with learning new things and applying his knowledge of theory in novel ways, whether it's teaching them to younger students, or using them to solve real world problems at work. After hours, he works out with the rest of the team and follows his carefully crafted work and diet schedules. While he's often the most behaved and quiet one of the group, his mannerisms and gestures are enough to make his entire team burst into laughter. Secretly on the inside, he's more adventurous and open to new experiences than he'd have you assume. His passions include current events, emerging green technology and artificial intelligence.

If there’s one thing to note about our team it’s that we are cordially competitive. We win together. This creates an incredibly vibrant environment where ideas are shared and debated. We will rip the meat off any idea to analyze its bare bones, providing an objective verdict on its utility. The energy of our team is electric.

Work-Play Balance

At it’s core, Extreme Blue is all about getting you out of your comfort zone. This applies to both the various deliverables of the internship as well as the dynamic among the entire Future Blue community. Our program directors have worked very hard to put together events such as Future Blue Day and Glamping with the goal of building a sense of comradery among members from different teams.

During Future Blue Day, we were assigned to random groups competing for prizes and bragging rights. The events ranged from competitive sports such as soccer and ultimate Frisbee to group activities such as charades and even a scavenger hunt. The weather was beautiful; the events were lots of fun and the interns were awesome. Towards the end of the day we were treated to an ice cream truck. It was the best way to cool down.

While Glamping, we had the opportunity to stay at Algonquin Park. Teams from Toronto and Ottawa gathered around fires, lakes and meals bonding outside the confines of technology. Our program director Jan Napeñas and other chaperones arranged various activities including team games, canoe trips and campfires. During our free time, we played music together (Wonderwall, by Oasis was a favorite), shared our projects, swam in the lake, gazed at the stars and defended ourselves from nature’s various critters.

After both events, we all walked away happy, full, exhausted and with enough friends to make FACEBOOK jealous.

Looking Ahead