Volume IV Issue 17 — August 23, 2000

 

Student Intern Poster Session Sure to be a Must-see

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO — The opportunity to display accomplishments is a valuable way to benefit from public feedback and appreciation. SDSC will host its annual Student Intern Poster Session on Thursday, August 24. More than 30 interns will display their summer research projects and discuss their work. "There is nothing like having to present your work to really focus your thoughts," said event coordinator and SDSC Senior Principal Scientist Mike Bailey.

Hosted at the end of each summer, the Poster Session offers a venue for the entire supercomputer center staff to meet current student interns and view the progress of their work. SDSC's internship program is an outreach effort to incorporate scientific knowledge and experience into the lives of upcoming professionals. Many SDSC departments later extend post-internship employment offers, as a result of becoming acquainted with the skills and talents possessed by the students. "The benefit to SDSC is that we get great labor assistance and an inside track to hire the students when they get out of school," Bailey said.

Internships are designed to give students an opportunity for practical experience in their prospective career fields. Most employers who hire interns see it as an opportunity not only to obtain production assistance but also to educate and advise aspiring professionals. "For the students, internships are valuable experience and a great line item on a résumé," Bailey said.

Bailey is just one of many mentors overseeing the work of student employees at SDSC. Others are Kim Baldridge, senior principal scientist and computational chemist; Chaitan Baru, senior principal scientist, Data Intensive Computing group (DICE); Phil Bourne, senior principal scientist, CAIDA, DICE; Michael Gleicher, IBM; David Hart, manager of External Relations (ER); Rubin Landau, Oregon State University; John Moreland, senior programmer/analyst, Scientific Visualization group; Dave Nadeau, principal scientist; Ann Redelfs, director of ER; Barbara Sawrey, professor of chemistry, UC San Diego; Chris Smith, deputy director, National Biomedical Computation Resource (NBCR); Rozeanne Steckler, senior principal scientist; Lynn Ten Eyck, associate director, Computational Science Research group; and Mary Thomas, manager of the Computational Science Portals group. SDSC extends a wide range of internships among various departments. The Poster Session highlights the work of students and that of their departments. It is also a beneficial forum in which to practice presentation skills.

"The Poster Session sounds like fun," said Apryl Bailey, who has been interning since June as a graphic designer for Steckler's new outreach project, Envision, Explore, Engage: An Interactive Science Experience. "It will be interesting to see the projects of other interns," she said. "It will also be a good opportunity to hear advice from others about our work—we are open to suggestions." Bailey's demonstration will include animated characters of two atoms called Oxy and Gen.

Deborah Booth is an intern in the ER department. A visual-arts major and computing and the arts minor, Booth has been doing Web design and maintenance, mentored by Hart and Redelfs, since February. "I'm looking forward to the Poster Session," she said. "I think it will be really exciting to see what other interns have been doing. Also, as an art major, I need to get used to the idea of people I don't know seeing and commenting about my work." Among other Web activities, Booth is responsible for designing and updating the Web site for the Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W). She intends to feature this project, as well as others, at the Poster Session Thursday.

The Intern Poster Session inaugurates a new season of Center Happenings and Tea (CHAT), SDSC research-related discussions usually held on the fourth Wednesday of every month. Future CHATs will include more demonstrations by participating scientists, as well as panel discussions. The Poster Session will be presented between 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. in the SDSC Auditorium. Refreshments will be provided. An invitation is extended to the entire UC San Diego community.

Contributed by Nicole Batchelor, SDSC student intern

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