Extreme Blue is one of

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intern An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and g ...

ship program for both graduate and

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...

students; it also serves as a placement opportunity for future IBM employment due to the significant effort put into placement of the interns.

History

Extreme Blue was created in 1999 by David Grossman, Jane Harper, Ronald Woan, Sean Martin, Morris Matsa. It began at the

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site in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. In 2003, Extreme Blue participants filed 98

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

. In 2007, 10,000 applications were received for 92 positions in the U.S.; over 10,000 students applied for 220 positions worldwide. At the 2008 National Council for Work Experience (NCWE) award ceremony, the UK Extreme Blue program received the "Over 250 Employees – Short term placement" award. In 2009, according to an Extreme Blue manager, over 10,000 applications were received for fewer than 50 US positions. Since its inception, the program has expanded to include 15 active international locations. Samuel J

Projects

Extreme Blue uses IBM engineers, interns, and business managers to develop technology and business plans for new products and services. Each summer an Extreme Blue team also works on a project. These projects mostly involve

rapid prototyping Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design ( CAD) data. Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printing ...

of high-profile software and hardware projects. Publicly released projects include the following: * AmalgamR (2009) amalgamates social information from multiple sources, including Twitter, and displays relevant and timely group-based information. * BreadCrumbs (2009) is an iPhone application that scans grocery food barcodes and gives consumers information such as ingredients, manufacturing history, and product recall alerts with the use of food traceability servers. Saving Lives with SMS for Life

* SMS for Life (2009) fights

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

in Africa by utilizing cell phones, texting and

web mapping Web mapping or an online mapping is the process of using, creating, and distributing maps on the World Wide Web (the Web), usually through the use of Web GIS, Web geographic information systems (Web GIS). A web map or an online map is both served ...

technology to track and manage antimalarial drugs. * exSEL (2007) is an end-to-end marketing tool which provides a

virtual tour A virtual tour is a simulation of an existing location, usually composed of a sequence of videos, still images or 360-degree images. It may also use other multimedia elements such as sound effects, music, narration, text and floor map. The phras ...

and allows virtual interactions with the exhibits in the IBM Solutions Experience Lab. * SiSi Say It Sign It (2007) converts from spoken English directly into

British Sign Language British Sign Language (BSL) is a sign language used in the United Kingdom and is the first or preferred language among the Deafness in the United Kingdom, deaf community in the UK. While private correspondence from William Stokoe hinted at a f ...

which is then signed by an animated digital character or avatar. * Peridot (2004) checks

web site A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, education, ...

s for broken links and assist in updating them. IBM applied for two patents on this technology. * GameGrid (2003) created a

distributed computing Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems, defined as computer systems whose inter-communicating components are located on different networked computers. The components of a distributed system commu ...

MMOG A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are games th ...

based on the open-source version of

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's Quake 2

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Laboratory locations

North America

In 2004, there were 44 Extreme Blue teams in North America. In 2002, there were 101 interns in North America from 42 schools. *

IBM Almaden Research Center IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American multinational information technology company. IBM Research is headquartered at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, near IBM headquarters ...

located in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

, USA (2000-current) ** 4 teams in 2009 * IBM Silicon Valley Lab located in

, USA *

, USA (1999–2004) ** Debut location of Extreme Blue ** Did not host EB in 2001. *

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

, USA (2002–current) ** Started 2002 ** Lab manager: *** (2006-current) Ross Grady *

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, USA (2001-current) ** Started 2001 ** Lab manager: *** (2015-current) Marjean Fieldhouse ** Technical lead: *** (2015-current) Matthew Glover *

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada *

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario, Canada

South America

São Paulo, Brazil SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Serb Autonomous Regions (''Srpska autonomna oblast'', SAO), during the breakup of Yu ...

Asia

Beijing, China Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

Bangalore, India Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

(2004–?) ** Started in 2004 with 9 students in 2 teams * Delhi, India (2010–current) ** Started in 2010 and is currently active. * IBM Haifa Research Laboratory located in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, Israel

Europe

Dublin, Ireland Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

* Cork, Ireland *

Böblingen Böblingen (; ) is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, seat of Böblingen (district), Böblingen District. Sindelfingen and Böblingen are Geographic contiguity, contiguous. History Böblingen was founded by Count Wilhelm von Tübingen-Bö ...

, Germany ** 3 teams in 2002 *

Brussels, Belgium Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Amsterdam, Netherlands Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the urban area and 2,480,394 in the metropolitan area. Located in the D ...

Uithoorn Uithoorn () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Population centres The municipality of Uithoorn includes the town of Uithoorn and the village of De Kwakel. ''Map of the municipality of Uithoorn, Ju ...

, Netherlands *

La Gaude La Gaude (; ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. History To the south of the village, a restored Roman stele is close to the Aurelian Way, the Roman road that passed near the present cultural centre. ...

, France *

Hursley Hursley is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Hampshire, England with a population of around 900 in 2011. It is located roughly midway between Romsey and Winchester on the A3090. Besides the village the parish includes th ...

, United Kingdom *

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Rome, Italy Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

References

External links

*
UK Extreme Blue Blog
{{IBM Internship programs IBM