NRI thanks the talented interns that have worked with us since our founding in 2000 for their immense contributions to NRI. A great many of our nearly 60 interns have been multiple-year repeat or extended-stay active and productive contributors.
Nearly all NRI internships involve NRI-provided specialty training, and nearly all internship work is directed into NRI’s actual R&D and technology prototyping activities, typically in advanced technical topics and real day-to-day technology business activities.
The nearly 60 students and recent-graduates that have interned with NRI from founding to the present day include the 42 people listed below. Although some names have been held back from this public list, NRI is very pleased to have nearly equal numbers of women and men in our internship family (as well as in NRI’s technical staff). More than a dozen of these talented individuals (indicated with *) have made inventorship-level patentable contributions to NRI’s innovations while working with us.
Name University/School Level Internship Work
Ms. P. Pereira local high school, U.C. Davis HS, BS Chemistry Laboratory Setup and Organization
Mr. A. Tang Carnegie Mellon Univ. MS Early I2C Systems Evaluation and Design
Ms. A. Gutierrez Stanford Univ. BS Business Communications
Mr. R. Lui U.C. Berkeley BS Early Gesture Linguistic Frameworks
Mr. T. Ricciardi Stanford Univ. BS 6-Dimension Touch Gesture Sensor Software
Mr. E. Sum Princeton Univ. BS 6-Dimension Touch Gesture Robotic Control
Mr. D. Deng* U.C. San Diego BS Electronics Design/Fabrication, Control Software, Fractional Transform Imaging Hardware, Image Processing, Fluidics, Sensors, Optical Tomography Path Models, User Interfaces, 3D-CAD, 3D-Printing, Video Editing, Patent Preparation, Orthogonal Function Analysis, Data Visualization
Mr. F. Hu* U.C. Irvine BS Electronics Design/Fabrication, Control Software, Laser Control, Fluidics, Water Chemistry, Detailed Optical Tomography Models, 3D-CAD, 3D-Printing, Management
Ms. J. Chen U.C. San Diego BS Electronics Design/Fabrication, Control Software, Lensless Imaging Software, 3D-CAD, 3D-Printing, Project Management
Ms. E. Chen U.C. Santa Cruz BA Complex Optical System Construction, Patent Preparation, Patent Analysis, 3D-CAD, Lab Organization, Market Research/Analysis
Ms. D. Sun San Jose State Univ. BS Ground Water Models, Natural Attenuation Methods, Geographic Information Systems
Ms. A. Garin College of San Mateo AA/BS Patent Graphics, 3D Printing, 3D CAD, Cell Signaling, Presentations, Project Management, SBIR Grant FASTLane, Administration, Purchasing, Technical Library Management
Ms. B. Lim local high school HS Biochemical Signaling Pathway Modeling, Epidemiology Information/Modeling Systems
Mr. G. Weber local high school HS Electronic Measurement, Fluidic Construction
Ms. B. Saenz Biola University BA Biosensor Statistical Modeling, Computer-Based Biochemical Signaling Pathway Modeling, In-House Mathematics Instruction and Materials
Ms. K. Hao* MIT BS Optical Tomography Scanning Electronics, Detailed Optical Tomography Modeling, Lensless Imaging Software, 3D-CAD, 3D-Printing, Sensor Models, Patent Preparation
Ms. A. Huang* MIT BS Optical Tomography Scanning Electronics, Detailed Optical Tomography Modeling, 3D-CAD, 3D-Printing, Patent Preparation
Mr. S. Kim MIT BS Biochemical Signaling Pathway Software, Curated SBML Libraries, SBML Simulators
Mr. R. Barton* local high school HS Electronics Design/Fabrication, Control Software, Detailed Fluidic System/Process Design, Sensor Design/ Fabrication, 3D-CAD, 3D-Printing, Water Chemistry, Management
Ms. V. Hurtado* U.C. Santa Cruz BS Lensless Imaging Hardware/Software, 3D-CAD, 3D-Printing, Sensor Design/Fabrication, Detailed Fluidic System Design, Gesture Linguistics, SBML Software, GPU Computing, Research Team Management, SBIR Grant FASTLane
Mr. B. Boyko Carnegie Mellon Univ. MS Geographic Information System Software, User Interfaces, Cloud Computation
Mr. I. Sky Carnegie Mellon Univ. MS Geographic Information System Software, User Interfaces, Cloud Computation
Mr. Pantic Carnegie Mellon Univ. MS Geographic Information System Software, User Interfaces, Cloud Computation
Mr. N. Nand Carnegie Mellon Univ. MS Geographic Information System Software, User Interfaces, Cloud Computation
Mr. T. Umeda Carnegie Mellon Univ. MS Geographic Information System Software, User Interfaces, Cloud Computation
Mr. V. Zaliva* Carnegie Mellon Univ. PhD Discrete Fourier Transform Matrix Eigenvector Mathematics and Software
Mr. H. Wu* California Polytechnic MS Cell Biochemistry, Biological Signaling Pathway Models, SBML Models/Simulators, Water Chemistry, Fluidic Fabrication, Fluidic System/Process Design, Drawing, Writing, Patent Preparation, SBIR Grant Preparation
Mr. J. Lee San Jose State Univ. BA ROC-Curve Statistics
Mr. J. Huang San Francisco State Univ. BA Active Computer and Network Support, IT
Mr. W. Yoshizuka-Chang U.C. Riverside BS Water Chemistry, Mathematical Analysis, Chemical Testing Process Design
Ms. J. Li* U.C. Davis BA Detailed Lensless Imaging Model Software, Optical Hardware Construction, Drawing
Ms. H. Gu* U.C. Berkeley BS Electronics Design/Fabrication, Control Software, Laser Imaging Optical Hardware, 3D-CAD, 3D-Printing, Lensless Imaging Software, Sensor Design, Data Visualization,
Mr. D. Cai* California Polytechnic BS Advanced Microfluidics System and Component Design and Fabrication, Electronics Design/Fabrication, Control Software, Laser Imaging Optical Hardware, 3D-CAD, 3D-Printing, Patent Preparation
Mr. D. Yu San Francisco State Univ. BA Business Analysis, Formal Tax Accounting, Project Budgeting, Cash-Flow Modeling, SBIR Grant Preparation, Patent Asset Analysis
Ms. S. Kwan* U.C. Davis BS SBML Protocol, Cell Biology, Biological Signaling Pathway Models, Lensless Microscopic Imaging, Microplate Technology
Ms. D. Samanmit San Francisco State Univ. BS Photochemistry, Photo-spectroscopy
Ms. C. Luk* San Francisco State Univ. BS Biological Pathway Analysis/Modeling, Fluidic System Design and Implementation, Precision Syringe-Pump Electromechanics, Hierarchy Index-Notation Systems, Technical Drawing, Patent Preparation
Mr. R. Ludwig* Lindenwood Univ. MBA Market Research/Analysis, Business Strategy, Business Plans, Investment Packages, New Technology Analysis, Commercialization, IP
Mr. R. Chen local high school, Univ. of Pacific HS, BA Library Organization, Project Management, Accounting Support, Patent Asset Analysis
Mr. J. Hernandez Cal. Poly. San Luis Obispo BS Lensless Imaging Hardware/Software, SBML Software
Ms. Y. Moreno University of Texas, Austin BS Cell Culture Microplate Technology, Inter-Mitochondrial Biochemical Signaling
Ms. M. Muanchart Chaingmai University MS von Neuman Algebras
A few representative example achievements of NRI Intern “alumni” include:
- Long-time returning intern and more recent professional consultant Mr. H. Wu recently left us to join (2009 Nobel Prize winner) Elizabeth Blackburn’s lab at the U.C. at San Francisco.
- Ms. K. Hao is now the Artificial Intelligence technology reporter for the MIT Technology Review. She also writes the AI newsletter, The Algorithm, which thoughtfully examines the field’s latest news and research. Prior to joining the publication, she was an application engineer at Flux.io (first startup spin out from Google X) and a data scientist at Quartz. Her earlier thoughtful and nuanced reporting, technology and journalism, and other writing have appeared in Quartz, New Republic, Mother Jones, Sierra Magazine, Grist, How We Get To Next, Muck Rack, and other respected publications. She was featured in a noted CGTN America video-interview on the topic of crypto-currency energy usage and is a Tech Fellow and Agenda Contributor of the World Economic Forum.
- Mr. R. Barton, who interned with us several years as a high school intern, was awarded first place in Chemistry for the 2016 California State-wide Science Fair (https://science-fair.org/2016-california-state-science-fair-awards/); he is now an engineering student at Georgia Tech.
- Ms. A. Huang is currently pursuing a Masters in Technology, Innovation, and Education at Harvard.
- Mr. R. Ludwig graduated early and with honors in both his BBA and MBA, and is now Founder and CEO of Advanced Microplate Technologies (http://www.advancedmicroplatetechnologies.com/).
- Ms. S. Kwan is serving as acting Chief Technology Officer of Advanced Microplate Technologies.
Although not formerly an NRI intern, SFSU undergraduate student M. Monroy (working closely with NRI’s Pooncharas Tipgunlakant) was lead-author of a paper describing a joint SFSU/NRI project that was awarded “Best Paper” at the 2014 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting (M. Monroy; P. Tipgunlakant; U. Simonis; R. Esquerra, “Nitric Oxide and its Role in Photodynamic Therapy,” Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014, April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA.); the underlying joint research project involved NRI-provided high-sensitivity NO(Nitric Oxide)-sensor and small-scale cell-incubator equipment combined with SFSU-provided living uncorrupted cancer cell-line cultures and nitric oxide release photosensitizers.
Mr. V. Zaliva worked with NRI as an R&D software and systems contractor on NRI’s 2009-2011 NSF (National Science Foundation) funded SBIR Phase II grant (NSF Award Number 0923986) pertaining to NRI’s 6D-Touch gesture sensing and recognition. Mr. Zaliva later pursued his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University; his internship with NRI during this academic time was directed to the now-popular topic of Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) matrix eigenvector mathematics and computation methods for these, and his work is reported in the publication Constructing an orthonormal set of eigenvectors for DFT matrix using Gramians and determinants. (Mr. Zaliva’s earlier work pertaining to NRI’s 6D-Touch gesture sensing and recognition is reported in part in the conference paper 3D Finger Posture Detection and Gesture Recognition on Touch Surfaces (ICARCV 2012). NRI looks forward to soon-to-be Dr. Zaliva’s continued involving and collaboration with NRI.