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US College: Raymond's intern experience at the two month mark

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Remember meeting Raymond? We caught up with him to see how his internship was treating him!

"In my last blog entry, I talked about how great I felt when I first started working at Intel this summer. Basically, I had the best first month internship experience with Intel compared to any of my previous internships. Now that I have been here for two months, has my opinion changed? The answer is not at all! In fact, it turns out that the second month of my internship is even more exciting than the first! After ramping up early in my internship, I have been working with more people, shaping my project with more creativity and productivity, and just having more fun while at it.

As a third year PhD student, I have focused my research on hardware support of security, reliability and availability in today’s computer architecture. Similarly, I am working on a project at Intel this summer related to hardware security. Without getting into too much detail, the question that we are trying to answer is how do we assess the security risk and complexity of a piece of hardware at its early design stage? The logic behind this goal is quite simple; the earlier we can evaluate security risks, the more time we’d have to fortify the security properties in our products. Additionally, this type of assessment can also be used to indicate how resources should be allocated in terms of security efforts. The main challenges of the project lie within the uncertainty of an early design and the need to generalize security risks/complexities in a wide range of hardware. Once the project is finished, it will be one of the many steps that we take to build more secured products at Intel.

While the undertaking of the project is quite ambitious, the project is shaping up nicely so far. In order to find answers to the challenges stated above, I have been communicating regularly with people both in and outside of my team. Sometimes, finding the right person to talk to is half the battle. The interactions with different Intel employees have all been interesting and rewarding. I have gained useful knowledge, perspectives and ideas from my co-workers as the project has moved along. The aforementioned communication is not a one-way street either; I have been given opportunities to present my vision and ideas to members from various teams, work groups and forums. When I tried to schedule meetings with people from Arizona or even Israel, I truly have a new level of appreciation of how globally widespread Intel is.

My manager and my mentor have both continued their amazing support of me in the past two months. They have helped me identify the key questions that I need to answer in my work and the key people that I should be talking to. They have always encouraged me to find answers on my own while providing insightful comments and guidance along the way. Overall, it is simply incredible when you think about how much freedom I have. In turn, I am working with a high level of productivity and creativity on my project. Their advices does not end with my project either. In fact, my manager and my mentor have also given me just as much career advice too. I think in general that really speaks for how Intel treats its interns; not only do they want me to have a successful internship, but also a successful career after the internship.

While having a productive work life, I have continued to have fun at Intel this summer too. In my second month here, I enjoyed a Fourth of July BBQ, exciting world cup matches with free snacks that fittingly represent the playing countries, lunch off campus with co-workers and much more. I can’t wait to share more stories with you in my next entry."

Sounds like Raymond’s really enjoying his summer so far (and we’re so happy to hear that!) You’ll have to check back to hear from him next time as he (and the others) conclude their internships.