Extreme Blue is one of IBM's internship program for both graduate and undergraduate 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.[1][2] It began at the Lotus Software site in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2003, Extreme Blue participants filed 98 patents.[3]
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.[4] In 2009, according to an Extreme Blue manager, over 10,000 applications were received for fewer than 50 US positions.[citation needed]
Since its inception, the program has expanded to include 15 active international locations.[citation needed]
Former IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano, now chairman (far right) speaking with interns at Extreme Blue in 2009
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 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.[5]
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.[6]Malaria Clinic in Tanzania helped by SMS for Life program, an Extreme Blue project
SiSi Say It Sign It (2007) converts from spoken English directly into British Sign Language which is then signed by an animated digital character or avatar.[11][12]
^US 7290131, Beynon, Margaret Ann Ruth & Flegg, Andrew James, "Guaranteeing hypertext link integrity", published 2007-10-30, assigned to IBM
^US application 20040267726, Beynon, Margaret Ann Ruth & Flegg, Andrew James, "Hypertext request integrity and user experience", published 2004-12-30, assigned to IBM, since abandoned.