Summer Intern Showcase 2014

Intern showcase held in our telepresence room between San Francisco and Toronto

Every year we host summer interns at Autodesk. This summer was no exception. In fact, Autodesk had the largest number of summer interns in the Bay Area since we've been hosting interns. On Friday, we had our intern showcase where our interns shared "How they spent their summer vacations." We were all impressed with the volume, variety, and quality of what they accomplished.

We had interns in Toronto, One Market San Francisco, and Pier 9 San Francisco.

• Autodesk Research Canada

  • Thomas Davies, Sustainability Research, University of Waterloo
    Project Dasher is an Autodesk Research project where buildings are instrumented with sensors to collect real-world usage data. Thomas worked on ways to improve those sensors and make them use less energy and last longer.

  • Menaka Kiriwattuduwa, HPC Research, University of Waterloo
    NURBs are a common method for designs to be represented and stored by computer programs. Tsplines are another and superior way to do this as well. Menaka investigated and implemented a system for representing surfaces using yet another method, "level sets," which offers advantages when a surface is constantly changing.

  • Fraser Anderson, User Interface & Graphics Research, University of Alberta
    Fraser investigated ways to optimize interfaces when they are part of wearable computers. It's only a matter of time before devices like Google Glass or smart watches become commonplace. There may even be wearables that allow for convert interaction during situations like boring meetings.

  • Madeline Gannon, User Interface & Graphics Research, Carnegie Mellon University
    If wearable computers aren't fascinating enough for you, Madeline looked at using skin as an input device. This would allow for objects like jewelry to be designed in context — just circumscribe your wrist with your fingers and voila!

  • Jarrod Knibbe, User Interface & Graphics Research, University of Bristol, UK
    Anyone who has ever had a do-it-yourself project knows how to use a workbench. But what if that workbench were augmented to provide tips and tricks as well as general guidance as to how to complete those projects? Jarrod used a TV screen as a table top with a Microsoft Kinect suspended above to provide just in time information while he toiled away.

• Office of the Chief Technology Officer

  • Sam Hobish, Applied Innovation for Fusion 360, California College of the Arts
    Mary Morse, Applied Innovation for Fusion 360, Olin College of Engineering
    Joe Chung, Applied Innovation for Fusion 360, UC Berkeley
    Our three interns put Autodesk 360 and Fusion 360 through their paces. They collaborated to design an asthma inhaler and a Swiss Army knife-style 3D print finishing tool to accompany Project Spark. They fabricated their designs at our Pier 9 facility. Along the way, they documented problems they encountered and came up with suggestions for improvements to both Fusion 360 and Autodesk 360.

  • William Goldie, Applied Innovation for AutoCAD, Acalanes High School
    William developed an AutoCAD plug-in to drive Metabeam laser cutters directly from AutoCAD. Because his plug-in preserved more of the design intent and had a friendlier user interface, his work saved hundreds of hours on Autodesk's Burning Man efforts.

  • Marianne Khalil, Applied Innovation, Rhode Island School of Design
    Samantha Chiu, Applied Innovation, Carnegie Mellon University
    Sehee (Luke) Byun, Applied Innovation, Academy of Art
    Fatemeh (Behnaz) Farahi Bouzanjani, Applied Innovation, USC
    Our four interns looked at the future of design. Thinking outside the box, they envisioned a wearable device that captures brain waves and includes a visor-like display. The interface to interacting with the design process was much like holding a conversation with a friend. This team produced short movies plus a 40-page comic book to share their vision.

• Autodesk Research USA

  • Lawson Fulton, Cloud Computing and Simulation, University of Waterloo
    Lawson is a computer science major who investigated opportunities for Autodesk to address the area of programmable matter.

  • Mehdi Nourbakhsh, Design Optimization, Georgia Tech
    Project Dreamcatcher is an Autodesk Research project around goal-driven design. Mehdi worked on global and local optimization techniques that improve CAD parts in terms of performance and strength.

  • Shubhanshu Yadav, Cloud Computing, Columbia
    Project Cyborg is an Office of the CTO project around bio-nano programming that leverages cloud computing. Shubhanshu investigated ways to make it easy to integrate networks of local computers into Project Cyborg in addition to servers like those provided by Amazon Web Services.

At the end of the presentation, our CTO, Jeff Kowalski, summed it up nicely. "To a person, I am blown away by the raw talent of our interns this summer. I am even more blown away by how the talent was applied to help Autodesk move the ball forward in key areas we are interested in. Well done everyone."

On behalf of all of the hiring managers, I'd like to thank our HR team who helps us acquire such great intern talent.

• Danielle Nivern, University Recruiter
• Jenny Diani, Senior Manager of Global University Programs
• Laura Aghazadeh, University Recruiting Manager
• Queen Denchukwu, University Recruiting Coordinator

Once back in school, I know our interns will be happy to share their results with Sister Mary Elephant.

Summer interns are alive in the lab.