For most of my career I have been responsible for working with students on innovative research through the NCSA’s Students Pushing INnovation internship program. These internships focus on student-driven research, not work-for-hire. I work with students to establish deadlines and milestones, to limit project scope and do sufficient planning, and to find venues for presentation of the research like conferences and performances.

In the past I’ve mentored students in providing visual projections for a theatrical performance, developing a mobile app that audience members could use during a dance performance, bringing visualizations into the Oculus Rift, gesture-based input to VR environments with the Microsoft Kinect and Leap Motion, building virtual worlds for digital cultural heritage, using game engines for interactive scientific visualizations, inventing visualization desktop software, and virtual science exploration in the HTC Vive.

I’m proud to say these students went on to work in the Obama White House, Tableau, and Microsoft, to pursue higher degrees, and to win student research awards and be invited on international research exchanges in part thanks to their internships.