2011 ITI Summer Internship Winners Announced

2011 Internship Winners

Twenty-one undergraduate students from around the world have been selected to receive research internships from the Information Trust Institute (ITI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the summer of 2011.

This year is the fifth offering of the popular annual summer undergraduate research internship program. This summer's interns were chosen from among 357 applicants.

The student interns will participate in 8- to 10-week research projects, supervised by ITI researchers in a variety of information trust research areas. Interns will receive stipends, housing, and, in some cases, an allocation for travel expenses. The internships are supported by multiple funding sources, particularly a "Research Experiences for Undergraduates" site award from the National Science Foundation.

"ITI's internship experience is a great opportunity for undergraduate students," says Dr. Masooda Bashir, who is co-leader of the program. "They get a better understanding of complex scientific concepts, and improve their research skills. It's a chance for them to contribute research findings to the discipline of information technology trust and security. I'm delighted to have a very talented group of students in this year's program."

This year, faculty mentors participating in the program are from the Illinois departments of Computer Science, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and Mechanical Science & Engineering, as well as the Information Trust Institute and the Coordinated Science Laboratory. The program is co-led by Bashir, who is ITI's Assistant Director for Social Trust Initiatives, and ECE Professor Michael C. Loui.

In addition to working individually with faculty on real-world research projects, interns will attend weekly seminars at which professors present talks on ongoing research work at Illinois and weekly sessions on ethics in the responsible conduct of research and in the development of information technology. Some interns will work with graduate student mentors who are participating in activities to develop their mentoring skills. The summer program will culminate in a poster session at which the interns will present the results of their work. In addition, the interns will write technical papers that describe their research accomplishments. Below is a list of the successful applicants and their faculty mentors.

• Caius Brindescu of the Politehnica University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania, will work with Prof. Danny Dig.
• Kathleen Chalas of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, will work with Prof. Ralph Johnson.
• Soravit Changpinyo of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, will work with Prof. Marianne Winslett.
• Mihai Codoban of the Politehnica University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania, will work with Prof. Danny Dig.
• Faraj A. Daoud of Berry College, Mount Berry, Georgia, will work with Prof. Klara Nahrstedt.
• Abraham Engle of Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, will work with Prof. Marianne Winslett.
• Jianxiong Gao of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will work with Dr. Zbigniew Kalbarczyk.
• Steve J. Granda of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will work with Prof. Geir E. Dullerud.
• Prachi Jain of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, will work with Prof. Marianne Winslett.
• Evan S. Kroske of the University of South Florida, Tampa, will work with Prof. Roy H. Campbell.
• Andrew Kryczka of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will work with Prof. Klara Nahrstedt.
• Frank Li of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, will work with Prof. Matthew Caesar.
• Miao Lu of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will work with Dr. Rakesh Bobba.
• Jack Ma of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, Indiana will work with Prof. Danny Dig.
• Samuel McCarthy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will work with Prof. Timothy Bretl.
• Pratch Piyawongwisal of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will work with Prof. Nitin H. Vaidya.
• Adarsh Prasad of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, will work with Prof. Marianne Winslett.
• Lorand Szakács of the Politehnica University of Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania, will work with Prof. Danny Dig.
• Charles S. Wang of the University of California, Berkeley, will work with Prof. Nitin H. Vaidya.
• Nishant Yadav of the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, India, will work with Prof. Gul Agha.
• Demissew Z. Zike of Berea College, Berea, Kentucky, will work with Dr. Rakesh Bobba.