At Biosero, we are investing in the next generation of automation — as well as the next generation of bright young people who will run it. One of the ways we do that is through our internship program. We sponsor students from local high schools and colleges around the US to come into our office and lab during the summer and work on projects using our robotics and artificial intelligence technology. They get to work alongside our automation experts on interesting projects that have real-world applications. In addition to the projects and customer exposure they are getting here, we are bringing in outside executives to talk about their careers to the interns.
We have been inspired and impressed with the accomplishments of the young people who have come through our doors over the years. About two years ago, we hosted members of Team Inspiration, an award-winning robotics team of high school and middle school students. In 2020, they competed and won RoboSub, an international underwater autonomous robotics competition, beating teams from top institutions such as Caltech, UCSD, Duke University, and Georgia Tech.
This year, we have 10 interns (five college students and five high school students) working on different projects. Typically, we have ideas for what students can work on when they come in, and we match interns to projects based on their interests. Right now, for example, some interns are using our lab to develop and tell a story around COVID-19. We are also fascinated to see what ideas these talented students come up with on their own. Each year, we have a hackathon where we encourage interns to think big and pitch intriguing ideas for projects they want to try. We then work with them to make their dream projects possible.
One of the best things about the internship program is seeing how much the students get out of it, and how passionate they become about the work. Some of our interns enjoy working on their projects so much that they stay with us even after the summer wraps up, balancing their schoolwork and project. We’ve even had people who started out as interns in our summer program join Biosero as full-time staff members.
We have seen some amazing developments come out of these internships, reinforcing why we started this program in the first place. We’d like to congratulate our interns on their impressive efforts, and also thank them for continuing to inspire the rest of us with their fun and bold ideas!