On July 27, 15 University of Michigan- Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (UM-SJTU JI) students went to Intel to present their corporate-sponsored projects, the ninth time over the years. The three projects were: (1) Application control of OpenCL-based acceleration and Kinect depth sensor information processing; (2) Face detection and recognition engine based on machine depth learning; (3) Real-time vector rendering engine.
The projects were initiated by Intel based on their needs, with emphasis on new technology application, such as neural networks, human-computer interaction and other cutting-edge technologies. In less than three months’ time, the teams started from total ignorance of the topics, to working hard by division of labor, and finally completing the projects with satisfactory results.
A student remarked: “I am honored to be part of the project so I could be exposed to the frontier technology. Thanks to Intel, we can continue to explore the future technology standing on the giant’s shoulders.”
JI Party Secretary Xinwan Li presenting a certificate of appreciation to Intel Rep Xiaoyan Feng
JI Professors Vincent Chang and Mian Li thanking Mr. Feng
JI Party Secretary Xinwan Li thanked Intel for supporting JI. “Collaborating with Intel helps JI open up more possibilities for our students. Corporate mentors help students reap great benefits. To promote entrepreneurship and innovation, we hope for more long-term cooperation to create more miracles.”
Intel Corporation has a long history of collaboration with JI in sponsoring capstone design projects. Founded in 1968, Intel is the world’s largest semiconductor company, with a 41-year history of product innovation and market leadership. As the first sponsor of JI’s Capstone Design projects in 2011, to date it has sponsored 21 projects, totaling 105 students, in multiple areas, including Wi-Fi-based proximity detector (2011), image recognition (2012), face recognition (2013-2014), GPU acceleration (2014), in-depth vector rendering engine, and the Open Kinect project (2015). These projects usually lead to products in the market and boost students’ competitive edge in either job market or academic pursuit.
Taking the example of the project of Face Recognition, it lasted for three semesters from 2013 spring through 2014 spring and was participated by 15 students who had gained tremendously from the experience. After graduation, five students were hired by domestic research institutes and three were hired by IBM, Jefferies, and Synopsis respectively. The other students were admitted to graduate programs (mostly ECE) at Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, U.C. LA, and the University of Michigan. Five among them have already obtained master’s degrees and been hired by Amazon, Deloitte, Epic, Facebook and Google.
The innovative model of Capstone Design with corporate sponsorship has been JI’s strong suit and has won the first prize of 2015 SJTU teaching award（see news）. JI Students get hands-on experience from solving practical engineering problems under the supervision of both JI faculty and company engineers. This collaborative model helps students apply multidisciplinary engineering knowledge to actual projects and provides opportunities for students to work on projects in a corporate environment. It strengthens students’ real life practice experience and improves their ability to solve practical problems. Sponsor companies include Covidien, General Electric, Intel, National Instruments, Siemens, HP and other well-known international companies.
Mr. Xiaoyen Feng, Chief Scientist of Open Source Technology Center at Intel, remarked: “JI students are outstanding and have maintained high quality in their projects. This win-win collaboration has helped Intel explore new research areas and innovative ideas, which plays an important role in leading Intel’s technology development. We look forward to more collaboration with JI.”
JI faculty and students with Intel representatives
