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The IBM Extreme Blue program, IBM’s incubator for talent, technology and business innovation, will take place this year in Dublin on September 14th and 15th. The event challenges technical and business student intern project teams, along with their mentors, to “start something big” by developing new high-growth businesses that starts with a promising idea, market or technology. This year the program will run for the 5th time in Europe and is the 1st time that Ireland plays host to the event with participants from the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Ireland.

Amongst the exciting projects to be showcased in September include a system to help hospital emergency unit management to better handle the patient flow along care units, using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. In total 14 projects encompassing areas as diverse as grid technology to on demand services to voice technology will be presented.

According to Bill Kearney, Dublin Software Lab Manager at IBM Ireland, Extreme Blue offers very real opportunities to solve challenging business issues: “The Extreme Blue program has the ability to establish future business and technical leaders. We at IBM believe that our growth is crucial through these innovative projects to be showcased at Extreme Blue. It is with great pride that IBM Ireland hosts this years Extreme Blue just prior to IBM’s 50th year in Ireland.”

The Extreme Blue program worldwide has grown from a summer internship in Cambridge, Massachusetts with just 25 students to a worldwide program that draws more than 360 top interns from around the globe. Since 2002, the program has: hosted 250+ strategic projects; filed over 230 invention disclosures; 26 solutions were integrated into IBM products or services; contributed 9 solutions to open source community and much, much more.

The interns work in small project teams along with IBM mentors. This combination creates a team dynamic that fosters collaboration and helps the interns create both a business case and a technical solution that will succeed in the marketplace. The high performance results-oriented environment of the Extreme Blue program and the student interaction with senior leaders and executives helps differentiates the Extreme Blue program from other internships.