About the Program

What is the Tech Core Internship?

The Tech Core Internship is an applied learning experience open to students of all majors, both at the undergrad and graduate level. No prior technical experience necessary -- just hard work and curiosity

The program is non-credit, free of cost, totally online, and requires at least 13 hours a week of commitment in order to succeed.

You’ll work in a team environment. There are no “lessons” and this isn’t a class. You’ll be joining a team of developers, discovering what your passions are, and will start working on delivering a real product. The best way to explain it is: Imagine you’ve just been hired at a new software company. On your first day, you onboard, meet some colleagues and start some training. After a few days, your team lead gives you some work to do. You do that work and discover you’re good at it. Now you have a job.

Work runs from June 1 and runs to August 12. You get to set your own schedule, but you need to maintain an average of 13 hours of work per week. If you can work more, you’ll do better.

You can work from home. You can work from anywhere. International students are welcome too!

Work is very different from straight-up Zoom. Our work environment is entirely synchronous, in fact, it’s exactly like an office except for now it is all online.

What will you learn?

Weeks 1-4: In weeks 1-4, you'll spend a week with each team gaining fundamental experience in all four of the verticals listed below. It does NOT matter what skill-level or technological porficiency you have to start out with. You will immediately get slotted into a team, assigned to a project, and start working. Don't stress if you don't know anything, that's what your team is for. If you communicate and ask questions frequently, you will learn much faster than trying to bang your head against wall tyring to solve a problem on your own. Save time and ask a teammate

Weeks 5-10: By week 5, you'll get slotted into a team and dig deeper into that work. By the end of this internship experience, you will gain proficiency in a valuable stack of technologies and will have numerous projects under your belt to list on your portfolio/resume. You will also gain essential business skills, communication skills, and project management skills. If you perform well and earn the respect of your teammates and clients, then you will also gain valuable friends, allies, and references for the future.

Data science and visualization: SQL Server, Excel, Tableau, and D3.js
Creative design with Adobe Creative Cloud: Premiere Rush, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dimension, and XD
Web development and emerging technologies: ASP.NET, MVC, HTML/CSS/JS, SQL Server, VR technologies, C#, Unity, Blender, and A-Frame/Three.js
Operations, Sales, and Marketing: Salesforce, CRM, Excel, Tableau, Social Media, Trellis, Marketing, and Accounting

Are you a graduate student?

For graduate students: By the conclusion of this program you are expected to take on a leadership role on the team, leading a group of developers on a specific project. This can be a project of your choosing from ones that we have assigned or ones that have been pitched to the group. You will be responsible for the project management, delegation, and reporting back to the client. These positions are not guaranteed to you, you must earn them by being a team player and gaining the respect and trust of your team and showing the same respect in return.

Meet the team!

"Tech Core has enabled me to gain the kind of experience that I did not think was possible to gain while at a university; real, collaborative, client-oriented work experience. These two years have prepared me for my career more than any other course or experience I have had. Oh, and VR is fun, so that's been a big plus."

- Devon Oberdan
Emerging Technologist

"Working at Tech Core has accelerated my tech knowledge to amazing heights. Providing hands-on experience in a start-up-like environment, working on real projects for real clients, Tech Core is THE place for aspiring all professional technologists."

- Victoria Ogino
Program Coordinator

“Ever wonder what creating something special feels like? Tech Core teaches you how to build apps and experience your reality your way.”

- Taite Nazifi
Systems Administrator

"Working for techcore has been one of the most beneficial things I’ve done in college. I came in knowing little to nothing about web development, and I was intimidated by my teammates who were so knowledgeable. They helped me learn quickly and produce many products, and in no time I became DBA and a mentor. We work hard, but we laugh a lot, and we have fun helping each other develop and design. TechCore is a little family that I’m grateful to be a part of."

- Miranda Hampton
Database Administrator

"Tech Core is a great environment to learn and grow as a developer. It's pretty different from the traditional classroom environment, which allows the developers to learn at a much faster rate by sharing knowledge with each other and tackling problems right away!"

- Brandon Erickson
Coder

"During my time here at Tech Core, I have learned countless skills extending from creating websites all the way to maintaining servers. The best part of working at Tech Core is not only the skills learned, but all of the friendships I have gained since I have started."

- Shane Chaudhry
Lead Builder

"Working at Tech Core has shown me what growth and progress can look like when you work your way through a problem."

- Tim Lukau
Coder

"Working at Tech Core provides the opportunity to work in an innovative environment with people who share a similar passion and sense of optimism for the future of technology. In solving problems, we can learn and take on the world along the way."

- Raphaelle Guinanao
Coder

"Tech Core is a wonderful place to grow and learn. The problems are at a real world scale, and whenever you are stuck there is always someone to help out. And then there are the times that you are the one helping forming a cohesive team that grows."

- Ryan Alterman
Coder

What you will be doing

Tech Core has several existing projects, new products to bring to market, and is rapidly acquirnig new work in the response to the Summer 2020 situation. Projects you will be working on will/may include:

Digital Palms

Augmented Reality application "Digital Palms" and other "UA AR" tech product spinoffs

UA COVID-19 Dashboard

An enterprise dashboard for contact tracing and antibodies testing

UA Wildcat Dashboard

A Web-based dashboard for making student life richer as re-entry begins - designed by UA students

Comebackathon

A UA led hacking and community development initiative to re-build a stronger, better, more human-centric culture upon re-entry

Story Map

Next-generation Web GIS systemn for Humanities, Anthropology, History and crowd sourced Pop Culture

Core²

Eller Tech Core's 100% dynamic portfolio creation system for graduates and future employers

UltraSound VR

Cutting edge medical VR training program

Salesforce Implementation

Campus-wide implementation of Saleforce CRM

Empower Now

A Teen Vaping Cessation Education and Training Program

What you will learn

Web Development and Emerging Technologies

Build robust web applications with a model-view controller (MVC) architecture powered by on dynamic data structures on the back-end, and dive into to the latest technologies sweeping the industry including VR, AR, and machine learning. Gain experience in Unity, Blender, and A-Frame/Three.js.

Project management and team collaboration

Gain experience developing in a Kanban workflow and learn the ins-and-out of maintaining communication, consistency, and synchronization while working remotely through cloud-based technologies, git version control, and team-based communication platforms.

Data science and visualization

Understand the fundamentals of building and maintaining a strong database structure; and create interesting and informative data visualizations through SQL Server, Excel, and Tableau.

Presentation skills and pitching

Learn how to present in front of an audience and effectively pitch ideas and innovations to a group. This includes learning how to prepare and present you materials in a convincing way and how to take feedback and criticism professionally.

Creative design with Adobe Creative Cloud

Create stunning pieces of media and artwork including video production, prototype design, marketing materials, and 3D art and texturing. Gain invaluable experience and skill using the acclaimed suite of Adobe products including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Dimension, XD, and more.

Reporting to clients and resource management

You will be responsible for maintaining transparent communication with the client/project sponsor regularly. This includes managing their time and resources efficiently, as well as managing their expectations. You will learn how to communicate effectively to prevent over-promising and under-delivering to clients.

Operations, Sales, and Marketing

Learn how to build and manage a CRM with Salesforce, create effective email and social media marketing campaigns through Trellis, and maintain operating budget and manage purchases for the whole team.

Building portfolio and professional profile

By the conclusion of your internship experience, you will have gained numerous new skills, technological proficiencies, and projects to add to your resume or portfolio. Learn how to design a strong resume and build an online portfolio that successfully showcases your work and capabilities.

Meet the Faculty

Crystal Adams

Senior Director, Innovation and Student Experience

Marketing, Professional Development, Portfolios, Badging

Ash Black

Executive Director, Tech Core

Program Director, Strategic Designer: Operations and Tech pillars, Owner: Tech Pillar

Mikel Chertudi

Lecturer, Business Communication

Business Communications Specialist, Community Builder, Academic Goals Steward

Sarah Diaz

Assistant Dean, Career and Professional Development

Marketing, Professional Development, Portfolios, Badging

Gray Hunter

Lecturer in Economics

Co-owner: Data Science Pillar

Michael Mandel

Lecturer, Business Communication

Business Communications Specialist, Community Builder, Academic Goals Steward

John McClintock

Academic Coordinator

Co-owner: Data Science pillar

Victoria Ogino

Program Coordinator, Tech Core

Program Manager, Owner: Creative pillar

Sangeetha Venkataramani

Director, Marketing Minor Program

Owner: Operations pillar

Today's digital economy requires a wide array of professionals, which one are you?

The Coder:

Knows their future is in code and crafting the high tech world led by Google, Amazon, Netflix, and whatever new massively successful tech giant the economy burps out this fall. Excellent team building and collaboration skills with a passion for teaching and learning from other coders as they get that this is the secret to world domination.

Enjoys: Logic, clean and well-commented code, and usually a good laugh. Loves making a machine do work for you and not the other way around. Often, also maintains a creative hobby (musician, fine or performing artist, etc…). Most certainly, new challenges.

Skills you will acquire: C#, MVC, SQL Server, API-Development, Visual Studio, and more.

Possible relevant majors: Computer Science, MIS, Engineering, and quite literally, anything/everything else.

The Creative:

Master of digital artwork, front-end design, user experience, video, copy, storytelling, messaging, and brand development.

Enjoys: Brainstorming, illustration, music, laughter, building culture, pushing the envelope, editing, and storyboarding.

Skills you will acquire: Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, XD, Illustrator, Audition, and more. Whiteboarding, and Project Management.

Possible relevant majors: Marketing & Communications, Fine Arts, English, Humanities, Anthropology.

The Data Scientist:

Enjoys wrestling with big problems that can only be resolved through the command of volumes of data and judicious use of analysis and visualization. Is tech-oriented and will readily tackle new platforms like Tableau and SQL Server.

Enjoys: Solving complex problems in Excel. Math-oriented. Loves coming out on top when faced with a tech issue.

Skills you will acquire: Advanced SQL Server for Web Applications, ETL, and visualization. Tableau. Radical Excel. D3.js.

Possible relevant majors: MBA, MIS, Computer Science.

The Entrepreneur:

Possesses passion and a drive to bring into the world a new business, venture, or solution. Leads project forward with unique skills including extreme listening, validation, public speaking, creative, and the ability to wear any damn hat required.

Enjoys: Teamwork, disruption, and the challenge of being first to market. High emphasis on Corporate Social Responsibility and seeing teammates/corporate mission/startup venture succeed.

Skills you will acquire: Leadership. Strategic thinking, business planning, validation, user experience testing, and finance modeling. Also, Adobe Creative, writing, and public speaking

Possible relevant majors: Entrepreneurship and literally, anything/everything else.

The Finance Officer:

Thrives on the pursuit of personal and team excellence with unyielding attention to detail. Responsible for maintaining team balance between what is strategically pursued, and what is attainable. Resource managers who enable the team by executing the hard work of ensuring that operations are within scope, affordable, and without unacceptable downsides.

Enjoys: Mathematical problems and models. Also enjoys working in Excel and derives satisfaction when balance sheets and budgets reflect integrity and are on course. Also, most likely, Sudoku fanatic.

Skills you will acquire: Advanced Excel, MS Project, Tableau. Also, corporate leadership.

Possible relevant majors: Finance, Accounting, Engineering.

The Social Media Maven:

Lives and breathes social media with emphasis on establish genuine connections with followers while stewarding the company's online reputation and lifeline to new customers and recruits.

Enjoys: Conversation, corporate responsibility, pioneering new tech, marketing/messaging, and metrics.

Skills you will acquire: Hootsuite, photoshop, writing, premiere, public speaking, analytics and whatever new social media tech 2020 throws at us.

Possible relevant majors: Marketing & Communications, MIS, Entrepreneurship.

The Systems Administrator:

Enjoys integrating complex information systems with a watchful diligence on cybersecurity and maintaining 24/7 uptimes for team members. Always on the lookout for next-generation optimizations or systems breakthroughs.

Enjoys: The art of optimization. Tackling complex learning curves, and teaching teammates. Thrives on the pressure brought by publishing events, inevitable outages, and the possibility of security-related events.

Skills you will acquire: Microsoft Azure and next-generation cloud computing. SQL Server. DNS, API-based development, and some cybersecurity.

Possible relevant majors: Engineering, MIS, Computer Science.

The Technologist:

Lives for the future of technology which by the way, is already here and is called VR/AR/XR/ML. Comfortable exploring immersive technologies and pioneering new modes of technologically mediated reality for education, virtual community, industry, and research.

Enjoys: Geeking and Gaming. Test driving new technology and willing to study tirelessly to keep ahead of the curve.

Skills you will acquire: Unity. Sophistication with Oculus Quest/Rift/Go and HTC Vive. 3D modeling. Web VR, Volumetric Film, and more.

Possible relevant majors: Humanities, Engineering, Game Design and fine arts. Computer Science, MIS.

Eller Tech Core Internship ProgramSummer 2020

Looking for an exciting new internship opportunity this summer?Join Eller Tech Core, the software, database, and emerging tech program in the heart of Eller. We have opened new positions for Data Scientists, Creatives, Sales, Social Media, and more. Work starts June 1, let us know you're in.