Intel Summer School 0x7DE through the eyes of its students

On the Intel blog, we are constantly and, if possible, exhaustively telling about the life of the summer student school, which is already (and specifically, the anniversary, fifteenth) year held at the base of the company: we make announcements, describe the program, report from events. But this time we will not tell anything about her. Not because we are tired of this topic - just now we want to provide a platform for the participants of the 2014 school. So, here are some short interviews with fresh memories.

Alina Shadrina, Nizhny Novgorod, HSE
She didn’t believe that she passed the competition to school. As we approached on July 2, I was tormented by doubts - would I cope? Do I have enough knowledge? can I adapt? And on July 2, doubts disappeared - curiosity and desire to get acquainted with the team as soon as possible and start working.
Somehow imperceptibly, a whole crowd of people rushed into life, with whom we became so close that it was very sad to part - and, I am sure, we will see each other more than once. This is more than just useful contacts. This is another world - the world created by people who are truly ill with their business, and with it (with this world) I touched for the first time and really wanted to stay.
There was a motivation to finish a bachelor’s degree, there was an overestimation of the past three years of training - I underestimated some subjects in vain, and some, on the contrary, turned out to be a useless waste of time. There was a desire to enter the magistracy, and even it became clear what exactly I want to learn there.
Yes, perhaps, the Summer School gave me more than 3 years in high school. But, probably, summer after the third year is the time to find oneself, to draw such conclusions and start moving in the right direction.

Mikhail Galochkin, Ulyanovsk, UlSTU
My hopes were fully justified. The only thing I would like in the lectures to include more practices that are used in teams. And less telling the theory, which can be read on Wikipedia.
The organization of the process, in my opinion, was at a high level. The only thing was the hostel was not very. For me it would be easier to issue a grant and rent an apartment for 2-4 people. It would be lower in price, and much better in quality (it depends of course how lucky it is). Backpacks, which were given to us on the first day, by the end of the school were all torn. I would like to have better backpacks, as I always took my backpack with me, which is convenient.
While studying at school, I learned a lot about the various tools and libraries that Intel is developing. I used to hear about them only "by the edge of the ear." It turned out to be interesting that Intel has its own 3D camera and library to work with it. I plan to participate in the competition for the development of ideas for this camera.
Any moment in life that happens to a person in one way or another affects his whole subsequent life. I learned what it means to be a part of a big campaign, I learned about all the pros and cons of such a system. It was interesting for me to work in an international team when half is in the USA. I wanted to learn a language even more, and I plan to take English courses. If I had previously doubted the need for this, then now I am sure that the language must be known.

Elena Shirokova, Moscow, MIPT
Probably the most memorable summer event at the School is a scientific seminar, held from 8 to 9 August. The guys talked about where they study, what they do at their university. Graduates from past years came to the scientific seminar, with whom you can talk and learn how the school influenced them, listen to what they are doing, and in what areas they are working. Also, guys from another Nizhny Novgorod school, which was held at the same time at UNN, were also invited. During these two days I learned how to study in other universities, useful information about some technical things, and just had a great time.
Many will say that working in a large company is an irreplaceable experience. This is a complete teamwork, development of communication and presentation skills, development experience, and practice of the English language. Perhaps it will sound paradoxical, but still one of the unexpected things for me was quite strict rules in the company related to the confidentiality of information, some internal services. But this was due to the fact that before that I had no experience in a large company and now I understand that without such rules and restrictions it would be more difficult to monitor the workflow.
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Kirill Luchikhin, St. Petersburg, SPbAU
In fact, I found out about Intel Summer School the day before the end of the call for applications. On the May holidays came to Lipetsk, began to correspond with a friend, and he just filled out the questionnaire. Well, I also decided to try. It was a huge surprise for me that they took me as a result.
Lectures covered a fairly wide range of issues: from software testing and using Agile in development processes to programming and analyzing multithreaded applications and programming for Android. In addition, trainings on creative thinking and managing my time were held, which I personally remembered. Also one of the most interesting and striking was the training on conducting presentations and public speaking. However, it should be noted that sometimes the lectures were of an overview nature, but everyone understood that it was simply not possible to fully cover certain topics in such a short period of time. It was gratifying that we managed to organize several lectures ourselves, for which we are grateful to the organizers and employees of Intel who sent us to the meeting and supported us in these undertakings.
It was rather unexpected to find out that a huge amount of software produced by Intel is being created in Russia and, in particular, in Nizhny Novgorod. Therefore, in the process of working on tasks and during training, we had the opportunity to learn many details about the implementation of some technologies.

The start of admission to summer school next year is not far off. Try on all of the above - do you want to be in the place of these students? If the answer is positive - follow our blog, it will definitely contain all the necessary information.

And finally, I invite in the comments the former pupils of the Intel summer schools of any year - share your feelings about what you see in it and heard from the height of the past years?