Are you ready for IBM?

What is Extreme Blue?

The IBM Extreme Blue™ program is our incubator for talent, technology and business innovation. During the period from the end of June to mid September, IBM will run several Extreme Blue projects worldwide. This year, IBM Belgium will host three Extreme Blue projects in Brussels.

You will work together in a team of 4 international students on an innovative project for one of IBM’s strategic clients. The projects start with a business challenge, detailed by the client. After the analysis of this challenge and the client’s needs, you’ll continue with a two week brainstorming phase, generating a lot of ideas, using different brainstorming techniques. Together with the client, the most promising idea will be selected and developed into a solid business case and a prototype. Experienced IBM mentors and the latest IBM technology will help the team to obtain highly-valued results. The culmination of your 12 weeks hard work will be a visit to the European Expo along with Extreme Blue students from across Europe, where you get to present your projects' deliverables to IBM's Executive Management, international press and your fellow European student teams!

Each project team will consist of one business student and three technical students. At the start, all team members operate in the same role. During the project, the business student will focus on defining the value of the solution in business terms of organizational and/or financial efficiency and effectiveness, while the technical students focus on the deeper development of the prototype.

What are we looking for?

IBM Belgium is looking for ambitious students who are confident about their abilities, keen to learn and are in for a summer full of passion, intensity and fun. Experience the ultimate internship with the European EXPO in September where you get to present your projects' deliverables to IBM's Executive Management, international press and your fellow European student teams!

Are you enthusiastic and a team player? Are you graduating in 2013 and are you studying at a Belgian University or college? Then you are an excellent candidate for Extreme Blue in our Brussels IBM headquarters.

What we offer?

First of all, we'll offer you the enriching and challenging experience of working in an international environment and for a real client. You’ll get the chance to run your own project - from initial start up right through to the development and presentation of your brand new product.

A team of experienced IBMers will be dedicated to support your development along the way. You will be working with some of the best minds in the industry so you will be learning from the best and if you want to reach their level, this is the place to start.

You'll also gain confidence as well as experience. You'll learn how to present your ideas, liaise with clients, talk confidently in front of large groups and build relationships with influential people.

You’ll get the chance to meet other European teams and to share your knowledge during the European expo and other teaming events. All expenses will be covered.

Prove yourself during the program, and it may be the first step towards a full career in IBM. In fact after you graduate, our Extreme Blue team will do everything they can to find the graduate position that best suits you.

The Extreme Blue internship will make you GROW ... both personally and professionally.

How to apply?

We are no longer accepting applications for the scheme starting 2012. For all inquiries related to the Extreme Blue programme, please send an email to pkgurmeet@be.ibm.com

Past projects

Belgacom

Create an innovative service for digital native customers in a converged telecom environment. This was the challenge set by Belgacom in the beginning of the summer. The goal of the Extreme Blue Team was to invent such a service, prototype it and create a business case for it.

Eures


More than 1.2 million vacancies, 300.000 CV's and 18.000 employers. What else can we do to make EURES the natural first choice for digital natives considering working in a European country? The team came up with a bunch of innovative ideas and finally created a prototype to visualize job matching and skill improvement. Their solution is now being demoed all across Europe...

In the European Union, more than 29 million people are affected by a certain rare disease. A major challenge within this field is that patients are often diagnosed too late, which has a big impact on their quality of life, their life expectancy and the treatment costs. In order to improve the knowledge and diagnostic capability of these rare diseases, the team developed a reasoning engine consisting of a rule engine and a statistical tool. The project proved that medical knowledge combined with modern IT tools can support an earlier, quicker and more accurate diagnosis. In this way, the Belgian Extreme Blue team contributed in a brilliant way to a smarter healthcare.

Our client EWI, a department of the Flemish government, would like to improve the innovation value chain because when industry does not acquire it, innovation does not matter! In using open source and IBM software (such as IBM Cognos Content Analysis, LanguageWare, DB2, JEE) we attempted to close the gaps between research, government and industry. The solution allowed us to enrich the structured with unstructured data, find new and existing relationships and build a information Infrastructure for a knowledge based society in Flanders. That way we improved searches so you can find what you actually need.