18
February
2014
|
05:31 AM
America/Los_Angeles

Intel Hires 16yr Old Prodigy

16Prodigy

16-year-old Joey Hudy is the youngest ever hired for Intel’s corporate internship program.

By Intel Free Press

At the White House Science Fair last year, 16-year-old Joey Hudy demonstrated for President Obama the air cannon he’d built from PVC pipe. “Congratulations!” said the president, after Joey fired a marshmallow over the heads of the press corps and smooshed it into a White House wall.

When the high school sophomore met Intel CEO Brian Krzanich at the Rome Maker Faire in October, he hired Joey on the spot.

The editors of Brilliant.org recently named Joey “one of the 10 smartest kids in the world.” In addition to building the marshmallow cannon, Joey has been doing more serious tinkering with the popular Arduino microcontroller boards and also built a solar-powered computer for another science competition.

Last week, Joey Hudy attended new employee orientation at the Intel campus in Chandler, Ariz.

He is the youngest person Intel has ever hired through its corporate internship program, which traditionally is meant for talented college-age students.

“We hope to forge a lasting relationship with Joey, and all our interns, as we support their professional development,” said Vaadra Martinez, an intern program manager at Intel.

Thomas Ajluni, a human resources recruiter who works with the Intel New Devices Group said, “We delivered the offer last week and were pleased to get his acceptance.”

Unlike the approximately 1,500 or so other interns that Intel will hire in the US this year, Joey does not yet have his driver’s license. His mom Julie drove him to employee orientation.

When school is out this summer, Joey will be working in the Intel New Devices Group’s product development organization. He’ll go back to high school in the autumn.

After he got home last week, Joey posted his thoughts on becoming a new Intel employee to his blog: “What an awesome place. It was so fun. I can’t wait to start making cool stuff!”