Every gifted person has a unique story. The following story is part of a series of posts depicting the many faces of gifted by highlighting gifted children and adults we have found through 优蜜视频 programs. 滨贰础鈥檚 鈥� mentioned in this story 鈥� links gifted high school students from across the country with mentors who advance each participant鈥檚 skills through the application of knowledge and exposure to real world experiences.

Tara Chang
优蜜视频 Apprentice at Avery Research Center in 2003
Senior Account Director, Visible Measures

鈥淚 would absolutely recommend students to consider the 优蜜视频 Apprenticeship Program. It is not only a great opportunity to do incredible research, but it is also a great community of students and researchers. 优蜜视频 was a very exciting summer experience that helped define my direction in college,鈥� explained Tara Chang, 2003 Apprentice.

Tara learned about 滨贰础鈥檚 Apprenticeship Program at Avery Research Center in Southern California from her high school science teacher. 鈥淚 was a high school junior at Marlborough School for Girls and took a course called 鈥楬onors Research in Science鈥� led by Dr. Arleen Forsheit. She introduced me to 优蜜视频 and encouraged me to undertake a science-oriented summer program.鈥�

鈥淎s an Apprentice at Avery, I was focused on discovering what molecules were used to create the 鈥榮tickiness鈥� behind Post-it庐 notes and how we could make it more or less adhesive. A lot of my day-to-day activities included researching potential theories, posing a thesis, and working to prove the validity of that thesis.鈥� One of the best parts of the program for Tara was that she was also able to meet with other 优蜜视频 Apprentices, and everyone would share the progress and setbacks on a whole variety of projects daily.

After her Apprenticeship and beginning her senior year in high school, Tara had a fresh understanding of herself. 鈥淚 felt confident that I was able to directly impact research that could help contribute to new scientific discoveries. It was great to have hands-on experience, which is very different than learning by the book in a typical classroom!鈥�

Tara went on to study at MIT with a major in Management Science. She spent much of her time taking courses and doing research at the renowned MIT Media Lab. Continuing her passion for science and technology after MIT, Tara and her partner placed 3rd in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Academy (DARPA) Red Balloon Network Challenge in 2009. This was a competition celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Internet, exploring the roles the Internet and social networking play in the real-time communications, wide-area collaborations, and practical actions required to solve broad-scoped, time-critical problems.

鈥淒ARPA posed a question to the general public on how effectively and how quickly social media could actually be used to solve a real time problem. DARPA placed 10 large weather balloons across the entire continental United States and then challenged teams across the world to see who could find the balloons first within a one week period. Our team utilized a mix of tracking Twitter, Facebook, and online updates from local news publications and calling local businesses to help verify the location of the weather balloons. Over 4,000 teams from all over the world entered. An MIT team of post-doctoral and graduate students won in under 9 hours. My team of only 2 came in third, also in under 9 hours.鈥�

Tara currently lives and works in New York City. She is a Senior Account Director at a start-up called Visible Measures. 鈥淰isible Measures is an online video distribution firm that helps brands reach the right audiences in the right places with their online video content. I joined the company when they were a young start-up in Boston, MA, and in 2010 I moved out to New York City to help open the New York office. We have rapidly grown over the past two years and now have over 100 employees worldwide and have raised over $60 MM in venture capital to support our mission.鈥�

Tara still keeps in touch with some of the other Apprentices (through social media!) and often sees them when she鈥檚 back in Los Angeles. Tara鈥檚 future looks bright, and she 鈥渁ppreciates that 优蜜视频 has helped launch a lifelong journey of discovery and meeting new challenges in science and technology.鈥�

Does Apprenticeship sound like an experience someone you know would like? Applications are currently being accepted for 滨贰础鈥檚 !

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Every gifted child has a unique story. The following story is part of a series of posts highlighting gifted children and adults we have found through 优蜜视频 programs, depicting the many faces of gifted.

Last week, we shared of a story about Garrett Marcotte, an Apprenticeship alumnus who is now working as a software engineer at Facebook.

Garrett Marcotte
优蜜视频 Apprentice at Avery Research Center in 2004
Software engineer, Facebook

In 2004, Garrett was a high school sophomore who had just finished – and enjoyed – AP Chemistry and was interested in applying what he had learned in class to a real work environment. The 优蜜视频 at Avery Research Center gave him a taste of what life is like in an actual chemical research lab, and 鈥渢he residency at Caltech, the chance to meet other students with similar interests, and the opportunity for one-on-one mentorship were added bonuses that made the program a great fit.鈥�

Garrett worked at Avery on a project in optical spectroscopy, the study of how light interacts with physical objects. He was assigned to devise a test method for the thin plastic film Avery developed that was able to change its opacity in response to an electrical current. Garrett explained:

We wanted to evaluate the effectiveness of the ‘transparent’ and ‘opaque’ states. Was ‘transparent’ actually see-through, or was it slightly blurry? Did ‘opaque’ still let some light through? Did it distort the images behind the film? Were the properties uniform across the surface of the film or did they vary from point to point? Did the properties stay constant with repeated switching, or were there changes from use? Most importantly, we wanted to attach numbers to each of these qualitative questions so that we could compare and rank different formulations for the film.

The test process I developed involved first photographing an image with and without the film, and then uploading that image to a computer to be analyzed. The bulk of my time was spent writing the code for the algorithms that analyzed the images. I had to devise the exact details of the metrics we wanted to measure, get the program running to compute them, and then calibrate my results against baseline measures we could get with other equipment in the lab. Then I had to streamline the process so it could be done quickly for dozens of samples, and have all the data presented neatly for comparison. It was a tall order for a sophomore with limited exposure to calculus, programming, image processing, and a number of other fields that could have made my life much easier. But because of the challenge, every success was all the more fulfilling, and I worked down to the final day to have a finished product I could genuinely be proud of.

As for working in an adult environment at such an early age, Garrett said that the resources available at Avery Research Center were amazing:

There was a moment in the first few days when I realized that not only did the equipment in the lab cost more than my house and everything in it, but I had free reign to use any of it, and if I needed help, a trained specialist was close at hand to point me in the right direction. That confluence of high tech and specialized knowledge is rarely seen even in the best funded of research universities, and seeing the possibilities at Avery was one of many experiences that led me away from academia and into a career in industry.

After that summer experience, Garrett approached his high school studies with a different perspective. He was better able to filter the lessons through the lens of practical application.

鈥淭oday I could redo my project in a few days better than I did in six weeks at Avery. But there鈥檚 no question that those hours of effort pushed me to where I am today.鈥�

To see where Garrett is today, read .

滨贰础鈥檚 – mentioned in this story 鈥� links gifted high school students from across the country with mentors who advance each participant鈥檚 skills through the application of knowledge and exposure to real world experiences. If Garrett鈥檚 experience sounds like something you would enjoy, !

Like this post? Please share!

Every gifted child has a unique story. The following story is part of a series of posts highlighting gifted children and adults we have found through 优蜜视频 programs, depicting the many faces of gifted. 滨贰础鈥檚 – mentioned in this story 鈥� links gifted high school students from across the country with mentors who advance each participant鈥檚 skills through the application of knowledge and exposure to real world experiences.

Garrett Marcotte
优蜜视频 Apprentice at Avery Research Center in 2004
Software engineer, Facebook

鈥淛ust go for it, because the earlier you gain experience, the greater the benefits you鈥檒l reap from that experience later on. Push yourself beyond your comfort zone, and never be discouraged by failure. Learn from it and do better next time, because you will improve.鈥� – Garrett Marcotte

As a high school sophomore, Garrett participated in 滨贰础鈥檚 Apprenticeship Program, working with Avery Research Center. Today, Garrett is a software engineer at Facebook, designing and writing the code that makes the popular social networking service work.

After high school, Garrett attended Princeton University and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science and Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering and minors in Computer Science and Robotics. While at Princeton, Garrett took every class he could in all subject areas because he 鈥渄idn鈥檛 want to miss out on any of it.鈥�

Garrett has worked in a variety of jobs, including internships at JPL and Google, a research position at USC, and as a teacher鈥檚 assistant and grader at Princeton. He also spent a summer trying (unsuccessfully) to launch an internet start-up company.

Garrett has been at Facebook for about 18 months and enjoys the work very much. He hopes to get involved again in a start-up company someday. 鈥淚鈥檓 particularly interested in applying technology to education, politics, non-profits, and global issues, so I could easily see myself doing something in that area. But there鈥檚 so much exciting innovation going on all around me every day that I鈥檓 really just trying to keep pace with all the opportunities and go wherever I can have the most impact and really make a difference in the world.鈥�

Although a Facebook IPO is looming, Garrett focuses on the task at hand:

What really attracted me to Facebook was the opportunity to touch the lives of hundreds of millions of people on a daily basis, to contribute to a product that has changed the world, from the individual level of reconnecting friends and families up to the international level of helping millions organize for a common cause. In the Silicon Valley tech world there’s a strong belief that if you build a great product then you will be rewarded accordingly. Facebook is no exception, so the focus of all the employees that I know, from Mark Zuckerberg on down, is the same as it’s always been: to make Facebook the best that we possibly can and a real force for good in the world.

Garrett credits the Apprenticeship Program with giving him a huge jump start on his life path in several ways:

First, it helped me evaluate my interests. The fact that I signed up for a chemistry program but ended up spending most of time programming and working with electronics made it pretty clear where my real passion lay. And it was due to the diversity of projects available and freedom in selecting a project that I was able to reach that realization. Second, the program was a stepping-stone to future opportunities. The experience of owning a project, driving an end-to-end solution, and working within all the constraints of a real-world environment formed a central part of my college applications and job interviews for several years after the program. Finally, I jumped several years ahead of the curve in the field of signal processing, and in particular the most important software program in that field, Matlab. Most of my peers had no exposure to either of these until college, and because of that I was prepared for higher level courses and more advanced opportunities at a younger age. For example, I鈥檓 certain that I would not have been able to intern at JPL right out of high school if it hadn鈥檛 been for the skills I picked up during the Apprenticeship Program.

Although Garrett doesn鈥檛 see the other Apprentices on a regular basis, their paths have crossed a few times. 鈥淭he shared experience of the Apprenticeship program really is a common bond that ties us together even after several years.鈥�

For more about Garrett’s Apprenticeship at Avery Research Center, read聽.听

There are still聽spots available for our Apprenticeship Program in Los Angeles and San Diego. !

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