Joey Hudy: From High School Kid to Celebrity Maker to Intel Intern (Video)

Video Joey Hudy: From High School Kid to Celebrity Maker to Intel Intern (Video) 32

Posted by Roblimo on Tuesday September 30, 2014 @06:30PM from the did-you-do-anything-this-slick-in-high-school? dept.

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Timothy Lord met Joey Hudy at an Intel Dev Forum. Joey is possibly the youngest intern Intel has ever hired, but he's made a big splash in the 'Maker world', so having him around is probably worth it for the PR value alone. Joey is obviously pretty bright -- he's been called one of the 10 smartest kids in the world -- but let's face it: he's had a lot of luck to help him along. Not many high school kids get invited to White House science fairs and demonstrate their air cannons to the president. (Alternate Video Link)

Timothy Lord: Joey, you are an intern at Intel.

Joey Hudy: Yes.

Timothy Lord: And you are fairly young for that. Can you talk about that?

Joey Hudy: Yeah, so I was 16 at the time when I was doing a talk at Rome Maker Faire, and I did the talk, and afterwards, I guess BK Brian Krzanich the CEO of Intel saw the talk and he came up to me afterwards and said I should hire you. The next thing.

Tim: What did you talk about at Maker Faire that you got this kind of offer?

Joey: I was actually... I didn’t bring anything with me to that one. I was just doing a talk on how I became a maker and how other people can do the same thing and do what I have done. And later on at the convention he came up to me and said, I should hire you, and a week or two later I got an email saying the paperwork is ready and come work at Intel.

Tim: Now you live in a state, Arizona, where it is hard to get around without a car?

Joey: Yes.

Tim: Could you drive? Have you finally got your intermediate yet?

Joey: No, I actually just two weeks ago got my permanent and have done as minimal driving as I can.

Tim: Safety?

Joey: Safety reasons and I get really paranoid in the car.

Tim: You don’t live actually in the same town as the Intel Office in Chandler, or Ocotillo?

Joey: No. My office is in Chandler and I am around an hour away in Anthem.

Tim: Can you talk a little bit about the maker scene in Arizona and how that led to being mobbed?

Joey: Well actually I didn’t know about making the maker when I first started off when I was living in Arizona. It was actually from a phone call from a man called Jeff Coda who worked at Lenco Electronics and he convinced my parents to take me to my first maker faire. And then that’s when I started to know that there are these places like Heatsync Labs which is a hackerspace in Arizona. And everything just unfolded from there.

Tim: Is your interest more in hardware sort of thing or in software or both?

Joey: I am more into the hardware. I find programming a little bit more tedious, I guess you could say. I can do a little bit of it, but when it comes in all complex things and longer things, I have difficulty with it, I really need to learn how to programs.

Tim: What are some examples of the kind of the hardware projects that you are working on?

Joey: Right now, I am working on a full body 3D scanner. So that’s a lot of hardware wise getting the motors and up like that going and the software of it just the Galileo motors go up and down and make sure that the electronics are all correct. Previously, I built a 10 x 10 x 10 RGB LED cube, running also Galileo on that, actually it was one of the more intense electrical works I have done. Because that was running around 60 W I think it was like of electricity and make sure you don’t burn out your Galileo board while you are doing that.

Tim: You sound like you are speaking from experience?

Joey: Yeah, I burned out around eight or something like that.

Tim: Good to have a corporate background.

Joey: Yeah.

Tim: Joey, talk about the 3D scanner what kind of technology are you actually scanning with?

Joey: So I am using Intel’s new real sense scanner in the build. So then I have a Z axis that just takes the sensor up and down and then you have turntable that rotates you around. And so then it gets sent to an either microfeeder or maybe like a ____3:06 something like that I haven’t decided yet.

Tim: Is it a person scanner?

Joey: Yeah, it is a full wide 3D person scanner. So you will stand you will walk on to this little gear, I will rotate you around and the scanner will go up and down, it will scan you whilst you are doing that, and then you will able to walk away with a 3D model of yourself.

Tim: Excellent. When you are this young and an intern a lot of people are going to be very curious about the practicality of what can happen. Because a lot of people would love to be an intern at a tech company butthey can’t do that. What are the logistics that allowed this to happen for you?

Joey:

Tim: What’s your school schedule like and how did you get away to your time to fit into it?

Joey: Luckily, I am a senior this year at my high school, and I only have three 1-hour classes each week, and it is Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And because of that I have Tuesday and all the extra time in the evening to get Intel work done, and also, the majority of the classes are online, so really that helps that a lot to be able to do what I am doing now.

Tim: Can you talk about your school for us a bit? Because most people don’t have an online school yet?

Joey: Yeah, my school actually isn’t online. It is called Herberger Young Scholars Academy. It is on West ASU Campus. So it is Cambridge based so everything... it is all accelerated. So like last year, I did all my high school for humanities, and then did all my high school sciences in one year. It is really stressful but it is really nice and you are surrounded by a whole bunch of other kids that are school based and they are all really smart kids. So if you didn’t get one subject, they can help you out with that, and we all interchange and help each other. So it is a school with 60 kids, so it is fantastic.

Tim: Do you think that that kind of education and doing what you are doing by being an Intern—is that more valuable than you could find in a regular school? It sounds like by far, in a way, it is.

Joey: Oh yeah. I went to Boulder Creek High School before,which is a high school that is in Anthem. I did that for a month. And then I was at New York Maker Faire actually. Somebody told me about Herberger, and I was like holy cow that is awesome. I can get out of here! Because I am in a school that has 2000 kids. I took the engineering class there but it wasn’t really engineering it was more of the right model or something like that. So then I came to this school, and I started off my first—they call them waves instead of grades, doing science and it was all hands on based, and then I could do extracurricular and I went to SIGGRAPH because of it and I am now friends with one of the ASU professors that is in digital culture, which is an awesome class.

Tim: If kids or parents with kids are interested in this type of experience, what would you recommend either in preparation, or how to go about finding internships?

Joey: So probably get started by going to Maker Faire. I would suggest going to Bay Area and start making contacts with people like get a mentor something like that, that’s how I started off. I got someone to teach me how to do Arduino and stuff like that and just everything unfolded from there. A opportunities, well, once you have gained those skills, and more options you will show and the younger you start the best, there is no limit to the age that you can start out on, and so just go do it, and you will find a path will unfold.

Tim: If people want to see more of your own project do you have a YouTube channel, or a website?

Joey: I have a YouTube channel but it doesn’t really have anything on it. I have a blogspot and it is lookwhatJoeyysmaking/blogspot.com. That’s mainly where I post it. And then other social media ones.

Tim: Open ended question: What’s next for Joey?

Joey: Sorry.

Tim: What’s next for you?

Joey: Right now I am heading to New York and then Rome and so I don’t know where my next project will be at. I have to ask my supervisors what they want me focused on, if they want me to do another big build or if they want me to do something that is easier for other people to get started on. So depending on that, that’s where I will find out.

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