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Intel hires 16-year-old prodigy

Amanda_Trudell
Employee
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Note from the editor: Last week, our CEO, Brian Krzanich (BK), made some incredible announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in his keynote. From wearables to a new chip, Edison, to fashion partnerships to a $1.3 million prize competition to ending the use of conflict minerals to recognizing some of the incredible innovators that use Intel technology, excitement and buzz filled the air! Among his announcements, he introduced the world to Joey, who at 16 is our youngest employee. Since we're focused on the people behind Intel, we thought we'd bring you the story behind Joey and how he ended up here. 

Guest blogger: Walden is from Intel’s Internal Employee Communications team.

16-year-old Joey Hudy. Photo by Gregory Hayes_MAKE. 16-year-old Joey Hudy. Photo by Gregory Hayes/MAKE.

You might say that 16-year-old math and engineering whiz kid Joey Hudy’s warm-up act was for U.S. President Barack Obama.

There, at the White House Science Fair last year, Joey demo’d for Mr. Obama the air cannon he’d built. “Congratulations!” exclaimed the President, after Joey fired a marshmallow over the heads of the press corps and smooshed it into a White House wall. (The video is on YouTube.)

But when the high school sophomore met Intel CEO Brian Krzanich (BK) at the Rome Maker Faire last October, an impressed BK did the President one better.

BK hired Joey on the spot.

Joey is a champion “maker” whom the editors of Brilliant.org recently named “one of the 10 smartest kids in the world.” In addition to building that marshmallow cannon (kid stuff), Joey has been doing more serious tinkering with Arduino boards (a popular platform for our new Quark chips) and selling them online. He also built a solar-powered computer in another science competition.

So last week—after previously dropping a thank-you note to BK—Joey attended New Employee Orientation (NEO) at Intel in Arizona.

He is the youngest person Intel has ever hired through our 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,” says Vaadra, U.S. Intern Program Manager in HR.

Unlike the 1,500 or so other interns we’ll hire in the U.S. this year, Joey does not yet have his driver’s license. His mom Julie drove him to NEO.

At the Intel campus in Chandler, Joey will be working in the New Devices Group’s Product Development organization—once school is out this summer. He’ll go back to high school in the autumn.

After he got home last week, Joey posted on his blog—lookwhatjoeysmaking.blogspot.com—his thoughts on becoming a new Intel employee.

“What a awesome place. It was so fun. I can't wait to start making cool stuff!!”

We can't either, Joey!