Tag: Advancing San Diego

Advancing San Diego Company Spotlight: ALD Technical Solutions

By Caroline Murray,

The Advancing San Diego (ASD) Internship Program launched in Summer 2020 in a remote-capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to provide up to 100 San Diego-based companies with fully subsidized interns. This program targets companies with 100 employees or less, which comprise 98 percent of all businesses in San Diego, employ nearly two thirds of San Diegans, and account for 70 percent of job growth. A key issue for these companies has been a lack of time and resources to recruit the skilled talent necessary to continue their growth.

As students are closing out their Fall engineering internship experiences, EDC is reintroducing this blog series to highlight the innovative local companies that comprise the second cohort of the program, and the interns they hosted.

In this feature, we sat down with Dr. Davoud Zamani, Technical Director at ALD Technical Solutions. A part of the second cohort of host companies, ALD Technical Solutions  is a cost-effective innovative solution provider that repairs, retrofits, and upgrades offshore and onshore infrastructures using high quality and high performance composite materials. ALD specializes in developing and supplying high performance, high temperature, high chemical resistance, and underwater composite systems. Additionally, the company provides material selection, engineering design, project planning, contractor/ installer training and approval, written specifications, on-site quality control, quality assurance, and technical oversight.

Read on for more from ALD Technical Solutions co-founder Dr. Davoud Zamani.

Tell us about your company and a little bit about yourself?  

ALD Technical Solution is a women-owned Cleantech startup founded in 2018 in San Diego. Our mission is to leverage the potential of advanced composite materials by developing new innovative technologies in infrastructure, power transmission lines, and clean and renewables energies. My background is in material science and composite materials. I am a co-founder of this company and work alongside other business partners who focus on different sections ranging from mechanical engineering, customer, and business development. On a day-to-day basis, I am the Technical Director and oversee the technological developments, most specifically for composite material applications.

Why was your company founded, and what are your current points of focus?  

My partner and I have many years of industrial background for advanced composite materials and saw there were a lot of room where we can use advanced composite materials. Advanced composite materials are typically used in aerospace applications but recently, developments have been made where applicable to other industries such as automotive, infrastructures, and renewable energy. ALD Technical Solutions focuses on developing new innovative applications of advanced composite materials. Within the infrastructure retrofit division, we develop advanced composite material technologies to upgrade and retrofit aged steel and concrete infrastructures. The other division is currently in development and focuses on the application of advanced composite materials in power transmission lines that can be used to increase the power capacity of power lines, which is needed due to significantly accelerating the increased penetration of renewable energies.

What does growth look like over the next few years?

Right now, we are conducting testing qualifications for a couple developments at UCLA Labs, which will help us determine ALD Technical Solution’s next steps. We see huge potential applications for the work that we are currently doing, especially foreseeing large developments within Southern California.

Tell us a little bit about your interns and the value they bring.

I wanted to start by thanking the for giving us this opportunity to host two interns for our company. I really appreciate the EDC’s assistance as they were very supportive and developed a very good program. We have two interns: one of them is a mechanical engineering student and focuses on mostly solid work, AutoCAD, designs, simulations, and modeling’s, while the other focuses on simulations, modeling, and customer demonstrations for our composite wire wrap technologies. Both are eager to learn, smart, and hard working. We have meetings twice a week where I get updates and discuss the projects. It absolutely is a good learning opportunity for them since they were exposed to industry and composite material applications.

In your opinion, what is special about San Diego’s science and technology community, and the talent that drives it?

San Diego is a nice place to live. We had the opportunity to live in different locations in the United States and Europe and we chose to live here in San Diego. San Diego is a tech hub, and we have UC San Diego and other colleges and universities that bring in a lot of talent. San Diego is also paying special attention to renewable energy and clean energy developments. Additionally, we have a composite center within the Department of Defense compounds in Southern California. All these factors played a role in why we chose to establish our company in the region. Lastly, San Diego does not deal with the infamous traffic issues of Los Angeles but still offers the various amenities of living in Southern California.

 

Learn more about Advancing San Diego and our internship program.

Company contact info and additional information:

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Meet the companies: Advancing San Diego, business interns

By Kate Gallagher ,

Through our Advancing San Diego initiative, EDC provides San Diego-based businesses with paid interns in high-demand fields. This program targets companies with 100 employees or less, which comprise 98 percent of all businesses in San Diego, employ nearly two thirds of San Diegans, and account for 70 percent of job growth. A key issue for these companies has been a lack of time and resources to recruit the skilled talent necessary to continue their growth. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, these challenges were especially salient.

With the help of our staffing partner Manpower, in 2020, EDC provided 38 San Diego companies and nonprofits with remote interns in the fields of software and engineering.

Now, we’re excited to announce 15 more companies and nonprofits who have been selected to host business interns starting this spring. Interns are sourced from programs designated as Preferred Providers of business talent, with internships running from March to July 2021.

Please join us in welcoming our next cohort of Advancing San Diego intern hosts:

  1. AndAlways is an E-commerce company that focuses on personalized wall art with all products printed and fulfilled in house.
  2. Benchmark Labs provides environmental forecasts for the Agricultural and Energy sectors by using IoT sensor data, publicly available weather information, and our proprietary machine learning-based technology (patent pending).
  3. Boys & Girls Club of San Marcos (BGCSM) promotes the wellness, health, and success of school-aged youth in the San Marcos community. Driven by its mission to inspire and enable all young people to realize their full potential, BGCSM offers targeted academic, collaborative, and recreational activities that encourage young learners to become the community’s next generation of responsive, purposeful leaders.
  4. Chicano Federation of San Diego County was founded by a tireless group of advocates dedicated to seeing advances in civil rights and civic participation. Today, those strong roots empower the Chicano Federation to serve diverse populations throughout San Diego County with programs that help children and families access vital and often life-changing services.
  5. Eton Bioscience, Inc. is a Biotech service company providing DNA sequencing, DNA molecule synthesis, and DNA purification services to local Biotech companies, universities, and research institutes. Operations began for Eton in 2003 and they have since expanded to four locations nationwide, with San Diego as its headquarters.
  6. GigaIO Networks is a Carlsbad startup in the software-defined infrastructure space. The company has invented technology to transform the static architectures of data centers into flexible pools of resources than can be reconfigured on the fly.
  7. LEARN academy is redefining workforce development by creating career pathways for anyone to enter and excel in the Tech industry. LEARN is a safe, inclusive, and brave space that fosters a community of compassionate and collaborative learners.
  8. Meri Consulting Services is a consulting firm founded to help tech startups and sales professionals book more sales meetings and increase revenue.
  9. Misadventure & Co. is a Vista-based craft distillery. Misadventure is the first distillery in the world to produce a carbon negative spirit. Its vodka is made by upcycling baked goods that are approaching their expiration date, ultimately saving them from ending in the landfills.
  10. Omni2Max, Inc. provides services to the Department of Defense and other high-profile customers in the areas of Cybersecurity, comprehensive program management, Information Technology, Engineering, military systems/range operations, logistics; and acquisition and contracting services.
  11. Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine (RCIGM) is transforming pediatric healthcare through Rapid Precision Medicine™ to improve the lives of children and families fighting rare disease. RCIGM optimizes ultra-rapid genetic testing to identify or rule out most genetic diseases in one swift step and empower the medical team at the patient’s bedside to provide personalized, life-changing treatment for the youngest, sickest patients.
  12. reVessel advances safe, sophisticated, and sustainable foodware designs for conscious people on the go, empowering them with tools to conveniently pack and preserve food anywhere. The company’s high-performance products support healthier, efficient, and conscientious daily habits aimed to improve global health and solve environmental issues.
  13. San Diego Loyal Soccer Club is a professional soccer franchise playing in the United Soccer League (USL) Championship, sanctioned by the U.S. Soccer Federation. The franchise was announced in June 2019, and began its inaugural season on March 7, 2020 at USD’s Torero Stadium.
  14. Trabus Technologies provides professional support services to the U.S. government and specializes in the development of technical solutions across three major portfolios: wireless Technologies, Artificial Intelligence, and Cybersecurity.
  15. Voltera lives at the intersection of people and new technologies, providing labor market intelligence, workforce optimization, and new technology development, incubation, and commercialization services to the commercial, federal, and state/local markets.

Hosting interns is an investment in the next generation of talent in San Diego. Through the Advancing San Diego internship program, local students gain valuable work experience while supporting our local small businesses. Students are paid $20 an hour and receive access to $500 in flexible funds to support their success in the workplace.

For our next round of internships, we will be recruiting small manufacturers who are interested in hosting students from machining and engineering technician programs. Applications to host interns in these fields will open in April 2021.

If your company is interested in hosting students in the next round, sign up here receive program announcements.

Advancing San Diego Intern Spotlight: Kailyn King, ZUM Radio

By Caroline Murray,

The Advancing San Diego (ASD) Internship Program launched this Spring in a remote-capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to provide up to 100 San Diego-based companies with fully subsidized interns. This program targets companies with 100 employees or less, which comprise 98 percent of all businesses in San Diego, employ nearly two thirds of San Diegans, and account for 70 percent of job growth. A key issue for these companies has been a lack of time and resources to recruit the skilled talent necessary to continue their growth.

As students close out their Summer internship experiences—and as we recruit a new cohort of companies and interns—EDC has launched this blog series to highlight the innovative local companies that comprise the first cohort of the program and the interns they hosted.

In this feature, we sat down with ZUM Radio intern and California State University (CSU) San Marcos student Kailyn King. A part of the inaugural cohort of host companies, ZUM Radio is a San Diego-based software company that manufactures radio-frequency transceivers for the amateur radio community. King is a computer science transfer student that began her studies at Oceanside’s MiraCosta College and is now in her first year at CSU San Marcos.

Read on for more from Kaylin.

How has your experience in the ASD Internship Program been, and what projects have been the most meaningful?

Applying for an internship through ASD and being connected with ZUM Radio proved to be a seamless transition from my coursework in community college to industry-based work. My supervisor Jim McLaughlin was excellent in relating the skills I had to new applications and opportunities for growth. My tasks included contributions to an open-source Android mobile application, revising a C program for a Raspberry Pi USB device, and writing guides on how to set up handheld transceivers for communicating on-air. Through this, I gained invaluable practical experience working for a project manager under a specific timelines. Above the technical knowledge, I learned the most about how to effectively communicate through email and daily Scrum meetings. Some of my biggest takeaways from this internships were practicing the management of expectations and keeping my colleagues informed about my progress on each project.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your day-to-day, and what challenges have you faced as a student?

Although I am no stranger to spending a lot of time in front of a computer, this new modality of fully-online learning has challenged my ability to dedicate time and energy throughout multiple classes. It is sometimes hard for me to focus as I typically stay at home for remote work and school. I now do my best to diversify my environment by studying in different locations, walking my dog through new routes, and running outside a couple times a week. We are all constantly subjected to the stresses of the pandemic, so it is important to have patience with ourselves as we work to the best of our abilities under these unusual conditions.

What advice would you give to students looking for a successful career in the local software industry?

Recognize that good company is all around you. Communicate often and be open with your colleagues, mentors, and potential employers. Your background, perspective, passion, and hard work will be recognized as you continue to reach out towards new and challenging opportunities.

We’re now accepting applications for small companies in need of business interns! Learn more about ASD and our internship program. 

Apply here by Dec. 18

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Meet our Preferred Providers of Business Talent and Apply for an Intern

By Kate Gallagher & Javi De Leon,

As the year comes to a close, Advancing San Diego partners remain committed to connecting San Diego students to local companies into 2021. We’re excited now to announce our Preferred Providers of business talent, and to open our application round for small companies in need of business interns.

First up: Meet the Preferred Providers of business talent

EDC, San Diego Workforce Partnership, and Advancing San Diego partners are excited to announce the following schools as Preferred Providers of business talent. Through a competitive application process, these Preferred Providers are colleges, universities, and certificate programs recognized by local employers for training the next generation of business professionals in San Diego.

Preferred Providers of business talent:

  • CSU San Marcos
  • MiraCosta College
  • National University
  • San Diego Mesa College
  • San Diego State University
  • UC San Diego Extension
  • University of San Diego

The Preferred Provider network serves as a resource to better connect employers to locally-serving education programs. Earlier this year, we announced the cohorts of Preferred Providers of software and engineering talent. View the full network of programs on EDC’s Preferred Provider map. Learn more about their respective programs

And finally, Do you need business interns?

We’ll pay them for you.

Through the Advancing San Diego Internship Program, small local companies can host remote business interns at no cost to them. All interns will be sourced from Preferred Provider programs mentioned above and will be paid $20/hour. If you are a small company (<100 employees) interested in hosting business interns in the spring and meet the eligibility criteria, please apply now! Twelve companies will be selected to host interns starting March 2021. Applications will close December 18, 2020.

Hear first-hand testimonials from some of the 34 small businesses who have already hosted interns in our blog series here.

Apply to host interns by December 18!

FAQ

Advancing San Diego Intern Spotlight: Emma Plum, Traits AI

By Bree Burris,

The Advancing San Diego (ASD) Internship Program launched this Spring in a remote-capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to provide up to 100 San Diego-based companies with fully subsidized interns. This program targets companies with 100 employees or less, which comprise 98 percent of all businesses in San Diego, employ nearly two thirds of San Diegans, and account for 70 percent of job growth. A key issue for these companies has been a lack of time and resources to recruit the skilled talent necessary to continue their growth.

As students close out their Summer internship experiences, EDC has launched this blog series to highlight the innovative local companies that comprise the first cohort of the program, and the interns they hosted.

In this feature, we sat down with Traits AI, Inc. intern and Mesa College student Emma Plum. A part of the inaugural cohort of host companies, Traits AI is a San Diego-based software company that creates animated artificial intelligence (AI) avatars that you can talk to, like you talk to Siri or Alexa. The company develops Alexa Skills, Google Assistant Actions, and chatbots for clients to help them better serve their customers; but its particular area of focus is on AI avatars that put a face to the voice using an animated avatar that looks like and sounds like the person they represent to help them extend their reach.

People are busy, especially those in in-demand professions like law, healthcare, consulting, and more. In these fields, there’s often only one point-person, but thousands of people who want a little bit of their time. While we cannot duplicate or replace those professionals, Traits AI can extend their reach by automating some of the repetitive parts of what they do on a daily basis. This frees them up to spend more time on things that require their unique skill set and expertise.

Read on for more from Emma.

How has your experience in the ASD Internship Program been, and what projects have been the most meaningful?

I enjoyed my time in the internship at Traits AI. My supervisor Brandon was very understanding and flexible with work schedules. My primary projects were working on Facebook Messenger bots/marketing campaigns and email marketing/automation. These helped my understanding of design in marketing greatly, as well as improved my time management skills.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your day-to-day, and what challenges have you faced as a student?

Online learning and the transfer to the online structure has been particularly challenging during this time. Online school is an entirely different beast. Scheduling seems more flexible but between keeping up with everything at home (work, school, clubs, social life), Zoom fatigue hits hard and you have to keep a strict schedule to keep up.

What advice would you give to high school students looking for a successful career in the local software industry?

Be assertive! You don’t know what you don’t know, so reach out to the people who do. Talk to a high school counselor or someone knowledgeable about job opportunities, interview skills, resume reviews, and industry knowledge. Networking can be a gamechanger; go out and email or connect on LinkedIn/social media with industry professionals as you look for advice or job openings. Chase after job opportunities, even the ones you think you won’t get because you never know where you’ll get your foot in the door. Even if you don’t get the job after the interview, that’s a great practice. And don’t be afraid to leave a job if the work environment is toxic.

Learn more about Advancing San Diego and our internship program.

Company contact info and additional information:

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Advancing San Diego Company Spotlight: Traits AI

By Bree Burris,

The Advancing San Diego (ASD) Internship Program launched this Spring in a remote-capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to provide up to 100 San Diego-based companies with fully subsidized interns. This program targets companies with 100 employees or less, which comprise 98 percent of all businesses in San Diego, employ nearly two thirds of San Diegans, and account for 70 percent of job growth. A key issue for these companies has been a lack of time and resources to recruit the skilled talent necessary to continue their growth.

As students close out their Summer internship experiences, EDC has launched this blog series to highlight the innovative local companies that comprise the first cohort of the program, and the interns they hosted.

In this feature, we sat down with Brandon Bosse, Founder and CEO at Traits AI, Inc. A part of the inaugural cohort of host companies, Traits AI is a San Diego-based software company that creates animated artificial intelligence (AI) avatars that you can talk to, like you talk to Siri or Alexa. The company develops Alexa Skills, Google Assistant Actions, and chatbots for clients to help them better serve their customers; but its particular area of focus is on AI avatars that put a face to the voice using an animated avatar that looks like and sounds like the person they represent to help them extend their reach.

People are busy, especially those in in-demand professions like law, healthcare, consulting, and more. In these fields, there’s often only one point-person, but thousands of people who want a little bit of their time. While we cannot duplicate or replace those professionals, Traits AI can extend their reach by automating some of the repetitive parts of what they do on a daily basis. This frees them up to spend more time on things that require their unique skill set and expertise.

Read on for more from Traits AI founder Brandon Bosse.

Why was your company founded, and what are your current points of focus?  

You know that annoying feeling you get when you ask Siri or Alexa a question and she completely gets it wrong and has no idea what you just said? Yeah, we get annoyed by that, too! That is the underlying problem we fell in love with and seek to solve: people need better, more instant access to information. Of course the nuances of language are incredibly challenging to understand even for us people and, so far, understanding complex language is also beyond what AI models can do. That’s why we turned to crowd-sourcing responses as a stepping stone approach until natural language models like GPT-3 are able to grasp the nuances of language.

Our main point of focus now is on establishing product-market-fit to help in raising a pre-seed funding round. Most investors aren’t aware of the budding field of synthetic media and recent advances in China, New Zealand, and Canada, and it is our job to help demonstrate how AI avatars can be a benefit to modern society.

Tell us about your experience building a startup in San Diego. 

San Diego is an amazing place to start a tech company because it attracts so many brilliant people and has a thriving startup scene.

For example, in 2017, I joined the fall cohort of The Founder Institute, which was instrumental in getting Traits AI up and off the ground. Through networking with fellow graduates, I learned about the Small Business Development Center and The Brink where I have received mentorship and support, including connection to the ASD Internship Program. For the past two years, I have volunteered at the registration desk of San Diego Startup Week and have met some really amazing people!

There are also fun community events and meetup groups that have been a great way to socialize and meet other people interested in entrepreneurship, AI, and tech. I’ve enjoyed attending Triton Entrepreneur Night where I got to see how great pitching is done! And I’ve met some really smart and amazing people at The Machine Learning Society and The San Diego Machine Learning Meetup Group.

Has your company pivoted as a result of COVID-19?  

Yes, in March 2020 we began working on a new AI avatar/chatbot named Vita to help people with advanced care planning, like filling out an advanced directive. Since patients with COVID-19 are typically in isolation, having an AI avatar help them navigate their healthcare choices makes sense so that healthcare staff aren’t exposed any longer than necessary. Vita is able to take as long as the patient needs to talk about and answer questions related to advanced care planning.

Tell us a little bit about your interns and the value they bring.

We have been lucky enough to work with four interns through the program and they have all brought their own unique talents to the team. Their education in programming, web development, social media, and creative writing have helped the company advance toward our goals. I have found them to be professional, responsible, and hardworking even during this time of remote work and I am grateful to have them on the team.

In your opinion, what is special about San Diego’s science and technology community, and the talent that drives it?

California has always been the land of dreamers—people who dare to DREAM BIG and make their dreams come true. It also attracts open-minded, outside-the-box thinkers who don’t always fit into mainstream society. I see many dreamers, open-minded, outside-the-box thinkers in San Diego and THAT is what makes it a great science and tech community.

I think Steve Jobs put it best when he said, “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes…the ones who see things differently—they’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Learn more about Advancing San Diego and our internship program.

Company contact info and additional information:

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Advancing San Diego Intern Spotlight: Paul Krupski, Perspectium

By Bree Burris,

The Advancing San Diego (ASD) Internship Program launched this Spring in a remote-capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to provide up to 100 San Diego-based companies with fully subsidized interns. This program targets small businesses with 100 employees or less, which comprise 98 percent of all businesses in San Diego, employ nearly two thirds of San Diegans, and account for 70 percent of job growth. A key issue for these companies has been a lack of time and resources to recruit the skilled talent necessary to continue their growth.

As students close out their Summer internship experiences, EDC has launched this blog series to highlight the innovative local companies that comprise the first cohort of the program, and the interns they hosted.

In this feature, we sat down with Paul Krupski, ASD software intern at Perspectium. A part of the inaugural cohort of host companies, San Diego-based, minority-owned SaaS company Perspectium was founded in 2013 by David Loo, the founding developer of ServiceNow. The company now also has offices in San Jose, New York, and London.

Paul, start by telling us a little about yourself.

I transferred from Oceanside-based MiraCosta Community College to Brown University where I’ll be finishing my degree in computer science with a focus in artificial intelligence and a minor in finance. In the professional world, I hope to work in the fintech sector applying the latest technologies to the financial industry. Interning at Perspectium gave me a firsthand look at how third party tech companies can offer SaaS to companies of all industries, saving them time and money by handling their informational needs. I hope to take what I’ve learned through this internship and use it towards my future of applying computer science to finance.

How has your experience in the ASD Internship Program been, and what projects/assignments have been the most meaningful?

I have had a very positive experience while participating in the ASD Internship Program. The most meaningful projects that I completed while working at Perspectium were instances where I would be directly interacting with several data bases to send and receive information from a web application.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your day-to-day, and what challenges have you faced as a student?

COVID-19 has affected my routine as a student by causing my semester at Brown to be completely online. Although this has been a challenge, I’ve been fortunate in that it has not hindered my ability to plan my academic goals and advance forward to my future career.

What advice would you give to high school students looking for a successful career in the local software industry?

Be an active learner both in computer science and professional etiquette. Be sure to research and practice for the interviewing process.

Get in touch with Perspectium:

Learn more about the Advancing San Diego Internship Program

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Advancing San Diego Company Spotlight: Family Proud

By Bree Burris,

The Advancing San Diego (ASD) Internship Program launched this Spring in a remote-capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to provide up to 100 San Diego-based companies with fully subsidized interns. This program targets companies with 100 employees or less, which comprise 98 percent of all businesses in San Diego, employ nearly two thirds of San Diegans, and account for 70 percent of job growth. A key issue for these companies has been a lack of time and resources to recruit the skilled talent necessary to continue their growth.

As students close out their Summer internship experiences, EDC has launched this blog series to highlight the innovative local companies that comprise the first cohort of the program, and the interns they hosted.

In this feature, we sat down with Jaden Risner, CEO and Co-Founder at Family Proud. A part of the inaugural cohort of host companies, Family Proud is a San Diego-based, Veteran-owned and operated company that provides a care management platform which connects patients and families to a community and resources critical to their care, in a time of need.

The platform is secure and easy-to-use, and allows families to communicate to their support network, receive support through our care registry, and communicate with others in similar situations through our peer network. Family Proud provides a foundation for families to receive support and love, and enhance care for their loved one.

Why was your company founded?  

Family Proud started from a place of love. Our mission has always been to ensure no family need goes unmet and that’s why every day we strive to help as many people as possible with all the love we have to give.

Family Proud is inspired by both co-founders’ personal experiences. I spent 12 years of active duty with the Navy as a helicopter pilot. On one of my deployments, my mother had a heart attack and I was confronted with the struggles of remote care. Several deployments later, my father was diagnosed with cancer. I ended up becoming my mother’s informal caretaker and have personally experienced the burdens of care.

My co-founder Clay was a USMC staff sergeant and was diagnosed with cancer in April 2008. Four months later, after undergoing chemotherapy, Clay’s cancer went into remission. But when his cancer came back a year later, and he was given six months to live, the 13-year Marine Corps veteran set a new goal, the Iron Man. A clinical trial at UC San Diego is ultimately what saved his life, and he went on to compete in the Ironman World Championship triathlon in Hawaii in 2010 shortly after his terminal cancer discharge. Clay committed himself back to patient care, became a patient advocate, and went back to school. Clay is now a healthcare executive and Family Proud’s Chief Strategy Officer.

Tell us about your experience building a small business/startup in San Diego. What resources, services, and/or organizations were most valuable for supporting your Family Proud’s growth?

San Diego has a great startup ecosystem. From academia to events and coworking spaces, Family Proud has been fortunate to lean on the community to support our early growth. The ASD Internship Program is an example of the collaborative support available in San Diego—working together to support innovation, development, and growth for the greater San Diego economy.

Has your company pivoted as a result of COVID-19?  

Although our initial market focus was on the pediatric cancer and Veteran communities within the San Diego region, COVID-19 has opened our service aperture to a far greater audience in need. For example, to broaden our impact, we rolled out our “Digital Care Kit” program—a custom PDF e-package consisting of care registry credit, relevant resources, products, services, lessons learned, and peer connections based on the recipient’s location and adversity. Family Proud vets families in need and connects them with a care kit, which has been sponsored by a generous donor. To request or sponsor a Family Proud Digital Care Kit, please visit our website.

Tell us a little bit about your interns and the value they bring.

As a small business in San Diego, we’ve been fortunate to receive consistent news/opportunities from the City and EDC newsletters. The timing of the launch of the ASD Internship Program happened to coincide with our product development schedule. Our software developer intern, Shaeli, was an amazing addition to the technology team. She brought a fresh, outside-the-box perspective, was resilient and flexible to the new virtual/remote collaborative environment, and always approached her weekly tech sprint challenges with a positive and determined attitude. Family Proud was very lucky to have Shaeli onboard with us this Summer!

Company contact info:

Learn more about Advancing San Diego and our internship program.

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Advancing San Diego Intern Spotlight: Anna Kelley, Tourmaline Wireless

By Bree Burris,

The Advancing San Diego (ASD) Internship Program launched this Spring in a remote-capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to provide up to 100 San Diego-based companies with fully subsidized interns. This program targets companies with 100 employees or less, which comprise 98 percent of all businesses in San Diego, employ nearly two thirds of San Diegans, and account for 70 percent of job growth. A key issue for these companies has been a lack of time and resources to recruit the skilled talent necessary to continue their growth.

As students close out their Summer internship experiences, EDC has rolled out this blog series to highlight the innovative local companies that make up the first cohort of the program, and the interns they hosted.

In this feature, we sat down with Anna Kelley, ASD intern at Tourmaline Wireless. A part of the inaugural cohort of host companies, Tourmaline Wireless is building the future of decentralized wireless telecommunications. The Oceanside-based company provides resilient, off-grid solutions based on mesh networks, 4G LTE, and Iridium satellite.

Tell us about yourself.

Hi my name is Anna, and I was a second-year student at San Diego Mesa College when I came across the ASD internship opportunity. I recently transferred to New York University to pursue a Computer and Electrical Engineering degree.

How has your experience in the ASD Internship Program been, and what projects/assignments have been the most meaningful?

The hands-on experience that I obtained while interning at Tourmaline Wireless exceeded all of my expectations. During this internship, I had an opportunity to get hands-on experience with different programming languages and to work on debugging and troubleshooting software defects. Since it was my first internship in the engineering field, I was worried that I was lacking in technical skills. However, my internship supervisor Paul Victorine was so supportive and he made it so easy for me to participate in all the activities during this internship. It was such an amazing learning experience for me and I will continue educating myself in these areas to grow my confidence.

See Paul’s ASD interview here

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your day-to-day, and what challenges have you faced as a student?

The most challenging part about being a student during COVID-19 was a transition to online learning because not every class can be fully online. For example, my chemistry lab was replaced with five minutes of YouTube videos and it was not the same experience anymore.

What advice would you give to high school students looking for a successful career in the local software industry?

I would recommend participating in different clubs, programs, and getting an internship as soon as possible. This year I participated in several programs with NASA (L’Space Academy and NCAS, all remote) and it was not only fun, but also a great experience that I can put on my resume.

Visit Tourmaline Wireless on web and Instagram.

Learn more about Advancing San Diego and our internship program.

Advancing San Diego Company Spotlight: Tourmaline Wireless

By Caroline Murray,

The Advancing San Diego (ASD) Internship Program launched this Spring in a remote-capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to provide up to 100 San Diego-based companies with fully subsidized interns. This program targets companies with 100 employees or less, which comprise 98% of all businesses in San Diego, employ nearly two thirds of San Diegans, and account for 70 percent of job growth. A key issue for these companies has been a lack of time and resources to recruit the skilled talent necessary to continue their growth.

As students are closing out their Summer internship experiences, EDC is rolling out this blog series to highlight the innovative local companies that comprise the first cohort of the program, and the interns they hosted.

In this feature, we sat down with Paul Victorine, CTO and Co-Founder at Tourmaline Wireless, who hosted two ASD interns. A part of the inaugural cohort of host companies, Tourmaline Wireless is building the future of decentralized wireless telecommunications. The Oceanside-based company provides resilient, off-grid solutions based on mesh networks, 4G LTE, and Iridium satellite.

Why was your company founded, and what are your current points of focus? 

I started the company at the beginning of 2019, after having worked for a Tier-1 wireless operator for nearly 20 years. I jumped at the opportunity to start my own consulting business, leveraging an extensive background in deploying and optimizing cellular networks. Tourmaline is currently developing a new gateway product that will allow localized mesh networks to connect to geographically separated networks across the globe. This gateway will allow neighborhoods and communities affected by natural disasters to continue communicating with their loved ones. This allows for the sharing of hyper-local information and will support offline payment remittances in far-off corners of the world. It might even provide hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail a means of “checking-in” with friends and family at various mile markers. There are many use-cases we envision for the mesh gateway, and we are excited to see how our customers anticipate using the device too!

Tell us about your experience building a small business in San Diego. What resources, services and/or organizations were most valuable in supporting Tourmaline’s growth?

Building a startup in San Diego has been a great experience overall! Valuable resources include following San Diego Regional EDC, Innovate78, and the City of Oceanside. There is a ton of talent here in San Diego – largely coming out of the many colleges and universities spread throughout the county. There is also a surprising amount of resources available here that help support small business. I’ve been really impressed with all the grants, loans, and positive encouragement broadcast daily from San Diego Regional EDC.

How has your company pivoted as a result of COVID-19?

As a result of COVID-19, we decided to go all-in and focus exclusively on new product development as our day-to-day consulting jobs (designing, installing, and optimizing cellular in-building equipment) were mostly sidelined due to COVID-19.

Tell us a little bit about your interns and the value they bring.

We are currently hosting two college interns through the ASD program, who you’ll hear from in another blog post. One intern is soon graduating from UC San Diego, with a BS in Computer Science. Our second intern will be starting her Junior year at NYU, as a transfer from Mesa College, also studying Computer Science. The internship experience was definitely a challenge given its fully remote format. Plus, it was our first time hosting interns, but it turned out to be a rewarding experience for all of us. They helped troubleshoot and improve our existing software codebase, adding new features and functionality. We were able to meet up in-person (socially distanced, of course) for a field day of wireless range testing at Balboa Park. It was a fun experience and I think it helped the interns better understand the capability of wireless mesh communications.

In your opinion, what is special about San Diego’s science and technology community, and the talent that drives it?

San Diego has historically been a technology-driven community, from the early days with the focus on military and defense (companies like General Dynamics) to the early 2000’s being a wireless hotbed (including Qualcomm, Nokia, etc). Now we are starting to see software really taking hold here, with companies like Apple opening offices and building out their local workforce. San Diego really is the perfect choice for STEAM students to select for college and then stay to launch their careers.

Visit Tourmaline Wireless on web and Instagram.

Learn more about Advancing San Diego and our internship program.