UConn Magazine: Capstone Students Design Themselves into Coveted Tech Jobs
If you’ve compared cell-phone costs at a Spectrum/Charter kiosk, played around on a display screen at a BMW dealer designing your own dream car, or compared features on a series of premium hot tubs, you’ve likely experienced the work of Reality Interactive in Middletown. The high-tech firm creates customer-focused, digital display technology experiences for Fortune 500 and other multinational companies, including BMW, Nintendo, Titleist, Behr Paint Company, and P.C. Richard & Son. “What we accomplish here is breathtaking,” says Jack Nork ’91 (CLAS), the company’s implementation director. “When I see the finished product, it is actually cooler than I ever thought. We have smart, highly educated employees who love to learn new things and then apply them.’’
Last semester those employees included interns Deepthi Pai Manoor ’24 MS and Tharun Palla ’24 MS, two of 39 students who took part in a Reality Interactive–sponsored Capstone project for the School of Business’ master’s in business analytics and project management. Nork suspected that the company could both offer graduate students a hands-on experience in the real world and, in turn, expose the company to a talent pipeline. CEO Jim Ligotti agreed.
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