Our co-ops help keep the “engine” in engineering run smoothly! We asked them to fill out a quick questionaire and posted their responses here. See what kinds of things they are doing, and get to know them a little bit more:

Ahmed

What’s your favourite thing about SkyGrid Headquarters?
Having lunch with the team every day and being able to relax after several hours of coding. SkyHQ is like my home away from home.
So.. what have you worked on so far?
The splash page for the TouchTV launch as well as developing an analytics engine for both TouchTV and SkyGrid
Favourite moment at SkyGrid
Playing with Peter and watching movies with the team
What song describes your mood right now?
Sweet Disposition
What’s your most interesting favorite food?
I’m a boring eater. I like cake and chocolate. Chocolate cake is all I need.
I’m the best.

Alex

What brought you to SkyGrid?
Word of mouth from previous interns, SkyGrid offers a challenging and diverse workflow that provides a particular learning environment that I haven’t experienced anywhere else.
What has been the most unexpected thing you’ve learned while working here?
Culture shock. People in the Bay don’t talk about the weather, because it’s eerily consistent. Also I have developed an irritating tendency to :wq out of all text documents I am writing (+1 for vim reference).
What do you get to work on at SkyGrid?
Top secret projects involving smoke, mirrors, and reverse-engineering.
What do you like doing outside the office?
I split my free time rotating through playing musical instruments, computer games, Ruby, and generating and expressing strong opinions on topics ranging from economics to meteorology.
Favorite Holiday Food: Pumpkin Pie: it’s delicious.
Name one thing you’d like to do before you turn 50: Write a symphony.

Chris

What has surprised you the most about working at SkyGrid?
Thought I was going to learn a lot… but not this much!
What’s your favorite thing about Silicon Valley?
It’s always sunny!
What exactly do you do here?
Engineering solving mysteries!
What are three things you’d bring with you to a deserted island?
Ukulele (I’d finally learn how to play), Batman, Cliff bars
What’s the coolest place you’ve been or want to visit?
Coolest place I’ve been: India!
I want to go to: the Arctic!
Tea or Coffee? Tea

Jennifer

Most challenging thing you’ve worked on so far?
Putting the realtime in realtime anayltics
What’s the best thing about being a co-op?
Being given relevant, interesting work
When not hard at work, what are you doing?
Exploring! Also reading, music, and occasionally knitting scarves in the shape of Möbius stripes.
What’s your favorite animal of all time?
Penguins. Definitely penguins.
Favorite SkyCafe menu item? Lime Chicken
Any advice for future co-ops? Python is your friend.

Thank you for such an an amazing first week for Touchtv! While we hoped the design & product experience would really delight people, we had no idea Touchtv would spread this big this fast.

Let me share a few thoughts and highlights.

On the first day of launch, we’re honored you made Touchtv a Top 10 Entertainment App in less than 24 hours. What’s also amazing is that we’re also the #1 app in the entire App Store in Ireland and Greece! It’s humbling to see Touchtv next to Facebook, Angry Birds, and Skype.

We also want to say thanks for the thousands of tweets, facebook updates, and emails sharing all the happiness. The team loves listening to all the great ideas of what Touchtv can do next. If you haven’t already, let me know what you think by tweeting @kevinpomplun, visiting us on Facebook, or dropping the team a line at support@touchtv.me.

It’s also really interesting to see all the great ways people are writing about Touchtv. We enjoyed reading Scobleizer, TechCrunch, TIME and other articles that talk about what Touchtv means to how we all watch Touchtv. We just launched the press section to share some of our favorites.

From all of us on the team creating Touchtv…happy watching!

Kevin

We’re very excited today to introduce Touchtv (available free on the App Store). We designed Touchtv to bring together the magic of watching TV with the revolutionary iPad. Now you can literally watch what you want any time, anywhere.

Touchtv actually makes TV lighter. Touchtv is light enough you can hold it in your hands. It’s amazing to be holding your iPad and watching your favorite sports, entertainment, and news channels.

And it’s just great to personalize too. The Channel Guide is built right into your Touchtv. Simply add any channel you want and then touch it to start watching.

Also for the channels in Touchtv we’ve continued to take a partnership approach and are showing the exact programs our partners have made available. We think there’s a lot of great content to view and want to make sure everyone who’s a part of Touchtv is happy.

One of the other things I really like has become using Touchtv to see what’s on. I don’t have to keep clicking and clicking through each channel. I just turn on Touchtv and have a single seamless sheet of glass, that shows everything I want. Take a look.

It’s an all-new design that makes choosing what you want easier than ever before. Plus every time you turn on Touchtv it automatically and effortlessly shows you what’s new. Just like TV, it just works.

We’d love to hear what you like watching on and what you think by tweeting to @touchtv.

Thanks,
Kevin
@kevinpomplun

charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

Now you can get the latest news, tweets, and photos to stay up to date on how charity: water is bringing more clean water to more people in the world on SkyGrid.

Follow charity: water today by downloading SkyGrid on your Android or Apple device here.

Next, scroll down to the Design & Layout section, and tap on Grid View or List View.  Come back anytime to switch views!

You can customize your SkyGrid design by scrolling down and choosing Grid View or List View, add more items to Your News, or Share the App by tapping on the green ribbon.  Get the latest version of SkyGrid here.

Cheers,
April

Style has been created exclusively for SkyGrid, curated by Debra Scherer, Founder of The Little Squares, and former staff member of American, Italian, and French Vogue. Only Style on SkyGrid lets you stay up to date on all the hottest sources and fashion topics.

With just one tap, follow sources like W Magazine, Style Rookie, WWD, or topics like Miuccia Prada, The Duchess of Cambridge, and more.

Get Style on the Grid now! For both iOS & Android.

April

iCloud. Your Followed Interests are now automatically and effortlessly synced across all your iOS devices.  It’s been one of the most requested features since SkyGrid launched and we’re happy to be able to deliver it via iCloud.

iMessage. Having a new option to share breaking news and articles in your Following Grid is simply cool. Just tap the iMessage icon and you can instantly share what you just read.

Notification Center.  Receive alerts on key updates for the exact topics & sources you follow!

You can download the latest version here.

Brett

New design detail including updated badges, “new” ribbons, richer images in your Following Grid, cleaner and lighter design in What’s Hot, and Item Grids with easier to read sources and titles. Easier 1-tap following also now on iPhones.

Fast performance displaying images on all networks. Whatever network speed you’re on, you can now be assured that the app will perform great.

Alerts on topics you follow. Now you can get alerts when topics you follow, such as your favorite sports team, have new stories.

And last, a nice overlay tutorial showing navigation tips. Get it here.

Brett

• More Beautiful Images means more crisp and sharp images in every Grid.
• Natural Navigation means you can effortlessly swipe left & right from one Home screen to another and seamless up & down scrolling shows you more stories.
• Even More Interests To Follow. The updated Choose Your Interests Guide gives you Top 100 Topics, Top 100 Sources, and millions of topics you can follow with any keywords you want!
• The Great Green Ribbon. You can now tap the new green ribbon from anywhere to instantly add more topics or sources to your Following Grid.

You can get the new version here. We’d love to hear your feedback.

Brett