Meet UDig’s 2025 Intern Cohort

This summer, four talented students from universities across the Southeast joined UDig as interns, bringing curiosity and fresh perspectives to the table. 

• Sarah Galloway is studying Industrial Design at Georgia Institute of Technology. 
• Vansh Joshi is a Computer Science major at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. 
• Kat Leon is pursuing Computer Science at Virginia Commonwealth University and joined UDig as a Data Analyst Intern. 
• Shiv Patel is double-majoring in Computer Science and Applied Statistics at the University of Virginia, working with us as a Software Engineer Intern. 

Over the course of the summer, these four came together to build an impressive full-stack application that mimics the functionality of Google Lens—designed to help associates quickly identify visual products and suggest similar items.  Along the way, they honed their technical skills, collaborated closely with a real client, and learned firsthand what it means to deliver a solution as a team. 

Of course, the internship wasn’t all code and meetings. From mentorship sessions to real client collaborations, here’s a behind-the-scenes look at a day in the life of UDig interns Sarah, Vansh, Kat, and Shiv.  

Our Intern Project

In our internship, we built an app that would act like how Google Lens works! Google Lens uses AI and reverse image search to identify what’s in an uploaded photo. It was built for a large company to assist their customer-facing associates to help identify an item and to see other similar items. It’s a vector-based image search full stack application that uses multiple database tables and is connected to their initial data to match a product. Together we used React, Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, TypeScript, and Figma for design. The app we created acts as a visual product identifier that could integrate into a current UDig project. We met with the client often and learned the importance of constant communication to keep the project moving and being honest with what we could deliver.

The internship wasn’t just the project! We had many events from Lunch and Learns to case studies and mentor roundtables. We all learned from our UDig mentors and teammates about how to strengthen our skills and how to manage working for a company.

Day in the Life of UDig Interns

Here’s what a typical day looks like for Sarah, Vansh, Kat, and Shiv. 

Morning 

SG: The Atlanta-based design team works remotely, which means I am able to have a slow start to the morning by making my coffee and breakfast, catching up on those last-minute changes from the day before, then hopping into our Daily Stand-Up meeting to give updates and set out plans for the day.   

VJ: As a fully remote intern based in Knoxville, TN, I usually start my mornings from home. After a quick breakfast of a protein shake and checking my calendar, I hop into our daily stand-up with the project team. It’s a great way to align with Sarah, Kat, and Shiv, and talk through our progress and blockers. Our Project Manager, Tate, led the stand-ups and helped us stay on track, giving us guidance and connecting us with resources when needed. After stand-up, I dive straight into coding, often working on the frontend and getting through the Jira board. 

KL: Since I’m not too far from the Richmond office, I go in at least once a week. If I do go into the office, I play with my dogs for a few minutes before I hop in the car and drive to the closest Dunkin to start the day with a strong iced coffee. Once I’m in the office, I get set up and prep for standup. When I am home, I make a cup of coffee and sit outside in the backyard with my dogs and soak up some sunshine before logging in. Tate was our fearless Project Manager who helped us in our standups and helped delegate work. He was a great resource for answering questions and connecting us with other UDig teammates. I also met with my mentor Josh, weekly to work through code errors and additional professional advice. He offered amazing insights and helped me understand my issues and walk me through solving them. 

SP: I live two hours away from the Richmond office, so most of the time, I work from home. However, a couple of times, I’ve driven to my university and commuted to the office from there. Regardless, I always start my morning with a big breakfast. Before the daily stand-up, I prepare the topics I need to discuss and any questions I have. After the stand-up, I organize the tasks I need to accomplish for the day, wrap up any work on features I may not have finished the day before, and begin development planning for the features I’ll be working on in our application. Every week, I have a meeting with my mentor, Jacob. He has been an incredible source of guidance, helping me not only with the projects I’m working on but also in developing a strong general skill set. We frequently discuss emerging technologies, especially the latest developments in generative AI. Sometimes, our conversations last nearly an hour as we dive deep into tech trends and share our past experiences. I’m truly grateful for the mentorship he has provided; it’s been both inspiring and invaluable.

Lunch Time

SG: I’ve been on a bit of a cooking kick lately! So during my lunch break, I like to try making something new each day. It’s a small routine that helps me reset and clearly divide my workday from my personal time. Since I work from home, the boundary between work and play can get a little blurred, but stepping away to cook, experiment with flavors, and eat something homemade gives me a sense of structure and creativity in the middle of the day. 

VJ: Around noon, I step outside for some fresh air and take a quick walk to reset. Then I heat up one of my meal-prepped lunches, throw on some music in the living room, and just relax for a bit before jumping back in. It’s a nice break to recharge before the second half of the day. 

KL: At home I have probably had a few snacks before proper lunch time. If it isn’t too hot, I take three of my dogs out for a walk and then make a quick bite of what I have in the kitchen. I treat lunch like a chopped challenge and make something in 30 minutes with things I wouldn’t normally put together. If I am in the office; I either find a quick place like Panera or Cava, or I have lunch with Shiv and we chat about school and tv.  

SP: During lunch, I take a short break to eat and recharge for the rest of the day. I make it a point to step away from my computer and give myself time to reset, so I’m refreshed and ready to dive back into work in the afternoon. I also try to take a walk or spend a few minutes outside to clear my mind and boost my energy.

Afternoon 

SG: After lunch is typically the busiest part of my day, filled with meetings with my project mentors and the design team. These sessions focus on discussing project updates and gathering constructive feedback to help improve our work. I primarily use Figma to create mockups and prototypes for the Intern Project, then collaborate with my team to bring those designs to life as interactive components. My mentors, Kelly May and Ann, have been instrumental in helping me organize my work and align my designs with UDig’s design standards and team workflows. 

VJ: After eating, I shift focus to testing features, debugging, or pushing new commits that I’ve been working on in the morning. I usually connect with Shiv in a Slack Huddle to plan out new features or work through any technical issues we’re facing. We brainstorm how to implement features cleanly and talk about connecting the features with the frontend and backend. The rest of the afternoon is typically spent coding, testing, and making sure everything integrates smoothly. Collaborating like this has helped me learn how real engineering teams communicate and iterate together. Once a week, I also meet with my mentor, Matt Wright, to talk about how things are going, discuss the project, and bring up any questions I have. He always gives thoughtful feedback and great advice on how to proceed. These check-ins helped me stay grounded and feel supported throughout the internship. 

KL: Recharged and ready for the rest of the workday, I prepare for any meetings with my mentor or the Data team. If I don’t have meetings, I am either doing a little bit of Udemy learning or reviewing new technologies that I learned about from the lunch and learns or from case studies. Learning from so many different people from UDig and being able to see how they use the tools has been miles more useful than what I’ve been learning in the classroom. Most of my focus is on looking at our client’s database and finding ways to optimize it and tidy it up for the app we are building. I’ve learned how to implement queries and review extensions to make managing their data easier! This is the first time working with something so vast and it’s honed my skillset.  

SP: After lunch is usually the busiest part of my day. By then, I’ve finalized my plans for the day and during this time spend more hands-on time in coding new features. This is the best part of my day as I am actively developing and seeing the features I have implemented come alive! I have gotten valuable experience in developing features that impact the entire full stack. For example, we implemented a user history feature that required architectural changes across the frontend, API, backend, and database to support its functionality. We also built internal tools to optimize our development process. Previously, data ingestion was slow and manual, but we developed a full-stack solution that significantly improved performance, making the process 10 to 20 times faster while also providing users with complete front-end access control. I often hop on calls with the other interns to either troubleshoot issues we’re encountering or collaborate on developing new features. Occasionally, this time is also filled with other meetings, such as mentor roundtables. 

After Work

SG: Living in Midtown Atlanta has allowed me to be close to and explore so many restaurants and fun things to do in the area. My favorite post-work activity is heading to the beltline and running a few miles down to Krog Street Market area that has such a wide variety of dinner and dessert options. 

VJ: After work, I usually take a quick nap to recharge. In the evening, I have dinner with my family and go on a walk with my parents, it’s a great way to unwind and catch up. Later, I head to the gym and get a solid workout in. When I’m back, I grab a quick post-workout snack, hop in bed, and wind down with a good thriller movie before calling it a night. 

KL: After work, I will do a little bit of yoga or do some terribly coordinated dance workout. Then I get ready to make dinner with my husband. Twice a week we host DND game nights, so we get ready to roll! On other nights I unwind with a little time playing a game on my switch or I watch something on my Netflix watchlist. Then I take a long walk with our dogs and husband to catch up on our days. 

SP: After work, I always try to recharge by going to the gym or playing basketball. After I come back, I will usually have dinner with my family. Later at night, I wind down by relaxing and making sure I’m well-rested for the next day. If I have time, I also work on some fun personal projects that I’ve been developing over the past year! 

Our Summer Takeaways

SG: One of the biggest takeaways from my internship was learning how to work effectively within a professional design process. As a self-taught Figma user, I gained a much deeper understanding of how to design within a team setting by using shared libraries, applying design systems, and organizing files in a way that’s scalable and developer-friendly. Working with Tate as our project manager also gave me valuable insight into how timelines, priorities, and communication are handled. Seeing how design fits into the bigger picture of project delivery helped me grow not just as a designer, but as a more collaborative and process-aware team member. 

VJ: One of the most valuable lessons I’m taking from this internship is the importance of clear communication, collaboration, and honest planning when working on a real project. I gained confidence working across both the frontend and backend thanks to our Project Manager, Tate, who consistently encouraged me to take on full-stack responsibilities and shared helpful resources to deepen my technical knowledge. My mentor, Matt Wright, also played a huge role in my development by giving me advice on technical challenges, helping me think like a proper programmer, and pushing me to grow as both a developer and communicator. This experience gave me hands-on exposure to building scalable applications in a real-world setting and taught me what it takes to contribute meaningfully within a team. 

KL: This summer was an amazing opportunity for growth and collaboration. I felt consistently supported by my fellow interns and all the UDig staff. My mentor Josh was very helpful in giving me a confidence boost, tips, and advice with the tools I was using, and he even shared fun things for me to investigate for side projects. As a non-traditional student reentering the world of a nine-to-five, but now in a role that fulfills me, has been incredible and empowering. I gained hands-on skills that will make me a stronger candidate in the tech industry and real-world experience that will help me deliver more successful projects in the future. 

SP: My biggest takeaway from this summer internship is being able to properly work and communicate ideas with a larger code base. As the internship progressed, our code base reached over 6000 lines of code. This resulted in it being hard to add new features without breaking anything, and we had to communicate efficiently to never overlap features.