Role Models in Science & Engineering: Jawed Karim -- Computer Science Innovator

--Co-creator and co-founder of YouTube with partners Chad Hurley and Steven Chen

--One of the first computer engineers behind the success of PayPal, the online payment service

--Recently started his own internet service, Youniversity Ventures

Even as a teen, Jawed Karim displayed considerable talent and genius in the realm of computer science. Among his early feats: As a high school senior, while creating a website for a research lab at the University of Minnesota, he came up with a complex computational process to help the lab map the atomic structure of a crucial protein -- a process that is now standard in the field. So, it came as no great surprise to close friends and family when Jawed made international news in 2005 as the co-developer of YouTube, the wildly successful video-sharing website, which was launched with his two partners that year. Jawed was the partner who originally came up with the concept of YouTube after expressing frustration over not being able to readily access some sought-after internet videos he had heard about.  A self-described computer nerd, Jawed, born in 1979 in Germany, immigrated to Minnesota with his family as a high school freshman. His Bangladeshi father is a chemist at 3M, and his German mother is a biochemistry research professor at the University of Minnesota. Jawed holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Master's in Computer Science from Stanford University. He recently started his own internet enterprise called Youniversity Ventures which provides students and other first-time entrepreneurs with guidance and resources in starting their own business.

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