TECH TALENT POOL : STARTUPS GET CREATIVE IN RECRUITING INTERNS AS THEY ARE COMPETING AGAINST HOUSEHOLD NAMES SUCH AS GOOGLE AND AMAZON

Melaney Chen spends most of her day designing 3D models of camera parts that help Uber's autonomous vehicles see objects on the road. She then sends the specs downstairs to the machine shop, where they're built and tested.

"I'll design something today and have a prototype tomorrow or the next day after that," said Ms. Chen, a rising senior at Cornell University who is completing a mechanical engineering internship on Uber's hardware team.

With its sleek open-concept space and complim...