Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is hosting a 10-week virtual summer intern program that connects undergraduate students with learning opportunities in computer science, computational science, and mathematics. The Pathways to Computing Virtual Internship Program will be offered as a virtual experience so that students can intern at ORNL from anywhere in the United States. Students will be mentored remotely by ORNL research and technical staff at the top of their fields in a national lab environment. Interns also have the opportunity to make contributions to projects in a wide range of domains, including computer science, health data science, and climate science. If selected, participants could be granted access to ORNL’s leadership-class facilities, including Summit, the nation’s most powerful supercomputer, and pick up valuable skills necessary for a successful career in cutting-edge computing fields.
Yuya Kawakami took part as one of the program’s first interns in 2019. His work helped support SIGHT, an exploratory data visualization, and analysis tool.
“I learned about graphics processing units and general-purpose GPUs, different parallel programming models, and about high-performance computing as a whole,” Yuya said. “I learned a lot from other interns and their projects – talking to them every day helped me expand my knowledge of computing, especially in areas of machine learning. Participating in the Smoky Mountains Data Challenge was also a great experience.”
He hopes to continue his research at ORNL as he pursues his graduate degree.
“The experience has definitely helped me solidify my interest in computing and HPC,” Yuya said. “I can now confidently say this is my field of interest moving forward. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in computing, regardless of your level of comfort. There’s so much you can learn at a place like ORNL, and the opportunities are endless.”
Who Should Apply
As part of the Pathways program, the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate is committed to increasing diversity among interns and staff. We believe the teams required to solve the nation’s most pressing science challenges work best by bringing together a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives.
Applicants should have an interest in one or more of the listed primary focus areas. The statement of purpose and description of preferred focus areas provide an opportunity for the applicant to describe their connection to and goals related to these areas. Previous experience is not a requirement for participation.
We look forward to receiving applications representing diverse experience levels and backgrounds in the following areas:
• Artificial intelligence
• Machine learning
• Data science
• Astrophysics
• Bioinformatics
• Computational biology
• Computer science research (such as compilers, programming models, and programming tools)
• Cybersecurity
• Earth and atmospheric sciences
• Climate science
• High-performance computing operations (such as system administration, storage systems, system and user support)
• Performance profiling and optimization
• Quantum computing
• Software engineering
• Visualization
• Other computer science areas (such as computer-science theory)
• Other computational areas (such as material science and chemistry)
Program Details
• Start date of June 7, 2021
• End date of August 13, 2021
• Stipend rate of $600 per week
• Stipends are paid on a biweekly schedule, and there will be a delay after starting before you receive your first stipend. You should be prepared to cover all expenses for the first 30 days of your appointment.
• For virtual appointments, dislocation allowance of $1,500 for the entire 10-week appointment period
• Dislocation allowance is paid with the first stipend payment and is meant to provide funds to offset the costs of living during the appointment period.
