Summer Research
Over the summer, most of our students do research or participate in internships at companies and programs across the world. The department posts internship and summer job opportunities both on-line (to the CS-Students Google Group) and on the bulletin board outside room SCI E111.
Wellesley Science Center Summer Research Program: One of the popular locations for student summer research is the Wellesley Science Center Summer Research Program. The application deadline for the following summer is in February. In order to apply for a summer computer science project, you need to have found a summer project with a Computer Science faculty member. Some recent CS students who have participated in this program are Habiya Beg '07 (worked with Takis Metaxas in Summer '07), Karin To '06 (worked with Takis Metaxas in Summer '05) and Stella del Rosario '07 (worked with Brian Tjaden in Summer '05).
Undergraduate (REU) programs: In addition, there are many universities and colleges hosting NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) programs in the area of Computer Information Science and Engineering. Each school has its own deadline. Deadlines range from February through April, but many are March 1 or March 15. Some CS students who have participated in this program are Karyn Benson '06 (Harvey Mudd, Summer '05), Rebecca Shapiro '07 (Ithaca College, Summer '05), and Kristine Amari '05 (University of Colorado, Summer '04) , Paola Boettner '09 (Florida International University, Summer 08), Alya Solomon '09 (University of California, Santa Cruz, Summer '07, SUNY Binghamton, NY Summer '08). See the Intern Experiences page to what they thought about the REU. Our department was a partner for Binghamton University's REU program in the summer of 2011.
Distributed Mentor Project: The Computing Research Association's (CRA) Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) is accepting applications through February 15 for the Distributed Mentor Project (DMP). The objective of the DMP is to increase the number of women entering graduate studies in the fields of computer science and engineering. This highly selective program matches promising undergraduate women with a faculty mentor for a summer research experience at the faculty member's home institution. This experience is invaluable for students who are considering graduate school, providing them with a close-up view of what graduate school is really like and also increasing their competitiveness as an applicant for graduate admissions and fellowships. Vasumathi Raman '07 and Catherine Grevet '09 participated in the DMP summer program at Carnegie Mellon University.
Knapp Instructional Technology Summer Interns: Looking for a great chance this summer to learn about instructional technology, have some fun with your classmates, and eat the finest pizza we can find? Information Services looks for roughly 10 Knapp Instructional Technology Summer Interns to work with instructional technology staff and with faculty to develop instructional applications. Most, but not all, of these projects would be web-based. Christina Pong '09 and Ewelina Oleszek '10 were Knapp Interns in the Summer 2007 and developed this very site!
Bioinformatics and Bioengineering Summer Institute: The Virginia Commonwealth University's Bioinformatics and Bioengineering Summer Institute is a unique program that spans two summers and working with a faculty mentor at Wellesley in between. It is targeted at sophomores (and also juniors) who are curious about bioinformatics and bioengineering but don't necessarily have any background in this area. As it says on the website, consider applying to this program if:
- You don't mind being confused, but you do mind staying confused.
- You work well with people who are really good at what they do.
- You are really good at what you do.
- You're curious about bioninformatics and bioengineering.
No Wellesley CS student has participated in this program yet, but VCU is eager to have participants from Wellesley.
