Intern Experiences

Subscribe to the CS-Students Google Group for internship opportunities.

You can also check out the ACM and Purdue University pages.

Microsoft NERD Foundry Program, Designer
Emily Lin, '14, Media Arts & Sciences
As a design intern with Microsoft, I worked on front-end development and UX/Visual design. The summer before I was an undergraduate researcher at the MIT Media Lab, working on mobile application framework development.
Redfin, Product Manager
Kelsey Tempel , '13
At Redfin, I was able to take a small idea and build it up into a fully fledged social acquisition feature.
Booz Allen Hamilton
Kathryn Neugent , '10
I worked on the Modeling, Simulation, Wargaming and Analysis Team as a consulting intern. I mainly helped develop a questionnaire tool for the United States Navy using Microsoft Access, Visual Basic, and SQL programming. I learned a new programming language (Visual Basic) while also developing my "corporate skills." It was also exciting to get a security clearance and take regular trips to the Pentagon. I would recommend a programming internship. 
Cargill, Twin Cities, MN
Cassie McLeod ,  '09
As an IT intern I worked on two team projects, one as a programmer the other as a business analysis. The project teams are given real responsibilities and freedom which I really liked. Cargill is a wonderful company with a very organized and professional IT internship program. It was a great experience. I will be returning after graduation to work full-time. 
Plans after Graduation: Cargill
Computer Research Association (CRA) / Distributed Mentorship Program (DMP) at Carnegie Mellon 
Catherine Grevet , '09
I was a student researcher working with the Footprints team in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute. The goal of the team is to use technology, and specifically the stepgreen.org website, to motivate users to save energy. I learned so much about doing research and I really enjoyed working with this team. 
Credit Suisse First Boston / Sponsors for Educational Opportunity
Hitomi  Yoneya, '07, Economics minor
As a summer analyst, I was able to experience a fast paced business oriented technology in Wall Street. It opened up a great opportunity to me.  I interned at R&D group at CSFB, benchmarking softwares the vendors bring for CSFB.  I was able to use the cutting edge technology and test them. I would recommend this program to other students. 
Plans after Graduation: IT Dept., Credit Suisse, Toyko
edocs, Inc 
Jessica Strickoff, '05
I was a Jr. Developer at an online bill presentment and payment software provider in Natick, MA.  It was an excellent experience.
France Telecom Research & Development, Cambridge, MA.
Beth Dakin, '05
I was an intern for the Orange Browser Project. It has been an excellent experience.
Plans after graduation : Software Engineer, Apple, Cupertino, CA
Knapp Instructional Technology Internship
Nicole DuRand, '06
It was a great experience! You learn a lot about web design and project management.
Plans after graduation: Graystone Solutions, Boston
Linedata Services, Inc
Jennifer Song, '05
I've been working at Linedata Services, Inc in Boston as both an IT intern and a software engineering intern since 10/6/03. It's been a very good experience. I've learned a lot and was fortunate to have really great managers and co-workers.
Plans after graduation: Software Engineer, Linedata Services, Boston
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Christina Hamada, '09
I had an internship doing research. I worked with agent-based simulations in Java, and my main project was to come up with a framework of all the countries and their electric power plants, in order to project the amount of CO2 emissions generated by power plants in the future. I learned a lot and enjoyed working. I would recommend working at this lab, but it is kind of hard to get an internship unless you know someone who's willing to take you on as a mentor. Otherwise, probably the best thing to do is to apply for funding at SULI (http://science.energy.gov/wdts/suli/), as it is easier to find someone who wants to work with you if they don't have to provide the funding.
MIT, Aero. Astro department, Humans and Automation Lab
Heather Conner, '07
I was an undergraduate researcher/intern.  It was great fun- relaxed, challenging, and interesting.  If you can find a project that looks interesting and a boss that seems compatible, I definitely recommend a UROP. Its not the most prestigious position, but its fun!
Morgan Stanley via the SEO Career Program
Gowun Kim, '06 
I was an Information Technology Summer Analyst. My position mostly dealt with software development, but I was also exposed to the business unit as well as other groups in other locations for requirements gathering and specifications for the project I was working on. It was a great way to find out what CS majors can do on Wall Street or financial services industry, and learn about how technical/analytical skills can be applied in a different context (other than technical industry). At the end of the summer, after going through more interviews/exam, I was offered a full-time position at the firm for next year after graduation. It certainly is a great opportunity to do such internship after junior year, during the summer, for consideration of future career as well! I would definitely recommend this to other students! 
Plans after Graduation: Morgan Stanley
Olin College 
Sarah Shiplett, '09 
I spent the summer participating in a research project at the Intelligent Vehicles Laboratory at Olin College of Engineering. I had a phenomenal time and got a very good sense of what it is like to devote all of your time and energy to a single project where no one has any definite answers about what will or will not work. In that way, it was great preparation for grad school and helped cement my decision to continue with my education immediately after this year. 
REU at Florida International University, Miami 
Paola Boettner, '09 
I work with a team on research aimed to extend the autonomic behavior of a Communication Virtual Machine (CVM), which was developed by the graduate students. The faculty members and graduate students at this institution were really warm and welcoming, and they were always making sure that we were learning and enjoying ourselves. It also gave me the opportunity to work with other undergraduate CS students from all over the US, which created a very different learning environment than Wellesley. I would highly recommend this program to Wellesley students.
REU at University of Colorado at Boulder
Kristen Amari, '05 
I was at the University of Colorado at Boulder for summer 2004 participating in an REU internship for cybersecurity. It was *amazing*, I definitely recommend the REU programs to anyone interested in a fun summer learning experience. 
Plans after graduation: Masters in Security Informatics, John Hopkins
REU at University of Idaho
Yuan Niu, '05 
I worked as an NSF REU Student at the Center for Secure and Dependable Systems. It was a wonderful experience.
Plans after graduation:  Ph.D. program, UC Davis
REU at Ithaca College
Rebecca Shapiro, '07
I was a student researcher.  The experience was ok.  I did like researching, but I wasn't so much into the topic of research. The fun thing, actually, was to find something I was interested to work on.  I ended up not directly working on the project, but worked on some things that would aid in the creation of the project so we could automate things as much as we could. I wouldn't necessarily recommend Ithaca College unless a student was extremely interested in graphics and virtual reality, because the college's technology administrative department (IT) itself didn't completely support the computer science department, which made it more difficult.  (We couldn't get internet access on the computer science department machines)  However I do think it is a good experience to get out of Wellesley and do an REU.  Doing an REU will let you experience what research is like in the academic world, and outside of the Wellesley bubble.  Even if you don't get so much out of doing the research, you will learn a lot from the other students in the REU about "geek culture" in different colleges. 
Plans after graduation:  MS/Ph.D in CS, Johns Hopkins
Wellesley College, Chemistry Dept.
Andrea Johnston , '09, Chemistry, Computer Science minor 
I worked as a student research with the computational chemistry research group (Radhakrishnan lab). My project related to computation methods of designing de novo drug cocktails using mathematical optimization. I also served as junior systems administrator for the lab's hefty linux-based computer cluster. The experience was great and I would recommend that CS students should consider projects like this which offer really interesting cross-disciplinary work.