As a co-leader of Advance, Elena Choi’s story is not just about academic growth but also about the invaluable experience of leading, collaborating, and innovating in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
Penn State Students
Lead with Impact Using AI
Engage in AI for Good initiatives that tackle pressing issues across education, environment, health care, and humanitarian sectors. This is a unique opportunity for you to make a difference in the world during your internship.
Distinguish Yourself
The Nittany AI Advance program is designed to instill a deep understanding of artificial intelligence while helping you develop the skills needed to successfully use AI technology to solve problems. Internships coincide with your academics and build on your classroom learning, helping you prepare for a rewarding summer internship and, ultimately, meaningful career.
Accelerate Your Career Growth
Your experience as an AI Advance intern can put you on a path to your first AI–focused job and rapid career advancement by teaching you the skills needed to:
- create an AI proof-of-concept that demonstrates the feasibility of using AI/ML to solve a problem or capture an opportunity
- interact directly with clients to produce creative solutions using real data
- work collaboratively as a member of a team in an agile project management environment
Where Do You Fit in the Advance Program?
Advance internships are highly competitive positions that are open to students who can demonstrate relevant experience and/or course work and who have a desire to use AI to make the world a better place.
We offer internships in the following roles:
- Data Scientist/Engineer: Research algorithms in machine learning to identify viable project approaches, design prototypes that connect data sources to a concrete use case, and develop code to test the efficacy and efficiency of algorithms against real-world data
- ML Engineer: Conduct data preparation including preprocessing, labeling, and handling data quality issues; build and tune models; analyze and visualize results to communicate findings out to the team and stakeholders.
- Front-End Developer: Build upon wireframes and concepts created by a UX designer; produce, modify, and maintain web application user interfaces; work with data scientists in back-end design, collaborating on APIs, data structure, and data integration; maintain software workflow, versioning, and testing during development and address any bugs; document all code according to common development best practices and create technical documentation of project work to facilitate knowledge sharing
- Natural Language Processing Engineer: Research algorithms in machine learning to identify viable project approaches, design prototypes that connect data sources to a concrete use case, and develop code to build and improve upon a prototype optical character recognition and natural language processing solution
- Technical Team Leader: Act as a scrum master or conduit between a project team and the program manager; manage end-to-end delivery of AI projects including deliverables, project meetings, budget, team capacity, and risks and issues
- Business Analyst: Bridge the gap between client needs and technical feasibility by analyzing requirements, defining success metrics, and collaborating with developers to align the proof of concept with the strategic vision.
- Apprentice: Excited about Advance and not quite ready for a full internship? Advance offers a limited number of one-semester apprentice positions for undergraduate students eager to explore. Students interested in this option are required to submit the application during an open application period and indicate specific interest in an apprentice role.
These internship positions are part of high-performing agile teams that operate within the guidelines of each specific Advance project. Projects typically run one to two semesters with 5–6 two-week sprints per semester and 50 hours allocated each week per team.
Apply for an Internship
The Advance program opens applications mid-semester for project-specific internships starting the following semester.
Spring 2025 internship application period has closed.
Fall 2025 Internship Application Period
Opens: Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Closes: Wednesday, February 26, 2025, at noon (ET)
Complete the interest form to be notified when applications open for the next internship cycle.
We encourage you to explore the Advance projects that use AI for Good to learn more about the exciting opportunities we offer.