Students collaborating on a project.

For Students

Nittany AI Advance

Information for students

The Nittany AI Advance internship gives you the chance to work directly with industry and nonprofit partners on real AI solutions. You’ll join a multidisciplinary team that designs, develops, and tests a proof of concept addressing a real organizational challenge.

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.

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.

Accelerate Your Career Growth

Your experience as a Nittany 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

Advance Intern Positions

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.

  • Machine Learning 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.
Headshot of Elena Choi, taken outdoors.

Advance Intern Spotlight: Elena Choi

Elena Choi's journey with Nittany AI Advance is a testament to the transformative power of the program. More than just academic growth, her story demonstrates the invaluable experience of leading, collaborating, and innovating in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.

Read Elena's Story