Summer Research and Internship Experiences

Seminar: Thursday, October 27, 3:30-4:30 Olin Hall 321

The students below will give a student panel on Thursday to describe their experiences. Below they’ve provided a few details of their experiences, as well as links to the website for information/applications.

Note that some of the links may connect to the 2016 info; continue to check back periodically for more info on 2017 opportunities.

At the end there is also a list of links to more places to search for summer opportunities. If you have further suggestions, email Prof. Laura Boehm Vock (lboehmvo@gustavus.edu) and she’ll add them to the list.

Dalton Mattson, Joint Program in Survey Methodology Junior Fellowship, National Center for Education Statistics

http://jointprogram.umd.edu/undergrad/JuniorFellows (2016)

https://jpsm.umd.edu/undergraduate/junior-fellows-overview (2017)

Do you get paid? Are there costs? Paid hourly and housing in Washington DC was included. Living expenses like food and transportation needed to be paid out of pocket.

Do you get paid? Are there costs? The deadline for last year’s program was the middle of January; info on the 2017 program is not yet posted.

What did you do? Interns in the JPSM Junior Fellows program are placed throughout the Federal Statistical Agencies. I worked at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the Statistical Standards and Data Confidentiality department. Under the supervision of the Chief Statistician, I helped replicate the analyses of a proposal that will change the way colleges must publicly report their students’ average loan repayment rates. Other projects I worked on included testing to see whether differing definitions across NCES surveys caused significant differences in the surveys’ outcomes and evaluating NCES’ nonresponse bias analysis practices.

Outside of work, all JPSM interns lived in apartments on the campus of George Washington University in downtown Washington, DC. We had the opportunity to attend lectures at the University of Maryland about topics in Survey Methodology, and were given tours of all of the Federal Statistical Agencies throughout the 10 week program. Additional activities such as attending a Washington Nationals baseball game and museum tours were included but were optional.

Peter Schwartz, Information Technology Intern in IDMP, Mayo Clinic

http://www.mayo-clinic-jobs.com/job/Rochester-INTERN-IT-Job-MN-55901/364972100/ (this link is for a similar position not same as mine)

Do you get paid? Are there costs? Yes $20/hour.

How/when do I apply? Deadline for mine was in April.

What did you do? Developed mobile apps for secure, fast on boarding of patients.

Lili Rothschild, Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), Neuroscience, University of Iowa

https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/ (general REU website – search for 2017 opportunities)

Do you get paid? Are there costs? I was given free housing, transportation was covered, and received approximately $3,500 stipend for 8 weeks

How/when do I apply? The website for my program is no longer up, but I believe nearly all applications for summer programs were due aroundFebruary 1st.

What did you do? I constructed an analysis pipeline for function MRI (fMRI) data by weaving together programs used for fMRI analysis (e.g. AFNI) with more general programs (e.g. Matlab) using Unix (Bash) scripting and some Python scripts. I then used the pipeline I constructed to analyze a set of scans from patients with Urologic Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome. Graph theory methods were used to identify neural networks resulting from the analysis. From this experience, I learned to create Bash scripts and use Matlab, as well as gained insight into advanced applications of statistical methods, such as regression.

Cameron MacDonald, Proto Labs Internship

https://recruiting.ultipro.com/PRO1033/JobBoard/41800ed0-dc76-90ec-dbab-e8d615705cf1

Do you get paid? Are there costs? Paid – may need to relocate due to business locations

How/when do I apply? Not sure as of right now, they typically interview at Gustavus in the spring

What did you do? ASP.NET C# web developer position, worked on large web applications as well as database work for the company in order to make their websites more efficient, including implementing new features on the sites.

Kristin Podratz, Summer Institute in Biostatistics (SIBS), Columbia University

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/research/training/summer-institute-biostatistics-t15 (SIBS programs are offered at a variety of institutions; it doesn’t look like Columbia will host in 2017, but there are 6 other programs, each with its own flair and application process)

Do you get paid? Are there costs? I did not get paid, but I received compensation for travel expenses, transportation, housing, and a food stipend.

How/when do I apply? Early March. Each SIBS program has a separate application.

What did you do? My project was to assess the effectiveness of the Narrative Medicine Program at Columbia, which strives to fortify clinical practice for all health care professionals. I conducted a statistical analysis on the four different instruments used to quantify the impact of the program.

Other sites to search for summer opportunities

American Statistical Association (ASA) Internships and Fellowships listings

http://www.amstat.org/ASA/Education/Internships-and-Fellowships.aspx

StatTr@k Opportunities page (Student focused section of ASA)

http://stattrak.amstat.org/category/news-and-announcements/statistical-opportunities/

Mathematical Association of America – Summer programs page, Undergraduate Students Page

http://www.maa.org/node/129080

http://www.maa.org/programs/students/student-resources/undergraduate

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Fellowships page, Internship listing, REU page

http://www.siam.org/students/resources/fellowship.php

http://www.ams.org/programs/students/emp-internships

http://www.ams.org/programs/students/emp-reu