Applicants must be US citizens or have appropriate authorization to work in the US. The internship projects are diverse but broadly employs interdisciplinary teams of interns to answer specific fundamental questions and/or to solve specific technical problems. We envision that each intern will work on an independent project that is embedded within a broader team effort.

 The ideal candidate will be: 

-  excited to participate in team research 

-  have the initiative to lead their own project

-  possess the communication skills needed to efficiently explain their ideas and results to persons from other disciplines.

To apply,  please upload your one-page resume and your one-page statement of purpose which answers the following two questions to the application form ⬇️

1. Why is this summer research internship important to you?
2. What would you like to accomplish during this summer internship?

Please also indicate on the application which internship project(s) will be best for you. 

Leah Falk is a junior majoring in bioengineering. Over the past summer, she worked in the Payne Lab as a Fischell Institute intern on a clinical analysis project measuring oxidative stress in individuals with alcohol misuse disorder.

Falk has always enjoyed the problem-solving challenges of her lab classes but found school labs to have predetermined outcomes. She sought this internship to experience the open-ended nature of real-world research, where the answers are not already known.

During her time at the Fischell Institute, Falk applied her chemistry and biology background to meaningful problems, enhanced her lab skills, analyzed complex datasets, and practiced research-based writing.

After graduation, Falk plans to pursue research in bioengineering, focusing on biotechnology. She aspires to obtain a Ph.D. in the field, driven by the inspiration and experience she gained during her summer research.

Emily Thompson is a senior majoring in bioengineering. Over the summer she was a Fischell Institute intern in Director Bill Bentley's Biomolecular and Metabolic Engineering Laboratory. Thompson has always been interested in biology and discovering how things work. She applied for the internship with the hopes of gaining research experience and wet lab skills, but also have the opportunity to think independently and solve real-world research problems. Thompson worked on a protein engineering project with PhD student Alex Compean in Director Bentley's lab. She focused on creating mutations in proteins to deepen our understanding of how they work and
their structure. She also worked on performing fluorescent reporter assays for detection of the target product of these proteins. Thompson enjoys this work because it deepens her understanding of research problem-solving techniques, and has even gotten the opportunity to continue her work into the fall semester.

Jai Vaichalkar is a junior majoring in Bioengineering. Over the summer, he interned at the Fischell Institute's Foundry lab.

Vaichalkar has always been motivated to combine engineering and healthcare to develop innovative medical devices. He often looks at medical technology and wonders, “How does this device work?” and “How can this device be improved?”

He applied to the Fischell Institute to gain unique research experience in medical devices. During his internship, he collaborated closely with Quinton Burke, M.Eng., on a project examining the relationship between 3D-printed facial geometries and their effects on respirator fit factors. Specifically, he assessed how various facial features, such as nasal protrusion, breadth, and nasal root breadth, impact the fit factor of KN-95 respirators.

After graduation, Vaichalkar plans to pursue a Master of Engineering degree through the Fischell Institite and MPower Entrepreneurship Program. This program will provide him with research opportunities to develop his own medical device, enabling him to pursue a career at leading medical device companies such as Medtronic and Stryker.

Surabhi Singh is a junior majoring in Bioengineering. Over the summer, she interned at the Fischell Institute in Affliate Fellow's Jenna Mueller’s Global Biomedical Devices Laboratory. With a strong interest in the intersection of medicine and technology, Surabhi is passionate about leveraging her technical skills to advance healthcare and improve patient outcomes.

She applied to the Fischell Institute internship to explore a unique area of biomedical engineering that was new yet intriguing to her. During her internship, Surabhi contributed to the development of KeyScope, a low-cost laparoscope designed for use in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Uganda. Her work focused on creating image quality analysis algorithms in MATLAB and Python to ensure the KeyScope’s camera produced accurate and high-quality images.

Overall through her experience at the Fischell Institute, she learned a lot about the device development process, from ideation to testing, and enhanced her technical programming skills all while working in an interdisciplinary team. She is grateful for the opportunity to continue her research in this lab even after completion of the internship.

After graduation, Surabhi aims to work in the health-tech industry, developing medical software, devices, and tools to streamline healthcare processes and enhance the field of medicine.