Fischell Institute Summer Research Internship Program

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. 

Kaitlyn Ro worked in the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) Professor and Fischell Institute Fellow Gregory Payne's research lab. For her project, she evaluated a systems-level measurement of oxidative stress for a study testing how dietary interventions affect mental health. The samples measured were collected from a clinical study conducted at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center to investigate the effects of gluten on individuals with schizophrenia and gluten sensitivity. Ro’s efforts offer researchers and clinicians a better understanding of interactions across the gut-brain axis.

Noah Cauchi worked in Director Bill Bentley’s Biomolecular and Metabolic Engineering lab.  His project focused on leveraging vision-language models, an artificial intelligence technology similar to ChatGPT, to interpret graphs of electrochemical data and assist scientists in answering technical questions about their experiments. Cauchi’s work included curating data, fine-tuning it with supervision, evaluating model performance and implementing reinforcement learning from verifiable rewards to refine model accuracy.

Christine Needham worked in mechanical engineering Assistant Professor and Fischell Fellow Davis McGregor’s Manufacturing Intelligence Research and Advanced Geometry Evaluation (MIRAGE) Lab. Needham's project explored additive manufacturing of complex lattice structures for potential use in traumatic brain injury prevention. Her project focused on 3D-printed sensors for biomedical applications and producing conductive lattices using Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D printing with the goals of both detecting and reducing the level of impact that occurred. By compression-testing various architectures, a link was established between lattice geometry and sensor accuracy, with auxetic structures showing the most promise for impact detection and attenuation.

Josh Dayie also worked in Director Bill Bentley’s Biomolecular and Metabolic Engineering lab. His project focused on engineering an enzyme in the pyocyanin biosynthetic pathway, with the goal of regulating production through microelectronic stimuli to enable the controlled outputs of molecules that influence population-level behaviors.