About The Program

AI for the Commonwealth Internship Program is jointly managed by the Center for Data Science in the College of Information and Computer Science and the Public Interest Technology Initiative at UMass Amherst. We are partnering with The Massachusetts Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS) to recruit a cohort of undergraduate students to work with state agencies on experiential AI projects for social good. This program offers a rare opportunity for students to collaborate with state agencies and UMass mentors, applying cutting-edge AI to real-world challenges that impact communities across Massachusetts.

• 16-week paid internship ($22 per hour)
• Open to rising junior and senior undergraduates in UMass Amherst CICS
• Student teams are mentored by full-time CICS and PIT@UMass faculty and staff
• Student teams collaborate with state agencies and UMass mentors to improve the delivery of services and programs for Massachusetts agencies and residents

Responsibilities

Student teams are responsible for collaborating with state agencies to define and implement AI solutions tailored to their problems including coding, testing and debugging programs for data engineering, data analytics, and machine learning. Responsibilities may differ depending on the project assignments and may include:

• Participating in an Agile/Scrum style software development environment
• Attending trainings and mentoring sessions 
• Meeting with project partners to present progress toward project goals and consider the ethical implications of the solutions being developed
• Writing software in Python, R, and JavaScript to implement desired features and bug fixes
• Writing code to train, evaluate and deploy machine learning models for natural language processing or computer vision tasks
• Configuring web applications and data storage solutions in Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services
• Writing data pipelines and data schemas to process and store data
• Creating data dashboards and visualizations or front-end web applications
• Testing programs to validate instructions work as written and gauge usability, conducting code reviews for other team members and reporting issues or bugs 
• Producing clearly written documentation that describes software features and expected behavior
• Creating instructions for installing, configuring and using software programs
• Preparing final presentations to be presented to state agencies and other stakeholders

Minimum qualifications

• Junior or rising senior majoring or minoring in Computer Science/Informatics
• Ability to work successfully on a software development team
• Teamwork, communication, and leadership skills
• Commitment to working on projects for the common good and in the public interest
• Commitment to working 10 hours a week during the spring semester and 32 hours a week during summer until August 22, 2025
• You must be a current student through the end of August 2025. Students who will graduate in May 2025 are not eligible

Application Process

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Applicants whose skills and experience are a good fit for the projects we have planned will be invited to a 30-minute interview with UMass faculty and staff.