12 Machine Learning Internships for High School Students
Machine learning is becoming increasingly relevant in the realm of technology and beyond. If you’re a curious high school student who wants to explore the dynamic field of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) and gain practical experience in it, you should consider a machine learning internship!
Machine learning is like the brain of AI, creating algorithms that help computers learn and make predictions from data without specific programming. This technology is widely used in various fields, including healthcare, finance, marketing, autonomous vehicles, and more. An ML internship can provide hands-on experience in applying machine learning algorithms to real-world problems, allowing you to gain invaluable skills and insights early in your academic journey. Such experiences will not only enhance your knowledge of ML concepts but also serve as a stepping stone toward your future endeavors in STEM. From innovation to collaborating with industry professionals, participating in an ML internship will also boost your college applications!
Here’s our curated list of 12 machine learning internships for high school students.
1. Ladder Internships (Tech Track)
Location: Virtual! You can work from anywhere in the world.
Cost: Starting at $1,990. Financial assistance is available.
Application Deadline: Multiple deadlines throughout the year. Summer Cohort (Regular Admission 1) - April 14, 2024 | Summer Cohort (Regular Admission 2) - May 12, 2024.
Program Dates: 8-week programs with multiple cohorts throughout the year, including spring, summer, fall, and winter. Summer Cohort begins June 3, 2024.
Eligibility: Open to all high school students, who can work for 10-20 hours/week, for 8-12 weeks. These internships are also open to undergraduates and gap-year students.
With Ladder Internships, you have the freedom to choose the industry you wish to work in, from a wide range of choices including technology, machine learning, AI, computer science, finance, environmental science, sustainability, business, marketing, healthcare, medicine, media, journalism, and more. Ladder Internships is a fairly selective program founded by Harvard alumni that pairs high school students with startups and nonprofits around the world for virtual internships. As an intern, you will work on meaningful projects that contribute to the startup or nonprofit’s larger mission, and present your work at the end of the program. This internship program includes one-on-one training in communication and time management, among other skills, and group training sessions with fellow interns. You will be paired with a manager at the startup and with a Ladder coach, who serves as a second mentor.
2. National Institute of Standards and Technology Internships
Location: Varies from lab to lab.
Cost/Stipend: No participation cost (but students must cover housing and transportation costs); Unpaid.
Application Deadline: The applications typically close in February.
Program Dates: June 17, 2024 - August 9, 2024
Eligibility: Applicants must:
- Be U.S. citizens.
- Be juniors or seniors in high school during the application period.
- Have a minimum GPA of 3.0.
The Summer High School Intern Program by NIST is a program for students who have finished their junior or senior year of high school (by the start of the program) and demonstrate an interest in scientific research. In this program, you can participate in cutting-edge research at NIST and work closely with NIST staff scientists and engineers on a specific research topic. Students can choose to intern at one of these 6 NIST laboratories:
Communications Technology Lab
Engineering Lab
Information Technology Lab
Material Measurement Lab
NIST Center for Neutron Research
Physical Measurement Lab
If you are interested in machine learning, we recommend opting for the Information Technology Laboratory where your areas of focus will be networking and communications, computer security, software engineering, and human interaction with computers. Your examples of area research can include computer network modeling, biometrics for computer access and security, cryptography, and digital data retrieval, just to name a few. You can look at the full list here!
3. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) High School Internships
Location: There are AEOP locations in almost every state. Students may select their preferred location. The program is intended for commuters and transportation, meals, and housing are not provided.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; Varies from location to location.
Application deadline: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Check AEOP’s Summer 2024 opportunities here for the application dates.
Program Dates: This is a summer internship program, specific dates vary from location to location.
Eligibility: Those applying must be current high school students who are U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents. Additional eligibility requirements vary by location. Check details here.
This program is a chance to work one-on-one with a university researcher or Department of Defense (DoD) scientist mentor on research projects. As an intern, you will be exposed to high-tech equipment and cutting-edge techniques in state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, and have access to professional scientists and engineers. Additionally, you will learn from other STEM practitioners during the internship. The Army-sponsored research that you will be a part of addresses the USA’s biggest challenges. The program aims to hone critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork skills to prepare you for a career in STEM.
If you’re interested in machine learning, you can select research opportunities that use applications of AI, coding, and ML such as the ones offered by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command-Aberdeen Proving Grounds - GNC Research with the Julia Programming Language or U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory - ARL Northeast (Boston). You can check AEOP’s Summer 2024 opportunities here.
4. NASA Office of Stem Engagements (OSTEM) Internships
Location: These internships are offered across NASA facilities. Depending on the project, interns will work either remotely or on-site at any of NASA’s 10 field centers across the country.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; A stipend will be awarded based on academic level and session duration.
Application Deadline: July (Fall session) | November (Spring session) | April/May (Summer session).
Program Dates: These internships are offered in 3 sessions –
- Fall (16-week program, from late August or early September to mid-December)
- Spring (16-week program, from mid-January to early May)
- Summer (10-week program, from late May or early June to August).
Eligibility: High school students in grades 10-12 with a GPA of 3.0 or higher and U.S. citizenship.
NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) offers paid internships to high school and college-level students based in its various sites across the country.
These internships provide training, mentorship, and career development to over 2000+ students annually alongside exposure to leading experts in science, engineering, finance, IT, and business. The internships are offered in a range of subjects and disciplines, including space science, engineering, aeronautics, technology, machine learning, computer science, and even outreach and communications. You will get to design experiments, analyze mission data, and develop innovative technologies.
Some of the internships offered by NASA that use applications of machine learning are:
Space Operations Data Analytics & Knowledge Management Project
Machine Learning for the Accelerated Design and Discovery of Materials - Virtual
CCRI - Connecting the Local Urban Fabric to Global Climate Change
Dexterous Robotics - Software
You can explore different internships that provide ML opportunities here by using the ‘Filter’ option to view the options open to high school students.
5. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Scholars Program
Location: AFRL Scholar internship opportunities are offered at several locations across the United States depending on the program.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; weekly stipends are provided based on the education level of the students and the GS pay scale.
Application Deadline: The applications typically close in January.
Program Dates: The dates vary for different programs.
Eligibility: Applicants must:
- Be US Citizens.
- Be enrolled or accepted at an educational institution taking at least a half-time academic course load leading to a degree or certificate for the semester immediately preceding the internship session.
- Have a grade point average of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
- Be at least 16 years of age (by session application deadline) and have a valid Government ID.
The AFRL Scholars Program is a paid internship opportunity for upper-level high school students who are interested in aerospace engineering. Post-selection, you will receive guidance from full-time AFRL scientists and engineers, touring AFRL laboratories and working on cutting-edge research and technology. Each mentor in the program is highly knowledgeable and you can find a list of mentors here.
While AFRL research topics are mainly centered around aerospace engineering, research projects such as the ‘Advanced Robot Controller Design and Implementation’ or ‘AI Opponents for Contested Space’ offer applications of machine learning where you will have to process and control data to design, develop, and provide solutions using either Python or C++.
6. The Intern Project Summer Program
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Cost/Stipend: No cost; Students get paid and receive college credit for completing the program.
Application Deadline: March 15, 2024.
Program Dates: June - August (8 weeks)
Eligibility: Applicants must be high school students completing their Sophomore, Junior, or Senior year enrolled in an LA County high school.
The Intern Project offers high school students in LA an exceptional opportunity to gain hands-on work experience, explore career options, and develop essential skills for success in the workforce. The program places students in internship roles which gives them a chance to explore potential career paths and pick up practical skills. During the internship, you will be able to learn from industry experts and experience professional environments. You will also develop essential skills such as professionalism, time management, effective communication, and teamwork.
As an intern, you'll delve into a specific theme or problem statement reflecting current industry trends and challenges. This could involve tasks such as developing a mobile application to address a social issue, crafting a website for a local non-profit organization, or even tackling a small-scale machine learning project. You'll engage in activities like coding in languages such as Python or JavaScript, utilizing frameworks for web development, and employing tools for data analysis and visualization. The collaborative nature of the work offers valuable insights into the dynamics within a real-world tech team. Upon completing the project, you'll be able to showcase a demo of your work.
7. MIT Lincoln Laboratory High School Internship Program
Location: Lexington, MA
Cost/Stipend: No cost; Stipend is provided.
Application Deadline: March 22, 2024
Program Dates: July 10, 2024 - August 15, 2024
Eligibility: Applicants must:
- Have U.S. citizenship.
- Be local high school rising seniors.
- Be sixteen (16) years of age before the start date.
The Summer High School Internship Program at MIT Lincoln Laboratory provides a unique opportunity for rising seniors to experience and explore STEM careers before committing to an area of study in college.
During the summer, you will be paired with Laboratory staff mentors to complete projects, solve problems, and learn and apply technical and interpersonal skills in a hands-on, professional environment. If you’re interested in machine learning, you can choose to work on projects related to artificial intelligence and technology systems that will help you explore technical expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and signal processing to discover, create, and deliver some of the nation’s most impactful technologies to national security. You could also opt to work on developing technology for advanced satellite systems that are used to monitor the activity of objects in space and to perform remote sensing of Earth.
8. Simons Summer Research Program
Location: Stony Brook University, NY
Cost/Stipend: No participation cost, however, you are expected to cover transportation/dining costs if you commute and residential costs if you choose to dorm on campus; Unpaid.
Application Deadline: The applications typically close in February.
Program Dates: July 1, 2024 - August 9, 2024
Eligibility: Applicants must:
- Be in their junior year (11th grade) of high school at the time of applying.
- Be US citizens and/or permanent residents.
- Be at least 16 years of age by the start of the program.
Stony Brook University’s Simons Summer Research Program is a chance to engage in hands-on research in STEM alongside university faculty. In this program, you will be matched with a faculty mentor, join a research group or team, and be responsible for a project. By the end of the program, you would have had to produce a written research abstract and a research poster. All participants in the Simons program should expect to commit a minimum of 4 hours per day working on their own and/or with their mentor/research group.
If you’re looking at conducting research in machine learning, you can opt to work alongside Dr.Yuefan Deng in the Applied Mathematics & Statistics Department. In this project, you will develop algorithms in high-performance computing, machine learning, and multiscale modeling for simulations of biological and medical processes. You can view the other projects for Summer 2024 here!
9. SPARK Summer Mentorship Program
Location: Seattle, WA
Cost/Stipend: No Cost, Stipend provided ($500)
Application Deadline: The applications typically close in May. (Note: The applications will open in April 2024).
Program Dates: 6-8 weeks, June to August (2024 Dates TBA).
Eligibility: Applicants must be U.S. high school students for the current school year 2023 - 2024.
The mission of SparkSIP is to act as a liaison and bring to interested high school students in the USA, specifically, the Greater Seattle area, appropriate opportunities to interact with industry experts, professors in well-established institutions, and community leaders, and to experience working in a professional environment.
SparkSIP allows applicants to select 1-5 projects that they’d like to work on, and then assign sponsors to selected students (only 5-6 students are selected to receive mentorship). SPARK also provides opportunities and resources that can be used during and after college applications.
The program not only provides you with the chance to engage in real-world applications of concepts in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data visualization, but also offers opportunities to interact with and learn from industry leaders, university professors, and mentors. Topics that involved machine learning for the 2023 cohort included preparing Python script for crossbar architecture and exploring its various non-idealities, understanding spike-timing and spike-rate impact on Spiking Neural Network (SNN), and interfacing and visualizing data.
10. Honors College - The Anson L. Clark Scholars Program
Location: Honors College, Lubbock, TX
Cost/Stipend: No cost; the student will receive a $750 stipend upon the completion of a successful research project report.
Application Deadline: Applications typically close in February.
Program Dates: June 16, 2024 - August 1, 2024
Eligibility: Applicants must:
- Be at least 17 years of age by the program start date, and should graduate in 2024 or 2025. (This means they will participate the summer before senior year or the summer after senior graduation from high school.)
- Must be a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident.
The Anson L. Clark Scholars Program at Texas Tech University is a 7-week comprehensive research program. It allows you to gain hands-on research experience under the mentorship of Texas Tech faculty. While not a traditional internship, this program does allow you to explore independent research.
While Anson Clark Scholars does not have a specific sub-section for machine learning, you have the flexibility to involve machine learning and its applications with computer science wherein you’ll get to work with virtual and augmented reality, big data visualization, and visual analytics, statistical data analysis, data-intensive computing, computer architectures, and systems software, to name a few. You can also choose research areas such as Mechanical Engineering or Electrical and Computer Engineering that involve applications of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and robotics.
Tip: The Dean of Texas Tech has advised on how to get into this prestigious program which you can find here!
11. Beaver Works Summer Institute, MIT
Location: MIT, Cambridge, MA (Virtual options are available).
Cost/Stipend: None
Application Deadline: March 31, 2024
Program Dates: July 8, 2024 - August 4, 2024
Eligibility: Applicants must be U.S. high school students from grades 9-11.
The Beaver Works Summer Institute at MIT strives to present deep and immersive experiences with these project-based courses. Two of the courses they offer this year are centered around machine learning.
The Autonomous Cognitive Assistant course, CogWorks, employs project-based learning to engage students in exciting applications of modern machine learning and data science. The class comprises three modules, each focusing on different applications of machine learning in audio, vision, and language domains, respectively. These modules will introduce you to essential foundational concepts in applied mathematics, science, and machine learning through engaging capstone projects with real-world significance. In CogWorks, you will get to work in a hands-on environment, with lectures accompanied by detailed Python-based exercises incorporating applied mathematics and fundamental algorithms. Capstone projects are completed by student teams, who learn to collaborate effectively using tools like git and VSCode.
In Medlytics, which stands for medical analytics, students are instructed on applying machine learning techniques to actual medical issues. These include tasks such as predicting hypothyroidism in patients, classifying sleep states using physiological signals, and detecting cancer from mammography images. By tackling these challenges, you'll be exposed to a broad spectrum of machine-learning approaches, including decision trees, support vector machines, and convolutional neural networks. These methods are applied to real-world problems, which you will help select, providing practical experience in the field.
12. Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program (ASSIP)
Location: In-person (George Mason University, Fairfax, VA), remote and hybrid options are offered. Housing is not provided for minors.
Cost/Stipend: There is a $25 application fee which can be waived. This is an unpaid opportunity.
Application Deadline: Applications typically close at the beginning of February.
Program Dates: June 18, 2024 - August 9, 2024
Eligibility: Interns for in-person, remote, or hybrid internships in computer labs must be 15 years or older by June 18, 2024. Interns for "wet-lab" in-person or hybrid internships must be 16 or older by June 18, 2024.
The nationally recognized Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program (ASSIP) offers strong research experiences for high school and undergraduate students. If selected, you'll have the chance to work one-on-one with faculty researchers at George Mason University and collaborating institutions, utilizing cutting-edge technology across various disciplines.
For students interested in computer science and ML, ASSIP offers a diverse array of focus areas to choose from, including cybersecurity, data mining, data science for social good, computer modeling, computer simulations, machine learning, and more. Whether you have no coding experience or are already familiar with computer science, ASSIP can be a beneficial opportunity. Additionally, if your goal is to publish your work by the internship's end, ASSIP is worth considering.
Looking for an immersive internship experience?
Check out Ladder Internships!
Ladder Internships is a selective, virtual internship program where students work with startups and nonprofits from around the world! The startups range across a variety of industries. As part of their internship, each student will work on a real-world project that is of genuine need to the startup they are working with, and present their work at the end of their internship. In addition to working closely with their manager from the startup, each intern will also work with a Ladder Coach throughout their internship. Apply now!
Stephen is one of the founders of Ladder Internships and a Harvard College graduate.