HPC Internship Opportunity at the NSA

2023 FUTURE COMPUTING SUMMER INTERNSHIP (FCSI) AT THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY (NSA)

June 12, 2023 – August 4, 2023 in Catonsville, MD

Application Window: October 31st, 2022 – 11:59pm ET on January 31st 2023

For the 2nd consecutive year, the Advanced Computing Systems Research Program (ACS) in the NSA Research Directorate is joining with their counterparts in the High-Performance Computing Solutions (HPCS) and Operations (OPS) organizations to provide a select number of undergraduate students an exciting 8-week internship opportunity.  ACS is part of the Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS) and is located in the Research Park building complex adjacent to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

The FCSI will focus on High Performance Computing (HPC), a field critical to national security, discovery, and technological innovation. The goal of the internship is to encourage talented undergraduate students to pursue study and careers in HPC by engaging them in exciting, ongoing technical projects and by cultivating their talents during an 8-week summer internship.

This internship experience is ideal for students who will be completing their junior year (Spring 2024 graduates), and is well-suited for students in math, computer science, computer engineering, or related STEM fields.

Please note: Only US citizens are eligible to apply.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW: 

As participants in the 8-week program, the interns will work in small groups led by NSA technical experts on HPC and future computing problems that are of importance to the NSA.  The interns will conduct hands-on technical work on projects spanning disciplines such as, but not limited to, electrical and computer engineering, software engineering, and applied mathematics.

Under mentorship by NSA experts from ACS, HPCS and OPS and using the same High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems as ACS researchers, interns will gain skills in a variety of areas relevant to HPC.  In the past, these areas have included algorithm development, optimization and performance tuning, parallel and distributed programming, and computational math and science.

In addition to being immersed in technical projects in HPC-related fields, interns will attend seminars on current NSA research projects, topics in HPC and future computing, and on the work-life at NSA.  Interns will also take field trips to a variety of labs and other facilities.  Throughout the internship, participants will learn about the NSA mission, the wide range of career opportunities at the agency, and have ample time to engage with their peers and mentors as well as a diverse set of NSA employees.

At the end of the internship, the interns will present the results of their work and write a technical paper documenting their results.

MINIMUM PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS:

    • Some experience using Linux
    • Command line skills – basic knowledge of the terminal using a shell such as tcsh or Bash
    • Scripting or programming experience in at least 1 language
    • Ability to work as part of a technical team
    • Positive attitude and a strong desire to learn

Additional Desired skills:

    • Strong communication skills (written and/or oral).
    • HPC or parallel programming experience.
    • C or systems programming experience.
    • Interesting or novel perspectives. Can you expand our horizons?

If you are unsure whether you meet the program requirements, please ask us! We don’t want miss someone because they meet requirements in a way we did not anticipate.

Contact us at HPC_Internships@lps.umd.edu for clarification or questions.