DOHA: Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) next week will open the registration for its Summer Internship Program where university students studying computer science and computer engineering will have an opportunity to have a place in the program.
At an 'Open House' event to be hosted at QCRI, a national research institute established by Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, students will receive the full details about the eight-week program that offers participants a unique opportunity to develop their computing and research skills through addressing real, practical computing challenges.
Scientists and software engineers from QCRI's research teams will be on hand to inform prospective interns about the 2014 summer projects, and to explain how interns work alongside research staff to learn and achieve results. Alumni from past QCRI summer internship programs will also be present to talk about their own experiences.
"QCRI's Summer Internship Program is designed to benefit and support the best computer scientists and engineers of tomorrow," Dr. Eman Fituri, director of education initiatives at QCRI, said of the benefits of the program.
"We are proud of the innovation displayed by the interns from our previous summer programs, and look forward to new students collaborating on the 30 or so fascinating projects this summer as they hone their own analytical and research skills," she added.
Now in its third year, the QCRI Summer Internship Program, under the theme 'Hot Summer, Cool Research,' emphasizes hands-on experience by asking students to apply their theoretical and practical knowledge of research and programming, while drawing on their experience in mathematics, algorithms and digital media technologies such as Twitter and Google.
In line with QCRI's mission to build Qatar's innovation and technology capacity, the program offers a variety of practical projects from which students can choose. One project example is with QCRI's social computing team, where students would work on making Qatar-based news stories more appealing to foreign audiences, or interpret social media messaging during disasters as a guide for humanitarian response.
Alternatively, applicants might consider working on projects in Arabic language technologies ranging from speech recognition to language learning via Google Glass. They may prefer to work in other areas of national priority including cyber security, sports analytics, and big data analysis in the cloud, to name but a few.
Alumni of the program have had numerous successes since graduating. Two of QCRI's 2013 summer intern projects won awards in the ICT student research category at the 2013 Annual Research Conference.
This year's edition of the program is set to run from May 18 to July 10. (QNA)
