MCS Students Put Science to Work Through Summer Internships
Heidi Opdyke
- Associate Dean of Marketing and Communications, MCS
- Email opdyke@andrew.cmu.edu
- Phone 412-268-9982
Internships help students build skills, expand their network and explore career paths. They also provide valuable insight into the types of work and industries that align with their interests and goals.
This summer, Mellon College of Science students applied their scientific training in industries ranging from biotechnology and artificial intelligence to finance and entertainment. Along the way, they discovered that the skills developed through studying science, including problem-solving, data analysis and critical thinking, are valuable in nearly every field.
Their experiences demonstrate that science extends far beyond the laboratory. Whether developing new technologies, analyzing data, improving public programs, creating immersive experiences or advancing potential medical treatments, MCS students are using science to drive innovation and solve real-world problems.
Designing Experiences That Last
Madelyn Streisfeld spent her summer exploring a question that has long fascinated her: Why do some experiences stay with us long after they鈥檙e over?
The rising senior, who is pursuing a bachelor of science and arts in neurobiology and dramaturgy, interned with Paramount鈥檚 Events & Brand Experience team in New York City. Working on television premieres, conventions, interactive exhibits and live events, she gained firsthand experience designing memorable audience experiences.
The internship brought together two of Streisfeld鈥檚 biggest interests: entertainment and neuroscience.
鈥淚鈥檓 very interested in understanding how audiences react to plays and musicals and theater environments on a neurological level. What this summer showed me is that it is possible to expand that even further to immersive and live entertainment spaces.鈥
At Paramount, Streisfeld worked on a range of projects, from curating an Instagram post for a red carpet premiere to doing live event production support for virtual Drag Queen Bingo. She also was introduced to experiential design, a field focused on creating meaningful interactions between people and environments. She shadowed designers and producers and saw how decisions about layouts, accessibility, color palettes and storytelling shape the way audiences experience a space.
鈥淣ot only do I have this interest in design and live entertainment in general, but I also am very interested in the justification behind each of the choices that designers are making and how can we pull from neuroscience and pull from psychology in order to inform those decisions,鈥 she said.
The internship gave her the vocabulary to work with designers and producers, which boosted her confidence in bringing her neuroscience background into those conversations. The internship also broadened her understanding of where science can have an impact. Before the summer, Streisfeld primarily imagined applying neuroscience in academic research. Now, she sees opportunities in entertainment, museum exhibit design, marketing and experience design.
鈥淚t opened my eyes to how valuable science consultation can be in fields that I hadn't previously expected, which is awesome. It just made me feel like my skills could be applied to even more places than I previously thought.鈥
Building the Classroom Where AI Learns to Code
Problem solving has always come naturally to Umar Sheikh. As a high school student, he excelled in national math competitions, tackling challenging math problems. This summer, the rising junior applied those skills to a new challenge: artificial intelligence.
Sheikh, a mathematics major, spent the summer as a software engineering intern at Mechanize, Inc., a startup that builds reinforcement learning environments used to train and evaluate advanced AI coding agents.
In these environments, an AI agent is assigned a task, attempts to solve it and receives feedback based on its performance. Think of it as a classroom where AI agents learn through trial and error. Sheikh helped build that classroom.
His work involved designing realistic software engineering tasks, testing AI agents on those tasks, grading their performance and analyzing where and why they failed. The goal is to better understand the limits of today鈥檚 most advanced coding models and identify situations where they still struggle.
鈥淵ou have to be very careful with the environment and the task that you come up with,鈥 Sheikh said. 鈥淚t should be fair and realistic for the agent. You can鈥檛 give it the answer, but you have to provide enough clues and context that it鈥檚 actually able to accomplish the task.鈥
His mathematical background proved especially valuable when evaluating model performance.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a fair bit of statistical reasoning involved in analyzing the models鈥 success rates, comparing performance across models or tasks, and deciding whether those differences are actually meaningful or if they鈥檙e just noise,鈥 he said.
Beyond the technical work, Sheikh valued the chance to apply what he learned in the classroom to real-world problems. The experience also gave him a look at professional engineering work.
鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to actually make use of the knowledge that we gained in a more practical setting. And it鈥檚 been really fun to be part of a diverse community, make those connections and expand your network. That鈥檚 been a really significant benefit for me.鈥
A Second Summer, A New Perspective
Sometimes the most valuable lesson from an internship isn鈥檛 what you learn about a project. It鈥檚 what you learn about yourself.
That was the case for chemistry major Isabella Mamudoski, who spent the summer at PPG Industries exploring a new area of chemistry.
Mamudoski has spent the past two summers at PPG, a Fortune 500 company that develops paints, coatings and specialty materials. Last summer, she worked with the formulations team on coatings that protect vehicle paint from scratches and other damage. She enjoyed the work, but it was the people who brought her back.
鈥淚 really liked my team my first year there,鈥 Mamudoski said. 鈥淭hey were all super welcoming and super nice. If I want to work somewhere, I want to enjoy the people around me.鈥
This summer, Mamudoski joined PPG鈥檚 analytical chemistry group, where she helped expand the company鈥檚 Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy library. FTIR is an analytical technique that identifies chemical bonds and molecular structures by measuring how a material absorbs infrared light. Scientists use the resulting spectra like molecular fingerprints to identify unknown substances.
Mamudoski鈥檚 project focused on organizing FTIR files from PPG sites around the world. Many already existed but were scattered across multiple databases. Using code she developed, Mamudoski consolidated the records into a centralized library, expanding it from about 2,000 entries to 25,000.
鈥淚f chemists need to go back and look at previous samples, they can go into the library,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 super helpful for all the scientists.鈥
The project challenged her to develop new coding and data-management skills while working alongside analytical chemists and information technology specialists.
Just as importantly, it helped her identify the type of chemistry she enjoys most. While she appreciated the opportunity to explore analytical chemistry, she found herself drawn to more hands-on work in formulations and synthesis.
鈥淥ne thing I appreciated about PPG was being able to talk with employees about their career paths,鈥 Mamudoski said. 鈥淓veryone had a different perspective, but the biggest takeaway was to figure out what鈥檚 best for you. Everyone got where they are through a different path.鈥
Using Data to Support Entrepreneurs
Government data might seem far removed from the people it serves. But for Cassandra Yang, the connection is clear.
Last summer, Yang interned with New York City鈥檚 Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, where she saw how government programs can improve people鈥檚 lives. She took that interest to the state level this summer, joining Empire State Development, New York鈥檚 economic development agency.
鈥淟ast year鈥檚 internship got me interested in government work and how we can help people and put some good out in the world,鈥 Yang said.
A mathematics and physics double major, Yang interned with the Entrepreneur Development team, which oversees Entrepreneurship Assistance Centers across New York State. The centers receive state funding to help aspiring entrepreneurs develop business plans, access resources and launch new ventures.
To maintain that funding, the centers must meet goals tied to the number of people they serve, jobs they help create and support they provide. Tracking those outcomes relies on a large database, and Yang spent the summer helping improve it.
Much of the program鈥檚 data was spread across multiple reports, requiring staff to manually combine information and verify results. Yang helped consolidate those reports into a single system and ensure the data was accurate.
鈥淎 lot of it was data validation, data cleanup and making sure everything was working right. I enjoyed it. I want to pursue something in data science or analytics after I graduate, so this was a good fit for me.鈥
Beyond organizing data, Yang analyzed it to identify trends and opportunities for improvement. She credits Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 rigorous coursework with developing the attention to detail, focus and time-management skills she relied on throughout the internship.
She had the chance to visit one of the Entrepreneurship Assistance Centers and attend a meet-and-greet with Empire State Development leadership, getting to meet some of the faces behind the numbers.
鈥淲e got to ask government leaders about their priorities and what they鈥檇 recommend to students like us,鈥 Yang said. 鈥淚t was a great opportunity to meet the people leading government and make connections that could be meaningful down the road.鈥
From Particles to Prices
At first glance, physics and financial markets may seem worlds apart. But both seek to understand systems that are constantly changing.
Senior Nolan Hughes spent the summer exploring that connection during a 10-week sales and trading internship at BNP Paribas, a global financial services firm. The physics major quickly discovered how the quantitative tools used to study physical systems can also help explain the behavior of financial markets.
鈥淭he bread and butter of physics is trying to quantify physical systems and how they evolve through time,鈥 Hughes said. 鈥淓verything鈥檚 dynamic. And it鈥檚 the same in markets because nothing is constant.鈥
Hughes spent the summer rotating between the credit trading and mortgage-backed securities trading desks. He shadowed traders, learned how markets operate and explored how firms price assets and manage risk.
Many of the concepts felt familiar. Mortgage-backed securities, for example, rely on models that aggregate information from thousands of borrowers to predict how a larger system will behave.
鈥淭he same techniques that you would use to do that is kind of how you model the evolution of a system of particles,鈥 Hughes said.
One of his projects involved optimizing an algorithmic trading strategy using Bayesian optimization, a statistical technique used to find efficient solutions to complex problems. The challenge required him to develop a creative approach to a problem without a clear solution.
During the summer he saw firsthand how incredibly intellectually stimulating finance can be. And he realized that he felt at home on the trading floor.
鈥淚t鈥檚 loud, it鈥檚 hectic, and you don鈥檛 really have time to sit and process everything. You just have to make decisions and go with it,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 loved it.鈥
Hughes said one of the most valuable parts of the internship was being immersed in the culture of a trading floor. Finance has its own specialized language that can be difficult for newcomers to understand.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no way to really learn that stuff other than just by being around it,鈥 he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 very lucky to have had this experience, and I鈥檓 excited for what鈥檚 to come.鈥
Contributing to a Drug Discovery Pipeline
A promising drug candidate can spend years moving through the development pipeline before it reaches patients. This summer, Ph.D. candidate Emmy Nguyen got a firsthand look at that process during a 12-week internship at Genentech, where she worked on an early-stage program targeting chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Nguyen鈥檚 project focused on evaluating a novel drug candidate designed to reduce inflammation and infection associated with the disease. As part of the lead optimization stage of drug development, she designed experiments to test the potential drug鈥檚 effectiveness and analyzed the resulting data.
鈥淚t was very exciting to work on a promising drug candidate and contribute to the pipeline,鈥 Nguyen said.
The internship also expanded her scientific toolkit. While her research in Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 focuses on microbiology, her work at Genentech introduced her to techniques used in immunology, including cell culture and flow cytometry.
Some of the most valuable lessons came outside the lab. Through pipeline meetings and project discussions, Nguyen observed firsthand how scientists across diverse disciplines worked together to advance a potential drug.
鈥淚t was very eye-opening to work with experts across different functions and learn how interconnected drug development is,鈥 she said. 鈥淭he rigorous science, interdisciplinary collaboration, and shared purpose were incredible to experience firsthand. I thrived in that fast-paced, mission-driven environment."
Navigating experimental designs, cross-functional meetings, and project timelines pushed Nguyen to maximize both precision and efficiency.The internship also exposed her to the many career paths within the biopharma R&D industry.
鈥淚 entered the summer knowing that I wanted a career in translational science, but this experience showed me the breadth of roles where I can make an impact,鈥 Nguyen said. 鈥淐onnecting with scientists across the organization helped me realize that scientific discovery isn鈥檛 just about solving complex biological questions 鈥 it鈥檚 about the collaborative teamwork, shared ideas, and people driving that science forward.鈥
