Partner with a Data Intern!

CAIDS connects faculty and community partners with CAIDS paid Data Interns for data- and AI-focused scholarship. We prioritize connecting students with community-engaged projects, faculty research, and Tulane projects that make a social or cultural impact and work towards the social good.  

Interns work alongside project partners on work such as:

  • Data and/or AI projects (collection, analysis, visualization)
  • Data and/or AI product development (datasets, app, tools)
  • Data and/or AI engagement/leadership
  • Data and/or AI academic research
  • Communication projects that use Data and/or AI (analytics, metrics) or is about Data and/or AI
  • Educational Support Activities involving Data and/or AI (e.g. GIST, BATS, Science Fairs)

CAIDS supports partners and interns by supporting the hiring process, providing an internship orientation, identifying pathways for additional training, holding office hours and regular meetups, and providing additional mentorship and career support.  

CAIDS pays selected interns to work up to 10 hours a week during the Fall and Spring sprints and up to 20 hours a week in the Summer sprints.  

For semester and year-long projects, you may interview and select your intern from candidates who apply for your position during the CAIDS Internship application cycle or you may suggest your own candidate from your network.  

For short-term projects (less than a semester), you will be assigned an intern from our existing cohort or you may suggest your own candidate from your network.

Students who have unpaid internships should encourage their partners to apply for funding.  

All CAIDS paid interns must participate in CAIDS Internship programming including Orientation, Training, Check-ins, Love Data Week, and the Data Showcase.  

Interns are expected to work in the CAIDS Data Lab or on site with the partner during the Fall and Spring. Interns will work remotely during the summer though a few on-site arrangements may be made in advance.  

Program Objectives

  1. Solve multi-disciplinary research questions using data research methods (including AI) supported by ethical frameworks.
  2. Collaborate on data and AI projects with Tulane faculty and community partners while interns build a portfolio of data and essential skills.
  3. Continually focus on and reflect on building projects and relationships using data and AI ethics and community-engaged research frameworks, such as reciprocity, collaboration, leveraging resources, and agentic co-education.

Project Types

Projects typically draw on student skills in data collection, data management, and data communication, including:

  • Developing deliverables such as apps, digital archives, visualizations, GIS maps, databases, and other data scholarship projects.
  • Working with spreadsheets and data/AI tools for data entry, collection, cleaning, analysis, and visualization.
  • Creating science communications such as websites, social media campaigns, video tutorials, and academic posters.
  • Supporting outreach and educational programming around data and AI initiatives.
  • Increasing public access to data information through community partner collaborations.

Project Partner Expectations

If selected, project partners agree to:

  • Sign an MOU with the student and CAIDS
  • Work with the students each week, sign work logs, provide regular work and feedback.  
  • Communicate consistently with the CAIDS support team by responding to emails promptly and providing timely feedback.
  • Allow CAIDS to promote the project through poster, write-ups, social media and other publications
  • Acknowledge CAIDS sponsorship in any publications or websites related to the project
  • Credit the names of CAIDS interns and faculty who supported the project in relevant publications, websites, and footnotes
  • Consider presenting or discussing the project at a CAIDS event, such as Love Data Week or the Talk Data to Me speaker series as invited.  
  • Attend the Data Showcase: Student Poster Session and other invited events. 
     

Internship Calendar

We have two hiring cycles for three internship sprints and tentatively follow this calendar.  

Fall Sprint – Mid-August to Early December

  • By January 31: Apply to partner with a CAIDS paid intern starting in the Fall (mid-August). The application has a rolling deadline until selections are made. Apply early.  
  • Feb 15: Selected partner provides job description for students to apply on the CAIDS Internship application
  • Feb 16-March 15: CAIDS Internship application for Summer and Fall goes live for students to apply.  
  • March 15: CAIDS Internship application closes.  
  • March 25: CAIDS provides applications to partners.  
  • March 25-April 15: Partners review applications and make selections
  • April 15: CAIDS hire interns.
  • August 9: Interns go through CAIDS internship orientation (remote).  
  • August 16 – December 4: Interns work with partner while being paid by CAIDS. 
  • Students are not allowed to work during university holidays:
    • Fall Break: First week of October  
    • Thanksgiving Break  
    • Exam Period and Winter Break - December 6 – January 10  

Spring Sprint – Mid-January to Early May

  • By September 14: Apply to partner with a CAIDS paid intern starting in the Spring (mid-January). The application has a rolling deadline until selections are made. Apply early.
  • September 17: Selected partner provides job description for students to apply on the CAIDS Internship application
  • September 21-October 26: CAIDS Internship application for Summer and Fall goes live for students to apply.  
  • October 26: CAIDS Internship application closes.  
  • Nov 2: CAIDS provides applications to partners.  
  • Nov 2 - November 20: Partners review applications and make selections
  • November 30: CAIDS hire interns.
  • January 10: Interns go through CAIDS internship orientation (remote).  
  • January 18 – May 7: Interns work with partner while being paid by CAIDS. 
  • Students are not allowed to work during university holidays:
    • MLK Day
    • Spring Break
    • Final Exam Period  

Summer Sprint – Mid-May to Mid-August (remote work only)

  • By January 31: Apply to partner with a CAIDS paid intern starting in the Spring (mid-May). The application has a rolling deadline until selections are made. Apply early.
  • Feb 15: Selected partner provides job description for students to apply on the CAIDS Internship application
  • Feb 16-March 15: CAIDS Internship application for Summer and Fall goes live for students to apply.  
  • March 15: CAIDS Internship application closes.  
  • March 25: CAIDS provides applications to partners.  
  • March 25-April 15: Partners review applications and make selections
  • April 15: CAIDS hire interns.
  • May 10: Interns go through CAIDS internship orientation (remote).  
  • May 17- August 13: Interns work with partner while being paid by CAIDS. 
  • Students are not allowed to work during university holidays:  
    • Memorial Day
    • Juneteenth  
    • Fourth of July
    • Exam Periods (if applicable)

Apply to Participate

To apply fill out the CAIDS: Community Partner Organization form. For questions or to learn more, contact Jacquelyne Thoni Howard, PhD at jhoward8@tulane.edu.