iCER Interns: Engaging Undergraduates in High Performance Computing

The Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research (iCER) at Michigan State University (MSU) has an internship program to provide undergraduate students with hands-on experience in advanced computational research. The goals of the iCER Intern program are: (1) to give students in-depth exposure to Advanced Computing; (2) to leverage students' knowledge and skills to support iCER administrators, staff and researchers; and (3) to minimize the investment of mentors' time and resources, while maximizing student productivity. This paper details the evolution and structure of the iCER Intern program, which provides a rich educational experience for undergraduates while efficiently managing the efforts of iCER mentors. The program structure helps iCER staff quickly assess the interests and skills of new student interns and encourages productivity among the undergraduates. The result is a net positive return on the investment of mentors' time and effort, and a valuable professional learning experience for students. The methodology described here is based on lessons learned in mentoring more than 50 undergraduate students, and other institutions or high performance computing centers could readily adopt this program structure and approach.