Human-Robot Interaction Lab Summer Research Intern

This internship is part of the University’s Jeff Metcalf Internship Program. Click here to learn more about the program, its benefits, and the UChicago community of supporters. By applying to this internship you agree to follow the Student Recruiting Guidelines.

Internship Time Commitment: approximately 400 hours over 10 weeks
Remote/Hybrid: Interns are expected to work during organization’s business hours of operations.
This position is not benefits eligible.

Please make sure that if selected for an interview, you communicate to your prospective host organization/employer where you will be physically located during the internship as your location may affect your (or your host organization/employer’s) ability to pursue this opportunity.

If you are an international student, please make sure to visit the OIA website to familiarize yourself with your work authorization eligibility and requirements as soon as possible. If you’d like to make an appointment with your international adviser, please visit this page

The Human-Robot Interaction lab is looking for UChicago undergraduates interested in conducting human-robot interaction research in the summer of 2025. Summer interns typically work collaboratively with other PhD students, undergraduates, and high school students on a research project that explores novel human-robot interactions. The project topics for this summer are still being determined, however, they are likely to be: 

• Designing a robot that can teach pairs of children social emotional learning skills
• Exploring how robot requests for help can improve child-robot interactions
• Developing an autonomous robot system that can be deployed in a child’s home
• Exploring the use of large language models (LLMs) on human-robot interactions

Work on human-robot interaction projects usually include: reading academic papers to understand prior work and inform project work, experiment design, robot and system programming (typically done using Python), running a human subjects study, analyzing data, and paper writing. 

This summer internship will run from June 16th to August 22 (10 weeks). HRI lab students work in-person in John Crerar Library in a collaborative team. Students will also have several regular meetings: a weekly lab-wide progress update meeting, a weekly project meeting with PI Sarah Sebo, and a weekly lab-wide reading group.

To apply, please submit your resume, cover letter explaining your interest in this internship and your relevant experience, and an unofficial transcript.