Great Minds student internships

The program

At IBM Research, we have a longstanding and strong commitment to encourage and mentor the next generation of top research talents. Every year, our twelve research Labs around the world host many visiting academics, scientists and students in the belief that it takes broad collaboration of the brightest minds to create innovations that make the world work better.

With the Great Minds initiative, we want to reach out to outstanding young research talent in the countries of central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We have been inviting qualified students to apply for an internship at one of the IBM Research Laboratories in Zurich, Nairobi, or Johannesburg and to take this opportunity to work at world-class industrial IT research centers.

Since launching this initiative in 2007, we have hosted around 100 students at our Laboratories for three to six-month internships. The experiences on both sides have been very positive. The winners gain insights into real industry challenges and get hands-on experience that should be valuable to their university and faculty. They bring back knowledge of IBM’s advanced technologies as well as contacts throughout IBM Research.

The competition is open to any full-time student enrolled in a Master’s program in Artificial Intelligence, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Machine Learning, Life Sciences, Physics, Software Engineering or Service Science at the time of application. IBM is an equal-opportunity employer and encourages applications from any gender as well as minority groups. Students must have a solid command of both written and spoken English. Applicants must submit their current CV and a short video to their faculty.

An IBM committee will choose the winners at its discretion. IBM pays the winners a travel allowance as well as compensation that covers adequately the cost of living in Switzerland, Kenya, or South Africa, respectively. IBM also obtains the necessary visa and work permits for the successful candidates.

Thank you very much for participating. We intend to give the brightest students an opportunity that could significantly boost their future career prospects.

Yours sincerely,

Solomon Assefa
Dr. Solomon Assefa
Director, IBM Research–Africa

Alessandro Curioni
Dr. Alessandro Curioni
Vice President, IBM Research Europe and Africa
Director, IBM Research–Zurich