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VT EPSCoR SOCKS Summer Research Internships
Applications are now open!
Vermont EPSCoR is offering summer 2027 research internship opportunities for our cutting-edge NSF-funded project, Harnessing the Data Revolution for Vermont: The Science of Online Corpora, Knowledge, and Stories (SOCKS). This five-year, interdisciplinary initiative aims to better understand and harness the power of stories which are essential tools for how people comprehend, explain, predict, and navigate the world. SOCKS advances the Digital Humanities by creating innovative methods to quantify individual stories and their ecosystem using data collection, natural language processing, and large language models.
The VT ESPCoR SOCKS Summer Research Internship program allows students to engage in research associated with the NSF EPSCoR award. The interns are paired with research teams working within the transdisciplinary SOCKS program. At the end of the internship, the teams come together for a symposium to share their findings through oral presentations and written reports. Students can expect a full-time, high-impact, hands-on research experience for 10 weeks
Questions? Send us an email!
Research Areas:
The range of research areas in which students may participate is quite extensive. SOCKS interns delve into research projects - an opportunity not often available during the academic year. Projects are markedly different from most course-based work in that they are open-ended and part of a much larger research program.
Select Previous Research Projects:
About SOCKS:
SOCKS is a transdisciplinary research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that aims to advance initiatives grounded in principled methods through the quantitative measurement of sentiment and stories across a broad portfolio of corpora. We hope to provide new insights into the power and use of stories and narratives across a broad array of social, economic, and health domains through integrated data and teams.
The internships will start on May 24th, 2027 and end on July 30th, 2027. Towards the end of the 10-week internship period, interns are required to attend and present their research at the Vermont EPSCoR Student Research Symposium, as well as submit their research paper by the last day of the internship.
Click here to learn more about the Internship Expectations and Timeline
The internship takes place at the University of Vermont campus in Burlington, Vermont USA.
Internship Stipend:
Interns receive a $5,200 stipend over the 10-week program. Additionally, on-campus housing is provided at no cost and interns receive a daily food allowance. Interns also receive a travel grant up to the amount of $1500; our team members will assist in planning travel to and from Vermont.
Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents enrolled in a college or university with a strong interest in a career in a STEM or social science field. Students graduating prior to the start of the internship (May 2027) are not eligible to apply.
Application Procedure:
The application requires a letter of recommendation from a faculty member, an unofficial transcript, and two short essays (Describe your research interests; Describe how you think you would benefit from this research internship). Applications are due January 6th, 2027 at 11:59 pm ET.
Selection and placement of students will take place in January of 2027. Interview invitations will be sent out in early February. Interviews will take place mid-February. Placement decisions will be sent out in late February and March; applicants who were not placed will be notified at this time.
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Useful Python and NLP Tutorials to Check Out:
Vermont EPSCoR is offering summer 2027 research internship opportunities for our cutting-edge NSF-funded project, Harnessing the Data Revolution for Vermont: The Science of Online Corpora, Knowledge, and Stories (SOCKS). This five-year, interdisciplinary initiative aims to better understand and harness the power of stories which are essential tools for how people comprehend, explain, predict, and navigate the world. SOCKS advances the Digital Humanities by creating innovative methods to quantify individual stories and their ecosystem using data collection, natural language processing, and large language models.
The VT ESPCoR SOCKS Summer Research Internship program allows students to engage in research associated with the NSF EPSCoR award. The interns are paired with research teams working within the transdisciplinary SOCKS program. At the end of the internship, the teams come together for a symposium to share their findings through oral presentations and written reports. Students can expect a full-time, high-impact, hands-on research experience for 10 weeks
Questions? Send us an email!
Research Areas:
The range of research areas in which students may participate is quite extensive. SOCKS interns delve into research projects - an opportunity not often available during the academic year. Projects are markedly different from most course-based work in that they are open-ended and part of a much larger research program.
Select Previous Research Projects:
- Social Media Discourse - Dr. Pablo Bose
- Computational Linguistics and Machine Translation - Dr. Brennan Dell
- Indigenous Narratives and Storytelling in Global Environmental Governance - Ben Cooley
- Understanding and Promoting Human Connection in Serious Illness - Dr. Alice Patania
- Estimating the Impact of Context on Word Meaning: Towards More Fully Leveraging LLMs in Linguistics - Dr. Julia Zimmerman
About SOCKS:
SOCKS is a transdisciplinary research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that aims to advance initiatives grounded in principled methods through the quantitative measurement of sentiment and stories across a broad portfolio of corpora. We hope to provide new insights into the power and use of stories and narratives across a broad array of social, economic, and health domains through integrated data and teams.
The internships will start on May 24th, 2027 and end on July 30th, 2027. Towards the end of the 10-week internship period, interns are required to attend and present their research at the Vermont EPSCoR Student Research Symposium, as well as submit their research paper by the last day of the internship.
Click here to learn more about the Internship Expectations and Timeline
The internship takes place at the University of Vermont campus in Burlington, Vermont USA.
Internship Stipend:
Interns receive a $5,200 stipend over the 10-week program. Additionally, on-campus housing is provided at no cost and interns receive a daily food allowance. Interns also receive a travel grant up to the amount of $1500; our team members will assist in planning travel to and from Vermont.
Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents enrolled in a college or university with a strong interest in a career in a STEM or social science field. Students graduating prior to the start of the internship (May 2027) are not eligible to apply.
Application Procedure:
The application requires a letter of recommendation from a faculty member, an unofficial transcript, and two short essays (Describe your research interests; Describe how you think you would benefit from this research internship). Applications are due January 6th, 2027 at 11:59 pm ET.
Selection and placement of students will take place in January of 2027. Interview invitations will be sent out in early February. Interviews will take place mid-February. Placement decisions will be sent out in late February and March; applicants who were not placed will be notified at this time.
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