NSF-DOE Student and PI Internships/Collaborations for AMPS-Funded Projects

Summer internships/collaborations for AMPS related research are available at the Department of Energy National Labs. This year, the program will be open to AMPS Students and PIs. This will provide excellent opportunities for lab and academic collaborations, and can lead to quicker implementation of AMPS research to the vital power grid infrastructure. As in past years, participants in this program are funded through their AMPS grant. However, expected NSF-OE funding will be available as a supplement to cover housing and travel (one trip to and from the lab) for the summer visit. To participate in this program, the participant (student or PI) needs to 

  1.  contact a lab point of contact (POC), which may be found in the laboratory links below, or by reaching out to the AMPS DOE Program Director Dr. Alireza Ghassemian, naerm@hq.doe.gov. Please reach out to the POCs in regards to any power grid postings and possible “Visiting Researcher Programs” the lab may have (see below).
  2. work with the lab POC on the application process, assigned mentor or collaborator, dates of visit, and other logistics
  3. inform the AMPS NSF Program Director Dr. Tomek Bartoszynski, tbartosz@nsf.gov, by email of your lab arrangements. Instructions on submission for supplementary funding will provided by Dr. Bartoszynski.

Because the AMPS participants will be funded through their NSF grants, the “Visiting Researcher Programs” route may be suitable in many cases, especially when the intern postings do not align with your AMPS research. In this case, the AMPS PI needs to initiate discussion with the POC to identify and concur on the collaborating project and its scope, and then to initiate the necessary administration process.

Information on internships at Berkeley, Brookhaven, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, Pacific Northwest, and Sandia National Labs is available in the following links:

Berkeley National Lab: Berkeley Lab’s Grid Integration Group Grid develops models and software solutions to support decisions around power systems planning, economics as well as electricity markets and policy. We welcome interns that are interested in formulating and solving power systems optimization and simulation problems that have relevant practical value for real life applications.

Examples of successful models developed by the Grid Planning and Economics team include:

● The Security-constrained AC OPF algorithm, which received a top performer prize in Challenge 2 of the ARPA-e Grid Optimization Competition.

● The resilient distribution expansion model, developed in partnership with the industry, which was recently made available as a prototype tool.

●  Different models for microgrid planning, covering different design aspects, such as distribution grid  or multi-energy representations, included LBNL’s DER-CAM tool.

More information here: LBNL Grid Integration and LBNL Slides

Brookhaven National Lab: BNL Summer Internships
More information here: BNL Slides
Lawrence Livermore National Lab:  LLNL Graduate Student Internship and Undergraduate Internship 
Applicant: Please contact Dr. Vaibhav Donde (donde1@llnl.gov) and Ms. Cecilia Klauber (klauber1@llnl.gov) once you submit your application for these positions.
Los Alamos National Lab: LANL Summer Internships

Pacific Northwest National Lab: PNNL Summer Internships

Sandia National Lab:  SNL Power Systems Internship, SNL Climate, Earth, and Energy Graduate Student Internship, SNL Climate, Earth, and Energy Undergraduate Internship

More information here: SNL Slides