Projects and Mentors

blue spiral shapes twisted together to form a SARS-COV-2 protein

New technological advances and the cheapening of data acquisition have vastly expanded what is possible in bioinformatics. Things like predicting protein folding and interactions, which I previously believed impossible, are not anymore. My experience at LLNL has changed what I think is possible.

—Jonathan Anzules, DSSI class of 2022

As a DSSI intern, you’ll work on real projects with real data that represent the breadth and depth of data science research at LLNL. Our students tackle Challenge Problems that leverage large and varied datasets used in or generated from actual LLNL projects such as building networks from interaction data, large-scale data mining for predictive medicine, drug discovery using HPC simulations, video data summarization and classification, energy efficiency analysis using HPC, classification and forward modeling of hyper-spectral data, and much more. This curriculum helps students build technical experience and teamwork.

Our interns are also paired with mentors—experts across many data science fields at the Lab—whose projects align with students’ skills and interests. Check out recent Challenge Problems and mentors below.

2023 Challenge Problem

2022 Challenge Problem

2021 Challenge Problems

Mentor Spotlight

Bhavya Kailkhura

Bhavya Kailkhura

Bhavya thrives on solving challenging problems in data science, focusing on improving the reliability and the safety of machine learning systems. “Reliability and safety in AI should not be an option but a design principle. The better we can address these challenges, the more successful we will be in developing useful, relevant, and important ML systems,” he states. He also pursues mathematical solutions to open optimization problems, including a novel sphere-packing theory, and is building provably safe, explainable deep neural networks to enable reliable learning in applications for materials science, autonomous drones, and inertial confinement fusion.


Ready for the next step?

Visit our applications page to read FAQ about the program, apply to the job posting, or contact us for more information. Join the LLNL Scholars Google Group to chat with mentors and other students.