More than a hundred UC students in the fourth and final cohort sharpened their knowledge of tech careers and developed valuable skills in high-demand industries.
Over the summer, the CITRIS Workforce Innovation Program placed more than a hundred University of California students with a wide array of host organizations in its final cohort of eight-week paid internships, offering them hands-on, real-world experience in emerging areas of technical innovation.
These opportunities aimed to open doors to high-demand careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields for UC students from a variety of backgrounds, including those from groups typically underrepresented in STEM, Pell Grant recipients and undocumented students.
As data from the National Association of Colleges and Employees show, U.S. college students who complete internships receive nearly twice as many job offers as those who don’t. Meanwhile, nearly 30 percent of the students surveyed reported difficulty finding internship opportunities at all, while more than a quarter were unable to participate because potential placements were unpaid.
“The program bridges a crucial gap,” said Sahil Malhi, co-founder of the startup Tiny Health Tales, a first-time host organization that is working to improve public health in California’s San Joaquin Valley. “It empowers students to do hands-on, mission-driven work with real community impact, while also strengthening the regional tech workforce.”
Funded by a one-time, five-year state award in 2021, CITRIS Workforce Innovation was open to undergraduate and graduate students at the four University of California campuses associated with the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS): UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz.
With 128 placements, this fourth and final cohort was the largest yet. Focus areas for 2025 included aviation, climate and energy, cybersecurity, data and AI for social impact, digital health, and semiconductors. Throughout the summer, students participated in networking sessions and skill-building workshops alongside their regular internship duties.
Over 50 organizations — including multinational corporations, startups, nonprofits, and national and campus laboratories — volunteered as hosts this year.
For the first time, thanks to a collaboration between CITRIS and the Berkeley Space Center, the list of host organizations included NASA. Additionally, more than 20 students were placed with semiconductor companies and labs, including the Berkeley Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory, with support from a 2023 National Science Foundation Experiential Learning for Emerging and Novel Technologies (ExLENT) grant to grow the semiconductor workforce.
Hosts committed to providing real-world experiential learning opportunities, an inclusive and welcoming environment, and, most importantly, active mentorship.
“We offer guidance and resources at every step of the process,” said Mark Friedrich, lead energy management engineer at returning host Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “We’ve found that interns’ high motivation and focus lead to excellent progress, quick pivots when needed, and a strong vested interest in completing their goals.”
A fresh take on familiar challenges
Not everyone can effortlessly absorb the heavy math and astronautics concepts found in most NASA datasets. That’s one of the reasons why data visualization intern Elle O Hill was so excited to help create “While Unknown,” an animated webcomic about the International Space Station’s Astrobee system.
O Hill, a double major in cognitive science and conservation resource studies, was one of six UC Berkeley students to work with the NASA Ames Research Center in a partnership between NASA, the Berkeley Space Center and CITRIS. Two others, Lyric Banks and William Wu, joined her on the project. As lead illustrator, O Hill welcomed the opportunity to hone both her artistic and technical skills.
“I’m really passionate about trying to make technology and science something that everybody can understand and access,” O Hill said, “something that feels like it’s made intentionally for all different kinds of users.”
“In a time of uncertain funding, the CITRIS Workforce Innovation Program was a vital resource for the next generation,” Greg Niemeyer, a UC Berkeley professor of art practice who worked with NASA program scientist Chelle Gentemann to mentor O Hill and her teammates. “Some programs abandoned the youth; CITRIS doubled down.”
Elle’s internship in three words: curious, inspiring, growth
While O Hill’s project took her out of this world this summer, UC Davis student Weichen Zhang also took a trip out of his comfort zone. The computer science major worked as a software engineering intern at Calectra, a green energy startup seeking to provide low-cost, zero-carbon heat for manufacturing industries.
At the beginning of the summer, Zhang was tasked with selecting a set of technologies, or tech stack, for a web dashboard to help businesses compare prices between renewable and fossil-fuel-based energy sources.
He initially wanted to build the project with a familiar type of the JavaScript programming language, but ultimately he chose to learn Python in anticipation of Calectra’s future maintenance needs.
Zhang collaborated across multiple teams in his role, working for the first time with electrical and mechanical engineers. As someone used to a software engineering silo, he enjoyed the change of pace.
“I could apply the knowledge from the software and have an impact on the nontechnical part as well,” Zhang said. “At the same time, I had a chance to see what they developed, and I was very impressed by that.”
Weichen’s internship in three words: exciting, passionate, learning
Diving in headfirst
Varsha Vinod, a fourth-year UC Merced computer science and engineering major, spent her summer researching cybersecurity with professor Qian Wang. During her internship, she dove headfirst into a large language model (LLM) developed by the AI company DeepSeek. The startup made headlines earlier this year after its app, a ChatGPT rival, topped download charts and sent competitors’ stocks plummeting.
Vinod tested DeepSeek AI’s security by launching a trusted execution environment (TEE) — a walled-off section of memory and processing power that can execute programs without letting them affect, or potentially infect, the rest of the computer’s processor — inside the LLM.
“Initially, I had no idea what a TEE was,” Vinod said, “but this project showed me how critical TEEs are and how privacy impacts our daily lives.”
In addition to introducing her to new technical concepts, the internship helped Vinod improve her communication skills. She said she learned the importance of reaching out to supervisors when needed, and of investing in her connections to peers.
“I got to network with a few people at CITRIS. I learned about what they were doing and what their internships were like,” she said. “I was able to get more confidence and interpersonal skills. Overall, it was a great experience for me.”
Varsha’s internship in three words: fun, enlightening, fulfilling
Fellow computer scientist Devang Borkar is a master’s degree student at UC Davis, where he’s focusing on artificial intelligence and the architecture of distributed systems, in which the resources of multiple computers are harnessed for a single goal.
Over the summer, he interned at startup LearnHaus AI to help develop an AI assistant that teaches public speaking skills.
Borkar supported various aspects of the project, including security enhancement. He found the work challenging at first, but after a summer of troubleshooting, he ensured that users could upload their information, such as practice videos, into the platform for secure review by the AI.
“One of the most important skills I learned was thinking about the product from the point of view of a user,” he said, “rather than just as an engineer.”
Devang’s internship in three words: growth-oriented, technical, collaborative
Ask questions, get answers
It takes a lot of power to transmit Wi-Fi signals, according to Nithin Duvvuru. The UC Santa Cruz computer engineering major interned this summer at WaveWorks Technologies, a Seattle-based startup that designs ultra-low-power wireless hardware. Building from the founder’s doctoral research, the company is using backscatter communication technology to enable Wi-Fi chips to modulate and reflect other signals instead of generating their own.
To help the WaveWorks team harness ambient signals to save energy, Duvvuru delved deep into wireless networking specifications and then into chip design.
“I had to ensure I understood how each line of code directly synthesizes into gates and wires,” he said.
Now, Duvvuru is continuing his internship part-time into the academic year to maintain momentum on the project. If the team’s efforts are successful, he said, the company’s new Wi-Fi chip could conserve 99 percent of the power used by traditional chips.
After a summer of building skills and confidence, Duvvuru shared his advice for future interns.
“If something goes wrong, don’t fret. Take your time, work through it. You have people around you to help you out. Ask for help. Don’t be scared of that.”
Nithin’s internship in three words: welcoming, eye-opening, fun
Sammie Siew, a computer science game design major at UC Santa Cruz, spent her summer with RoboticsCats, a four-time CITRIS Workforce Innovation host working to develop an AI-powered wildfire detection system.
Siew’s task as a software engineering intern was to improve the system’s autologging functionality, which takes photographs from networked cameras at set intervals, typically 30–120 seconds, and then sends the images to the AI system to be scanned for signs of wildfire.
“It was a huge learning curve, but once I got into it, it got a lot easier,” she said. “New experiences take a lot of effort, especially if there’s a whole team involved.”
She echoed Duvvuru’s advice.
“It’s better to ask as many questions as you can to learn as much as you can.”
Sammie’s internship in three words: interesting, educational, fun
Celebrating a successful experiment
After four highly successful summers, the CITRIS Workforce Innovation Program closed with more than 375 internship placements. Thanks to generous funding from the state of California and the enthusiasm of more than a hundred hosts, these students will enter the workforce more prepared to serve as leaders in areas of emerging IT innovation.
“As the Workforce Innovation Program wraps up, we are pleased to be able to demonstrate real return on the state’s investment, not only through developing talented future employees but helping students to gain their own sense of professionalism and self-efficacy,” said Camille Crittenden, executive director of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute. “The students have made connections that will give them an advantage in the increasingly competitive job market.
“Given that we saw demand for these positions far outstrip what we could offer, I hope there will be opportunities and resources to fund similar programs in the future.”
However, as Tiny Health Tales’ Malhi pointed out, the program’s payoff is not relegated to a far-off future. It’s already being felt here and now.
“Students get practical experience, mentorship and a chance to build their portfolio on meaningful projects,” said Malhi. “At the same time, startups like ours, especially those working in underserved regions, gain access to talent we otherwise could not afford.
“This experience showed me how transformative it is when universities, students and local innovators collaborate,” he said.