Khoury Research Apprenticeship
Work alongside leading researchers in your field, explore your research interests, and pave a pathway to your future goals through the prestigious and unique Khoury Research Apprenticeship.
About the Khoury Research Apprenticeship opportunity
Started in 2019, the prestigious Khoury Research Apprenticeship is designed to provide current master’s students the opportunity to participate in relevant research opportunities while being mentored and supported by faculty advisors. The program, held in the fall and spring semesters, is an excellent way to explore your current research interests or help to pave a pathway to a future PhD when you complete your master’s.
Nomination process
Current faculty are encouraged to nominate students who they feel demonstrate both strong academic skills and have presented an outstanding affinity and talent for research. During this nomination process, faculty are asked to present proposals for research projects that apprenticeship recipients can participate in. Academic advisors are also welcomed to nominate students they feel could be good candidates for the apprenticeship, or who have expressed an interest in becoming involved in research or continuing to Khoury College’s PhD program.
Once nominated, students can apply to the projects that they’re interested in and will be interviewed by the corresponding faculty sponsors. A committee will review the faculty selections and the students’ chosen interest to determine final assignments.
The apprenticeship program played a big role in my decision to pursue a PhD. When I was nominated for the apprenticeship program, I neither had any prior research experience, nor did I intend on pursuing a PhD. The program gave me an opportunity to be involved in research in academia and interact with fellow grad students and faculty members
Satyajit Gokhale, computer science PhD student
If you’re awarded an apprenticeship
Students who are awarded apprenticeships will register for the four-credit master’s course, funded by Khoury College, to begin their research work. At the end of the apprenticeship, students will have the opportunity to present their work to an audience of peers and faculty and highlight their findings.
Fall apprenticeship timeline
- Early May: Deadline for faculty proposals and student nominations
- Mid-May: Nominated students apply for apprenticeship
- End of May: Faculty interviews and ranks candidates
- Early June: Apprenticeship committee determines recipients and registration begins
Spring apprenticeship timeline
- Early November: Deadline for faculty proposals and student nominations
- Mid-November: Nominated students apply for apprenticeship
- End of November: Faculty interviews and ranks candidates
- December: Apprenticeship committee determines recipients and registration begins
2024-2025 Research Apprenticeship participants
Spring 2025 participants
Students who participated in the Spring 2025 Khoury Research Apprenticeship program, their projects, and their faculty advisors:
- Lahari Boni: Building Technologies to Enhance AI Literacy Among Blind and Low Vision Students (Maitraye Das)
- Jiawen Cai: An Interactive Platform Evaluating LLMs’ Persuasive Abilities (Weiyan Shi)
- Niraj Chandrakant Chaudhari: GenZymes: De Novo Enzyme Generation with RFDiffusion (Predrag Radivojac)
- Sihe Chen: Color Constancy and Spectral Ratios (Bruce Maxwell)
- Abhijeet Chowdhury: Applying Tiling Theory to Extend Art Made from Gen AI (Crane He Chen)
- Stefanie Colino: A Landscape Study of Undergraduate AI Programs (Carly Brodley and Felix Muzny)
- Vedant Rishi Das: SmeLLM: Automatic Code Smell Identification and Refactoring Using LLMs (Joydeep Mitra)
- Himalaya Dua: Evaluating the Role of Artificial Intelligence on Cyber Security Solutions (Tehmina Amjad)
- Nihira Golasangi: Deep Clustering for Mass Spectrometry Imaging (Kylie Ariel Bemis)
- Kiersten Grieco: User Data Collection and Profiling in Smart TVs and Fridges (David Choffnes)
- Jiahuan He: Reinforcement Learning-Driven Adaptive Storytelling and Gamification for Personalized Learning Pathways (Hazra Imran)
- Ping He: Advancing Speech Processing: Native Language Recognition in Foreign Language Speech (Tony Mullen)
- Tejas Mohan Karkera: Leveraging Hybrid Variants of CNN and ViT for Melanoma Detection (Divya Chaudhary)
- Venkateshprasad Pradeeprao Kulkarni: Understanding Learning Needs in Computer Science Education (Brianna Dym)
- Pavan Kumar: User-Led Data Minimization with LLMs to Navigate Privacy Trade-offs in Chatbots (Tianshi Li)
- Ling Liu: Spacetime Volumes for StarCraft Gameplay Visualization (Seth Cooper)
- Mengyuan Liu: An Efficient Approach for Muscle Segmentation and 3D Modeling Using Keypoint Tracking in MRI Scans (Jeongkyu Lee)
- Panxin Liu: ELLMA-XR: LLM-based language agent in Mixed Reality (Mirjana Prpa)
- Zilei Liu: Algorithms for Timetabling Optimization (Richard Hoshino)
- Yijia Ma: Detecting and Mitigating Hallucinations in Large Language Models Using Agreement-Based Evaluation Techniques (Yifan Hu)
- Chirag Malhotra: OLLIV: Open Language-Image Input Variation (Saiph Savage)
- Rui Min: PDLLM: Paraphrase Detection in Large Language Models (Shanu Sushmita)
- Zadie Moon: Leveraging Data Analytics for Improved Healthcare (Akram Bayat)
- Bhavana Rajan Nair: Leveraging LLMs for Extracting Medical Insights from Online Discussions (Deahan Yu)
- Pruthvi Prakash Navada: An Exploration of Dynamic Reconfiguration Protocols in etcd (Ji-Yong Shin)
- Ronhit Neema: Transparent Checkpointing: A New Model for Hybrid HPC Computations (Gene Cooperman)
- Keivalya Bhartendu Pandya: Benchmarking Robot Learning Algorithms for Real-World Challenges (Zhi Tan)
- Andrea Pinto: Antibody Structure Prediction: Enhancing Boltz with Chai-1 (Wengong Jin)
- Pranav Boditalupula Sivasankara Reddy: Understanding Human Behavior in Social Engineering Attacks (Sarita Singh)
- Nayonika Sen: A Research Tool for LLM Internals (David Bau and Arjun Guha)
- Ankit Sinha: Roles of State in Asymmetric Partially Observable Reinforcement Learning (Chris Amato)
- Katie Elyse Song: Better Passwords Through Oblivious Pseudorandom Function (Ariel Hamlin)
- Neel Sortur: Shape Inference from Radar Signals Using Differentiable Inverse Methods (Robin Walters)
- Harshith Umesh: Optimizing Refraction Proxy Deployment (Alden Jackson)
- Qiwen Xiong: Nurse Town Game Design for Nursing Students Training with Large Language Models (LLM) (Ilmi Yoon)
- Peizhi Yan: Artificial Intelligence in Suicide Prevention: From Detection to Proactive Intervention (Tala Talaei Khoei)
- Yichen Yang: Situated visualization experiment (Enrico Bertini, Melanie Tory)
- Stella Zhang: Development of a Computational Traffic Model for Roads with Entrances and Exits (Nadim Saad)
- Haibo Zhao: Hierarchical Equivariant Policy via Frame Transfer (Robert Platt)
- Junchao Zhu: A Testing Framework for Distributed Systems (Cristina Nita-Rotaru)
Fall 2024 participants
Students who participated in the Fall 2024 Khoury Research Apprenticeship program, their projects, and their faculty advisors:
- Paola Alsharabaty: Distributed System Verification (Ji-Yong Shin)
- Zitong Bao: Digital Humanities Project: “Race, Gender, and the Visual Culture of Domestic Labor, 1870s to 1940s” (Joydeep Mitra)
- Hardik Bishnoi: Synthetic Galaxy Generation Using Artificial Intelligence (Tala Talaei Khoei)
- Estelita Chen: Curricular Complexity and BPC Performance (Albert Lionelle)
- Lana Do: Fine-Grained Sentiment Analysis (Tehmina Amjad)
- Michelle (Meechi) Figueroa: Leveraging Data Analytics for Improved Healthcare (Akram Bayat)
- Vinesh Gande: Data Driven Automation of Nonverbal Behavior (Stacy Marsella)
- Jieling Gong: Aircraft Inspection Using Computer Vision and UAVs (Michal Aibin)
- Tianchou Gong: Developing Multimodal U-Net for MRI Scan Image Segmentation for Musculoskeletal Models (Jeongkyu Lee)
- Kalli Hale: Creating Empathy Through Narrative-Drive Indie Games (Bob De Schutter)
- Ping He: Analysis of Tandem Language Exchange Data (Anthony Mullen)
- Joyce Hsu: Incorporating Patient Self-Presentation in Digital Phenotyping of Mental Health: A Patient-in-the-Loop Approach to Passive Sensing (Varun Mishra)
- Lohitha Reddy Indupuru: Applications of Cryptography to Social Reporting Systems (Ariel Hamlin)
- Rohan Jamadagni: Building NextGen OS Kernel at Northeastern (Cheng Tan)
- Julia Kim: Development of a Computational Traffic Model for Curved Roads (Nadim Saad)
- Mahesh Babu Kommalapati: A Digital Phenotyping Approach to Early Detection for Signs of Intimate Partner Violence (Aarti Sathyanarayana)
- Hui Kong: Online Resistance, Security, and Safety (Michael Ann DeVito)
- Seunghan Lee: Robotics Swarm Simulation Testbed and Algorithm Development (Aanjhan Ranganathan)
- Akash Mahalingam: Combatting Hate with Generative AI: Counter Speech Generation and Meme Context Interpretation (Divya Chaudary)
- Rui Min: MUGC: Machine Generated Versus User Generated Content Detection (Sanu Sushmita)
- Sai Chandra Pandraju: Security and Privacy of LLMs (Alina Oprea)
- Cai Peng: Designing Human-Centered AI Interfaces for Enhancing Worker Productivity and Well-being (Saiph Savage)
- Anshuman Raina and Pruthvi Prakash Navada: Statistical Modeling and Interpretation of Biomolecular Networks (Olga Vitek)
- Soni Rusagara: Black Femme Content Creators (Alexandra To)
- Lokesh Saiphanibabu Saipureddi: Multi-Human Pose Detection Using YOLOv8 (Mohammad Toutiaee)
- Huiru Yang: Designing Accessible Collaborative Ideation Technologies (Maitraye Das)
- Yichen Yan: Interactive Visualization of Graphical Representation of Code (Frank Tip)
- Haozhe Zhang: Extending Project-Based Hands-on Activities to Introduce Hardware in Software-Focused Courses (Lama Hamandi)
- Ruotian Zhang: Using Gamification and Game Based Learning to Teach Computer Programming (Sarita Singh)
- Zefeng Zhao: Learning to Generate Angry Birds Levels, Behavior Trees, and Other Graph-Based Structures from Examples (Seth Cooper)
Past Research Apprenticeship participants
Spring 2024 participants
- Kaushik Boora: A Platform for Self-Driving Vehicles Research and Education (Guevara Noubir)
- Siddharth Chakravorty: Object Rearrangement In Real World (Zhi Tan)
- Alexander Crystal: Generative AI to Empower Workers (Saiph Savage)
- Zhou Fang: Capturing Conflicting Objectives in Synthetic Data Generation Using Neural Network Ensembles (Rajagopal Venkatesaramani)
- Lauryn Fluellen: Folk Models of Mutual Aid for At-Risk Populations (Michael Ann DeVito)
- Vidya Ganesh: Multi-modal Fact Checking of Out-of-Context Images via GPT4 (Huaizu Jiang)
- Felix Han: Supporting Patient-Provider Communication in Cancer Care with LLMs (Dakuo Wang)
- Ryan Heminway and Dilshath Shaik: Topological and Weight Evolving ANN: An Empirical Analysis (Jonathan Mwaura)
- Rachana Kallada Jayaraj: Serverless Computing for More General Applications/Systems (Ji-Yong Shin)
- Pandya Kush: Split Processes in Computer Systems as Applied to MPI in HPC (Gene Cooperman)
- Jennifer Lee: SQLearn: Automated SQL Statement Assessment with Large Language Model and Abstract Syntax Trees (Jeongkyu Lee)
- Vamshika Lekkala: Safe Learning-Based Control of Exoskeletons (Michael Everett)
- Chanyuan Liu: Finding Vulnerabilities in the NIST Policy Engine (Cristina Nita-Rotaru)
- Philip Mathieu: JS/Python Library for Measuring Network Visualization (Scott Dunne)
- Divyadharshini Muruganandham: Information Content of Associations in Complex Networks (Wes Viles)
- Elizabeth Pates: Advancing Efficiency of 3D Object Database Search (Megan Hoffmann)
- Ashish Pawar: Leveraging Large Language Models for Risk Assessment in Derivative Pricing (Divya Chaudhary)
- Stephanie Poon: Design of a Mobile App Prototype for the Home Management of Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (Holly Jimison)
- Vaibhav Setia: Automated Test Generation for React (Frank Tip)
- Justin Steinberg: Investigate Behaviors for Medication Management in College Students with Mental Health Issues (Aditya Mishra)
- Senay Argaw Tilahun: Gamifying Algorithms (Lama Hamandi)
- Benjamin Wolff: Causal Query Estimation in Biomolecular Networks (Olga Vitek)
- Yuwei Wu: Human-Robot Interaction for Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment (Timothy Bickmore)
- Huiru Yang: Designing Accessible Collaborative Ideation Technologies for Blind and Low-Vision People (Maitraye Das)
- Yuanyuan Yang: Deep Cosmological Simulators for Studying Intrinsic Alignment of Galactic Shape (Robin Walters)
- Siyu Yao: Creating a New Benchmarking Framework for Distributed Database Replication (Ian Gorton)
- Mao Zhang: Making Computer Graphics Accessible (Mike Shah)
- Jiawei Zou: Using Machine Learning Techniques to Guide the Search for Materials for Quantum Computers (Miguel Fuentes-Cabrera)
Fall 2023 participants
- Leigh-Riane Amsterdam: VR Training For Interview Preparation: Understanding Challenges Faced By Underrepresented Groups (Caglar Yildirim)
- Debankita Basu: Unveiling Digital Truths in Deepfake Detection with CNN and Transformer Models (Hongyang Zhang)
- Siddharth Chakravorty: Investigation of Matter Standard Compliance in Vendor IoT Devices. (David Choffnes)
- Bereket Faltamo: MRI Image Segmentation For Musculoskeletal Model (Jeongkyu Lee)
- Lauryn Fluellen: Improved Speech Recognition for Impaired Speakers (Aachan Mohan)
- Sumukhi Ganesan: Decoding Dropouts: Mapping Curricular Metrics to Student Attrition in CS Education (Albert Lionelle)
- Juan Diego Dumez Garcia: A Comprehensive Approach to 3D Scene Analysis and Visualization (Yvonne Coady)
- Ameya Santosh Gidh: Advancing Design Tools for Engineering Knitted Materials (Megan Hoffman)
- Tom Henehan: Is Globalization a One-Way Street? An inquiry using MNA (multiplexed network analysis) and M&A (Ravi Sundaram)
- Diptendu Kar: Evaluation of Large Language Models in Solving Cybersecurity Capture the Flag (CTF) Challenges (Jose Sierra)
- Shuyi Lin: NN4SYSBENCH: Characterizing Neural Network Verification for Computer Systems (Cheng Tan)
- Hantong Liu: A Unified Storage Platform for Heterogeneous Storage Devices (Ji-Yong Shin)
- Ruochen Liu: Privacy and Censorship in Chinese Fandom (Ada Lerner)
- Cecilia Lopez: Investigating Moderation Challenges to Combating Hate and Harassment: The Case of Mod-Admin Power Dynamics and Feature Misuse on Reddit and Other Platforms (Ada Lerner)
- Jiayi Lu: Redefining Roles: Adapting Doctor-AI Collaboration in Sepsis Diagnosis (Dakuo Wang)
- Mahvash Maghrab: Photorealistic Monocular 3D Reconstruction of Humans Wearing Clothing (Mohammad Toutiaee)
- Shagun Saboo: From Paper to Pixel: Enhancing Handwritten Form Validation and Online Filling with Generative AI (Divya Chaudhary)
- Subhankar Shah: A Metric Pseudo-Grid for High-Dimensional Similarity Search (Mario Nascimento)
- Abdulaziz Arif Suria: LLM driven human-like Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) in Virtual Reality (Mirjana Prpa)
- Keerthana Velilani: Enriching Cross-Cultural Image Captioning with Generative AI and Human-in-the-Loop (Saiph Savage)
- Xiaoman Yang: The Use of Feedback and Its impact on Students’ Performance in Project-Based Courses: Instructors’ and Students’ perceptions (Oscar Veliz)
- Zhiyuan Yang: Solar Panel Farms Mapping through Multispectral Satellite Imagery and Enhanced Swin Transformer Model (Ryan M. Rad)
- Yanting Zheng: Evaluate Render Quality of (Mike Shah)
- Jaiyi Zhou: Exploring Rewrite Rule Behavior Trees for Tile-based Games (Seth Cooper)
Spring 2023 participants
- Swati Agarwal: GigSense (Saiph Savage)
- Pavan sai kumar Alladi: In-memory data store for Serverless functions (Ji-Yong Shin)
- Nidutt Bhuptani: Human-AI-NLP (Christoph Riedl)
- Zeyu Cui: Container storage game (Seth Cooper)
- Xueyan Feng: Wide FOV HMD on Augment Memory, Perception, and Cognition (Clifton Forlines)
- Tushita Gupta: Benchmarking of statistical methods for mass-spectrometry based proteomics (Olga Vitek)
- Jose Notsky Lou: The effect of feedback on a team’s performance, motivation, and results (Oscar Veliz)
- Divyadharshini Muruganandham: Analyzing conversational alignment and second language development with NLP (Tony Mullen)
- Weder Ribas: Representations of Reality Aerial NeRFs in Canadian Clouds (Yvonne Coady)
- William Rhodes (Cheng Tan)
- Sumeet Sachdev: Multimodal User-level Models for Mental Health Applications on Social Media (Silvio Amir)
- Kartik Sharma: What goes on the Internet stays on the Internet (Engin Kirda)
- Hritesh Sharad Sonawane: Attacks against congestion control algorithms (Cristina Nida-Rotaru)
- Shubham Sonawane: Improving the Reproducibility of Open Source Software Artifact Datasets’ (Jonathan Bell)
- Minyi Xu: Representations of Reality Aerial NeRFs in Canadian Clouds (Yvonne Coady)
- Ruohe Zhou: Segmentation and auto-labeling of insects’ legs using machine learning for DeepLabCut (Jeongkyu Lee)
Fall 2022 participants
- SzeYi “Reina” Chan: Brukel: Effectiveness in Storytelling (Bob DeSchutter)
- Jianhua “Chandler” Che: GigSense: Intelligent Collective Action Interfaces for Gig Workers (Saiph Savage)
- Caroline Craig: Learning Alignment Models from Multiple Translations of Ancient Greek Texts (David Smith)
- Shriya Dhaundiyal: VOICE ASSISTANT using profiling (David Choffnes)
- Mingxi Jia: SEIL: Simulation-augmented Equivariant Imitation Learning (Robert Platt)
- Charles “Chip” Kirchner: Macro-Action Value Decomposition for Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning (Chris Amato)
- Aniruth Ramesh and Parthasarathy Murugesan: Reddit as an evaluation for Dialog responses (David Smith)
- Omar Rashwan: Reconfiguration as a Common Operation in Distributed Systems (Ji-Yong Shin)
- Keith Rebello: Improving User Affect Through Empathic Conversational Agents (Tomothy Bickmore)
- Sumukh Vasisht Shankar: Equivariant Neural Networks for Spatial Light Modulator (Robin Walters)
- Kinshuk Sharma: Benchmarking Distribution Shifts for Domain Generalization (Hongyang Zhang)
- Dmitrii Troitskii: dewimplify: Validating Intermediate Representation of WebAssembly (Frank Tip)
Spring 2022 participants
- Gerard Otalora Canovas: Designing an A.I. Interface to Empower Gig Workers (Saiph Savage)
- Brenden Collins: Running computational benchmarks for graph layout algorithms (Cody Dunne)
- Shireen Firdoz: Design and implementation of a new reconfiguration protocol in etcd (Ji-Yong Shin)
- Riley Grant: Reimagining Programming with AlphaZero (Karl Lieberherr)
- Haoyu He: A benchmark suite for neural network verification for systems (Cheng Tan)
- Thai Huynh: Gender box 2 (Ari Waldman)
- Maanasa Kaza: MSstatsShiny: An Interactive Cloud-Based UI for High Quality Analysis of Proteomic Experiments (Olga Vitek)
- Jonathan Merrin: Improving human task performance with Quality Diversity inspired tools (Mike Shah)
- Nicolas Osborn: Quality Diversity in Human Computation (Seth Cooper)
- Mino Reyes: Computer Vision and Rough 2D Maps for Navigation in Novel Environments (Lawson Wong)
- Shreya Singh: A Calibrated approach to Semi-Supervised Learning For Medical Image Classification (Hongyang Zheng)
- Tim Swierzewski: Studying Dark Patterns in Voice Assistants (David Choffnes)
- Calvin Yu: Finding Structural Similarities in Research Papers Through Visual and Textual Analysis (Cody Dunne)
- Kicho Yu: Data Localization Compliance with Internet Measurement about Companies in European Union (David Choffnes)
Fall 2021 participants
- Ian Dardik: Formal Verification of a Distributed Dynamic Reconfiguration Protocol (Stavros Tripakis)
- Tarek Elaydi: Reducing irreducible error in image datasets (Bruce Maxwell)
- Samuel Engida: Quantifying the Nauseogenicity of Virtual Reality experiences (Caglar Yildirim)
- Ari Fleischer: Misinformation and Discrimination (Ari Waldman)
- Akanksha Gupta: FIND-M: Identify Counterfeit Medical Products through Crowdsourcing (Ravi Sundaram)
- Huiyu He: Exploring Consistency Semantics for Distributed Systems in Serverless Environments (Ji-Yong Shin)
- Haoyu He: Persuasive Robots for Health Behavior Change (Timothy Bickmore)
- Devina Raithatha: Centering Joy in BIPOC PWI Experiences (Alexandra To)
- Sunny Sandeepbhai Shukla: Attention and Transformer models for Speaker – Follower VLN tasks (Lawson Wong)
- Virender Singh: BERT Language Model analysis and application to fine tuning tasks (Hongyang Zhang)
Spring 2021 participants
- Joseph Burns: VizioT: Visualizing Network Traffic for IoT Devices (David Choffnes)
- Ian Dardik: Proving Correctness of a Novel Consensus Protocol (Stavros Tripakis)
- Colin Dsouza: Design explorations for efficient and verified distributed system compositions (Ji-Yong Shin)
- Satyajit Gokhale: Desynchronizer: Introducing Asynchrony in JavaScript Applications (Frank Tip)
- Xingyu Lu: Deep Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (Christopher Amato)
- Rebecca Mashaido: Detecting Neural Network Integrity Violations via Sensitive Samples (Thomas Wahl)
- Vishal Maurya: QGen: a workload generator for benchmarking analytic frameworks (Peter Desnoyers)
- Urvaksh Padamsi: The Truth Pill: Empowering Consumers to Identify Counterfeit Medical Products through Crowdsourcing and Deep Networks (Ravi Sundaram)
- Waleed Saeed: Gender Binary in Law (Ari Waldman)
- Hearan Won, Rachelle Angeli Maranon: Data-driven Modeling of Disaster Response (Stacy Marsella)