Experiences Integrating Interns Into Research Software Teams

Abstract

While interns are invaluable additions to teams by achieving focused work when other team members may be distracted with other duties, effectively integrating an intern for a short duration, such as a 12-week summer internship, can be challenging. With internships also serving an educational mission, balancing project impact against the best educational outcomes for students can be difficult. I have had 13 different interns I have paid over the last ten years at Sandia National Laboratories with a 100% success record, with each generating at least one externally peer-reviewed publication. All have also created useful code-related artifacts usable by the team later. I have consistent feedback from students and their advisors that they return to school noticeably improved. This article covers many of the challenges and tested solutions that may work well for other teams.