Internships

General conditions

The STATOR project may accept as interns :

• Masters students, e.g. "Research masters" (French M2R).
• Graduate students pursuing PhDs in other groups.
• Highly performing undergraduate students (no need to apply if you're average, sorry).

Internships may range from engineering (e.g. implementing new front-ends or GUIs) to research.

Application

Applications should be directed to Dr David Monniaux, principal investigator of the project.

The application should include:

• A clear explanation of the context of the internship (for which diploma pursued at which university; possibly, the name of the academic who suggested the STATOR project).
• A CV. Please note that the usual CVs meant for corporate hiring processes may be insufficient; see below.
• Motivations articulated according to the goals of the STATOR project (generic motivations, which could apply to any research or engineering area, are insufficient).

Basic prerequisites

It is expected that interns pursue a degree in computer science (or perhaps mathematics), speak English or French, and demonstrate proficiency in the domains needed for the particular internship topic. These are required, not sufficient conditions.

Please check that your profile fits the topics of the STATOR project. We receive many applications from students who focus on networks, VLSI design, artificial intelligence — topics that we do not study inside this project; off-topic applications are rejected.

Our academic staff speaks French or English and possibly other languages. Speaking French is not necessary for scientific purposes, though it may help in daily life (we have staff who do speak French, indicating that this is not much of a problem).

Caveats

We receive many applications from potential interns and thus cannot afford to spend too much time investigating each one; please have all information clearly written as described in this page.

Most applications we receive are obviously mass-mailed to many research groups, regardless of appropriateness. We tend to immediately send such applications to the email trashcan.

CV

Most students applying for internships send CV or résumés meant for corporate recruiters. Typically, they are short (2 pages), include very little details as to the topics that have been studied, and instead list the hobbies or extracurricular activities of the applicant. Such CVs are inadequate for academic pursuits.

Scientific research has prerequisites; for instance, research on satisfiability modulo theory presupposes knowledge on mathematical logic, linear programming (including convex duality properties), and efficient implementation techniques. Some of such knowledge may be acquired during the internship, but, given the short duration of typical internships, it is desirable that as much as possible has already been learned through preceding classes.

Thus, we expect that the CV contain a list of subjects studied in the university. Please be specific as to the content of classes: an identification number such as INF423 tells us nothing, "algorithmics" is a very broad term; "algorithmics (sorting, dynamic programming, graph traversals)" is much more specific and informative. Links to course pages are even better.

If you have done other internships, please list them, including the name of the company or research group, the name of the supervisor and the topic. If you have written a report (or, perhaps, a scientific article), please attach it.

Please keep in mind that we do not necessarily know your university, or even the way the university system works in your country (a bachelor degree may take from 3 to 5 years depending on the country, the particular kind of degree, etc.). Please be specific and explain all grading issues (e.g. some countries grade from 0 to 20 upwards, others from A to E downwards, etc.), all terms that could be unfamiliar to us, including acronyms, etc. Please mind that we may contact academics knowledgeable about your country (or even originating from it) and that lies or exaggerations are likely to be detected.

To summarize: an application should contain:

• Name and surname (if you are from a country where name/surnames do not work as in France, e.g. you only have a first name, please explain the situation; in case of names in non-Latin scripts please include both the spelling in your own language and the spelling in Latin letters as written on your passport).
• Date of birth (at least the year).
• Exact description of degree sought and degree-granting institution, including any details we might not be familiar with.
• Higher education studies, including list of courses (at least in the last 2 years) and some transcript/grading information (e.g. if you took a national competitive exam, please list the exam and your ranking).
• Programming languages mastered (please only include those in which you can program with some proficiency; vague remembrances of an introductory course do not qualify).
• Natural languages practiced, with degree of proficiency (only French and English are important for our purposes).
• A list of internships etc. including names and email addresses of supervisors.
• Scientific articles and research reports written, if any (please attach them or, better, give a link to a page from which we can download them).
• Prizes, awards, grants etc. for academic studies and programming (e.g. results in ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest).

You may leave out the following items:

• Minor prizes and awards (e.g. half the students at your university obtain them).
• Sports and hobbies (e.g. it's nice to know you play the harmonica, but we're running a research lab, as opposed to a blues/rock band).

Dates and duration

Please give us an interval for starting and ending dates.

Please keep in mind that academic staff in our group will typically be on vacation between Christmas and New Years Day, and some weeks in August. Additionally, we may be teaching, or attending scientific conferences, or going to meetings.

Getting to know a topic takes some time. Certain universities expect their students to take short internships, e.g. 6 weeks; this is insufficient for getting to know a new topic and doing something interesting about it. We thus tend to prefer longer internships (at least 3 months).

For non-European students

If you are neither from the European Union nor from associated countries (e.g. Switzerland), we will need to apply for a work permit at least 3 months in advance (and preferably longer). This requires non-negligible work for our academic and clerical staff, not to mention various costs, independent of the duration of the internship.

We therefore strongly prefer longer internships in such cases.

In addition, we advise you to inquire for information about visa requirements from the nearest French consulate or by browsing appropriate official sites. You'll need at least a valid passport; please apply for one from your government in advance.

Locale

The internship will take place at VERIMAG, located near Grenoble, in southeastern France.

Unless the internship is very short, or the intern is supported by other means (e.g. salary, grant, bourse, etc.), he or she will receive a stipend from the university (at least 435€ per month).