Below, you will find a summary of all projects available for the internship programme in Summer 2025. You can also access the full project outlines for each school via the links below.
School of Technology projects will start on Monday 7 July, ending Friday 29 August.
School of the Physical Sciences projects start a week later on Monday 14 July, ending Friday 5 September.
For any informal queries regarding the projects, please contact the supervisor listed. Each project on the PDF file has a link to a relevant contacts page.
For other queries relating to the internship programme please contact steminterns@admin.cam.ac.uk.
School of the Physical Sciences
Astronomy
| Supervisor | Avishai Gilkis |
| Project Title | Winds of red supergiant stars (27) |
| Key words | stars, stellar evolution, red supergiants |
Geography
| Supervisor | Matthew Adeleye |
| Project Title | Floristic history of the Fens, East Anglia (23) |
| Key words | Palaeoecology, pollen, environmental history, ecology, microscopy |
| Supervisor | Michael Bravo |
| Project Title | Sustainability for the Third Pole Cryosphere Region (26) |
| Key words | Third Pole, sustainability, cryosphere, curriculum, bibliographical resources |
Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics
| Supervisor | Po-Ling Loh |
| Project Title | Differentially private synthetic graphs (31) |
| Key words | Statistical theory, differential privacy, graphs, optimization |
| Supervisor | Fatemeh Rezaee |
| Project Title | Machine Learning for Unifying Patterns in Algebraic Geometry (12) |
| Key words | Algebraic Geometry, Machine Laerning, Closed Formula, Pattern Recognition, Conjecture Generation |
Physics
| Supervisor | Sarah Bohndiek |
| Project Title |
Automating a diffuse reflectance spectroscopy system to explore the potential of short-wave infrared wavelengths in wearables (14) |
| Key words | short-wave infrared (SWIR), wearables, spectroscopy, tissue-mimicking phantoms, simulations |
| Supervisor | David Buscher |
| Project Title | Machine-learning-based design of ultra-efficient optical filters (25) |
| Key words | thin-film optics machine-learning optimisation Python |
| Supervisor | Dorian Gangloff |
| Project Title | Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) Control Systems for Quantum Technology Development (5) |
| Key words | Quantum, technology, hardware, FPGA, programming |
| Supervisor | Bo Peng |
| Project Title | Quantum properties of carbon nanomaterials from supercomputer modelling (22) |
| Key words | electronic structures, carbon nanomaterials, theory of condensed matter physics, computational materials science, quantum |
| Supervisor | Andrea Pizzi |
| Project Title | Time crystallinity in itinerant systems (28) |
| Key words | Time crystals, Dynamical systems, Numerical simulations, Itinerant particles, Non-equilibrium Phases of Matter |
| Supervisor | Orazio Scarlatella |
| Project Title | Mott-insulators and superfluids: from equilibrium to driven-dissipative steady states (29) |
| Key words | quantum many-body physics, complex systems out-of-equilibrium, quantum phase transitions, Bose-Hubbard model, open quantum systems |
School of Technology
Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
| Supervisor | Dr Roger Rubio Sánchez / Dr Somenath Bakshi |
| Project Title | Using Synthetic Cells to Study Bacteriophage Infection (1) |
| Key words | Membrane bio-engineering, membrane biophysics, antimicrobials |
Computer Science and Technology
| Supervisor | Dr Soumya Banerjee |
| Project Title | Reasoning and large language models (2) |
| Key words | Abstraction, AI, analogical reasoning |
| Supervisor | Dr Roly Perera |
| Project Title | Fluid: A Programming Language for Transparent, Self-Explanatory Scientific Outputs (3) |
| Key words | Program analysis; climate science; transparency; data visualisation |
Engineering
| Supervisor | Dr Matteo Seita |
| Project Title | Mechanics of 3D printed metals (4) |
| Key words | Additive manufacturing, polycrystalline microstructures, metallography, plasticity of metals, materials design |
| Supervisor | Dr Matteo Seita |
| Project Title | "Smart" powder analysis for sustainable metal 3D printing (5) |
| Key words | Additive manufacturing, sustainable metallurgy, computer vision, mechanical design of machines, system control |
| Supervisor | Dr Matteo Seita |
| Project Title | Unveiling the technology behind paper making in the medieval era (6) |
| Key words | Reverse engineering, computer vision, optical microscopy, history |
| Supervisor | Dr Rachel Thorley |
| Project Title | Design and Development of an Arduino-Controlled Environmental Sensor Outreach Kit (7) |
| Key words | Sensors, electronics, data, making, communication |
| Supervisor | Professor Simon Guest |
| Project Title | Optimal Compression Structures (8) |
| Key words | structures, compression, experimental, 3D-printing, instability |
| Supervisor | Dr Somenath Bakshi |
| Project Title | Design and Testing of a Microfluidic Gradient Generator for Antibiotic Dose-Response Studies (9) |
| Key words | Microfluidics, gradient generator, dose response, single-cell analysis, antibiotic susceptibility testing |
| Supervisor | Professor Duncan McFarlane |
| Project Title | Using LLMs to facilitate inter-factory communication in manufacturing (10) |
| Key words | LLMs, Manufacturing, communication, Microsoft, multi-factory |
| Supervisor | Dr Jim Hambleton |
| Project Title | Robotics for Earth-Moving (11) |
| Key words | Geotechnics, Experiments, Software, Soils |
| Supervisor | Dr Gemma Bale |
| Project Title | Lipid Light: Developing Non-Invasive Optical Sensors for Lipid Monitoring in Marine Mammals (12) |
| Key words | Biomedical optics, Short-Wave Infrared Spectroscopy (SWIRS), non-invasive sensing |
| Supervisor | Professor Duncan McFarlane |
| Project Title | Decomposition approaches for air cargo dynamic scheduling problem (13) |
| Key words | Logistics, optimisation, Python, industrial engineering |
| Supervisor | Professor Duncan McFarlane |
| Project Title | Simulation of air cargo schedules (14) |
| Key words | Logistics, Python, industrial engineering |
| Supervisor | Professor Duncan McFarlane |
| Project Title | Split Delivery Vehicle Routing with stochastic demand data (15) |
| Key words | Logistics, optimisation, Python, industrial engineering |
| Supervisor | Professor Duncan McFarlane |
| Project Title | Simulation of operations in a Gateway Hub delivery system (16) |
| Key words | Vehicle routing, optimisation, logistics, industrial engineering |
| Supervisor | Professor Duncan McFarlane |
| Project Title | Route planning/scheduling for unmanned vehicles (17) |
| Key words | Logistics, optimisation, industrial engineering |