Master’s Intern – Robotics and Artificial Intelligence

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory • Richland, WA

7h

About The Position

At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), our core capabilities are organized into major departments called Directorates, each focused on a specific area of scientific research or function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.
Our Science & Technology Directorates include:
National Security
Earth and Biological Sciences
Physical and Computational Sciences
Energy and Environment
Additionally, we host the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science user facility located on the PNNL campus.
The Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate (PCSD) combines strengths in experimental, computational, and theoretical chemistry and materials science with advanced computing, applied mathematics, and data science capabilities. These resources are central to PNNL’s discovery mission. Our greatest asset is our people—experts across diverse scientific disciplines who collaborate to tackle the most significant scientific challenges of our time.
Within PCSD, the Advanced Computing, Mathematics, and Data Division (ACMDD) conducts basic and applied research in artificial intelligence, applied mathematics, computing technologies, and data and computational engineering. Our teams apply end-to-end co-design principles to advance energy-efficient computing systems and develop next-generation algorithms to analyze, model, and control complex systems in science, energy, and national security.

Requirements

• Candidates must be matriculated/enrolled in a Master's program at an accredited college or university.
• Minimum GPA of 3.0 is required.

Nice To Haves

• Pursuing a Master’s degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Data Science (with a focus on Generative AI), or a related technical field.
• Hands-on experience with robotic manipulation (grasp synthesis, inverse kinematics, calibration) and contact-rich control (impedance/admittance).
• Familiarity with low-level robot interfaces for torque, velocity, and position control.
• Practical experience with robot learning methods such as imitation learning, reinforcement learning, model predictive control, or diffusion policies.
• Knowledge of motion planning and trajectory optimization using frameworks like Nav2, OMPL, and MoveIt 2.
• Experience with computer vision and 3D perception, including object pose estimation and point-cloud processing.
• Proficiency in ROS 2 and integration with simulation environments (e.g., Isaac Sim, Gazebo, MuJoCo, PyBullet).
• Ability to build autonomous workflows using frameworks like LangGraph or LangChain.
• Strong Python programming skills and experience with Git-based collaboration.
• Bonus: Experience with tactile sensing, mobile manipulation, or exposure to scientific experimentation and lab automation.

Responsibilities

• Engage in hands-on research and experimentation in robotics and AI systems
• Design, implement, and test graph neural networks, large language models, and AI-driven applications for scientific and engineering challenges
• Develop and optimize scientific software and manage data according to FAIR principles
• Conduct experimental validation of algorithms and models in real-world or simulated environments
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to integrate AI and robotics solutions into applied research projects
• Summarize technical findings and contribute to peer-reviewed publications
• Participate in prototype development, performance benchmarking, and iterative improvement of AI models

Benefits

• Employees are offered an employee assistance program and business travel insurance.
• Employees are eligible for the company funded pension plan and 401k savings plan, once eligibility requirements are met.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Intern