By Robert Caverly, Villanova University, and Erica Wissolik, IEEE
Founded in 1980 through the collaborative efforts of several professional engineering organizations, the IEEE Washington Internships for Students of Engineering (WISE) program has become one of the premier Washington internship programs [1]. WISE prepares future leaders of the engineering profession who are aware of, and who can contribute to, the increasingly important issues at the intersection of science, technology, and public policy in the United States.
Each summer, the WISE sponsoring organizations – IEEE and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) — select outstanding 3rd or 4th year engineering/computer science students, or students in engineering/ computer science graduate programs from a nationwide pool of applicants.[2] The students spend nine weeks living in Washington, D.C., during which time they learn how government officials make decisions on complex technological issues, and how engineers can contribute to the legislative process and regulatory public policy decision-making.
For 2025, the IEEE interns were sponsored by IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB), IEEE-USA, and the IEEE Standards Association (SA), along with the IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Industry Applications Society, IEEE Power Electronics Society, and the IEEE Photonics Society. IEEE sponsored a total of seven interns for 2025, up from four interns in 2023. An additional four interns were sponsored by ASTM. Table 1 introduces the IEEE interns, their university, and the public policy topic the student interns will research over the summer of 2025. Each student intern has a local advisor as well as a technical mentor to assist them as they develop their policy position papers. In early June 2025, the interns started their program with visits to both Washington, DC landmarks as well as federal agencies, the White House, and Congressional offices.
| NAME | SCHOOL | TOPIC |
|---|---|---|
| Daniil Rose | Pennsylvania State University | Data management or privacy and technology in higher education |
| Chris Johnson | Brigham Young University | Strengthening domestic semiconductor manufacturing |
| Ethan Speerli | University of Delaware | Researching the integration of fuel cell technology for generation in the electrical grid |
| Olyver Blaisdell | Montana State University | Supporting the R&D required to ensure US leadership and continued competitiveness in AI |
| Alexander Jackson | Pensacola Christian College | Self-driving cars |
| Joshua Shapo | George Washington University | Regulation of low-Earth orbit frequency spectra |
| Aidan Schurr | George Washington University | George Washington University National health as a security issue: biomedical applications of chip technologies incentivizations. |
IEEE TAB and the four sponsoring IEEE Societies are pleased to be part of this OneIEEE initiative, partnering with IEEE-USA and IEEE SA, to develop our student members’ skills as they grow into Young Professionals whose future career options and interests are expanded by participating in WISE. The internship program provides the students with an appreciation and understanding of the importance of the role that engineering, science, and technology play in governing (both laws and regulations) the industries in which engineers and scientists work. The program also imparts skills related to educating the US government about the role that engineering, science, and technology – and IEEE in particular, as our professional home – can play in advancing technology to benefit humanity.
References
[1] ‘The WISE internship program’, https://wise-intern.org/home/the-program/about/ , Available: accessed 6-21-2025 [2] IEEE’s applicants must be members of their IEEE Student Branches at their university.
7 Responses
How my students can participate in this activity
Hello, the link above in the references describe the program as well as the application dates for last year. The site will be updated for next year at a later date.
R Caverly
I am faculty at Government College of Engineering Yavatmal (Maharashtra India)
Hi
Is it open for students from INDIA?
Hello, the link above in the references describe the program as well as the application dates for last year. The site will be updated for next year at a later date.
All WISE interns must be either citizens of the United States or legal permanent residents. You may not apply to the program if you are not already in the US, residing as a citizen or under a permanent resident visa.
R Caverly
Any opening of such to International PhD students in Korea ?
Hello, am 3rd year PhD student department of CSE, my research area is computer vision, image processing, multimodal AI, using Deep learning algorithm’s . so can I eligible …?