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Education & Outreach

Athena is committed to educating and developing our workforce, cultivating a diverse next generation of technical leaders who will ensure the ethical and fair use of AI. Together with its industrial and government partners, Athena will spearhead collaboration and knowledge transfer to maximize the translation of AI-empowered edge computing into new business opportunities.


K-12 Activities

Athena partners with non-profit organizations to conduct activites for aspiring STEM students. Our year-round programs include Community Code with Knox Street Studios, Summer in STEM with Inspiring Minds, Academic Year Research with North Carolina A&T Early STEM College, and TechArts and Crafts with the Whitaker Project. Contact dukeliftlab@duke.edu if you're interested in partnering with us. Upcoming events are announced on Twitter and Instagram.

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Athena SUMMER REU OPPORTUNITIES

Applications Due: February 26, 2024

Eligibility

  • Undergraduate students majoring in a Science, Technology, Engineering and/or Mathematics (STEM) disciplines 
  • US citizens or permanent residents
  • Undergraduates in good academic standing

Application: https://bit.ly/athena2024

Project Descriptions

North Carolina A&T, Greensboro, North Carolina

Processors at the edge can experience physical faults from the environment (e.g., radiation, electromagnetic interference) or malicious actors (e.g., laser fault injection, glitching attacks). Due to computational complexity, understanding the vulnerability of a processor to physical faults remains a challenge, especially for artificial intelligence applications. In this project, students will construct a tiny machine learning (TinyML) system based on an ARM Cortex M-series microcontroller and emulate the injection of physical faults to determine vulnerable locations in hardware and software. (First years - Seniors; Dates: 6/1/2024 - 7/31/2024)

Host: Daniel Limbrick

 

Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

Interested in wireless sensing, radar, drones, and other robotic platforms? The cyber physical systems lab at Duke is looking for summer REU students to help out with research projects exploring wireless sensing using drone-mounted mm-wave radars and the security of automotive radars (commonly used in self-driving vehicles). Interested students will get hands on experience integrating commercial radars onto mobile platforms like drones and other ground vehicles, develop a deeper understanding of radar signal processing, assist in the development of cutting-edge deep-learning models for processing radar data, and participate in several real-world experiments! Please reach out if interested in joining our team for the summer!

Potential projects include:

  1. Running experiments on the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles to explore sensing applications on the mm-wave radars and lidars.
  2. Help with running and training different deep learning models for mm-wave radar sensing projects.
  3. Assisting with physical experiments assessing the security of automotive radars.

(https://cpsl.pratt.duke.edu/ ) (First years - Seniors; Dates: 6/3/2024 - 8/2/2024)

Host: Miroslav Pajic

 

Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

We are using brain-inspired machine learning techniques to develop better memory management of disaggregated memory systems. (Juniors/Seniors; Dates: 6/1/2024 - 8/15/2024)

Host: Abhishek Bhattacharjee

 

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin

Students will be working with the core project team towards further development of a collaborative XR system that can work with an edge platform to demonstrate functions such as indoor navigation in a collaborative way.  Will work on integrating activities of multiple PIs (Suman and Bhuvana at Wisconsin) and will interact with other PIs at other institutions.  (Sophomores – Seniors; Dates: 6/1/2024 - 8/2024 exact start and end dates can be adjusted)

Host: Suman Banerjee


Athena post-doctoral fellowships

Post-Doctoral Fellowships in the NSF National AI Institute for Edge Computing Leveraging Next Generation Networks (Athena)

We are currently not accepting applications for 2024. Please check back for next year. 

The NSF-funded National AI Institute for Edge Computing Leveraging Next Generation Networks invites applications for Postdoctoral Fellowships from early-career engineers, natural and social scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, and educators. The Athena postdoctoral fellowships are ideally suited to scholars seeking interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary opportunities to develop and apply AI to edge computing devices and systems. Our Institute is organized in four thrust areas: 1) AI-powered networking at the edge, 2) AI-powered computer systems at the edge, 3) Advancing AI for mobile networks, and 4) AI-enabled services and applications for next-generation mobile networks. Preference will be given to candidates who can facilitate cross-thrust collaborations among research groups at Athena-affiliated institutions: Duke, MIT, NC A&T, Princeton, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, and/or Yale. Selection will be made based on the candidate’s academic and/or industrial experience, expected impact of the proposed research, and potential to broaden participation in the Institute by women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities.

To be eligible for an Athena Postdoctoral Fellowship, individuals must: 1) have received a doctoral degree (Ph.D. or equivalent), and 2) be able to start the fellowship in residence with an Athena-affiliated research group. Initial fellowship awards will be made for one-year and may be extended. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to contact one or more Athena investigators (listed at https://athena.duke.edu/who-we-are) to discuss their research interests prior to making an application.

To apply, please provide a current curriculum vitae, research statement to include a proposed research plan (maximum 2 pages), name(s) of potential host Athena investigator(s), and the names and contact information of three references. These materials should be e-mailed to info-athena@duke.edu.