Summer internship programs in Europe for American students

[Sulphagne]

Hi. I am looking into summer programs for the upcoming summer. I am interested in programs with focus in math and/or computer science. Last summer I did a physics REU at Columbia, and this summer I was hoping to maybe do a program somewhere in Europe. Maybe Cambridge, ETH, or Oxford or some such. Since REU is funded by NSF it only exists in US schools and since I knew of no such European program I resorted to googling but that didn't turn up much.

So, does anyone know of good academic summer programs in math and/or computer science hosted by European schools?

Thanks for the help.

 

[oedipa maas]

My group is getting a summer student from the US this year, so it is certainly possible to work in Europe!

I don't know that any European countries have a formal REU-like system. However, if you want to work in Europe you might be able to find something if you just e-mail some people who seem to be working on something interesting. Because there is no REU system and because European students pay almost no tuition (and therefore don't have as much motivation to have a job) you don't have too much competition.

However, the tricky part is finding a job AND getting paid (I'm assuming you need a job partly to finance your education in the US). For this you'll need a little luck to find somebody with grant money to burn.

You could also try to find a supervisor in the US who would be willing to trade you to a colleague overseas. If you just want to live in Europe you could also try looking at a co-op at a company. I would also bet that you'd have an easier time finding an academic position in Germany or the Netherlands than in England.

If I were you I would put together an e-mail with the following

- what you think is interesting about their research
- your background and interests
- your citizenship(s)
- ask if they have a "summer-student-sized project" in mind
- ask if they can pay you enough to cover your airfare and living expenses with a bit leftover to help finance your education in the US.