About the role#
IBM Research is looking for a PhD student to join the AI Native Systems team for a summer 2027 internship. You will focus on the efficiency, reliability, and scalability of agentic AI systems within IBM Z environments. You will work with scientists and academic partners to design and prototype mechanisms that help AI agents manage information, memory, and context during complex system tasks.
What you'll do#
- Research and prototype adaptive information-control mechanisms for AI agents.
- Define and model minimal sufficient agent state, including memory, interaction history, and tool outputs.
- Develop techniques for information retrieval, summarization, context compression, and evidence-sufficiency estimation.
- Write experimental solutions in Python and integrate them into the Finn/Paver system-management agent.
- Run experiments on z/OS management tasks to measure reliability, memory usage, latency, and inference efficiency.
- Analyze tradeoffs between agent performance, computational cost, and system resource requirements.
- Document your research through technical reports, presentations, and potential publications or patent disclosures.
What you'll need#
- Current enrollment in a PhD program for Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
- Experience in machine learning, deep learning, LLMs, AI agents, or natural language processing.
- Strong programming skills in Python and experience with frameworks like PyTorch or TensorFlow.
- Experience designing experiments, analyzing results, and building research prototypes in AI or distributed systems.
- Research background in areas such as RAG, AI memory systems, or long-context reasoning.
- Familiarity with Linux, cloud infrastructure, or enterprise computing platforms.
- Ability to communicate technical findings clearly to diverse audiences.
Location & details#
- Term: Summer 2027
- Modality: Remote
- Status: Full-time, paid internship
About IBM
IBM provides IT services and consulting to a global client base. The company develops technology solutions across areas such as cloud computing, security, analytics, and infrastructure. It operates as a public organization with more than 10,001 employees. The corporate headquarters are located in Armonk, New York.
How to get in at IBM
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