Application
Applications for the PAS4AI Workforce Summer 2025 Program are due January 31, 2025.
Requirements
- Identify as autistic or having Asperger's Syndrome
(medical documentation is requested, but not required)
- Currently enrolled in a college in the USA for a 2-year degree
- Have passed two college classes in programming, including one course in Python (or commensurate work experience)
- Have passed one college class in statistics, calculus, or linear algebra
- Are legally eligible to work at a paid job in the USA
- Are aged 18 or over
- Reside in the USA
Application Submission
When you open up the application form, you will be shown a consent form
for the research project that we are conducting this course as a part of. If you
consent, the application will then ask you for the following items to submit.
- Resume or CV
- The course titles of two programming courses and one math course that you
have taken in college. If you have not taken any of these courses, but have
work experience that is commensurate, please describe that work experience.
- A picture of your current student ID at a USA-based community college
- A picture of a government or school-issued ID showing your current age or date of birth
- Answers to 4 questions:
- Why are you interested in artificial intelligence (AI)?
- What are your career goals? What do you want to do for work after you finish school?
- What benefits do you hope to gain by participating in this opportunity?
- What are your hopes for autistic inclusion in the workplace?
- The name and email address of a college teacher or professor whom we can ask to
write a letter of reference for you
Applications will be accepted until April 15, 2024. Accepted students will be notified on
a rolling basis.
Program Details
AI Course
- Our remote AI course will run four weeks in June and July 2025.
- We start after the typical college Spring quarter has finished.
- You will be taught a curriculum in AI which includes Python Pandas, machine
learning fundamentals, data collection/curation/cleaning, deep learning,
tensor flow, neural nets, CNNs, regression loss functions, classification,
optimization, activation functions, overfitting/underfitting, regularization,
generative AI/LLMs, and AI ethics.
- You will do your AI and machine learning work using Google CoLab notebooks.
- You will be taught communication and teamwork skills to prepare you to work as part
of a professional AI/data science/software team. These skills include team
introductions, negotiating communication preferences, communicating across
differences, creating a team contract, brainstorming, reading and writing
project specifications, standup meetings, writing and presenting status
reports, problem solving, interpersonal collaboration, pair programming,
mobbing, giving and receiving feedback, and presenting work orally and in
written form.
- You will learn to work in pairs and in teams of 5-6 students and will
develop a substantial AI project as part of your coursework.
- For each week you meaningfully participate in the course,
you will earn a stipend of $440.
Internship
If you successfully complete our AI course, you will be matched with an organization
that will offer you a remote summer internship lasting at least 8 weeks. The internship will involve doing
AI work for the organization. You will be hired by the organization as an employee.
We will do our best to find you an internship that matches your interests and skills.
You (and the organization) will have the opportunity to accept or reject the internship match that we select for you.
If either you or the organization reject the match, we will attempt to find another internship for you. If we cannot,
you may return to our program next summer for an opportunity to do your internship then.
- Dates
- Internships may start on or after the AI class finishes.
- Internships should run at least 8 weeks.
- Salary and Support
- For each week (out of the first 8) that you meaningfully participate in your internship,
you will earn a $440 stipend.
- This stipend is not a salary. The company you work for
is the one hiring you, not the PAS4AI Workforce project.
- We will provide you with a weekly call with a job coach who
specializes in supporting autistic tech workers in industry jobs.
This will help you resolve any ambiguities or non-technical
issues that may arise in the course of working at the company.
For additional information, please email us at pas4aiworkforce@gmail.com.