Khoury Research Apprenticeship

Work alongside leading researchers in your field, explore your research interests, and pave a pathway to your future goals through the prestigious and unique Khoury Research Apprenticeship. 

Explore research at Khoury College

About the Khoury Research Apprenticeship opportunity

Started in 2019, the prestigious Khoury Research Apprenticeship was designed to provide master’s students the opportunity to participate in relevant research opportunities while being mentored and supported by faculty advisors. As of 2026, the program is also open to Boston undergraduate students interested in taking their research pursuits to the next level.

Held in the fall and spring semesters, the Research Apprenticeship is an excellent way to explore your current research interests or help pave a pathway to a future PhD.

Application process

Both undergraduate and master’s students are encouraged to complete a screening application, which gives apprenticeship staff the chance to get to know potential candidates. (The screening application will be sent each semester via student advisors.) From there, staff will narrow down the applicant pool, and selected students will receive the full apprenticeship application — where they can browse available projects and rank their top choices. Professors then interview candidates and submit their own rankings. Final decisions are made by apprenticeship staff, with both student and faculty preferences taken into consideration.

The apprenticeship program played a big role in my decision to pursue a PhD. When I was nominated for the apprenticeship program, I neither had any prior research experience, nor did I intend on pursuing a PhD. The program gave me an opportunity to be involved in research in academia and interact with fellow grad students and faculty members

Satyajit Gokhale, computer science PhD student

If you’re awarded an apprenticeship

Students who are awarded apprenticeships will register for the four-credit master’s course to begin their research work. At the end of the apprenticeship, students will have the opportunity to present their work to an audience of peers and faculty and highlight their findings.

Fall apprenticeship timeline

Spring apprenticeship timeline

2025-2026 Research Apprenticeship participants

Spring 2026 participants

Students who participated in the Spring 2026 Khoury Research Apprenticeship program, their projects, and their faculty advisors:

Fall 2025 participants

Students who participated in the Fall 2025 Khoury Research Apprenticeship program, their projects, and their faculty advisors:

  • Manas Aggrawal: Conversational Interfaces as Typed Programming Languages (Chris Martens)
  • Barath Balamurugan: Using Virtual Reality for Effective Collaboration Between Space Outposts (Wallace Lages)
  • Grace Chong: GAITE: Generative AI for Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Education (Youna Jung)
  • Vinal Dalcy Dsouza: AI & City Government: Assessing the Impact of an LLM Deployment in the City of Oakland (Jessica Staddon)
  • Jing Du: Medical GraphRAG: Using Traditional ML to Develop Sustainable, Low-Cost Solutions for Medical Question-Answering (Tony Mullen)

Past Research Apprenticeship participants