If you are a high school student in Massachusetts who is interested in robotics, chances are that you are looking for summer programs in your area as a valuable addition to your college application. 

In this post, we have curated a list of 7 robotics  programs in Massachusetts that will enable you to gain hands-on experience and will make for an excellent learning opportunity.

1. MIT’s Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI)

Cost: No cost

Location: Remote + MIT Campus (Note. Certain courses are in-person, while others are remote. You can look here for more details!) 

Application Deadline: Rolling Admissions (Note. You must apply to the online course to receive the application link for the summer program!) 

Program Dates: February 1st, 2024 - August 6th, 2024 (This includes the online course commencement - these dates are tentative, based on the previous year’s deadlines) 

Eligibility: 

• Must be a student attending high school in the U.S.

The Beaver Works Summer Institute is a 4-week program that teaches STEM skills through project-based, workshop-style courses. The program consists of 2 online programs from January to May, followed by the 4-week summer program. While the online program is open to all, the summer program is limited to a select group of students. 

In this program, you can learn skills by applying them in a practical scenario. Here are some examples: the Embedded Security and Hardware Hacking course introduces you to security topics focusing on threats, especially concerning embedded systems. These topics include embedded software security, cryptographic protocol attacks, JTAG and UART probing, side-channel analysis and fault injection, and hardware Trojans.

If you are interested in AI/ML or robotics, you should look at the Autonomous Cognitive Assistance (CogWorks) course. Through this 4-week course, you will learn how to apply foundational technologies of AI to build cognitive assistants. After the online course, successful students will be considered for participation in the summer program, where you will leverage professional cognition services (e.g., Amazon Alexa/Echo) and open-source tools to develop cognitive systems. At the end of the program, your project will compete against other participants!

If you are interested in MIT BWSI, check out this complete guide!

2. Veritas AI

Veritas AI is founded and run by Harvard graduate students and our programs are geared towards high school students who want to build their foundations in AI, ML, and data science - all key things in robotics. In the program, students learn various concepts like neural networks, image classification, natural language processing, sentiment analysis, coding using python, and more. 

In the AI Summer Fellowship program, you can create a novel AI project independently with the support of a mentor, over the period of 12-15 weeks. Through this program, you can combine both robotics and AI! 

Cost: $1790 - $4900 (financial aid is available)

Location: Remote - you can participate in this program from anywhere in the world!

Application Deadline: There are 4 cohorts (You can apply here!) 

• Spring 2024: February 25th, 2024

• Summer 2024: Multiple deadlines from May-July

Eligibility: You must be currently enrolled in high school or plan to enroll as a freshman in college in the fall of 2023. No previous knowledge is required! 

Note. The financial aid is available for students from households earning less than $60,000 annually (for a typical household of 4) with minimum assets. 

3. Lumiere Research Scholar Program – Robotics Track

Lumiere has been founded by researchers from Harvard and Oxford. In this program, each student is paired with a top PhD and works with their mentor 1-on-1 to produce a university-level research paper.

The programs are entirely virtual and vary in duration based on the student’s end goal with respect to how much of a deep dive they would prefer. Past research projects include comparisons in sports training between humans and robots, exploring how robots increase the efficacy of monitoring disasters such as wildfires.

This program is a good fit for you if you are interested in interdisciplinary research and creating an individual research paper from scratch. Check out this in depth review of Lumiere Education to see if it is the right program for you! 

Cost: $2800

Location: Virtual

Application deadline: There are four cohorts throughout the year. Applications are due in February, May, September, and December, respectively. Apply here!

Program dates: There are four cohorts throughout the year in spring, summer, fall, and winter.

Eligibility: All high school students may apply.

4. MIT Lincoln Laboratory Radar Introduction for Student Engineers 

If you are interested in radar systems, this 2-week, free-of-cost workshop allows you to gain in-depth experience in building small radar systems. In this program, you will be challenged to build a Doppler and range radar by making use of creative problem-solving strategies. 

An additional bonus is that you will not only gain hands-on experience with radar systems but also interact with esteemed scientists and engineers who work in this field! 

Cost: No Cost

Location: MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA 

Application deadline: March 7, 2024

Program dates: July 7, 2024 - July 27, 2024

Eligibility: 

• Be a U.S. citizen

• Be completing your junior year of high school. 

5. MITES Semester

Another program by MIT, MITES Semester, is a 6-month hybrid STEM where you can deep dive into science and engineering disciplines. In this program, you will choose one project-based course, followed by a supplemental core course, which can either be in computer science, calculus, physics, science writing, or communication!

Through this program, you can delve into interdisciplinary subjects that involve computer science. For instance, past projects have included robotics, computational biology, embedded systems, machine learning, robotics, thermodynamics, climate change, and more!

Note. At the end of the MITES program, you will receive a written evaluation from your instructor outlining your strengths and growth areas and highlighting your contributions to the class. This is a valuable supplement for any college application!

Cost: No cost

Location: Remote 

Application Deadline (2023): February 1st, 2023

Program Dates (2023): June 20, 2023 - December 10, 2023

Eligibility: 

• All high school juniors who are U.S. Citizens or permanent residents. 

• Strong academic record (While they have not specified a cutoff, you can expect similar expectations of RSI - PSAT Math Scores to be at least 740 (or higher) and Evidence-Based Reading/ Writing Scores to be 700 (or higher). ACT math scores should be at least 33, and verbal scores should be at least 34.)

• Passion for science, technology, engineering, and math - which is demonstrated through extracurricular activities, essays, and letters of recommendation. 

Note. MIT strongly encourages students from these backgrounds to apply:

• underrepresented backgrounds

• undeserving students (defined as those from low socioeconomic means)

• families with an absence of science and engineering degrees

• students who are potentially the first family member to attend college

• and students from high schools with low admittance rates to top-tier colleges (especially from rural or predominantly minority high schools). 

6. Northeastern University’s Young Scholars Program

This program is a unique opportunity for you to work with research laboratories within Northeastern’s Colleges of Engineering, Science and Health Sciences, where you will assist a professor with hands-on research. 

One example of a possible research project is Marvin Onabajo from the 2023 cohort, where he looked at the ‘Programmable Signal Acquisition and Calibration of Temperature Sensors for Detection of Power Dissipation on Chips’. You can look at other 2023 presentations here!

Apart from your research, you will attend a seminar series ‘Introduction to Engineering’, which covers topics in robotics, chemical analysis, microwave materials and more. You will also get field trips and career counseling from the Department of Cooperative Education.

Cost: No cost

Location: Northeastern University, Boston 

Application Deadline: Not specified, but applications open January 2024!

Program Dates: June 26, 2024 - August 3, 2024 (tentatively, based on previous year’s dates)

Eligibility: 

• Students must be permanent Massachusetts residents (live and go to school in MA throughout the year). 

• Must enter 12th grade in the fall (current juniors when applying). 

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident. 

7. Frontiers-- Worcester Polytechnic Institute

This summer camp offered by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) offers an immersive and challenging learning experience in various STEM disciplines – where students ‘major’ in a particular STEM subject, and ‘minor’ in an arts discipline.

In the Frontiers camp, students interested in majoring in robotics will learn about force, torque, stress analysis, material properties, processing, selection, power requirements, micro controllers, sensor operations, programming, pneumatics – and use this information to solve a challenging robotics problem. Subgroups in the session also have an end of camp Robotics competition where students get to present their robots. 

Cost: $3,595

Location: Worcester, Massachusetts
Application Deadline: TBA for 2024, likely March 1st
Program Dates: TBA for 2024 but based on previous years - Frontiers I – July 9th through 21st, Frontiers II – July 23rd to August 4th
Eligibility: Rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors in high school

8. Boston Leadership Institute’s 3-Week Summer Engineering Program

In this program, you will learn the fundamentals of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science through designing robotic vehicles and machines. You will have to use computer code to operate your creations, which will be tested in different challenges. These challenges include reacting to sound, retrieving objects or completing similar assigned tasks. 

Apart from the challenges themselves, you will have the opportunity for hands-on activities, opportunities for group work, and field trips where you can gain insights into the different career paths involving robotics! 

Cost: Not specified

Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Application Deadline: Not specified, but applications for Summer 2024 were open from November 1, 2023.
Program Dates: June 24, 2024 - July 12, 2024
Eligibility: Open to all high school students

If you’re looking to build unique projects in the field of AI/ML, consider applying to Veritas AI! 

Veritas AI was founded by Harvard graduate students, and through the programs, you get a chance to learn the fundamentals of AI and computer science while collaborating on real-world projects. You can also work 1-1 with mentors from universities like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and more to create unique, personalized projects. In the past year, we had over 1000 students learn data science and AI with us. You can apply here!

Image Source - BWSI Logo