The University of Manchester

Below is a list of projects you can apply for, complete with a short explanation and the lead supervisor's name and department. Please contact them before making your application; you will be asked if you have done this on the application form.

If you are interested to learn more about a specific project before applying, download the full project proposal at the bottom of the page.

Sustainable AI Data Compression Case Study: Profiling BOA on BEDE. Caterina Doglioni, Physics & Astronomy

This 8-week project involves developing a reproducible case study to profile the environmental costs of BOA Constrictor, a Mamba-network based lossless data compressor for high-energy physics. The output of this research will be used as a reproducible training resource that quantifies the energy consumption for large-scale AI training and inference of this advanced compression technique on a High-Performance Computing (HPC) system, such as Bede. The project is embedded within the UKRI-funded Sustainable Training Initiative for NetDRIVE (SusTraIN).

Machine Learning Analysis of Boron-Lewis Base Complexation. Lia Sotorrios Manrique, FBMH/SHS/Division of Pharmacy and Optometry

This project uses quantum chemical data and machine learning to understand how boron-containing molecules interact with Lewis bases. You will analyse a curated dataset of boron–Lewis base adducts using Python and supervised ML (e.g. random forests), focusing on structure–property relationships, trend identification and visualisation. By the end of the internship, you will gain hands-on experience in computational chemistry, ML-based data analysis and scientific programming, and contribute to data-driven design principles for boron-based Lewis acids.

How well can large language models perform literature reviews? David Schultz, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Could a large-language model (LLM) research and write a scientific paper? Judging by the many LLMs being marketed to researchers, the answer appears to be yes. But, how effective are they? This proposed project aims to address this question, the answer to which will be of global interest to students, academics, and researchers. We will test several LLMs against previously authored literature reviews. We will compare the LLM outputs to the exemplars for the completeness against inclusion/exclusion criteria, ability to synthesize across the literature, and critique of past work.

Revisiting Development and Crisis: Conceptual Change in African Economics. Gerardo Serra, History

This project develops a high-performance computational pipeline to analyse a newly digitised corpus of African economic writings. The intern will implement NLP workflows to study how key concepts such as development and crisis evolve across national contexts. They will experiment with topic modelling, word embeddings, and ML on a large corpus. Working with an DH scholar, the intern will build reproducible research infrastructure including data pipelines, and version-controlled workflows. The project contributes to the REDEV project investigating the intellectual history of economics in Africa.

Snail-Inspired Digital Twin for Soft Robotic Drug Delivery. Lee Margetts, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Join us in creating the virtual world behind the first snail‑inspired soft robots for targeted cancer treatment. As a digital‑twin intern, you’ll help build simulations that capture how snails move, how soft materials behave, and how tiny robots could navigate complex biological environments. Your work will let the team explore ideas safely and rapidly in simulation before they reach the lab. This is a rare chance to work at the intersection of biomechanics, soft robotics, and cancer research, contributing to technology that could transform how drugs reach hard‑to‑treat tumours.

You are only permitted to apply for one project. Applications to more than one project will be deleted. This is what is required to complete the application form.

1. Your details
2. An uploaded document that is no more than 3 pages long.
   

This document must include one A4 page stating the title of the project you are applying for, and answers to the following under these headings:

• Degree course and interest in the subject
• Motivation for applying for an N8 CIR internship
• What I hope to gain from completing the internship

You should follow this page with a CV of up to 2 pages, including the contact details of one referee.

Your uploaded file should be named: "YourSurname_initials_Manchester.pdf" e.g., Other_AN_Manchester.pdf

This is all that is required to complete you application. Please do not send test submissions through the form.

If you are having problems with your application, please contact us at enquiries@n8cir.org.uk

Shortlisted students will be invited for an interview that will take place on Teams.

Application deadline: 6 April, 2026

Shortlisting completed and students notified: w/c 20 April, 2026

Interview dates: w/c 27 April, 2026

Successful students notified: w/c 4 May, 2026