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Polymer Digital Engineering - OSPO Spring Internship Program

Apply now(opens in a new window) Job No: 509732
Division/Organization: Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research
Department: Data Science Institute
Job Type: UW Student Jobs
Remote Eligbility: Partially Remote
Location: MCARDLE BUILDING
Salary/Wage Range or Lump Sum: $15.00-17.00
Job Categories: Interpersonal Communication, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving, Digital Technology, Teamwork/Collaboration, Professionalism/Work Ethic, Information Technology and Computers, STEM, Data Analysis

Department Overview:

 The Open Source Program Office (OSPO) is looking to connect interns with meaningful open-source projects as part of a new cohort of the internship program in collaboration with Madison College. During the internship, students will join a mentored open source project, participate in an initial training session, and weekly check-ins with the Open Source Program Office, and learn crucial skills related to managing open source software projects and growing software user communities.

Anticipated Start Date:

 2/2/2026

Anticipated End Date (If Applicable):

 5/1/2026

Remote Work Eligibility Detail:

Partially Remote

 

Anticipated Hours Per Week:

 Minimum: 10 Maximum: 15

Schedule:

 Internship work schedules will be established in collaboration with the project mentors, with a general expected commitment of 10-15 hours/week. In addition to the work schedule established with the project lead, interns will participate in a weekly group session with the OSPO for check-ins, trainings, and guest speakers.

Salary/Wage Range/Lump Sum:

 Minimum: $15.00 Maximum: $17.00

Number of Positions:

 1

Qualifications:

 UW-Madison and Madison College undergraduate and graduate students with applicable backgrounds in any field are eligible to apply. Students must be enrolled in a degree program during the calendar year with at least one semester remaining after the internship’s conclusion.

Application materials should include:
- A one-page cover letter that highlights your qualifications based on skills identified in the project listing and your interest in open source broadly.
- A resume that includes your name, school email address, phone number, field(s) of study (major, minor, degree, certificate), relevant coursework, extracurricular activities, expected graduation date, relevant sample work (ex: GitHub link, personal website, etc.) and any relevant work or research experience.
-The names and contact information of three references.

Submit a resume, cover letter, and three references as part of your application.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

BASH scripting, Basic knowledge of LAMMPS molecular dynamics package

Position Summary/Job Duties:

Water transport through polymeric membranes is a fundamental process critical to various applications, from seawater desalination to wastewater remediation. For over a century, the dominant theory in the field has been the solution-diffusion mechanism, where water is assumed to dissolve into the polymer matrix and diffuse across it under a constant pressure profile. However, recent advancements in atomistic molecular simulations have challenged this long-held assumption, suggesting that the traditional view may not fully capture the underlying transport phenomena (Science Advances 2023, 9, eadf8488). The simulation data indicates a linear pressure gradient across the membrane and evidence of water transport via nanoscopic porous structures that spans the polymeric membrane. These findings align more closely with a pore-flow mechanism, fundamentally different from solution-diffusion and requiring a revaluation of existing theoretical models. This project will utilize state-of-the-art molecular simulations to further investigate these observations and test their implications.

In addition to revisiting the transport dynamics across polymeric membranes, the project will explore water transport across organic solvent films, traditionally expected to adhere to solution-diffusion due to their incompressible nature. This will be a key test to validate the applicability of molecular simulations to study non-equilibrium solvent transport phenomena. If monomers of a polymeric membrane do not polymerize, they would behave similar to a organic solvent film and transport mechanism is expected to follow the solution-diffusion mechanism. However, once fully polymerized the transport mechanism is expected to transition to a pore-flow mechanism. Therefore, a central research question arises: How does the degree of polymerization, branching, and crosslinking influence the transport mechanism in polymeric membranes? We aim to determine whether these chemical structural variations in polymers lead to a gradual transition between solution-diffusion and pore-flow mechanisms, or if the shift is abrupt and dependent on specific structural properties of a polymer.

This project will address fundamental and open questions about the mechanisms governing water transport in polymers, with the potential for improving the design principles of next-generation membrane materials. By bridging the gap between theoretical models and simulation-based evidence, our research aims to provide novel insights that could redefine how we understand and engineer polymeric membranes for enhanced performance in industrial applications. Postdoctorates Dr. Subhamoy Mahajan and Dr. Hengyu Xu in our group would guide and mentor the interns during the time on the project.

Physical Demands:

Interns are expected to be able to sit for extended periods. Specific physical demands will be discussed with mentors during the interview process.

Institutional Statements:

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:

UW-Madison is an Equal Employment, Equal Access Employer committed to increasing the diversity of our workforce.

Institutional Statement on Diversity:

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background-people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

For more information on diversity and inclusion on campus, please visit: diversity.wisc.edu

Accommodation Statement:

If you need to request an accommodation because of a disability, you can find information about how to make a request at the following website:https://employeedisabilities.wisc.edu/disability-accommodation-information-for-applicants/
 
 

Advertised: Central Standard Time
Applications close: Central Standard Time

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