The LOOM Lab is excited to announce the 2026 Research Experience for Undergraduate Students opportunity is open to applications! Join us for a full-time, 10-week internship or a part-time 16-week internship and get paid $10,000 to get hands-on experience conducting human-computer interaction research that explores the intersection between digital equity and community networks.

We are actively recruiting undergraduate students enrolled in a 2-year or 4-year US institution to start a research internship in Summer 2026.

Projects

All projects are related to the overarching research question: What motivates participation in community network management? What challenges participation?

In 2025, the International Telecommunications Union estimated that 6 billion people used the Internet–about 74% of the global population. However, digital inequities persist, particularly in lower income and rural communities.

For communities that are perniciously underserved by commercial telecommunications infrastructure, community networks and network advocacy are critical pathways to digital equity. In this project, we seek to explore the incentives and barriers that impact participation in community networks and network advocacy with the goal of identifying new pathways for creating more inclusive and effective Internet connectivity for communities.

There are three different project options that you can focus on:

Ethnographic Study of Network Operators

Research Question: What are the motivations and barriers that network operators experience as they deploy and manage community-based network infrastructure?

Research Skills Gained: By the end of this research experience, you will be able to:

• Conduct research interviews with users
• Analyze interview data using tools like Miro and methods like reflexive thematic analysis
• Write qualitative research findings for an ACM SIGCHI publication venue
• Complete standard Human Research Subjects training for ethical research conduct
• Present findings as a poster or oral presentation

Quantitative Analysis of Network Usage Data

This opportunity is best suited for a student who has some prior experience programming in Python.

Research Question: How do large scale community networks evolve over time? To what extent are they dependent on a small set of super operators vs. a growing contingent of new operators?

Research Skills Gained: By the end of this research experience, you will be able to:

• Work with large data sets hosted on Amazon S3
• Use a high performance computing cluster to analyze large data sets with Python scipy, scikit-learn, and networkx
• Generate high quality data visualizations that communicate patterns in complex data sets
• Write quantitative research findings for an ACM SIGCHI publication, ICWSM, or WWW
• Present findings as a poster or oral presentation

Exploring Network Measurement via Co-Design

This opportunity is best suited for a student who is able to do 16-week part time internship.

Research Question: How do we measure meaningful connectivity from a community perspective?

Research Skills Gained: By the end of this research experience, you will be able to:

• Prepare co-design sessions with probes
• Collect multimedia data using audio and video recording as well as field memos
• Analyze multimedia data using reflexive thematic analysis and video analysis software like BORIS
• Write qualitative design research findings for an ACM SIGCHI publication, ACM COMPASS, or ICTD
• Present findings as a poster or oral presentation

How to Apply

Send the following materials to Dr. Morgan Vigil-Hayes at vigilhay@msu.edu as a single PDF by May 15, 2026 for priority consideration:

1. Cover Letter

Write a 1-2 page cover letter explaining:

• Which project you would like to work on and why you are a good fit for the project and the collaboration with the lab.
• Details about your professional, classroom, and life experiences that inform your interest and demonstrate your potential for research.
• Your long term professional goals and why this opportunity will help you in pursuit of those goals.
• Whether you envision doing research for 10-weeks full-time or 16-weeks part-time and when you would like to start (earliest start date is 6/22/2026).

2. Resume/CV

Provide a resume or curriculum vitae with your professional and education experience as well as relevant prior experience related to projects or research. Note that prior research experience is not a requirement, but it’s helpful to know if you have conducted some research before!

3. Transcripts

Provide a set of recent unofficial transcripts. These are just for me to get a sense for what your training may have consisted of so far–there is no GPA requirement.

4. Contact Information for 2-3 References

Provide a list of 2-3 professional/educational references that can speak to your potential to conduct research. Include their name, how they are affiliated with you, their phone number, and email address.

FAQs

What are the dates for the internship?

The internship has flexible dates. The earliest that the REU experience can start is 6/22/2026 and the latest it can start is 1/15/2027. Please indicate in your cover letter when you would like to start.

Can I participate remotely?

I strongly prefer for students doing a 10-week, full-time experience to participate on-site at Michigan State (in East Lansing, MI). For those interested in a 16-week option, I am open to having students participate in a hybrid experience that involves some time on-site in Michigan and some time remote. This would be something we could discuss if you are one of the final candidates for the position.

How does the stipend work?

Stipends will be dispersed in increments every 2 weeks during your research internship.

Who is eligible to apply?

Students who will be enrolled as undergraduate students in Fall 2026 at a US-based 2-year or 4-year institution of higher education are eligible to apply. This includes students at community colleges and tribal colleges.

Who should apply?

Students who have demonstrated a track record of excelling at independent project-based learning and independent learning and inquiry who are also interested in graduate school and research careers related to human-computer interaction.

Do I need to have prior research experience?

Not at all. The goal of REU’s is to provide an opportunity for students with a high potential for being researchers to get hands on experience with the process in connection with a faculty mentor. However, you should be comfortable learning new skills and ideas on the job and being motivated to learn independently.

What is human-computer interaction?

HCI research studies how humans interact with computer systems. It blends methods from computer science, psychology, and social science. When we conduct research, we are conducting what is called primary research where we generate original data and analysis about human-computer interactions. This is distinct from secondary research where you might conduct a literature review on previously published studies.