Navigating Toyota Research Institute Internships: A Guide to Requirements and Opportunities

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is dedicated to improving the quality of human life through the development of new tools and capabilities that amplify the human experience. TRI offers a variety of internships spanning multiple disciplines, including AI, robotics, driving, and material sciences. These internships provide students with invaluable hands-on experience, the opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge research, and competitive compensation. This article will explore the requirements and opportunities available through TRI's internship programs.

Overview of Toyota Research Institute

At Toyota Research Institute (TRI), the mission is to improve the quality of human life. TRI is developing new tools and capabilities to amplify the human experience. To lead this transformative shift in mobility, TRI has built a world-class team advancing the state of the art in AI, robotics, driving, and material sciences. TRI is fueled by a diverse and inclusive community of people with unique backgrounds, education, and life experiences. TRI is dedicated to fostering an innovative and collaborative environment by living the values that are an essential part of its culture. TRI believes diversity makes it stronger and is proud to provide Equal Employment Opportunity for all, without regard to an applicant’s race, color, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, religion, marital status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local laws.

Internship Opportunities at TRI

TRI offers paid 12-week internship opportunities, typically during the summer. These internships are designed to provide students with practical research experience and the chance to contribute to significant projects. Please note that many of these internships are hybrid in-office roles.

Robotics Internships

The mission of TRI Robotics is to invent and prove new robotic capabilities required to enable home robots to solve the challenges faced by an aging society.

Dynamics and Simulation Team Internship

Within TRI Robotics, the Dynamics and Simulation team develops Drake tools to model and simulate mobile robot dynamics, object manipulation, and perception. The team emphasizes physical accuracy and robust, performant software permitting controller synthesis, learning, analysis, regression testing, and design in simulation that transfers meaningfully to the real world. This is open source, modern C++ software, developed using rigorous best practices including extensive unit and validation tests, detailed documentation, and collaborative pre-merge peer review. The team consists of computer scientists and engineers trained at leading academic institutions and innovative companies, with research and practical experience in robotics, computer graphics, computational mechanics, multibody dynamics, numerical methods, and software engineering.

An intern in this role will work on a research project to advance the capabilities of TRI's simulation tools. The intern will collaborate with other software engineers and research scientists to develop physically-accurate, reliable, and fast models and algorithms that are relevant to the simulation and robotics community. The challenge will be to distill physical and mathematical phenomena into the clearest possible software model, and make it work.

Prototyping and Research Operations (PROps) Team Internship

The Prototyping and Research Operations (PROps) team supports and operationalizes TRI’s robotics research to succeed at scale in laboratory and deployment environments. The team works across engineering and operations disciplines to develop robot hardware and testing setups, as well as operate and deploy robotic research systems to collect data for researchers. The team administers the two prototyping laboratories within TRI and uses those facilities to prototype research hardware.

An intern who joins this team will have the opportunity to contribute to the work of TRI's various research support projects and the daily tasks that keep our researchers productive. This will include maintaining and improving the lab, supporting operations projects, working with the lab manager on organizational tasks, fulfilling fabrication requests, maintaining and fixing the manufacturing equipment and robot systems, and improving lab workflow and tooling, allowing for more efficient use of the lab space. It also requires the intern to collaborate with Research Operations Engineers to design and coordinate events, improve data collection processes, and maintain testing and deployment documentation to support the research and engineering teams.

Robotics User Experience (UX) Team Internship

This internship will be embedded within the Robotics User Experience team, with the mission to design intuitive physical and digital experiences for managing and interacting with robots in a factory context. This internship will be an opportunity to explore applying the principles of user experience design in some of the following areas:

Digital interfaces for managing a fleet of mobile robots within a factory setting.
Tools for assisting factory team members in assuring the quality of manufactured parts.
Physical and digital methods for interacting with robots (and for robots to interact with humans).
Extending a platform for prototyping and testing robotics UX concepts.

The Robotics UX team is made up of UX designers, researchers, and engineers, and is based in TRI’s Los Altos, CA office. They research and design robot interfaces for the manufacturing environment and contribute directly to the design of robot prototypes for both research and applied projects.

Read also: Toyota's T-TEN Initiative

Robot Learning and Human-Robot Interaction Internship

This internship focuses on developing and evaluating robot learning and human-robot interaction methods. Work includes building datasets, prototyping VLA models, running simulated and real-robot experiments, and contributing to publications. The Robotics Intern will develop machine learning models for robot manipulation, run experiments, create prototypes, and publish research.

Human-Centered AI and Human-Machine Interaction Internships

Human Interactive Driving (HAIL) Team Internship

The HAIL team works to understand how people behave on the road, understand the human driver, and understand how to interact with them. Within the HAIL team, approaches from machine learning, robotics, and computer vision, along with insights from human factors literature, are used to devise new techniques that improve on the state of the art towards better machine understanding, prediction, and interactions with people in the driving domain, both in and around the vehicle.

Interns in this project will look at creating innovative approaches that reframe how driver and intelligent vehicles interact. The overall goal is to create AI approaches that challenge more traditional approaches for prediction, planning, and interaction with the driver, and approach the interaction as longer-term human-AI teaming, including co-adaptation and teaching, with multiple research opportunities along the way. The project will be focused on researching a new approach in a specific sub-area of the overall goal, towards publication in a top-tier conference. Aside from the publication goal of the internship, the technology developed in the internship is crucial for next-generation safety systems, (semi-)autonomous driving systems, and novel robotic applications of the kind that TRI is helping create.

Human-Machine Interaction Research (HMIR) Internship

The Human-Machine Interaction Research group (HMIR) designs, develops, and evaluates novel interfaces to improve the safety, well-being, and performance of drivers using human-centered artificial intelligence. As a Research Intern, you will work on a project focused on improving driving safety and performance using the driver's behavioral, cognitive, and emotional states. There will be opportunities to design and run experiments in TRI's driving motion simulator to study how different driver traits and states lead to unsafe driving behaviors, and how human-machine interfaces can be used to improve the driving experience.

General Qualifications and Requirements

While specific requirements vary depending on the internship role, some general qualifications are commonly sought by TRI.

Read also: Understanding Toyota Immobilizers

Educational Background

Undergraduate and Graduate Students: TRI internships are typically open to undergraduate students (juniors or seniors), master’s students, and Ph.D. students.
Relevant Fields of Study: Desired fields of study include Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, HCI, Interaction Design, Cognitive Science, Psychology, and Human Factors Engineering, or related fields.

Skills and Experience

Technical Skills: Depending on the role, specific technical skills may be required. These can include experience with:
- Rapid prototyping tools (3D printers, laser cutters, hand tools, etc.).
- CAD software (preferably OnShape).
- UNIX/Linux systems.
- Software development processes and tooling (e.g., Git, Jenkins).
- Electronic assembly skills (crimping, soldering, wire routing).
- Machine learning.
- Measuring physiological signals (e.g., EDA, heart rate).
- Eye-tracking.
- Figma.
- Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or other microcontrollers for prototyping interactions.
Soft Skills:
- Driven to learn new skills and become adept at new systems, processes, and tools.
- A safety-first mentality.
- Demonstrable communication skills, written and verbal, including utilization of design documents and systems drawings.
- Comfortable in a collaborative, interdisciplinary team environment with excellent visual, verbal, and written communication skills; comfortable receiving and incorporating constructive feedback.

Additional Requirements

Portfolio: For some roles, particularly those in UX design, a portfolio that demonstrates the user-centered design process and includes prototypes of varying fidelity is required.
Google Scholar Profile: For research-oriented roles, adding a link to Google Scholar to include a full list of publications when submitting your CV is highly encouraged.

Compensation and Benefits

TRI internships are paid, with competitive hourly rates. The pay range for positions in California is expected to be between $45 and $65/hour, while positions in Massachusetts are expected to be between $40 and $58/hour. Base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. TRI offers a generous benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance, and paid time off benefits (including holiday pay and sick time). TRI also offers a generous benefits package including vacation and sick time. TRI offers a generous benefits package (including 401(k) eligibility and various paid time off benefits, such as vacation, sick time, and parental leave) and an annual cash bonus structure.

Applying for an Internship

When applying for an internship at TRI, candidates should highlight their relevant skills, experience, and educational background. Including a portfolio or a list of projects that exemplify your skills is highly recommended. TRI may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist the recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans.

Equal Opportunity Employer

TRI is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment, pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. TRI is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, religion, marital status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local laws. It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

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