Internships are a cost-effective way for employers to pre-screen, evaluate, train, recruit, and potentially hire talent. The employer participation helps students and faculty understand what is important in your industry and the skills valued, so we can better educate students to make an immediate contribution to your organization.

What do we consider as an internship?

Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) students at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) are required to do an internship for either 5 or 10 weeks (full-time with an average of 40 hours/week) depending on the course that the student registers in and their availability. Students that are taking more than 7 credit hours during the Fall and Spring academic semesters are not be allowed to take the internship course. Moreover, students that are taking a course during the summer semester are not allowed to register for the internship course. This academic year 2021/2022, CSE students are available during the Summer break starting from May 23^rd, 2022 and before the beginning of Fall 2022 academic semester.

Recruitment Process

To ensure mutually beneficial outcomes from the internship, we encourage employers to share with us a detailed Job Description. The recruitment process is based on the steps below:
    • AUS CSE Department receives the request and internship description from the company.
    • The opportunity is shared with AUS CSE students through the auscse.com career portal.
    • Students can find the available job opportunities through the auscse.com portal. AUS CSE Department can also help identify students for these opportunities.
    • The company conducts interviews with the students if necessary.
    • The company updates the AUS CSE Department with the selected students.

Work Environment Requirements

The students are required to work physically on the employer’s site. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, AUS allows students to work virtually (online) with employers from home.
The company that provides internship opportunity must have an official trade license in the country that it is operating in. In special circumstances, opportunities from startup companies could be accommodated.

Internship Objectives

As much as possible the internship should provide:
    • Exposure to the overall professional experience
    • An opportunity for interns to apply what they have learnt in their university education

Learning Outcomes

AUS CSE Student Expertise

Students from an AUS Computer Science and Engineering background will be well suited to a range of tasks such as, but not limited to:
    • Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Deep Learning
    • Computer Networks
    • Cloud Computing
    • Software development
    • Mobile application development
    • Cyber Security
    • Internet of Things (IoT Programming)
    • Augmented and Virtual Reality
    • Database applications
    • Cyber Physical Systems
    • Multicore Computing
    • Intelligent Autonomous Robotics

When designing the internship, the company should try to identify specific tasks & measures in line with the learning outcomes and objectives above.

Supervision

• The company should assign a specific supervisor for the interns. The role of the supervisor is to ensure the assigned tasks are fully achieved and provide guidance to the students.
    ◦ Students are requested to keep a daily log.
    ◦ Students will have to submit a weekly journal.
• It is recommended that a specific supervisor meets with the intern on a daily basis to ensure that the intern is engaged and has a daily plan.
    ◦ Meeting frequency can be agreed upon between the various parties. Internship Coordinator, Supervisor and the intern.
• Where possible, interns should be present in departmental meetings so that they gain exposure to the professional work culture and the sharing of ideas.
    ◦ Interns can submit their ideas and suggestions after the meetings to their supervisors.
• Interns should be encouraged to play an active participatory role in meetings related to their specific tasks. This may include presenting their ideas or progress through relevant tools.

Communication

    • In addition to a thorough orientation of the department, and overall organization, interns will need a technical orientation on the tools that are used for holding meetings and sharing and collaborating on documents.
    • Role of faculty supervisor:
      ◦ Agree with the intern and the faculty supervisor a program of work to be carried out during the placement agreeing objectives.

Reporting

At the end of the internship placement of the student, the AUS CSE Department will share a specific form for evaluating the student. The supervisor is requested to submit a final evaluation report on the technical and behavioral aspects of the interns.

Industry-sponsored Graduation Projects

Students in the CSE Department are required to complete a 1-year graduation project during their senior year of full-time studies at AUS. The project is conducted in a team consisting of 3-4 students under the supervision of a CSE faculty. In many cases, the students elect to extend the internship work to their graduation project and include a mentor from industry.

Contact us

To contact the AUS CSE internship coordinator, please email Dr. Raafat Aburukba at raburukba@aus.edu

To contact the AUS CSE Department, please email cse@aus.edu

Resources

    • CSE Main Webpage on AUS Website
    • CSE Portal
    • CSE At-a-Glance
    • CSE Curriculum
    • CSE Student Awards
    • CSE News
    • CSE Faculty
    • CSE FAQ