Join the Ascent Internship Program and spend two months conducting cutting-edge research under the mentorship of world-class faculty from India's leading institutes.

Applications are now open for Ascent 2026. Apply now.

Program Highlights

Eligibility

  • Full-time bachelor's students in 3rd year (4-year programs) and master's students with 1+ year completed.
  • Must have at least one regular semester remaining after the internship.
  • Strong foundation in algorithms & data structures; software engineering experience is preferred.

Benefits

  • ₹50,000 stipend upon successful completion of the internship.
  • Mentorship from leading researchers at top Indian institutes.
  • ACM ISOFT Ascent intern badge and publication support for accepted work.
  • Conference registration grants for accepted A* venue publications.

Key Dates

Applications Open 16 December 2025
Applications Close (Tentative) 10 January 2026
Notification of Shortlisted Candidates for Interaction with Mentors 5 February 2026
Notification of Final Selection and Intern-Mentor Assignment 1 March 2026
Duration (Tentative) Any 2 months between May–July (ends by Jul 31)
Commitment ~40+ hours/week (project-dependent)
Apply Now

ASCENT 2026 Mentors

Mentor Photo

Sujit Kumar Chakrabarti

Computer Science & Engineering Dept., IIIT Bangalore

Formal Methods, Compliance

Website • LinkedIn

Research Projects

Formal Methods for Regulatory Compliance
Apply formal methods to ensure systems comply with regulations like GDPR, DPDP, and ISO 26262.
Specification-based Testing of Libraries
Use formal specs (e.g., JML) plus analysis and constraint solving to generate test cases for libraries without source code.
Mentor Photo

Sridhar Chimalakonda

Computer Science & Engineering Dept., IIT Tirupati

Software Engineering, Agents

Website • LinkedIn

Research Projects

Energy Metrics and Approaches for Software Engineering Agents
Studying energy efficiency and performance metrics for AI agents.
Traceability in Agentic Software Development
Establishing traceability frameworks for agent-based software systems.
Mentor Photo

Komandur V Raghavan

Computer Science & Automation Dept., IISc Bangalore

Security, Program Analysis

Website • LinkedIn

Research Projects

Finding Security Vulnerabilities in Power Grid Systems
Identifying and analyzing security flaws in command-and-control software.
Error Detection in Spring Data JPA Framework
Detecting errors and vulnerabilities in web applications using Spring.
Mentor Photo

Y. Raghu Reddy

Software Engineering Research Center, IIIT Hyderabad

AI Testing, Software Quality

Website • LinkedIn

Research Projects

Generating Test Cases for Testing AI Systems
Developing automated test case generation methodologies for AI and ML systems.
Code Smell Detection and Refactoring in AI Systems
Identifying and improving code quality issues in AI-based software.

Frequently Asked Questions

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