The Center for High Throughput Computing Fellows Program

Application for the Summer 2027 Fellows Program are now open.

The CHTC Fellows Program trains students in the development and use of cyberinfrastructure through a summer program where participants will work with mentors on delivering a project that will make an impact on the nation’s science.

The Program aims to provide opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to connect with mentors within the community. Projects opportunities for students include collaboratively developing software for high throughput computing and cyberinfrastructure, operating complex service environments, and facilitating the use of large-scale computational services. It provides students with insight into how scientists use research computing as a tool to advance their research.

How it Works

Applicants can apply for a CHTC Fellowship for Summer 2027 beginning in mid-September 2026. Interviews will begin November 2026. Following a successful interview, Fellows candidates will be matched with a potential fellows project to consider based upon their interests and qualifications. With the help of mentor(s), the Fellows candidate will have the opportunity to flesh out and develop a project proposal for investigation and execution during the summer.

During the summer, the Fellows will work on their project under the guidance of their mentor(s) and with the support of the CHTC team. The Fellows will also collaborate with their Fellows cohort and engage in educational and social activities during the program.

Fellows will receive a stipend for participating in the Program, during their fellowship. In-person participation at CHTC is required to maximize interaction with mentors and others in the cohort.

Applying

To apply, send an email to chtc-fellows@g-groups.wisc.edu with the following information:

A resume/CV (in PDF format) with contact information. Be sure to include your full name, email address, the name of your university or college and your current or planned major and/or area of study.

A cover letter that describes your interest in the fellowship program. For example, you may wish to expand on 3 or 4 topics from the following list: your background, your skills, and strengths; what software, computing or scientific topics appeal to you; previous research experience, if any; what you may want to pursue as a future career; and what benefits you would like to gain from this program.

The CHTC Fellows Program aims to be inclusive of students at all levels of experience and skill sets; a willingness to learn and interest in science is prioritized over past accomplishments.

Duration of Fellowship and Total Stipend

The upcoming Fellowship Program will last from May 17 to August 6, 2027. During the Program, 5 days are allocated as personal days (with no stipend provided for those days) for the Fellows to use at their discretion, except for the required participation in Throughput Computing Week 2027 (HTC27).
The Program provides $680/week stipend.
It is expected that a Fellow working on a project is available full time during the fellowship period and will not have another significant activity (such as classes, another trainee position or a job) in the same time period.

Eligibility

You must be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at an accredited University or College within the US for the duration of the fellowship, or, if graduating in May of 2027, have accepted an offer for a graduate program starting in the fall of 2027.
You must have completed at least 1 academic year by the start of the Fellowship.
F-1 students will be able to participate provided they have an Optional Practical Training (OPT) work authorization. (Due to revised guidance, F-1 students will likely not be able to meet Curricular Practical Training (CPT) requirements.) See the Federal Immigration Update
In-person participation sponsored by the CHTC Fellows Program in Throughput Computing Week 2027 (HTC27) in Madison during the Fellowship is required. HTC27 will be held June 8 - 11, 2027.

Developing a project

Successful applicants will be connected to mentors to flesh out their projects following the application and interview process. With the help of the mentor, the students will develop and submit a short 2-page project proposal and timeline for the summer.
During the Fellowship, you will work with your mentors and other collaborators. You will also make a short presentation about your project to other Fellows and Mentors as you start your Fellowship, another midway through the project to show your progress and a final presentation about your results at the very end.

Featured Fellow

Sandhya Nayar

Mentor(s):

Cole Bollig and Todd Tannenbaum

Smart Aggregation and Indexing with the Archive Librarian

HTCondor saves large amounts of useful data about finished jobs that can help administrators, facilitators, and researchers who are trying to utilize historical job data. Currently, condor_history manually parses through flat files to get users their data; this makes it significantly harder to use, especially for older jobs, with no easy way to create useful aggregates.

This project focused on the creation of the “Archive Librarian” service, to index job records from the HTCondor history archive and improve the usability of historical job data. Each job’s “address”, which is the combination of an offset and file metadata of a historical archive file, is stored in a database. This allows the librarian to directly locate job records and avoid using a sequential scan. The database also stores relevant job attributes that researchers commonly rely on, enabling future support for complicated queries and aggregate statistics.

Read Final Report

View all fellows

Funding

External funding support for the CHTC Fellows Program is provided by the National Science Foundation through Cooperative Agreement OAC-2030508 and Grants OAC-2030508 and 0AC-2609485. Support for this program is also provided by UW-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research.