Updated Oct 24, 2019

DLG’s Summer-at-Discovery’s-Edge (SADE) is primarily for students who will be college freshmen or sophomores starting in the Fall semester who are eager to get a 2-3 year head start on their peers in accelerating the development of their technical and professional skills .. and to gain early insights into what they really want to pursue as a career path.

This opportunity is also open — on a case by case basis — to students who will be high school juniors, high school seniors in the Fall semester.

The experience gained through this program will help the student make better decisions on what college major to pursue and what classes to sign up for given that the DLG director is a former graduate engineering professor with experience advising Masters and PhD students. He possesses decades of experiences as an researcher, program manager, systems engineer, college educator, and advanced technology innovator.

No prior experience is required of the student for most of the projects but there is an assumption that the successful student candidate in our fast moving program thrives on challenges and has the willingness to take ownership of their experience. DLG’s SADE can be very demanding (technically and professionally) … but also uniquely rewarding (technically and professionally) … for those who take ownership of the experience and the opportunity.

Under the Summer-at-Discovery’s Edge (SADE) opportunity, students will:

  • be assigned research opportunities and hands-on experience that are designed to give them a 2-3 year head start over their peers

  • gain real world experience (to include professional accountability) that will strengthen their resume with employable skills

  • create potential professional networking opportunities with other students, mentors, professors, and industry professionals

As noted in the home web page, example technology areas include, but are not limited to: 

  • Virtual Reality - e.g creating artificial intelligence (AI) command center

  • Artificial Intelligence - e.g. video game that teaches itself how to play

  • Big Data Analytics - e.g. structured analysis of social-media data streams

  • Cyber Security Fundamentals - e.g. prototype ethical hacking test bed

  • Wearable Technologies - e.g. cardiac alert shirt - when minutes matter

  • Robotics / Neural Science - e.g. thought controlled mini-humanoid robot

  • Expendable 3D Printed Drone Engineering - e.g. med supply delivery

  • … and more.

NOTE: every project is team-based and so there must be enough students interested in a particular project areas to form a credibly-sized team before the project will be assigned. Some of these project areas are offered to high school students — but at a level appropriate for high school students. These project areas are offered to college students here at much higher, more technically demanding levels as senior-capstone-like projects — ie team projects that college students take to meet graduation requirements.

Two principal tracks are typically available for most projects — a 6-week track for a general introductory experience and a 10-week track as a project-based learning experience. The 10-week track is available for all projects. Some 10-week projects can be re-scoped to be suitable for the 6-week track while others are too technically intense to allow for successful completion in only 6 weeks — such as Artificial Intelligence and the Expended 3D Printed Drone projects.

Artificial Intelligence is a project area that is offered as only a 10-week Track while the Virtual Reality is offered as both a 6-week and a 10-week Track. We will be opening up Spiral 1 of the application process during the month of Nov - December to begin initial selections.

Virtual Reality projects serve as the go-to project for those who simply want a unique learning experience because of it’s flexibility — especially for students who are interested in learning or applying programming skills. This is a technology that we’ve had middle school students learn in the past for their Mission to Mars summer project in our 3D virtual world.

For students interested in applying for our summer program, we will start to select students during Spring 2020 to help them get ready to hit ground running during Summer 2020. Application will be taken via the “SADE-Application” link in the menu at the top of this page which will be accessible starting in November 2019 for those who wish to apply to SADE 2020.

“A meaningful experience.”

"It was with Discovery Lab - Global (DLG) where I recognized and built my competitive professional skill set. I was given the freedom to go out and solve exciting real problems involving Data Analytics. I worked in teams and was able to act as a leader among my peers, as well as collaborate in small sub teams so that we could make progress on the project at hand. Some of my teammates would later become my best friends. Through the internship I also had to communicate clearly and quickly with those around me.  DLG provided me with a meaningful experience and pushed me to develop a competitive skill set."

— Ethan A.