Pace Students Explore the Power of AI at the 2025 AI Internship Experience

The 2025 AI Internship Experience (AIIE) at Pace University’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems recently concluded, offering students two weeks of immersive, hands-on learning in one of today’s most transformative technologies: artificial intelligence.

Run by Dr. Christelle Scharff, Seidenberg Professor, Associate Dean, and Co-Director of the Seidenberg AI Lab, in collaboration with Seidenberg faculty member Dr. Kaleema and graduate assistant Stephanie Sicilian (MS in Computer Science), this year’s program provided 18 selected students with an intensive introduction to core AI topics, including machine learning, deep learning, and multimodal generative AI.

The curriculum for the program’s second edition was influenced by Dr. Scharff’s recent attendance at industry-leading events, emphasizing cutting-edge tools and techniques in AI development. “I had a fantastic time putting the program together alongside my colleagues,” Dr. Scharff added. “The content was highly inspired by my attendance at events like Google I/O and Google Cloud Next.”

Interns worked on real-world projects that involved image classification, hyperparameter tuning, and experimental applications using Gemini, Google's suite of generative AI tools. Just like last year when student projects varied from developing AI models that could classify and generate images of different butterfly species to creating a model that could recognize different Pokémon, the 2025 AI Internship Experience projects were just as creative. One team developed a model that specialized in AI-assisted comic generation, while some of the other teams’ models ranged from dream analysis to developing tools that help users learn new languages.

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The interns also participated in many programs outside of the classroom. They attended a Google Developer Group (GDG) presentation held in the Design Factory space on Pace’s New York City Campus and they engaged with industry professionals through various networking activities. Resume and LinkedIn workshops were also built into the program, along with explorations of New York City culture to round out the experience.

The program culminated in final presentations of the students’ classification and generative AI projects. “The Gemini projects were particularly creative and varied,” said Scharff. “Congratulations to all the interns for their impressive work and I am looking forward to more opportunities to work with them all!”

With the success of the 2025 edition, the AI Internship Experience continues to grow as a great summer opportunity for Pace students eager to push the boundaries of innovation and apply their knowledge to real-world challenges. As Dr. Scharff noted when the program was launched last year, “we wanted to create a safe environment where our interns can explore and experience all different paths that working with AI can offer. It is a program that is very innovative, that is for the next generation.”