Student Mentoring and Research Training (SMaRT) Internship
The University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute (UT-ORII) recruits the nation’s top undergraduates for its prominent SMaRT internship program. For 10 weeks each summer, UT-ORII SMaRT interns have the unique opportunity to work alongside researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and UT to tackle some of our nation’s toughest scientific challenges.
The program’s ultimate goal is recruiting these top undergraduate students to UT for graduate school and to Tennessee to build their careers. In its first three years, 25 percent of SMaRT interns have applied for or enrolled in UTK graduate programs.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) program provides support to the UTK-MRSEC Center for Advanced Materials, and Manufacturing (CAMM). CAMM provides partial financial support for 10 SMaRT internships and provides the SMaRT Internship Program with projects in the interdisciplinary area of Advanced science and engineering of materials and manufacturing.
TEAm science experience
The interdisciplinary atmosphere provided at UT-ORII will expose you to team science, an increasingly important platform for research.
As an intern, you will also gain first-hand research experience in emerging fields (e.g. quantum information sciences and data sciences) while working with state-of-the-art research instruments (e.g. 3D printers of metals and polymers). Together, these experiences will help prepare you for exciting and rewarding careers.
Interns will prepare CVs, personal statements for future opportunities, as well as short research presentations and scientific posters that can be presented at conferences.
Graduate student mentors will work closely with SMaRT interns and will be available to share their graduate school experiences. Overall, participation in the SMaRT Program will help you understand and evaluate your future career options, including in academia, national laboratories, and in the industries of the future.
Stipends, Housing and Travel
- The stipend will be $700 per week. An additional $250 will be loaded to your VolCard for expenses.
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, on-campus housing will be provided. Housing will be apartment style.
- Up to $1,200 for travel if traveling from 50+ miles away, one-way.
How to Apply
Applications for the Summer 2026 SMaRT internship are closed.
If you have any questions, please email us at oriismart@utk.edu.
“The collaboration makes the research feel more prominent because it’s contributing to multiple facilities. It’s made the internship mean more to me.”
Erin J.
2025 SMaRT Intern, Tennessee State University
The SMaRT program focuses on four interdisciplinary areas*:
- Transportation Mobility, Cybersecurity, and Automation
- Circular Bioeconomy Systems, Environmental Science, Renewable and Recyclable Materials, Sustainable Manufacturing
- Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, Materials in Extreme Environments, and Fusion materials and Technology
*Data science and engineering threads will be woven through each of these four areas.