Internship Opportunity at Toyota Research Institute

At Toyota Research Institute (TRI), we’re on a mission to improve the quality of human life. We’re developing new tools and capabilities to amplify the human experience. To lead this transformative shift in mobility, we’ve built a world-class team in human-centered AI, energy and materials, human interactive driving, robotics, and machine learning. This is a paid 13-week internship opportunity. Please note that this internship will be a hybrid in-office role.

Human-Centered AI

This internship opportunity falls within the Human-Centered AI Division (HCAI). We are an integrated team of ML researchers, behavior scientists, and human-computer interaction experts. At the core of our work, we aim to support people to make better decisions by using the best of big data, technology, and insights about why we do what we do.

The Team

The Future Product Innovation team is an interdisciplinary team of researchers working at the intersection of generative artificial intelligence (AI), design, engineering, and creativity. We use advances in cognitive modeling, physiological sensing, HCI, and machine learning to support human decision making. Our mission is to accelerate design and engineering processes in the automotive industry.

The Internship

The internship is flexible between late summer 2025 and spring 2026. We are seeking a highly motivated and versatile PhD research intern to join our Future Product Innovation team and open up the boundaries on what is possible with Generative AI technologies in the domain of product design. The ideal candidate will have a background in Graphics Design and Machine Learning, with demonstrated interest in design and generative AI. In this project, the intern will develop immersive interactions to visualize possible futures, using narratives, historical data, and societal trends, see prior research on this topic. We will match the intern with mentors based on their experience. Over the course of the project, in addition to Future Product Innovation group meetings, the intern will also participate in all Human-Centered AI division meetings and meetings with partners from relevant Toyota business groups. The intern will be exposed to how interdisciplinary industrial research works and learn from our team as well as the other interns in our division. Furthermore, the intern will engage in strategy discussions about how their research connects to business impact at Toyota.

Responsibilities

• In collaboration with your mentor and the other researchers in the department, you will scope the project to align to the core research efforts.
• Be the primary driver of the technical plan (e.g., model development, analysis plan) with regular feedback from mentors.
• Execute the project using TRI resources.
• Present the project’s approach and findings in research meetings.

Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a PhD program in Computer Science, Machine Learning (or related fields).
• Experience working with CAD data such as B-rep and step-file.
• Experience with deep generative models for CAD generation applications including but not limited to BrepGen and Point2CAD.
• Track record of executing research projects including publications at top venues including but not limited to CVPR, ICCV, TOG, SIGGRAPH, NeurIPS.
• Desire to work on challenging open-ended research projects.
• Proven ability to work autonomously while soliciting feedback.
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience with developing research prototypes.
• Experience adapting pre-trained models to specific tasks or domains through fine-tuning or similar techniques.
• Experience with working with CAD development tools.