Graduate HCI & Vis Internship

Position Overview 

 Graduate internships at Autodesk will explore new areas of technology and help both Autodesk and the academic community understand how emerging technologies can be leveraged to improve creation and design processes. 

Over the course of the internship, you will drive a project within a multidisciplinary team comprising HCI & Visualization experts, AEC designers/engineers, and external partners. With guidance from your mentor(s), this project will cover implementation, experimental validation, data analysis, and more. Specific areas of interest for research projects include Information Visualization, Generative Design Tools, and User Interfaces for generative AI or Machine Learning systems. 

Responsibilities

• Supporting Autodesk’s independent collaboration with UCLA to help map how UCLA is inhabited and navigated, identifying where people encounter (or need) shade, rest, hydration, and social or quiet spaces as part of daily living and movement across campus. The goal is to translate these insights into an “atlas of care” that informs healthy, accessible pathways and a longer-term legacy of care and accessibility

• Synthesize data from this project into compelling, shareable visual narratives—such as a “day in the life” story map—that foreground lived experience, accessibility, and wellbeing

• Support the research and design efforts by developing software prototypes

• Conduct literature reviews 

• Gather requirements and issues to explore and design 

• Develop algorithms 

• Design and implement prototypes to test and explore concepts 

• Conduct usability studies, ethnographic studies, heuristic evaluations, task analyses, structured interviews and surveys to test research ideas and hypotheses

• Evaluate research findings and prototypes to make recommendations for impacting business and products

• Explore new prototyping frameworks and technologies

• Author a full research paper 

• Produce an accompanying research video 

• Present the results of your research externally and internally 

Minimum Qualifications 

• Currently enrolled in an MSc or PhD program in Computer Science or related field, with a specialization in Human-Computer Interaction or Design, and at least one academic term to complete post internship 

• Demonstrated expertise in the area of interactive technologies and/or data storytelling, with peer-reviewed publications on the topic in international venues 

• Experience in visual design and storytelling 

• Strong communication skills and teamwork experience 

Preferred Qualifications  

• Very strong technical skills in building software prototypes

• Experience with modern generative AI tools and frameworks (e.g., GPT, Llama, Stable Diffusion, ComfyUI)

• Experience with coding in D3 or similar data visualization libraries 

• Experience with web development and frameworks

• Experience with Autodesk tools that offer data assessment of the built environment (e.g., Forma)

• Experience developing software in a Windows or MacOS environment

• Experimental design and data analysis

• Rapid prototyping 

• Ability to work effectively as a member of a team; ability to work with minimum supervision, self-driven 

• Ability to deal with requirements from multiple sources and find solutions and deal with conflicts and compromises in a diplomatic manner 

• Ability to communicate effectively and work cooperatively with other teams 

• Ability to write clear, concise, correct technical material 

 
About the Canada Internship Program 

The 2026 Canada program runs for 16 weeks (May 4– August 21). All internships are paid. As an intern, you will contribute to meaningful projects, be mentored by industry leaders, and participate in tech talks and other activities designed to support your personal and professional development. Our internships align with Autodesk’s Flexible Workplace approach, which is designed to meet the needs of our business while providing flexibility in support of office, remote, and hybrid work preferences.