An iNDustry Labs at Notre Dame program

Students building real AI solutions for companies that employ the region.

Fellows working directly with executives and employees at regional companies to add value through technology.

Company Consultation Explore the fellowship

Summer 2026 cohort, Thor Motor Coach plant tour

25 Projects with regional
companies

40 Students
engaged

5 Notre Dame colleges
represented

Where you fit

Three ways to engage with the program.

For companies

You have a problem worth solving.

Bring us an operational bottleneck. A professional team scopes it, Fellows build it, and hand it off with full documentation at no cost to you.

How partnering works →

For students

You want the real thing.

Any major. Recent fellows came from engineering, business, psychology, and neuroscience. We train you first, then place you on a live company project with a president or VP as your client.

What the fellowship involves →

For faculty & campus

Your students can do this.

iNDustry Labs at Notre Dame has been sourcing real world projects for years. If you teach a course where that kind of applied learning could live, we will help source and scope the projects.

The campus case →

Fellows and plant staff gathered around a layout table during the Vista Manufacturing tour

Fellows at a workbench with an engineer during the plant tour

A plant manager walking the cohort through a part drawing

The cohort gathered at a stamping press at General Stamping and Metalworks

Fellows walking the production floor with an engineer

The Summer 2026 cohort together on the plant floor

The AI Leaders of Tomorrow program is a strategic investment in a world-class AI education for our students that leads to a stronger, more competitive regional industry.

Shannon Cullinan, Executive Vice President
University of Notre Dame

Selected work

What the fellows actually built.

Complete

University of Notre Dame HR

Answering the question candidates actually have

Candidates decline offers because they don't know enough about the region to say yes. A cost-of-living comparator and benefits view built to be shared during active recruiting.

Allison Ore, Juan Arcos, Kiki Petrovic

Complete

Daman Products

Sequencing jobs to reduce tool swaps

Machinists were changing tools in and out between nearly every job. An optimiser reorders the schedule and picks which tools each job should use, so the machine can run for hours without a changeover.

Sarah Sargent, Holden Pecoraro, Juan Arcos

Complete

CP Industries

A three-agent system for federal bids

Government quoting demands ITAR, NSN, and ASTM compliance across hundreds of line items. One agent parses the RFQ, one sources qualified suppliers, one scores what comes back.

Thomas Maldonado, Lesley Ekisowe, Christopher Qian

See all projects →

In their own words

25+ fields of study represented.

The most common misconception about this program is that it is mainly for computer science majors. Fellows are drawn from five Notre Dame colleges, from freshmen to MBA candidates, working across dozens of fields of study.

Gabriella Zeller

Psychology and Spanish, Arts and Letters

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This is the type of hands-on experience that you don't get with a typical internship. You'll work directly with high-ups at firms like CFOs, presidents, CEOs.

Gabriella, Psychology and Spanish

Maureen Tremblay

Computer Science, Engineering

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I've spent just as much time working on the technology as I have collaborating with my teammates and communicating with our stakeholders.

Maureen, Computer Science

Akshat Mathur

Finance MBA, Mendoza

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I had a background completely in finance and investment banking, and the problem… was related to CAD drawings and 3D models. That's as far as you can go from a DCF model.

Akshat, Finance MBA

Liam Bas

Neuroscience and Behavior, Science

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It's one thing to learn about AI in the classroom. It's totally different when you're working with a real client and building something people will actually use every day.

Liam, Neuroscience and Behavior

Sarah Sargent

Mechanical Engineering and Spanish, Engineering

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There were many moments where it was up to us, to 20-year-olds, to figure out how we were going to structure our project.

Sarah, Mechanical Engineering

Kristiana (Kiki) Petrovic

Finance and Economics, Mendoza

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I went into the project assuming that AI would solve everything… I realized most of the challenges weren't going to be solved by AI, and they were process problems.

Kiki, Finance and Economics

Meet the full cohort →

Partner companies