student research

Undergraduate and Graduate Students

As a student, you can either get involved with the DCI as a student researcher or by taking our Blockchain Labs course. We, the DCI, do not directly process applications for MIT. If you are interested in applying to MIT, please visit the MIT Admissions page

1) Student Researcher Opportunities

We offer:

  • MIT Undergraduates: UROPs (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program) - Please find all MIT UROP details here. Each UROP lasts a semester, but we encourage UROPs to return for multiple terms.

    • Current project openings:

      • "An Exploration of Flashbot’s Dominance on Ethereum"

      • Two part role: "Targeted Nokamoto: A Proof-of-Work Protocol Modification to Improve Security and Limit Energy Consumption" and "A Smart Contract to Increase Intermediation Capacity in the Repo Market"

      • “Ethereum Research” (General)

      • “Central (Reserve) Bank Lending”

      • “Programmability & Treasury Operations”

  • MIT Graduates: Research Assistants (RA) - View some of our past RAs’ theses here

  • Non-MIT Undergraduates Co-ops and Graduate Collaborations - Undergraduates and graduate students can gain valuable experience from working in their field of interest with the DCI. We have already worked with students from MIT, Northeastern, UMass Amherst, and Boston University. You must already be enrolled actively in a program at another institute to partake in these roles.

To apply for student roles, please email your CV and the following details to dci@media.mit.edu, with “Interested Student CV/Resume” as the subject.

1) Type of opportunity (UROP, MEng, Co-ops, etc.)

2) Academic term of interest

3) Your school, program, and expected graduation date

4) Location during appointment *** Due to COVID-19 we can not currently accept any student workers who are not physically in the US during their employment/appointment ***

5) Your relevant experience (please also share your GitHub if applicable)

6) DCI research area of research or desired mentor

2) Current MIT Students Only

  1. Join the DCI slack channel- MIT email addresses only

  2. Join the DCI weekly research seminar meetings - Please email dci@media.mit.edu with your resume.

  3. Join the MIT Bitcoin Club - weekly seminars and yearly conferences

  4. Join the MIT Sloan Blockchain Club - weekly seminars and yearly conferences