Intern, Research - Context and Knowledge Systems for AI

Autodesk, Inc.; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 15,000 - 21,000; Full time

Job summary

Autodesk Research in the United Kingdom is seeking a Research Intern for Context and Knowledge Systems for AI within the Intelligent Construction team. The 12-week internship will focus on building and evaluating context representations to support reliable AI reasoning in complex project environments.

You will collaborate with Autodesk researchers across AI, data systems, and software engineering, delivering a working prototype and rigorous experimental evidence, with potential publication

Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a PhD program with at least one term remaining.
• Research experience in knowledge representation or information systems for AI.
• Strong programming skills and experience developing experimental research software.
• Ability to formulate research questions and design empirical evaluations.

Responsibilities

• Conduct original research in context and knowledge systems for AI.
• Investigate methods for representing and retrieving information to support contextual inference.
• Develop research prototypes using graph-based or hybrid approaches.
• Design and conduct rigorous experiments with baselines and evaluation methods.
• Collaborate with Autodesk researchers and engineers to refine ideas and translate them into prototypes.
• Communicate research findings and contribute to reports and demonstrations.

Skills

Strong programming skills

Written communication

Verbal communication

Knowledge of AI systems

Education

PhD program in Computer Science/AI or related field

Tools

Graph databases

Experimentation tools

Job description

## Intern, Research - Context and Knowledge Systems for AIApply: United Kingdom - Remote: Full time: Posted Today: 26WD101097**Job Requisition ID #**26WD101097Autodesk Research – Intelligent ConstructionSummer 2027 | 12 weeks **Position Overview**Modern AI systems increasingly depend on their ability to access and use the right context atthe right time. An important research challenge is how large, evolving bodies of informationshould be represented to support reliable inference.Autodesk Research provides a distinctive setting for this work. Construction projects are rich,complex information environments whose state changes continuously over time, makingthem a compelling domain for studying context and knowledge systems for AI.As a Research Intern, you will own a focused research problem in this area. You willinvestigate new approaches to building and retrieving structured context, developexperimental prototypes, and evaluate how effectively they support downstream AIreasoning.You will work closely with Autodesk researchers and engineers and have substantial freedomto bring ideas from your own research. Strong contributions may form the basis of anacademic publication and future Autodesk research. **Responsibilities**• Conduct original research in context and knowledge systems for AI. Investigatemethods for representing and retrieving information to support reliable contextualinference• Develop new approaches to context construction. Explore how relevant knowledgecan be identified and assembled dynamically from large and evolving informationenvironments• Build research prototypes. Implement experimental systems using graph-based,semantic or hybrid approaches and apply them to realistic project information• Design and conduct rigorous experiments. Develop suitable research questions,baselines and evaluation methods to understand the strengths and limitations ofproposed approaches• Collaborate with Autodesk researchers and engineers. Work across AI research,software engineering and domain expertise to refine ideas and translate them intoexperimental systems• Communicate research findings. Present results within Autodesk Research andcontribute, where appropriate, to research papers, technical reports anddemonstrations **Minimum Qualifications**• Currently enrolled in a PhD program in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence,Data Science, Information Science or a closely related field, with at least oneacademic term remaining after the internship• Research experience in an area related to knowledge representation, informationretrieval, data management or contextual information systems for AI• Strong programming skills and experience developing experimental researchsoftware• Understanding of contemporary AI systems and how retrieval and contextualinformation support modern reasoning or agentic workflows• Experience formulating research questions and designing empirical evaluations.• Strong written and verbal communication skills **Preferred Qualifications**Research experience in one or more of the following areas would be valuable:• Knowledge graphs or graph-based information systems• Advanced information retrieval and hybrid retrieval methods• Retrieval-augmented generation, including GraphRAG or related approaches• Context engineering or memory architectures for AI systems• Semantic and structured knowledge representation• Temporal, provenance-aware or evolving data systems• Heterogeneous data integration at scale• Graph machine learning applied to representation or retrievalA strong research publication record in a relevant area is desirable Prior experience with architecture, engineering or construction is not required. We areparticularly interested in candidates with deep technical expertise who are motivated by theopportunity to test their research against a complex real-world information environment. **About the Team**Autodesk Research explores technologies that may shape how the world is designed andmade. We work across fundamental and applied research, developing new ideas and testingthem against problems grounded in professional practice.The Intelligent Construction team investigates how emerging forms of AI can support a moreconnected and adaptive construction industry. An important part of that challenge isunderstanding how fragmented project information can become a coherent and evolvingsource of knowledge for intelligent systems.You will join a multidisciplinary research environment with expertise spanning AI, datasystems, software engineering and construction. You will work closely with experiencedresearchers while having substantial ownership of your own research problem.Expected Research OutcomeThis is a focused **12-week research internship**. The research question will be developed withthe successful candidate to make use of their existing expertise while addressing a problemrelevant to the team's research direction.By the end of the internship, we expect the intern to have developed and evaluated an originalapproach to a clearly defined research problem. This should include a working researchprototype, rigorous experimental evidence and a clear account of the findings and limitations.The work will be shared within Autodesk Research. Where the research contribution warrantsit, we would expect to develop the work toward publication at an appropriate academicvenue.