Computer Vision Engineer – Intern

Pittsburgh Robotics Network; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 32,000 - 42,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Direct mentorship from CV Lead

Potential path to full-time offer

Competitive internship compensation

Job summary

FuturHand Robotics is seeking a Computer Vision Intern to join the perception team and work on real perception problems on a production robotic platform. You will gain hands-on experience building, testing, and deploying vision systems in a small, fast-moving team.

You will own scoped tasks within the perception pipeline, spanning sensor data collection, processing, object detection, pose estimation, and scene understanding, with mentorship from the CV Lead and opportunities to tackle open-ended

Qualifications

• Currently pursuing a BS (upper-class/senior) or MS/PhD in computer vision, robotics, computer science, or a related field
• Solid fundamentals in computer vision with coursework or project experience in 3D perception, object detection, or pose estimation
• Familiarity with Python and/or C++, and with CV/ML frameworks (PyTorch, OpenCV)

Responsibilities

• Support development of components of the perception pipeline, such as sensor integration, object detection, pose estimation, or state tracking
• Help build and improve tooling for perception: data pipelines, evaluation scripts, debugging/visualization tools, and performance metrics
• Run experiments to test robustness across lighting, geometry, and scene complexity
• Collaborate with CV Lead and manipulation/controls teams to understand perception outputs downstream
• Explore sensor fusion, temporal filtering, or data-driven methods to improve robustness
• Document findings and contribute to the team's understanding of what works and what doesn't

Skills

3D perception

Object detection

Pose estimation

Python/C++

Education

BS/MS/PhD in computer vision/robotics

Tools

PyTorch

OpenCV

Job description

About FuturHand RoboticsFuturHand Robotics is a Carnegie Mellon University spin-off developing next-generation dexterous robotic systems that transform how robots interact with the world. We build on cutting-edge research in dexterous hands and manipulation to solve real-world problems, developing dexterous bimanual robots that operate reliably outside controlled lab environments.

About FuturHand RoboticsFuturHand Robotics is a Carnegie Mellon University spin-off developing next-generation dexterous robotic systems that transform how robots interact with the world. We build on cutting-edge research in dexterous hands and manipulation to solve real-world problems, developing dexterous bimanual robots that operate reliably outside controlled lab environments.

The Role

We\'re looking for a Computer Vision Intern to join our perception team and work directly with our Computer Vision Lead. You\'ll get hands-on experience with real perception problems on a physical robotic platform — not synthetic benchmarks or toy datasets. This is a great opportunity to see how vision systems are built, tested, and deployed in a production robotics stack, and to contribute meaningfully to a small, fast-moving team.

You\'ll take ownership of a well-scoped project or set of tasks within the broader perception pipeline spanning sensor data collection & processing, object detection, pose estimation, or scene understanding with guidance and mentorship from the CV Lead. As you ramp up, you\'ll have room to take on more open-ended problems.

What You\'ll Be Doing

• Support development of components of the perception pipeline, such as sensor integration, object detection, pose estimation, or state tracking
• Help build and improve tooling for perception: data pipelines, evaluation scripts, debugging/visualization tools, and performance metrics
• Run experiments to test robustness across variation in lighting, object geometry, and scene complexity
• Collaborate with the CV Lead and broader manipulation/controls teams to understand how perception outputs are used downstream
• Explore techniques such as sensor fusion, temporal filtering, or data-driven methods to improve system robustness
• Document findings and contribute to the team\'s understanding of what works and what doesn\'t

What We\'re Looking For

• Currently pursuing a BS (upper-class/senior) or MS/PhD in computer vision, robotics, computer science, or a related field
• Solid fundamentals in computer vision with coursework or project experience with 3D perception, object detection, or pose estimation
• Comfortable programming in Python (and/or C++); familiarity with common CV/ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, OpenCV)
• Exposure to depth sensors, RGB-D data, or 3D geometry is a plus, but not required
• Prior experience working with camera hardware and camera calibration is a plus, though not required
• Familiarity with data collection, data cleaning and data labelling
• Curiosity about how perception fits into a larger robotic system, and willingness to learn how design choices affect downstream performance
• Based in or willing to relocate to Pittsburgh, PA for the duration of the internship

Nice To Have

• Prior project or coursework experience with robotics perception for manipulation tasks
• Familiarity with ROS 2
• Exposure to sim-to-real transfer, domain randomization, or data augmentation
• Experience deploying models on embedded or edge hardware (e.g., Jetson)

What We Offer

• Direct mentorship from our Computer Vision Lead and close collaboration with a small, highly technical team
• Real ownership of a project that contributes to a novel robotic platform, not busywork
• Exposure to the full perception stack — from sensors to deployed, real-world behavior
• Competitive internship compensation
• Potential path to a full-time offer for strong performers