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With the digitization of information, cyberspace is a developing network that’s changing how we live. In 2009, the first digital currency, Bitcoin, was invented.  Bitcoin has been called a “decentralized virtual currency” by some economists, due to the fact that it is transferred from one user to another, called peer-to-peer or P2P, without the use of any central bank.  Sitong Chen ’16, with Professor of Economics Christophre Georges, worked this summer on an Emerson project, “Analysis of the Internet-born Currency: The Birth of Bitcoin.”

Africa is home to some of the fastest developing economies and up-and-coming global leaders, as Ivy Phoebe Akumu ’15, an economics major, knows. This summer, Akumu is a corporate business intern with the Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd. (CBA), one of East Africa’s largest privately owned banks. Her internship is located in Upper Hill, Nairobi, Kenya, and is sponsored through the Summer Internship Support Fund.

Meandering through the placid halls of an art museum, many guests appreciate the aesthetics of the exhibition and its pieces. However, few may realize the amount of fundraising, work and time it takes to procure, produce and put on one of these exhibits. Isabel Dau ’15, a classical studies major, is spending the summer interning at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn., with support from the Richard & Patsy Couper Fund.

The untrod sands of the Egyptian Deserts hold a mystery much older than the construction of the pyramids: hundreds of naturally formed “desert eyes” unblinkingly turned toward the sky for tens of millions of years. Yet, despite their age, these structures have almost no topography; in fact, until the advent of Google Earth, these formations, which lie in the desert west of the Nile, were never studied. Josh Wolpert ’16, is working with Professor of Geosciences Barbara Tewksbury on the Desert Eyes Project, funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Every day, one billion viewers tune in for the variety of shows broadcasted by China Central Television (CCTV).  One subchannel, CCTV America is the English-language news channel run by Chinese state broadcaster, developing programming for English-speaking audiences worldwide. Liza Strauss ’15 is interning with CCTV America in Washington D.C. this summer.

Scrutinizing the pages of Where’s Waldo?, searching for that pesky beanie and striped shirt, your brain is working hard to spot the elusive traveler. This summer, four students are examining various components of visual attention with Assistant Professor of Psychology Alexandra List. Katie Callahan ’15, Christi Westlin ’15 and Alex Mitko ’16 are each working on one of the three elements of the study, “Visual Attention: Failures, Dynamics and Interaction with Auditory Attention,” and Hannah Zucker ’15 is doing an interdisciplinary project.

The Cantos, by 1905 Hamilton alumnus Ezra Pound, is an 800-page, unfinished epic poem that is divided into 120 sections, or cantos. The work is widely regarded as controversial due to its experimental style, being loosely structured and arcane, and Pound’s publicized fascist sympathies. “A good deal of the political and economic material in the Cantos is [infamously] wrong-headed,” John Rufo ’16 stated, “but the poetic method and forms are not inherently fascist or anything like that.”

Although processing clay may not sound like the most amusing way to spend the summer, Lesley Klose ’15, an art major with a focus on sculpture, is enjoying her time at the Red Dirt Studio in Mt. Rainier, Maryland, nonetheless. Her summer project is made possible through the support of the Kevin W. Kennedy ’70 Internship Fund for the Arts.

Varicose veins, twisted and swollen veins just below the surface of the skin, can cause pain, ulcers and even blood clots. Elisa MacColl ’16, a biology major, is spending the summer interning for Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston, studying varicose veins. Her internship is supported by the Jeffrey Science Fund.

For over two centuries, the United States and Denmark have enjoyed uninterrupted diplomatic relations. Since 1801, Denmark has been a strong ally of the U.S., making it our oldest Scandinavian ally and one of the oldest in Europe. This summer, Peter Jorgensen ’16, a world politics major, is interning with the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen. His internship is supported by the Katharine Eckman ’09 Fund.