ANNAPOLIS, MD, April 3, 2026 — Bowler Pons Solutions Consultants, LLC, an Annapolis-based advanced technology and engineering firm serving federal, defense, and critical infrastructure customers, today announced it has been awarded a grant from the Maryland Department of Labor under the Maryland Lighthouse Industries and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Internship Program (Grant No. MLAI0326-5). The award helps fund eight (8) paid internship positions through March 2027, placing Maryland students and recent graduates directly inside active engineering and research programs at the frontier of national security technology.
A Competitive Award in a Priority Industry
The Maryland Lighthouse and AI Internship Program, authorized under the Cyber Maryland Program Act and the Talent Innovation Program and Fund Act, directs state investment toward internship experiences in sectors critical to Maryland's economic future: technology, aerospace and defense, and cybersecurity. Bowler Pons was selected across both the Technology and Aerospace and Defense industry categories, reflecting the firm's applied work in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, integrated sensing, and secure software development.
The grant was awarded on March 12, 2026 by Erin J. Roth, Assistant Secretary of the Maryland Division of Workforce Development and Adult Learning. It supports Bowler Pons' commitment to strengthening Maryland's STEM talent pipeline through experiential, paid learning rooted in direct contributions to operational systems deployed in real-world environments.
What Interns Will Do
Beginning Summer 2026, the program will place eight interns across two cohort periods. The first four positions, AI/ML Engineering Interns, begin May 26, 2026, working a minimum of 32 hours per week through August. Additional positions extend through the program year.
Interns will work inside Bowler Pons' internal research and development (IR&D) and sponsored R&D programs, contributing directly to:
- Building and deploying machine learning models for real-time object detection, tracking, and classification
- Integrating multi-modal sensors, including LiDAR, radar, and computer vision systems, into live autonomous platforms
- Implementing secure software using modern DevSecOps pipelines
- Operating and improving edge AI systems on GPU-enabled embedded hardware
- Working with large-scale training and validation datasets under MLOps workflows
- Applying Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and digital engineering tools
- Contributing to human-machine teaming interfaces and AI-enabled sensor fusion applications
Each intern receives a dedicated senior technical mentor, participates in weekly engineering reviews and Agile sprint cycles, and delivers a capstone demonstration at a company-wide all-hands meeting. The program is structured to produce professionals, not class projects. Every deliverable contributes to products that reach federal and defense end-users.
Why Bowler Pons Invests in Early-Career Talent
Bowler Pons has operated a college internship program for more than a decade, with a consistent track record of mentoring Maryland residents and students from institutions including the University of Maryland system, Johns Hopkins University, UMBC, Morgan State University, Towson University, and Loyola University. Many alumni have transitioned directly into full-time roles in Maryland's technology and aerospace defense ecosystem, including with Bowler Pons itself.
"Workforce development in emerging technology isn't a philanthropic exercise for us. It's a strategic capability," said Mark Holmes, Owner/Cofounder at Bowler Pons. "The engineers we help develop today become the technical leaders who solve our customers' hardest problems tomorrow. This grant gives us the resources to do that at greater scale while keeping the work grounded in real operational requirements."
The program specifically targets Maryland residents and/or students enrolled at Maryland institutions, as well as those studying elsewhere who intend to work in the MD/DC/VA technology corridor. Priority disciplines include Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Data Science, Cybersecurity, and Systems Engineering.
A Structured Pathway from Education to Career
What distinguishes the Bowler Pons program from traditional internships is the clarity of the trajectory it creates: education to internship to full-time employment in Maryland's lighthouse industries. Interns are not support staff. They are junior engineers embedded in production-oriented work, held to professional standards, and evaluated through the same performance framework applied to full-time staff.
The internship program is built around three pillars:
- Technical competency development covers hands-on AI/ML engineering, sensor integration, DevSecOps, and autonomous systems work in operationally relevant environments.
- Professional skills development encompasses Agile execution, technical documentation, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and customer-driven problem solving.
- Work-based learning structure includes formal onboarding, a dedicated mentor, weekly reviews, and a capstone demonstration tied to a deployed system.
This structure is designed to produce graduates who can contribute immediately to the teams that hire them, a meaningful differentiator for interns who complete the program and for the government and commercial organizations that recruit from it.
For Prospective Interns and Candidates
Bowler Pons actively recruits through Handshake, LinkedIn, JazzHR, university career fairs, and technical information sessions held in partnership with Maryland academic institutions. Candidates interested in Summer 2026 and Fall 2026 positions are encouraged to visit https://www.bowlerpons.com/careers or reach out directly to chris.nardone@bowlerpons.com.
Current areas of interest include students and recent graduates (within two years of graduation) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics and Mechanical Engineering, Data Science and AI-focused degree programs, Cybersecurity, and Systems Engineering. All internship positions are paid W-2 roles based at Bowler Pons' Annapolis, Maryland headquarters.
About Bowler Pons Solutions Consultants, LLC
Bowler Pons Solutions Consultants, LLC is a Maryland-based advanced technology and engineering firm specializing in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, integrated sensing, cybersecurity, and next-generation physical security engineering platforms for federal, defense, and critical infrastructure customers. Headquartered at 201 Defense Highway, Suite PH, Annapolis, MD 21401, Bowler Pons develops and deploys operational systems that combine AI/ML, LiDAR, computer vision, robotics, edge computing, and secure software to address real-world national security and public safety challenges. The firm is an active participant in Maryland's technology and aerospace defense sector and a consistent investor in early-career STEM talent development.
For more information, visit https://www.bowlerpons.com/careers.
