2026 Projects

Cognitive Assistance for Lowering Mental Load

Format: On Campus or Online
Number of Students: 1
Duration of Project: 2.5 months (1 July, 2026 – 15 September 2026)

Application Deadline: June 5, 2026

Project Supervisor: Gözde Çörekçioğlu İshakoğlu (Özyeğin University) & Yusuf Kulu (Özyeğin University), Berkay Özcan (NYU Abu Dhabi, LSE)
Research Areas: Economics, Artificial Intelligence, Mental Health
Daily Supervisor: Gözde Çörekçioğlu İshakoğlu & Yusuf Kulu

About the Project

Cognitive Assistance for Lowering Mental Load proposes a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that investigates whether guided AI use can meaningfully reduce the invisible mental load associated with household and care responsibilities; and whether such reductions improve workplace well-being, productivity, mental health, and family dynamics among white-collar employees. The project develops and pilots a specialized GPT-based assistant designed to help individuals offload cognitive tasks such as weekly menu planning, household coordination, activity planner, care scheduling, gift selection, and routine reminder management.

Project Objectives

  • Improve mental health through reduced stress, fatigue, and mental overload.
  • Reduce gendered disparities in domestic labor and mental load.
  • Improvements in employee productivity, focus, and work-life balance.
  • Quantify an unequal cognitive and emotional burden that disproportionately affects women, parents, and caregivers.
  • Improve workplace climate in participating institutions through lower burnout.

Project Tasks

Below is some project tasks for a research assistant.

  • Literature Review & Synthesis: Assist in gathering and synthesizing the literature
  • Survey Preparation: Assist in programming surveys in Qualtrics.
  • Field Coordination & Logistics: Support the onboarding and coordination of the approximately 20 partner corporations, helping to track the rollout of the CALM training modules to the treatment groups.
  • Data Management & Cleaning: Prepare clean datasets.
  • Report Writing: Help with the preparation of firm-level feedback reports and presentations.

Deliverables

The primary deliverables for this role will include comprehensively cleaned and well-documented datasets, alongside the programmed survey instruments and behavioral tasks used for the baseline and endline measurements. The research assistant will also be expected to deliver structured literature review summarizing key findings across different disciplines. Throughout the Randomized Controlled Trial rollout, the student will provide regular progress reports on firm onboarding, participant take-up rates, and data quality checks. Finally, they will produce formatted summary statistics, tables, and data visualizations to be included in the final research manuscripts, firm-level feedback reports, and policy briefs.

Benefits for the Student

Working on the CALM project offers a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the end-to-end execution of a large-scale Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT). This is a high demand skill in empirical research. The student will develop an understanding on survey programming, data management, and causal inference techniques. Beyond technical skills, the nature of the project will allow the student to learn what economists do and the scope of economic research to various areas including artificial intelligence. Furthermore, the student will gain valuable experience in translating academic research into scalable, real-world corporate well-being programs and policy solutions.

Requirements

We are seeking a highly motivated, detail-oriented high school student with good communication skills and a strong interest in economics, behavioral science, psychology, or computer science. The ideal candidate will possess excellent reading comprehension, and critical thinking skills, which are essential for reviewing academic literature and summarizing key concepts. The candidate should be highly organized, capable of following strict research protocols, and comfortable using spreadsheet software (such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets) for basic data organization. Prior research experience is not mandatory, basic familiarity with coding (such as introductory Python or R) is a plus. Most importantly, we are looking for a reliable self-starter who is excited to learn about the rigorous process of conducting experimental field research.

Projects for 2026

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Özyeğin University Summer Research Internship project is open to high school students and the aim of the program is to increase their experience on how scientific research is conducted.
2026 Projects
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