This summer, I had the honor of being an intern for the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) Defense Industrial Initiatives Group (D.I.I.G.). During my time working for this incredible think tank, I learned a lot about how statistical tests can be used to advise political decisions, the scope of artificial intelligence development around the world, and how defense acquisition trends quantitatively represent the spending strategy of the Department of Defense. During my time in Washington, I not only learned more about the overlap between the statistical sciences and international relations, but I also was able to further my studies of strategy from a quantitative standpoint. By studying DoD’s acquisition trends through use of statistical assessment, I was able to understand a financial strategy pertaining to national defense from a quantitative perspective- arguably the closest I have been to the work I hope to do one day and that I continue to pursue with my Program II major.  When I first began work with the Defense Industrial Initiatives Group, I was also incredibly excited to learn more about how scholars in STEM contribute to large-scale military and political decisions. Most of my co-workers came from backgrounds in statistics and engineering, and I learned a lot about their personal love for STEM in public policy. While at CSIS, I was able to sit in on a private conference regarding the ethical ramifications of artificial intelligence in the defense world. During this conference, experts from across the Department of Defense commented on the ethical and technical responsibilities of using artificial intelligence for defensive purposes. I found it absolutely incredible to be in the same room as these scholars let alone have the honor of hearing what they had to say, and this event was most definitely my favorite experience at CSIS. My work on the D.I.I.G. group’s artificial intelligence project has furthermore inspired me to take more courses in computer science and pursue the overlap between applied statistics and A.I.. The A.I. project supervisor furthermore inspired me to pursue a career more in line with artificial intelligence,  and told me a lot a lot about her experiences in defense-STEM as a woman. Working at CSIS furthermore introduced me more towards the nature of war studies in academia, describing the ongoing conflict between strategy being viewed as an art as opposed to a science. This discussion has inspired me to try and study war strategy abroad in England following my undergraduate experience (where this debate is being studied heavily in the many university’s War Studies departments) and bring a more scientific perspective to a previously artistically viewed field. Finally, spending the summer in DC also gave me the opportunity to connect with many Duke alumni in the defense community and ask them for advice and guidance. All in all, I cannot thank SPIRE enough for aiding me in this endeavor- I was so happy to achieve my main summer goal of obtaining an advanced and bipartisan view of STEM applications within the defense community.