Yash Bandla, a University of Iowa computer science student expected to graduate in December 2026, has been gaining valuable experience as a Performance Engineering Intern at NVIDIA. As part of the GeForce Notebook team, he helps test how new technology performs in video games and on laptops. His work has contributed to projects showcased at major technology events, including Gamescom and CES.

With a passion for gaming and computer technology, Bandla has been able to turn his personal interests into hands-on experience at one of the world's leading technology companies. During his time at Iowa, he has been involved in student organizations including ACM, ISA, and SASA, where he was a member during his first two years of college.

Now, approximately six months into his internship, Bandla shares what he's been working on, some of his most rewarding experiences, how his education at Iowa has prepared him, and his advice for other students interested in similar opportunities.

Can you tell us about your role as a Performance Engineering Intern at NVIDIA and some of the projects you've worked on?

I'm on the GeForce Notebook team, which means I benchmark and analyze different drivers or features like DLSS to see their performance on the latest games and laptop hardware.

Recently, our team worked on getting performance numbers for the RTX Spark laptops as well as DLSS 5 Neural Rendering. An example project is creating an automation script for a new game that just came out to add it to our baseline testing.

Something I personally have worked on is getting critical performance numbers for DLSS 5 ahead of Gamescom and CES.

What has been your most rewarding experience during your internship, and which NVIDIA products have you helped work on?

The most rewarding experience so far has been seeing the CEO present the product our team has been working on for months on stage in front of the entire world. It felt like a massive weight lifted off our shoulders.

I worked on the RTX Spark laptops as well as DLSS 5. The CEO unveiled this at Computex and has talked about it at GTC events as well.

How long have you been interning at NVIDIA, and what are your plans moving forward?

I have been at NVIDIA for around six months, with around two months left. Ideally, if there is a spot open on my team for a return offer, I will take it. However, I have also been networking with other teams within the department, including Power/Platform and Enterprise Desktop.

How has your education at the University of Iowa helped prepare you for your work at NVIDIA? Are there any specific classes or skills you've found especially useful?

I believe that the Topics in the CS Data Visualization class was particularly helpful for me since a big part of my job is creating reports to present data to important people.

Intro to Software Engineering taught me about proper documentation and version control, which are highly relevant to my job as well.

What advice would you give to other Iowa computer science students hoping to pursue similar opportunities?

I would say join clubs, do hackathons, work on personal projects, or get a research position specifically relating to the industry you are trying to pursue. Research is a great way to gain real experience that companies value.

Additionally, I really wanted to be in the gaming space, so I used flip computers, made a GPU market analyzer to help me with that, and worked on some other personal projects. But that may look different for you, so it's about finding the right opportunities that are relevant to you.