Old – Finding Research Opportunities

Your school may offer opportunities for engaging in research during the academic year either for credit or for pay; don't be shy about talking to your academic adviser about such opportunities.

The CRA-W and the Coalition to Diversify Computing offer the CREU program, designed to provide positive research experiences for teams of undergraduates who will work during the academic year and, in some cases, the following summer at their home institutions.

The Undergraduate Research Positions in Computer Science site provides a listing of summer research positions offered by researchers around the country.

There are several national programs that offer undergraduate students to work on research at their own or a different university, college, or laboratory. These programs generally offer a stipend and sometimes offer support for housing, meals, and/or travel.

Here are links to some of these programs.

• The National Science Foundation REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) Program has research sites across the United States. Students typically work for 8 to 10 weeks on a research program with a faculty mentor.
• The Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W) offers numerous research programs for women in computing fields. These undergraduate programs include the DREU (Distributed Research Experience for Undergraduates) Program
• The National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has a program called USRA that supports undergraduate research.

Some programs are not specifically for computing fields but recruit students in all science and engineering fields.

Several universities have summer undergraduate research fellowships, typically called "SURFs," open to students to all institutions. Among these are:

• The Caltech SURF: Caltech's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships program introduces students to research under the guidance of seasoned research mentors at Caltech and JPL.
• The Purdue University SURF: The SURF program provides students across all engineering, science and technology disciplines with an intensive research experience, allowing them to work closely with graduate students and professors in their respective schools.
• The National Institutes of Standards and Technolgy (NIST) has a SURF program.
• The National Security Agency (NSA) has a number of summer research programs for undergraduates.
• The Department of Energy's SULI program takes students from a variety of fields, including computer science, to participate in research at a Department of Energy research facility.
• The NREIP Program offers research opportunities at a Department of Navy research laboratory.
• IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA has a summer research program for under-represented minority students.
• The Information Sciences Institute (ISI) of the University of Southern California has summer internships for students interested in natural language processing.