The PAIR program is kicking off another semester!Â
📣 Info-Session for Fall 2025 PAIR Program
We ran an info-session on Monday, September 8! Slides are here for anyone who could not attend.Â
📣  Sign up to be a mentor or mentee for the Fall 2025 Program by Thursday, September 18
Undergrad mentees fill out this form.Â
Grad student mentors fill out this form.Â
📣  If you would like to be notified about future PAIR events but do not want a mentor now, feel free to subscribe to our mailing list hereÂ
This program pairs CMU college students from all majors and backgrounds with graduate student mentors to learn what AI research is about and how to get involved as an undergraduate.Â
Our mentors come from across SCS departments in areas such asÂ
robotics
natural language processing
human computer interaction
computer vision
multimodal machine learning
machine learning theory
medicine and healthcare applications of AI
computational biology
AI ethics
and more!
We also host:
events during the semester for networking and learning about AI research
weekly mentoring "office hours" to ask questions and find other students interested in undergrad AI research
Mentors in this program provide high-level guidance to help mentees explore AI research, identify their interests, and find a lab/project if the student decides they are interested in starting research at CMU. Typically, students and mentors meet at least once a month for ~30 min to check in on goals. We provide questions each month in case you're not sure what to talk about!Â
AI research is a broad category of scientific research related to understanding and building computational foundations of intelligence in machines. This can encompass fundamental questions about learning, perception, reasoning, and embodiment, among others, as well as applied research.Â
Examples:
Advancing algorithms to train self-driving cars that operate in noisy environments
Training robots to interpret the world around them and manipulate objects
Building natural language processing algorithms to enable interactive dialogue systems
Predicting health conditions using existing patient data
Understanding the ethical implications of using AI methods on real-world problems
Undergraduate research is a great way to work on interesting and new problems that you care about! It is also one way to put the skills you are learning in classes to practice at the cutting-edge. CMU has a vibrant intellectual community of faculty and PhD students, with cutting-edge research being conducted in virtually every subfield of AI. Starting undergraduate research early allows you to explore multiple areas and accumulate experience, relationships, and knowledge. More data-driven reasons can be found here.
Mentoring enables graduate students to share knowledge and experience with others, who can then benefit from it in their own research careers.Â
To connect CMU undergraduates to mentors, promote access to information about research career paths, and provide guidance to assist undergraduates in the following areas:Â
Exploring AI research areas as an undergraduate
Starting research in university and industry labs
Approaching graduate school, internship, and fellowship applications
Launching research careers