Paths to AI Research (PAIR)
What does PAIR do?
This program pairs CMU college students from all majors with graduate student mentors to learn what AI research is about and how to get involved.
Our mentors come from areas such as
robotics
natural language processing
computer vision
theory
medicine
computational bio
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
How does PAIR mentoring work?
Mentors in this program provide high-level guidance to exploring AI research, learning about interests, and finally finding a lab/project if the student decides they are interested in starting research. Typically, students and mentors meet monthly for ~30 min to check in on goals. We provide questions each month in case you're not sure what to talk about!
What is artificial intelligence (AI) research?
AI research is a very broad category of work that seeks to expand knowledge in a particular area relating to how machines can reason about information.
Examples:
Combining data from cameras and robotics skin to accomplish tasks
Techniques to automatically summarize the main idea of an article
Predicting health conditions using existing patient data
Understanding the ethical implications of using AI methods on real-world problems
Why should I get involved as an undergraduate?
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 application. Starting early lets you explore multiple areas and accumulate experience, relationships, and knowledge. More data-driven reasons can be found here.
What are the benefits of mentorship?
Mentoring allows you to share your knowledge and experience with others, who can then benefit from it in their own research careers.
Mission and goals of PAIR
To improve diversity in AI research by connecting CMU undergraduates to mentors facilitating
Learning about AI research
Beginning research careers
Supporting the undergraduates in their professional goals