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 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! 

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

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. 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. 

To connect CMU undergraduates to mentors, promote access to information about research career paths, and provide guidance to assist undergraduates in the following areas: 

• Exploring AI research areas as an undergraduate

• Starting research in university and industry labs

• Approaching graduate school, internship, and fellowship applications

• Launching research careers