Undergraduate Research Opportunities Open House
The Siebel School of Computing and Data Science hosts an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Open House each fall and spring semester. This event brings together students, faculty, research labs, and campus programs to explore current research and available undergraduate opportunities. Students can connect with researchers, learn about programs and funding, and discover ways to become involved in the Siebel School’s research community. Faculty, labs, and research groups can showcase their work, recruit undergraduate researchers, and build connections with talented students.
CS STARS
Research Area: Undergraduate Research
Lab Lead: Carolyn Hughes
Lab Location: Siebel
Lab Description: Illinois CS Students Ambassadors/Research Scholars (CS STARS) is designed for University of Illinois CS or blended CS undergraduate students interested in pursuing undergraduate research in a chosen area of interest while also serving as school leaders to recruit students to the CS majors and empower CS undergraduates.
UR2PhD Undergraduate Research Training Course
Research Area: Undergraduate Research
Lab Lead: Issac Love
Lab Location: Virtual
Lab Description: The virtual, synchronous undergraduate research training course aims to support new undergraduate researchers during their first research experience. This course intends to serve as the first meaningful experience in student’s research journey.
CS Summer Research Program
Research Area:
Lab Lead: Brad Solomon
Lab Location: Siebel
Lab Description: In the Siebel School for Computing and Data Science Summer Research Program (SRP), students work with Illinois faculty mentors and graduate students over the summer to get an introduction to computer science research. This is an outstanding opportunity for aspiring scientists and faculty to learn from leading experts in computer science.
Parasol Laboratory
Research Area: Robotics, XR, computational biology and geometry, computational neuroscience
Lab Lead: Nancy Amato
Lab Location: Siebel 3rd Floor
Lab Description: Parasol Lab at the University of Illinois conducts research at the intersection of robotics, algorithms, and parallel computing, with an emphasis on the foundations that enable computation at scale. Our work is unified by a core theme: developing structured representations and principled methods that make complex, high-dimensional problems more tractable, both in robotic decision-making and in parallel execution on modern architectures.
MONET Lab
Research Area: Agentic AI; Multimodal Foundation Model
Faculty Lead: Klara Nahrstedt
Lab Location: Siebel 3113
Lab Description: This lab builds intelligent AI systems that can understand the visual and spatial world just like humans do.
MONET Lab
Research Area: Spatial Intelligence
Faculty Lead: Klara Nahrstedt
Lab Location: Siebel 3113
Lab Description: This lab's research focuses on building mobile systems that can understand where people and devices are in the physical world. In particular, studying how everyday technologies such as Wi-Fi, smartphones, and other sensors can be used for accurate and reliable indoor positioning, even in challenging environments with walls, reflections, and interference.
Networked Systems and AI
Research Area: Systems and Networking
Faculty Lead: Francis Yan
Lab Location: Siebel 4130
Lab Description: This lab focuses on agentic systems, applying LLM agents to design, optimize, and operate systems, while also building systems for LLM agents to improve their resource efficiency and reduce latency.
CROPS
Research Area: IC, Security and Privacy
Faculty Lead: Camille Cobb
Lab Location: Siebel 4230
Lab Description: HCI research on societally-relevant S&P topics.
SAINT (Sensing, Adaptation and Intervention for next-generation treatment) Lab
Research Area: Mobile health, human-centered AI Faculty Lead: Mashfiqui Rabbi
Lab Location: 1206 W Clark Street, Urbana, IL
Lab Description: This lab focuses on mobile health with the specific aim of providing the right intervention at the right time for the right person. Using off-the-shelf mobile and wearable devices to understand health behaviors and provide personalized, just-in-time interventions tailored to users' needs, daily routines, and their environments.
Distributed Systems and AI Site Reliability
Research Area: Distributed Systems and AI Site Reliability
Lab Lead: Yiming Su
Lab Location: Siebel 3111
Lab Description: Researching next-generation techniques in Systems Reliability Engineering
Illinois Scholars Undergraduate Research (ISUR)
Research Area: Engineering (all fields)
Lab Lead: Cassidy Short
Lab Location: Siebel 1300 Atrium
Lab Description: The Grainger College of Engineering Illinois Scholars Undergraduate Research (ISUR) Program offers a structured, two-semester research experience within a collaborative research learning community. Utilizing a learning-by-apprenticeship model, ISUR introduces students to the research process and supports the development of foundational research skills.
Open Quantum Initiative
Research Area: Quantum
Lab Lead: Michael Smith
Lab Location: Siebel 1300 Atrium
Smart Plant Pathology
Research Area: Plant Pathology
Faculty Lead: Boris Camiletti
Lab Location: 62 NSRC, 1101 W. Peabody Dr., Urbana IL 61801
Lab Description: This lab's passion lies in unraveling the intricacies of diseases impacting key crops like soybean, corn, and wheat. Their mission is twofold: understanding the biology and epidemiology of these ailments and crafting innovative, sustainable solutions to manage them effectively.
NCSA SPIN, REU FoDoMMaT, International Research programs
Research Area: CS/Computer Engineering/Interdisciplinary
Lab Lead: Olena Kindratenko
Lab Location: NCSA
Lab Description: Number of projects across three student summer programs at NCSA.
Undergraduate Research in Scientific Advancement
Research Area: STEM
Lab Lead: Cindy Chen
Lab Location: Siebel 1300 Atrium
Lab Description: URSA is a student-run program that connects freshmen and sophomores with graduate students for semester-long research projects. Our goal is to provide a portal for students to take part in undergraduate research for the first time.
Integrated CS activities for K12
Research Area: Computers and Education
Lab Leads: Salma El Otmani, Matheus Valentim De Barros
Lab Location: Siebel 1300 Atrium
Lab Description: This lab's research explores how CS and AI can be meaningfully integrated into other subject areas through CS+X learning experiences. Working with teachers and students, we design and study interdisciplinary curricula and supporting tools that combine computing with subjects such as English Language Arts, Science, History, and other disciplines. Undergraduate researchers may contribute to curriculum and tool design, classroom data collection and analysis, qualitative coding, and the evaluation of student learning, engagement, and the effectiveness of these learning experiences.