About

Who We Are

AVIATE

The Center for Autonomous Vehicles in Air Transportation Engineering (AVIATE) is a multi-disciplinary consortium of researchers, scientists, and engineers from a variety of universities and industry groups.

Center for Digital Agriculture

The Center for Digital Agriculture (CDA) was formed to help agricultural producers, researchers, and industries keep pace with the ways technology is transforming how we feed and support a growing global population. Increased global productivity and sustainability requires technical innovations that involve CDA’s primary themes: Automation, Data, Animals and Crops, and People.

Community Academic Scholars

Community-Academic Scholars offers University of Illinois undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue community-based research projects in Urbana-Champaign over the summer.

Computer Sciences Summer Research Program

In the Siebel School for Computing and Data Science Summer Research Program (SRP), students 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.

Grainger College of Engineering

The Grainger College of Engineering Undergraduate Research Office supports research across engineering disciplines.

Illinois Developing Equity in Astrophysics Summer School

IDEAS is a paid summer research program aimed at pairing undergraduate students from underrepresented groups with faculty at University of Illinois doing research in Astrophysics.

Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center

The I-MRSEC program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to work closely with faculty mentors on solving a challenging, meaningful scientific question through taking part in the interdisciplinary research.

MICRO-CCS

The “MICRO-CCS: Microbial Interactions Create Research Opportunities for Community College Students” program provides research opportunities, scientific training, and mentoring for community college students interested in research about microbial interactions in food, agricultural, and environmental sciences.

National Center for Supercomputing Applications

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications hosts several research programs for undergraduates including: Students Pushing Innovation (SPIN): This program provides University of Illinois students with the opportunity to apply their skills to real challenges in high-performance computing, data analysis and visualization, cybersecurity, and other areas of interest to NCSA. The Future of Discovery: Training Students to Build and Apply Open Source Machine Learning Models and Tools (FoDOMMaT): This program is a 10-week training experience in machine learning at in which students work on developing open source machine learning models and tools and applying them to solving real world problems.

MMLI Advancing Talent and Research through Interdisciplinary EXcellence in AI and Chemistry in the UNIversity

The MATRIX-UNI program – MMLI Advancing Talent and Research through Interdisciplinary EXcellence in AI and Chemistry in the UNIversity – is designed to provide hands-on research training for college students eager to explore careers in research.

Physics at Illinois

Students participating in this program work directly with senior physics faculty on challenging, meaningful projects. The summer experience is aimed at developing students’ research literacy skills and exposing them to the wide diversity of physics subfields using experimental, computational, and theoretical approaches.

The Center for Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems

The goal of the POETS REU program is to provide a unique summer experience that encourages students to pursue graduate studies in engineering.

Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) Research Internship in Sustainable Biology (RISE) Program

RISE (Research Internship in Sustainable Bioenergy) offer bioenergy research opportunities for undergraduates in the areas of plant biology, agronomy, synthetic biology, genetics, environmental sciences, chemical engineering, and civil and environmental engineering.

EFRC for Regenerative Energy-Efficient Manufacturing of Thermoset Polymeric Materials (REMAT)

REMAT’s mission is to advance the science of thermochemical reaction-diffusion processes in additive and morphogenic manufacturing and accelerate a transformative, circular strategy for thermoset polymeric and composite materials with programmed end-of-life.

Summer Undergraduate Research Experience in Toxicology (SURE Tox)

This training program provides a unique opportunity for undergraduate students to obtain training and research experience in the field of toxicology at a research intensive university with outstanding toxicology programs.

Illinois Space Grant Consortium – Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

UROP is a program designed to cultivate and support research partnerships between University of Illinois undergraduates and faculty members. All projects focus on NASA-related science and/or engineering research. We want to invite highly motivated undergraduates to apply to participate in UROP.

What We Do

The Illinois Summer Research Program Alliance unites premier summer research opportunities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, providing undergraduate students with hands-on experience in cutting-edge STEM fields. Through immersive projects, mentorship from world-class faculty, and professional development workshops, participants gain the skills and knowledge needed to advance in their academic and professional journeys.

What We Value

Spanning disciplines such as aerospace engineering, computer science, environmental science, and more, these programs allow students to contribute to groundbreaking research at a top-tier R1 institution. The alliance is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive research community, empowering students from all backgrounds to explore, innovate, and make meaningful contributions to their fields.

Our Impact