Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate research often takes place under the auspices of course CS 490 (Independent Study). In this context, the student works one-on-one with the professor or with the professor's research group on some problem of mutual interest.

Undergraduate Research Projects

CS Department Research Areas and Projects

CS Department Research Areas; Summary

It is also possible for undergraduates to participate in paid research, based on grant funding and other circumstances.Either way, students should approach faculty directly if they think they may have mutual interests regarding research. Those who are unsure about which faculty member to approach should talk with their advisor. Visit the Registering for CS 490 website for additional information.

For incoming freshman, Cornell sponsors the Hunter R. Rawlings III Cornell Presidential Research Scholar program. This program allows talented freshman to work with faculty on promising projects beginning in their first year at Cornell.

The College of Arts & Sciences runs a research program for Cornell students.

Department Showcase
Once a year, the Department sponsors a Computer Science Fair in which recent examples of undergraduate innovation and research are showcased. Other recent fairs: 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998.

Here are some recent examples of outstanding independent work by CS Majors.

Access Complexity by Ryan Williams

We are characterizing resource bounded models of computation in terms of models with access permissions to storage of particular sizes. We will explore more natural cases of access permissions and their relation with traditional complexity classes, and attempt to generalize old theorems using these new models.

Modern Macros by Aleskey Kliger

We seek to create a programming language with a preprocessor facility which allows for arbitrary syntax extensions to be added to the language. The transformations on the syntax tree of the language are total computations expressed in a restricted subset of the language itself.

Investigating Computer Systems for AI by Tyson Berglund

We are researching how computers can be better designed to run AI applications. From determining what computational needs AI programs have, suggestions for architecture modifications or implementations of parallel systems can be made.

Links:

CS 490 Information and Registration (not working on Research Opportunities websitedoes work in link above with text)

Advice on Research and Writing

Undergraduate Research@Cornell (includes links for the College of Engineering , Arts, and all other colleges)

Cornell Undergraduate Research Board (CURB)

National Science Foundation

Computer, Information Sciences resources at the NSF

Research Opportunities On-Line (for NASA)