The USC Information Sciences Institute is excited to announce our ongoing Research Experience of Undergraduates (REU) Program. It focuses on supporting Safe and Reliable AI and the Internet.
ISI’s REU program has been active since 2018 and has supported 54 undergraduate students from the U.S. In a number of cases they have seen their work published in peer-reviewed venues.
We are grateful to NSF CISE for their generous support of this program via awards #1659886, #2051101 and #2447729.
Students will carry out research working with USC/ISI’s renowned faculty, staff and graduate students on research problems that strive to improve the safety and reliability of AI and the Internet.
In our program, students will participate in an 10-week research experience at USC/ISI campus in Marina del Rey. The program includes:
Applicants in need can also apply to the Last Mile Education Fund’s REU participation fellowship to receive up to $10,000 to help with financial insecurities.
Applications due: Feb 1, 2026
Acceptance notifications: Feb. 15 to Mar. 15, 2026 (rolling notifications)
Program duration: June 1 to Aug. 7, 2026
To apply, students must meet the following criteria at the time of application:
We welcome all applicants, and especially encourage applications from populations that are underrepresented in computing. Traditionally, around 50% of our admissions have been from smaller schools that do not have robust undergraduate research programs.