Student Opportunities
Fall 2021 U.S. Department of Energy CyberForce Competition
Join the U.S. Department of Energy’s CyberForce Competition™, which will be held virtually on November 12 and 13, 2021. Teams of four to six students will be challenged to protect and defend energy-focused critical infrastructure. Undergraduate and graduate students welcome.
Intelligent Water System challenge
Create a team of two to six people and register by October 16 to participate in the Intelligent Water System challenge from the Illinois Water Environment Association! In this competition, undergraduate and graduate students are invited to develop solutions for real-world environmental problems using advanced data analytics, AI, and machine learning.
Upcoming hackathons and competitions
- Compete in SnackDown, CodeChef’s biggest annual programming challenge, which attracts participants from all over the world. Register by October 19 to participate. Various rounds of competition are held from October 15 to December 5, with the finale taking place on January 9, 2022. Get all the details and register at snackdown.codechef.com.
Internship opportunities
- Argonne National Laboratory internships: Visit the lab’s Graduate Programs or Undergraduate Programs pages for further information. There are multiple internship programs in different fields, and application requirements and dates may vary for each.
Scholarships
Chris Jackson Computer Science Education Scholarship: This $5,000 scholarship is awarded to a new recipient every six months. Applicants will be required to discuss their interest in pursuing a computer science degree, their career aspirations, and why they think they should receive the award. Learn more, find out the next available application deadline, and submit your application here.
Why do hackathons?
We strongly encourage UIC CS students to sign up for hackathon competitions. Here are some reasons why:
- Meeting new people. Not just potential employers—who might watch a hackathon for potential new hires—but also fellow students.
- Developing your résumé. Hackathons let you showcase the skills you’ve developed in class and build some new ones.
- Enhancing your job interviews. Hackathons make you a more interesting interviewee. You can talk about how you approached a problem, the solutions you considered, and which skills you brought to the table.
- Winning! (Of course.)
More on hackathons
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info here
UIC students have placed highly in these hackathon events:
- BuiltWorlds Hackathon 2019: Riccardo Pressiani, Matteo Foglio, Guido Muscioni, Francesco Sgherzi, Chiara Gambacorta, and Giulia Soresini, Grand Prize
- Google Tech Challenge 2019: 3rd place, 5th place
- MIT Energy Hack 2018: Chirag Soni, MS ’19
- BuiltWorlds Hackathon 2018: Giovanni Agugini Bassi, Iacopo Olivo, and Francesco Pinci, all MS ’19
- Mobility Hackathon Chicago: The Roiti (team of five MS ’19 students)
Research Experiences for Undergraduates
Research experiences for undergraduates—called REUs for short—offer undergraduate students the opportunity to complete career-building research projects over the summer. REUs are competitive (with students chosen for the research positions by application) and often are held at universities other than your home institution. Most REUs are sponsored with funding from the National Science Foundation and typically come with a stipend that you can use to cover living expenses and other costs. Other REUs are offered by various government agencies and non-profits.
REUs make excellent résumé entries and offer valuable hands-on experience that you can talk about in job interviews. If you have your eye on a master’s degree or PhD after graduation, REUs provide a head start on building your research experience and could give you insight on what you might like to pursue in graduate school.
Think of REUs as a great way to get research experience while trying out living in a different place.