Student Opportunities
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.
- Data and Computing Summer Lab at the University of Chicago: This is an immersive, 10-week paid summer data science research program that offers similar benefits to an internship. You will get front-line access to real research in data science, and you will learn how to communicate your research findings to the audiences who care about them. Details and application are here; application deadline is February 28, 2021.
- Security Lab Summer Internships (with benefits) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Laboratory. Opportunities available for undergraduate and graduate students. Details and application here; apply by March 1, 2021.
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.
Hackathon listings
- Hack Reality 2021 by UNC-Chapel Hill (event dates: March 12-19)
- Microsoft Azure US Hack for Accessibility (deadline: March 15)
- Microsoft Azure AI Hackathon (deadline: April 5)
- EOSIO Hackathon: Beyond Blockchain (deadline: April 6)
- UIOWA Hackathon (event dates: April 17-18)
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
-
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. They 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.
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.
Selected summer 2021 REU offerings:
- Advanced Secured Sensor Enabling Technologies at Florida International University (application deadline: May 10, 2021)
- Computational Sensing and Medical Robotics at Johns Hopkins University (application deadline: February 21, 2021)
- Computational Sensing for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence at the Rochester Institute of Technology (application deadline: February 1, 2021)
- Computer Vision at the University of Central Florida (application deadline: March 18, 2021)
- Cybersecurity at Oakland University (application deadline: February 28, 2021)
- Educational Data Mining, held virtually at George Mason University (application deadline: February 15, 2021)
- Immersive Media Computing, held virtually at Georgia State University (application deadline: April 26, 2021)
- Medical Informatics (MedIX) at DePaul University and University of Chicago (application deadline: March 5, 2021)
- Renewable Energy at Florida Atlantic University (application deadline: February 25, 2021)
- Secure and Privacy-Preserving Cyber-Physical Systems: Software and Hardware Approaches at Tennessee Tech University (application deadline: March 1, 2021)
- Security of Smart Things at Florida International University (application deadline: February 26, 2021)