Artificial intelligence is transforming our society. People use AI to get recommendations, translate languages, diagnose cancers, play games, drive autonomous cars, and more. Yet, AI decisions may not be transparent or ethical, which can create biases leading to adverse outcomes, such as disparities and inequity across racial, gender, and socioeconomic lines. Therefore, understanding and promoting responsible AI principles is vital when it comes to the adoption of AI in society.

SFSU CS is proud to partner with Google Research to offer exploreCSR: Democratizing AI, a two-day workshop followed by an optional semester-long immersive research experience program for undergraduate students. The theme of the workshop and the research experience program is AI fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics. We encourage students from historically-underrepresented groups in computing research, including but not limited to women, Latin American, African American, American Indian or Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, first-generation college students, and students with disabilities, to apply to this program. No prior research experience is required! Our goal is to expose students to what computing and AI research can look like, to help them develop a sense of belonging and identity as computer scientists, and to encourage them to pursue graduate studies in computer science.

Who can apply: Current undergraduate students (including graduating seniors) attending college in the United States.

Experience needed: Prospective students should have completed an introductory computer science course. Coursework in calculus, linear algebra, and probability are also helpful but not strictly required. No prior research experience is necessary!

When and Where: The two-day workshop will be hosted virtually on January 14-15, 2022.

Optional research activities: After the two-day workshop, students can apply to participate in a research project under the guidance of faculty and graduate students. The optional research experience runs roughly the duration of SFSU's spring 2022 semester: February through May. We expect research group meetings, mentor meetings, and project work to take a minimum of 5 hours per week. Participants will be paired with a faculty mentor and a graduate student mentor who will help guide them on the research project. There are multiple project options, depending on the experience level and time commitment of each student. These include literature reviews, replications of prior work, apprenticeships with existing research projects at SFSU, or new independent research projects.

Stipend: Students participating in the 2-day workshop will receive a small stipend. Students participating in research in the spring 2022 semester will receive an additional stipend.

Students who participate in the research experience program will be mentored by one of the following SFSU CS faculty members:

Here are a few examples of research projects recently carried out by our faculty:

Students in Pooyan Fazli's lab trained a deep neural network to teach robots to navigate like humans.

Students in Pooyan Fazli's lab trained a deep neural network on a library of human motion demonstrations. The network predicts the intended target of a human hand motion in real time.

Students in Pooyan Fazli's lab built a robot that can navigate autonomously in indoor environments, transfer objects, and interact with humans.

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The table below shows the events planned as part of the two-day workshop. Following the workshop, students can apply to participate in a research project under the guidance of faculty and graduate students mentors.

Marc Cartright (Google), Luis Chumpitaz Diaz (Stanford University), Gina El Nesr (Stanford University), Meghan Houghton (Google), Pooyan Jamshidi (University of South Carolina), Yuanzhen Li (Google Research), Orly Liba (Google Research), Hasti Seifi (University of Copenhagen), Vikram Mohanty (Virginia Tech), and Avani Wildani (Emory University)

To apply for the 2021-2022 program, fill out the online application form.

The application deadline is December 22, 2021. January 7, 2022.

When we review applicants to the program, we are looking for the following qualities:

• Students with strong grades in computer science and math courses.
• Students who have limited opportunities to engage in CS research at their own college or university.
• Students who will contribute to a diverse cohort with a variety of backgrounds, experience levels, and perspectives.

• I am an undergraduate student in my first/second/third/fourth year [pick as appropriate]. Am I eligible to apply?
  Yes!
• I am an undergraduate student in my final year; I will graduate in 2022. Am I eligible to apply?
  Yep!
• I am an international student attending a US college/university. Am I eligble to apply?
  For sure!
• Is this program only for SFSU undergraduate students?
  No; we like the rest of you too ;-)
• Is this program only for underrepresented groups or [x] students?
  The goal of the exploreCSR program is to support students from underrepresented groups to pursue graduate studies and research careers in computing (here). We will consider all applicants, but our focus is on this goal.
• I am a masters or PhD student. Am I eligible to apply?
  We're afraid not, no.
• Do you run any other research programs like exploreCSR for graduate students?
  No, sorry.
• I'm a high school student. Am I eligible to apply?
  Again, we're afraid not, no.
• I am on a gap year but will be starting soon/returning soon. Am I eligible to apply?
  Sorry, no.
• I'm not an undergraduate student yet, but I know a lot! I'm even taking a CS course at a university in my spare time!
  I'm afraid we still won't take you, sorry.
• Are the applications first come, first serve?
  No. We will consider all applications received by the deadline (December 22, 2021) in one go.
• The application form asks for a transcript. Should I wait to add my grades from this semester or should I submit without?
  Our application deadline is December 22, 2021—please submit what you have available by then. Please don't email us a transcript, either now or later on; please just resubmit your application.
• I am a first-year/freshperson undergraduate and I don't yet have a transcript. What should I do?
  Please submit whatever you can through the upload form to give us some indication—we understand that it isn't simple for people in your position.
• I didn't receive a confirmation of my application. Can you confirm receipt?
  It almost certainly went through. If you're worried, submit another one! We'll pick up the latest submitted before the deadline on December 22. No need to email us for this one.
• I submitted my form, but received the error: '(You can't respond to exploreCSR 2021-2022: Democratizing AI. Uploading files is not permitted when data loss prevention is enabled for your domain. Contact your domain administrator if you think this is a mistake.).' What should I do?
  It looks like your institution does not support file uploads via Google Forms. You should be able to get around this by filling out the form while logged into to a personal (i.e. non-college-affiliated) Google account (you'd have one of these if you have a personal Gmail address, for instance).

Our work on democratizing AI was featured on Google TensorFlow's blog.

You can be the difference. By committing to volunteer, giving a personal financial gift, or becoming a sponsor, you can help us sustain our program and make growth possible. If you are interested, please contact the organizers.

Any further questions about the program? Send us email at explorecsr.sfsu@gmail.com.