Program Opportunities, Requirements, and Eligibility

Trainee Opportunities and Benefits

The RAISE program provides graduate students with a wide range of activities designed to support their growth as a researcher in AI and autonomous systems. These activities span research, coursework, and professional development activities. RAISE Fellows interact not only with RAISE faculty, but also with RAISE industry and government lab sponsors, as well as RAISE invited speakers.

RAISE provides an opportunity for structured training in research in AI and autonomy. RAISE Fellows work with faculty on research projects of mutual interest, culminating in conference papers, journal articles, these, and other research products. We encourage RAISE Fellows to attend technical conferences where they can present their research. To support this, all RAISE Fellows receive a $34K per year stipend as well as tuition, fees, and benefits; MSc students receive one year of support, while PhD students receive two years of support. Limited funding is available for RAISE Fellow travel to technical conferences and for RAISE Fellow computing time (details are in the RAISE Fellow Handbook).

Course requirements

RAISE Fellows will take a core sequence of three classes:

1. Machine Learning (ECE 517), Introduction to Machine Learning (CS 529) or AI for All (OILS 584)
2. Ethics of AI in Autonomous Systems (Fall)
   CE 553, CS 514, ECE 503, GLNS 503, ME 567, OILS 586
3. Design of Human-Centered AI in Autonomous Systems (Spring)
   CE 554, CS 515, ECE 504, GLNS 504, ME 568, OILS 587

in addition to relevant coursework in their department. The first class provides a foundation in the basics of machine learning. The second and third courses form an interdisciplinary, two-course sequence that is co-taught by faculty in the School of Engineering and in the Organization, Information, and Learning Sciences department. The second class covers ethics as a type of problem solving that requires a design-based approach for devising solutions and specific strategies for inscribing ethics into design, such as articulating ethical considerations as specifications and stakeholder involvement. The third class is a project-based design class, in which students will devise possible solutions that aim to optimize technical, ethical, and other specifications (and be prompted to revise their models) to projects informed by our industry and government lab sponsors. The content features units on technical foundations and human implications of training bias, neural net fragility, and physics-informed neural nets, as well as principles of human factors in autonomous systems.

Eligibility

While all students with appropriate interests and backgrounds are encouraged to participate in the RAISE program, there are restrictions on eligibility for receiving a graduate stipend through a RAISE Fellowship. Eligibility does not ensure a Fellowship award.

Applicants to the RAISE Fellowship must:

• be US citizens, US nationals, or US permanent residents;
• be admitted to a MSc (Plan I) or PhD degree program in one of the RAISE-affiliated departments ( CE, CS, ECE, ME, OILS);
• begin their graduate degree in the year coinciding with or the year before the fall semester start of RAISE.

Please note that students pursuing a non-thesis (Plan III) MSc degree are ineligible for a RAISE Fellowship.