Connecting Science to Policy
From Formal Computer Science Education to Real World Data Science Research to Policy Decision Making
Connecting Research to Practice
Undergraduate students are invited to apply for an 8-week in-person summer research program connecting formal computer science education to real world data science research to public policy decision making.
RESEARCH IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL
Georgetown’s location in Washington, DC will provide students with access to experts in the field, nearby universities for networking or sharing resources, and many free museums and monuments to explore. We will provide opportunities for students to engage with faculty, policymakers, experts from government agencies, and leaders in non-profit organizations that work on problems related to the annual theme.
2025 Theme
This cohort of REU students will focus on modeling opinion as it relates to different firearm-related policies and events of the day. It is possible to work on stance detection using social media posts (Kawintiranon & Singh, 2021), and with the recent advancements in generative AI, this type of detection may be less costly with respect to manual data labeling. Therefore, this cohort will use a combination of generated training data, relevant public document data, and auxiliary data to improve opinion detection without labeling more data. Example auxiliary sources include public reviews, images, and network knowledge. Students will also learn about fairness issues and consider which subpopulations are posting about which policy issues.
Who Should Apply
This in-person research experience is for students who not only want to advance their understanding of computer science research, but also want to understand how to use science to influence public policy.
Current sophomores and juniors who are majoring in computer science are encouraged to apply. Coursework and/or previous research experience data science, statistics, public policy and/or computational linguistics is a plus, but not required. Students should have a demonstrated interest in large-scale data analysis and its implications in society. Students identifying as female, students from traditionally underserved minorities, first-generation college students, and students from institutions with limited research opportunities are all strongly encouraged to apply. Per NSF requirements, participants must be US citizens or permanent residents.
DATES
Tentative dates for the 8-week program are June 7th to August 2rd, 2025. Students will receive a break for the July 4th holiday. Participants must be available to attend for the entire duration of the program.
Stipend
Each participant will receive a stipend of $5,600, housing in an on-campus residence hall, and up to $500 in travel reimbursements for travel expenses.
Eligibility
Current sophomores and juniors who are majoring in computer science are encouraged to apply. Per NSF requirements, participants must be US citizens or permanent residents.
Ready To Apply?
This program is conducted at the McCourt School’s Massive Data Institute at Georgetown University with support from the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, award number 2244271.
