The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Information Technology (SURF-IT) program at the Santa Cruz campus of the University of California (UCSC) provides an intensive and personalized summer research program for 12 students with an emphasis on undergraduates from underrepresented groups and disadvantaged backgrounds.
The primary part of SURF-IT is a 9-week summer program that includes research directly supervised by a UCSC faculty member in computer engineering, computer science, or electrical engineering. Students will also have weekly meetings on graduate school preparation, research ethics, and research presentation, as well as field trips to local neighboring Silicon Valley research laboratories, and a number of social activities.
The summer program concludes with a research poster presentation by the SURF-IT students. The PIs goal is to promote diversity in computer science and engineering by assisting motivated students in obtaining graduate degrees to then become positive role models for future generations of college students throughout the nation. The PIs intend to maintain continuing contact with SURF-IT alumni to assist them in applying to and succeeding in graduate school, as well as in their eventual careers.
Intellectual Merit
Students join a variety of funded research projects in information technology at the UCSC Baskin School of Engineering. The specific intellectual merit of each project will vary, however all students will learn to apply their traditional academic training to open-ended research problems at the forefront of information technology.
Broader Impact
The impact over time will be greater numbers of individuals from groups underrepresented in information technology, such as women and racial/ethnic minorities, with postgraduate degrees. These individuals will then be able to take leadership positions in academia and industry, providing positive role models for a next generation. The combination of this program and other REU sites will ensure broadened participation in computer science and engineering, as well as an increased domestic pool of highly trained information technologists.
