This IRES project will provide U.S. graduate students from select institutions with the opportunity to gain international research experience through summer internships at INRIA, the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control. INRIA is currently funding 14 Associated Teams of French and U.S. researchers, with partners located throughout the U.S. and France. Generally, the Associated Teams emphasize collaborations between established researchers. However, the importance of graduate student participation in the collaborative research of the Associated Teams has been recognized in terms of both their contribution to the research effort and of the educational value to the students. In order to increase participation of graduate students in the Associated Teams, INRIA has allocated funding for three-month summer internships by 20 U.S. graduate students per year for three years from the Associated Teams at the labs of their INRIA counterparts. This NSF award provides the needed travel funds for these students, covering airfare to and from France, and support for activities related to their stays. This award is co-funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering and the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.
Intellectual Merit The 14 INRIA-U.S. Associated Teams participating in the proposal cover a variety of areas in computer science and include world-class researchers on both sides of the Atlantic. The research areas involved are timely and state-of-the art and the partnerships are true intellectual collaborations.
Broader Impacts Support is provided for 60 U.S. graduate students to conduct research in France, thus providing a large group of U.S. students with international research experiences that will prepare them to operate successfully in a global environment. The linkages created by their visits will support lasting international collaboration. In addition, the students will come from labs distributed throughout the U.S., and in meeting each other during the orientation and concluding portions of the program, will expand their own scientific networks.
