Undergraduates explore practical applications of artificial intelligence

Deep neural networks excel at finding patterns in datasets too vast for the human brain to pick apart. That ability has made deep learning indispensable to just about anyone who deals with data. This year, the MIT Quest for Intelligence and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab sponsored 17 undergraduates to work with faculty on yearlong research projects through MIT's Advanced Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (SuperUROP). Students got to explore AI applications in climate science, finance, cybersecurity, and natural language processing, among other fields. And faculty got to work with students from outside their departments, an experience they describe in glowing terms.