All About ACM Research

Written By: Pranav Nair, Sisi Aarukapalli and Alessio Haro

ACM Research is a semester-long program designed for students who want to dive deeper into a subfield of computer science and the process of conducting novel research. This semester, there will be ten unique research projects with a UTD faculty member advising each project. While ACM Research is open to all undergraduates of any major who are interested in researching in a technical field, underclassmen (freshmen and sophomores) are encouraged to join so they can build some experience during their time at UTD for future research and job opportunities. Each team has a unique topic to research, and there are multitudes of different niches to explore.

Application Process

Applying to the program is a simple two step process. Fill out the application and complete the Research Coding Challenge, which must be completed along with the application form. Make sure to apply as soon as possible to have enough time for the coding challenge! If selected for an interview, directors and a few Team Leads will get to know candidates and ask them questions. They will also have the opportunity to explain how they solved or attempted to solve the coding question. Applications for Spring 2023 are due on Wednesday, February 1st!

Team Structure

Next, we’ll be breaking down the structure of ACM Research. If you got in, congratulations! There are ten teams of five, with one Research Team Lead. The Team Lead is still part of the team, but is primarily responsible for supervising and assigning deadlines. While there are no official roles, teams may create unofficial ones to suit their project once the semester begins. Each team will also have a faculty advisor, who is selected by the Team Lead. Faculty advisors usually specialize in the same field as the scope of the research project.

Event Structure

Throughout the semester, there are build-nights, workshops and socials. There are eleven build-nights, which take place on Mondays at 8:30 PM. Build-nights are a great opportunity for teams to work on their project. Additionally, there are four workshops and socials which are typically paired with one another. Workshops will be centered around topics to assist teams with their project, and socials will give participants an opportunity to meet others outside of their group with games and other fun activities. Some socials will be collaboration with ACM Projects as well!

• Workshop 1: Machine Learning and More
• Workshop 2: Research 101: A guide to everything research at UTD and beyond
• Workshop 3: Code Debugging
• Workshop 4: TBD

Research Symposium

ACM Research wraps up at the end of the semester with one final event: The Research Symposium. All teams will present their work to an audience composed of judges, students, faculty, family and friends! Judges have expertise in various fields of Computer Science and will score the project presentation based on overall presentation, poster content, quality of analysis, etc. One team will be the winner and each member will receive an award.

Testimonials

ACM Research is a great way to build research experience for a resume, familiarize oneself with the process of conducting research and network with professors. Joining also means automatically becoming an official member of ACM, the largest Computer Science organization at UT Dallas. Don’t just take our word for it. Below are a few testimonials of students that have participated in ACM Research themselves.

Lawson Lay, team member in “Finding Security Vulnerabilities in Open-Source Projects”

“My first semester of freshman year would not have been complete without ACM Research. I’ve met some amazing people and made a wide variety of friends from our many build nights and socials. For me, the memory of working together with my research team to find new security vulnerabilities while using a bleeding edge scanner will never stop being cool to me. There is really just no other organization as accessible and enjoyable to be in like ACM Research, and I’m glad to have been a part of it.”

Abhishek Mishra, team member and team lead

“In my time as a mentee, we researched how to use machine learning to find exoplanets while as my mentor, I led my team to use thermal imaging to do object detection to improve car safety and driving. From both of my times, one of the best things is the exposure to new ideas — you’re constantly talking about what model to use, what metrics to analyze, which datasets to consider, etc. All these things make you think, consider, and analyze new information; no matter what your skill level, you come away with something. My tip for anyone who is joining the program for the first time would be that at times it can be intimidating because you are paired with a professor too and the research material may be unknown to you. With that being said, you have to realize that others are also facing the same thing as you. Keep an open mind, listen to everything, actively try to learn about any new term or keyword that you don’t understand, and involve yourself in brainstorming even when you might feel intimidated — there is no such thing as a bad idea in ACM Research.”

Kanchan Javalkar, team member in “Researching Security Vulnerabilities in Open Source Projects

“ACM Research was an amazing experience. My team’s project was on researching security vulnerabilities in open source projects. As a freshman who is relatively knew to computer science, I learned so much about cybersecurity, vulnerabilities, and applying what I know about computer science that will be very useful later on. I also made great friends. I would recommend ACM Research to anyone interested in gaining more hands-on knowledge in computer science related subjects!”