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Kempner Institute kicks off Summer Undergraduate Research Program

This year’s cohort of KRANIUM students is comprised of 11 Harvard undergraduates, each undertaking an individual research project investigating the foundations of intelligence in natural and artificial systems.

Photo by Anthony Tulliani

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On June 10 the Kempner Institute welcomed its first cohort of undergraduate summer students for the start of KRANIUM, a nine-week intensive summer research program in intelligence for Harvard undergraduates.

This summer’s participants include 11 Harvard students at various stages of their undergraduate studies — from first-year students to seniors. Each student is supervised by a Kempner-affiliated faculty member and undertakes an individual research project investigating the foundations of intelligence in natural and artificial systems. This summer’s student projects cover a diverse range of intelligence topics,  from using machine learning to predict antibiotic resistance, to employing large language models to better understand how linguistic attributes correlate with neural signals in electrocorticogram recordings of the brain.

Sponsored by the Kempner Institute as part of the Harvard Summer Undergraduate Research Village (HSURV), KRANIUM (Kempner Research in Artificial & Natural Intelligence for Undergraduates with Mentorship) provides funding, room and board, mentorship, and a host of educational and community programming for participating students. 

In addition to the KRANIUM summer program, the Kempner also offers undergraduate research opportunities during the fall and spring semesters through the KURE program. To learn more, visit the Kempner Institute’s undergraduate research programs page.