Hey I was just wondering who else got an email about being offered a place in the freshman research initiative(CS major). I thought I had to apply and everything, but it looks like I don’t have to now!
@DogShelter, are you in honors? I think it’s automatic for anyone in CNS honors.
@Austinwannabe Yeah that’s what I thought, but I didn’t even apply for Turing.
Wait, did you get an email? What does it say? I applied but haven’t heard back. (CS Major)
Yeah I got an email saying “we would like to offer you a place in the Freshman Research Initiative” or something like that
Man… I wish I get accepted.
Hi, I am currently in the FRI program right now as a computer science major. If you are a CS student and were accepted into the FRI program I would definitely do it. Here are the reasons:
- Learn what it is like to do research at a top 10 research department
- Learn cool things (AI, robots, system security, etc)
- Meet other students in your department who you may not have class with (my FRI has regular students and turing scholars)
- Earn two upper division CS credits
- Chance to do paid research in the summer with your professor
Here are the CS streams:
Autonomous Robots
https://cns.utexas.edu/fri/research-streams/item/1425-autonomous-intelligent-robotics
Computational Evolution
https://cns.utexas.edu/fri/research-streams/item/1433-computational-evolution
Computational Intelligence in Game Design
https://cns.utexas.edu/fri/research-streams/item/1434-computational-intelligence-in-game-research
System Security
(no link because it is a new stream)
I am currently in the Computational Intelligence in Game Design class (which is basically just basic AI). If you have any questions just ask 
@Lightens, thanks! Any tips on what they look for in the FRi application? Or any advice on which stream to request? I went to a CNS admitted-student info session, and they said that they try to make a space for anyone who applies. But still, I’m really excited about FRI and want to make my app as good as possible.
@Austinwannabe
Autonomous Robots
I have friends who are in the stream who said that they learn a lot and is fun but it is quite hard.
Computational Evolution
From what I heard, this stream is a mix of Bio and CS majors. For CS majors, it is not that relatively hard.
Computational Intelligence in Game Design
I’m in this one so far, so I can provide the most details. We have a new professor this year and he is really boring during lecture. Most of your learning will take place when you are doing the projects. It is really easy and you can probably just BS your report and still make an A in that class. In the class, you get to learn about the basic AI techniques and get to code them (in python). You also get to design a very simple game (again, in python) then apply the AI techniques that you learn to make the AI play the game.
System Security
This is the new stream and from what I heard it is extremely hard. It is taught by the Turing Scholars Professor Dr. Lin so a lot of Turing scholars will be in that class.
For your application, just be honest and write about your excitement.
@Lightens, great info, thanks!
@lightens Thank you!