Research Science Institute

The Research Science Institute (RSI) is a 6-week residential program held each summer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The dates for the 2008 RSI are June 22 through August 2.

History

RSI, originally called the Rickover Science Institute, was founded by US Navy Admiral H. G. Rickover and was first held in 1984 in Northern Virgina. (To this day, alumni of the program are known as "Rickoids".) RSI's name changed to Research Science Institute in 1987, following Admiral Rickover's death, and after a nomadic existence in the Washington, DC area, RSI moved permanently to MIT in 1992. (Parallel RSI sessions were held at the University of California, San Diego in 1990 and at the California Institute of Technology in 2004.)

RSI is sponsored and run by the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation based in McLean, Virginia. The CEE is the successor of the original Rickover Foundation.

The Program

RSI admits 100 students each year, of which about 60 are from the United States. Admission to RSI is extremely competitive. There is no tuition or room-and-board charge to attend RSI. Students in all branches of science and mathematics attend the program.

The core of the program is a four-week mentorship, in which each student is assigned a mentor (who may be a scientist, a mathematician, an engineer, a physician, or other person working in a scientific or technical capacity) and performs research under the supervision of that mentor. At the end of the program, the student presents his/her work in the form of both a written research paper and an oral presentation.

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