The school’s research activities span many fields and departments, both on and off campus. Faculty in SCIS are engaged in a wide variety of research, with clusters of research activity in computer science and in spatial informatics. Innovative creativity is as well an ongoing priority in new media.

SCIS is home to the Spatial Data Science Institute which is the successor to the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) at UMaine.

Much research activity is organized around the following research laboratories and groups:

• Artificial Intelligence
  • MaineSAIL: Maine Software Agents & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
  • Spatial Knowledge and Artificial Intelligence Lab (SKAI Lab)
  • Machine Learning Lab (Sekeh Lab)

• Privacy Engineering
  • PERC Lab

• Databases and Data Management
  • Databases Laboratory: Autonomous and Semistructured Databases
  • Geosensor Networks Laboratory (GSN)

• Human-Computer Interaction
  • Multisensory Interactive Media Lab (MIM)
  • Virtual Environment and Multimodal Interaction Laboratory (VEMI)

See more specifically Computer Science Research & Facilities and Spatial Informatics Research and Facilities.
Research is also described in Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations and under the  webpages of faculty members.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Most of these research research labs routinely include undergraduates who assist professors and graduate students in their research. Students are mentored by the professors and graduate students, and obtain a good idea of what research and graduate school are like. In addition to the interesting and valuable experience gained, students are often paid and/or co-author research papers. Contact individual faculty members or the lab directors for more information.

SCIS Common Use Labs / CS Help Lab

The SCIS Common Use Labs are inclusive labs available for both research and learning on the first floor of Boardman Hall. They are not typically scheduled for classes. In these labs Computer Science and New Media students may come with laptop computers to work on individual class projects, work on group projects, obtain tutoring help, check out equipment, do informal exam reviews with others, use labs as study halls, and similar activities. Students may use the labs anytime they have access to them including evenings and weekends. For more details concerning equipment, software and services provided, consult the SCIS Common Use Labs User Manual.