The Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence at Colby is the first cross-disciplinary institute for artificial intelligence (AI) at a liberal arts college. The Institute will facilitate significant faculty and student research using rich datasets with real-world consequences and prepare students for a future where AI is transforming industries, careers, and modes of discovery, creativity, and scholarship. Building upon existing partnerships and developing new relationships with leading organizations and institutions, the Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence will position Colby as a national center for training faculty and students in the use of AI and the creation of new systems and capabilities.
Up East foundation and Colby have partnered to transform 450-acre Allen Island into a living laboratory of innovative research and educational experiences for students. From documentary filmmaking to scientific research, Allen Island offers myriad opportunities for Colby faculty to connect their course work to the world.
Through a series of grant programs, the Buck Lab supports broad initiatives at Colby focused on climate change and other environmental issues, including student and faculty research, experiential learning opportunities, student internships with collaborative partners doing environmental work, community engagement, professional skills development, and career networking.
The Champlin Science Scholars Program was established in late Professor Art Champlin’s honor to fund student opportunities in the sciences at Maine institutions such as Jackson, MDI, and Bigelow Laboratories and others.
Through the CARA (Colby Academic Research Assistants) Program, Presidential Scholars can conduct real research from the moment they set foot on campus. The CARA Program links Presidential Scholars with one of Colby’s outstanding faculty members to work on a research project in an area of mutual interest during the first year. Immersive research experiences like these give Presidential Scholars an extraordinary head start toward career goals, graduate school preparation, fellowships, and internships.
The CAPS Program has been supporting the most diverse possible pool of scientific talent since 2010. A group of 10 incoming Colby students spend a few weeks in the summer on campus and in surrounding Maine, working closely with faculty on projects in a range of science disciplines.
Colby students work alongside senior research scientists at the Bigelow Lab in East Boothbay, ME, studying oceanography and climate change in the Gulf of Maine and around the world. Students have access to Jan Plan courses, summer research experiences, and a full-semester Colby at Bigelow in-residence program.
Cancer remains one of the most daunting challenges in modern science. Rapid advances are happening in fields as diverse as genomics, cell biology, computer science, epidemiology, drug development, and patient care. Through a unique partnership with a growing suite of institutions, Colby students have opportunities on- and off-campus to explore this important field.
From science to policy to activism and philanthropy, Colby faculty, students, and alumni are undaunted in the face of climate change. This project will introduce their work, share their knowledge, and spread their optimism about why this global challenge can be met.
The Colby Liberal Arts Symposium (CLAS) brings the Colby community together each year to recognize and celebrate student scholarship across all disciplines. CLAS is also among the largest, if not the largest, undergraduate research symposia of any liberal arts college in the country.
Intensive research and other scholarly activities abound on the Colby College campus during the summer months. Students are mentored by Colby faculty in a wide range of field and laboratory projects. These endeavors advance the levels of scholarship at Colby and strengthen the engagement between students and faculty.
The Colby Undergraduate Summer Research Retreat serves as the capstone event to the summer experience on Mayflower Hill. All students involved in scholarly activity on campus are invited to participate in CUSRR, a two-day retreat in The Forks, Maine.
The Environmental Humanities encompass a broad range of initiatives in many fields that attempt to explore the most basic frameworks, narratives, assumptions, and principles humans employ to defend, justify, legitimate, and normalize their relations with nonhuman nature. To this critical approach are conjoined exercises in imagining socially just and ecologically benign futures for humans and nonhumans in a global collective yet to be cooperatively defined.
The Linde Packman Lab for Biosciences Innovation prepares Colby students to become the next generation of science leaders and innovators. We help to connect students with opportunities, programs, mentors, and funding to ensure transformative bioscience experiences – on campus and around the world.
Colby is a member of the Maine INBRE Network (of the nationwide IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence), a collaborative that supports research and research training. The INBRE Program supports student training in biomedical research through summer fellowships, courses, and workshops.
With the ubiquity of data comes an increased need to understand how to extract useful knowledge from it, which is influencing and advancing every industry—from health professions to financial markets—in significant ways. Colby students are exceptionally prepared to ask complex questions; the McVey Data Initiative prepares students to be able to answer them.
The Pulver Science Scholars Program creates a pipeline for the most ambitious and talented students from all backgrounds to pursue research at the nation’s top science laboratories, preparing them for future discovery that will lead to treatments and breakthroughs in critical areas of human health and other sciences.
