How much impact can a student make in one summer? Through the Research for Intelligence & Security Challenges (RISC) program, students help advance national security research while gaining experience to become the next generation of intelligence and defense professionals.
Led by the University of Maryland’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence & Security (ARLIS), RISC is a summer program that takes real challenges identified by the defense intelligence and security enterprise (DISE) and scopes them into 10-week “innovation sprint” research projects scoped to result in an actionable finding to inform mission priorities and program decisions ahead.
“RISC’s value reaches well beyond ARLIS,” said Erin Fitzgerald, PhD, the director and founder of the RISC Program. “We’re helping government partners identify and pilot novel approaches to critical problems while giving students the experience to contribute to those missions throughout their careers.”
In summer 2026, 107 students from 50 colleges and universities worked across 46 projects. Sprints were executed by teams of 2-4 student researchers (spanning fields such as computer and information sciences, social sciences and humanities, and life sciences) along with a government champion keeping the work grounded in mission and a faculty mentor helping to translate problems into well-defined projects.
That mix gives teams more ways to approach a problem. Students learn from one another, challenge assumptions, and combine their strengths with mentors guiding the work. They produce research outcomes that help partners develop solutions to mission challenges, with findings that can also benefit others across the intelligence and defense community facing similar problems.
One project explored how intelligence analysts can use AI while maintaining analytical standards and independent judgment. Government partners were impressed by the quality of the research and how quickly it was completed before learning it had been produced by interns. The project also drew interest in funding additional research.
“What’s exciting is how quickly students get up to speed on complex problems and produce useful work together,” said Marcus Boyd, PhD, a past RISC faculty mentor now co-leading the program. “Their contributions help us move projects forward and give us findings we can build on.”
2026 RISC researchers presented their findings at the Pentagon, which drew more than 200 attendees. Interest in the work has also led to requests for additional briefings, bringing student findings to audiences beyond their original project sponsors.
The impact continues long after those presentations. One clear metric of success is the six summer 2026 projects able to immediately secure funding for continued work; two built tools now being transitioned to government systems. 90% of 2025 interns have been adjudicated as eligible for security clearances, opening doors to future work. These next steps show how RISC research can grow into a broader contribution.
For students, working alongside researchers and government partners makes a career in the field easier to picture. They see where their skills are needed and how their work connects to a larger mission.
“In most internships, you'll be given busy work or a toy project that they really don't care what the outcome is,” said a 2026 RISC researcher. “At RISC, I got the opportunity to work on a project that has a real impact and has real value within the intelligence community.”
RISC’s impact carries forward through both the work and the people behind it: research that helps government partners meet mission needs, and students prepared to bring their talents to the wider intelligence and defense community.
Ready to put your skills to work on real intelligence and security challenges? Explore the RISC program and apply for summer 2027: https://www.arlis.umd.edu/research-impact/research-intelligence-security-challenges-risc