RAIN is the institutional home for real-world AI at UC San Diego, uniting the university's full AI ecosystem (research labs, faculty, student builders, founders, and industry) into a single coordinated network, built to put San Diego on the same stage as the Bay.
Raindrop is where the network does its work. Students, labs, orgs, founders, and partners say what they need and what they can offer, and get matched across campus. Sign in with your UC San Diego email.
A short archive of the rooms RAIN has run so far. Coverage, recordings, and recaps below.
A Friday afternoon on the trail with founders from across San Diego, anchored by Neal Bloom. Hosted by SEN × RAIN × Rising Tide Ventures.
Six investors and operators on entrepreneurship in the age of AI, what it means to be a founder right now, and what they actually look for at the seed stage. Hosted by SCIL × SDSC with CSE Society and RAIN.
RAIN's power comes from structured intersections between students, faculty, industry, and founders. Each pillar is a force multiplier for the others.
A federation of student-led research labs, project teams, hackathon groups, and consulting orgs. The primary talent engine, and the unified interface to faculty and industry.
Faculty aligned under a shared AI initiative, providing research direction, credibility, and formal access to labs, datasets, and grants.
Strategic partnerships with leading AI and technology companies: career guidance, compute, funding, datasets, recruiting pipelines, and applied problems.
A venture pipeline for student-founded AI startups: IP frameworks, founder development, mentorship, funding access, and an active student founder network.
Each pair of pillars unlocks a different surface of value: institutional, technical, capital, and cultural. We design programs to live precisely there.
Faculty-led project tracks, technical seminars, and cross-department capstone theses.
Large-scale compute partnerships and individual mentoring inside research initiatives.
Sponsored challenges, consulting pipelines, and direct recruiting into top AI roles.
Internal incubator pipeline plus demo days and investor access for student-led ventures.
RAIN runs on institutionalized actions: quarterly research cycles, industry integration programs, an exclusive fellowship, and a founder pipeline that turns prototypes into companies.
Themed project tracks, faculty-guided initiatives, and public demo showcases each quarter.
A selective cohort of top builders with access to mentorship, funding, and exclusive opportunities.
Idea, prototype, startup, with internal incubator support and investor demo days.
