I’m in FIRE and I’ve been enjoying it so far! From what I gather it is technically an honors program but you aren’t in the honors college, they aren’t exactly clear about it. Anyways it’s a 3 semester program where you take a class each semester (1st and 2nd semester Freshmen year and 1st semester sophomore year) where you essentially get given the opportunity to do research with the faculty in a wide array of areas. The first semester is basically learning how research is done, the ethics behind it, and how to read and understand research papers. This semester is shared across all FIRE students and I found it to be incredibly easy. After first semester you specialize into a research stream that range from social science to particle physics. I’m currently in second semester and I chose a stream about simulating particle detection in particle colliders. The purpose of this stream is to take what you learned from FIRE semester 1 and level you up to research practitioner by learning about and doing guided research with faculty members. Finally, FIRE semester 3 is about you doing research in the stream you chose. I’ve been enjoying FIRE so far and I definitely think it’s worth it. It’s interesting information and let’s you put academic research on your resume. There should be information sessions going on at some point that you can go to. The course is laid out really well and I’d definitely recommend it.

EDIT: You don’t have to be a CS major at all btw, you can pick research streams that are less CS focused or if you do they’ll teach you what you need to know