The Summer Institute in Computer Applications (SICA) program came into existence during the Summer of 1970 as the result of a proposal made by Bowie State University (BSU) to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland. SICA was designed primarily to provide space-related research experience for minority undergraduate students. The vast majority of the undergraduate participants over the past years have been minorities enrolled in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's). The SICA program gained a graduate component in 1992. In 1994, there was the addition of “engineering” to the name of the program to form the Summer Institute in Engineering and Computer Applications (SIECA).

The internship is a ten-week program that supports 15 undergraduate and 11 graduate students. There is a basic summer stipend of $5,250 for undergraduates and $6,000 for graduates. Second year SIECA students usually receive a small stipend differential per week.

For further inquiries about the SIECA program, send e-mail to: Dr. J.S. Langdon, Program Director at jlangdon@bowiestate.edu.