Those students who are within 1 or two years of graduation are sent in teams to CIS sponsor R&D sites for a seminar presentation of their work. CIS pays for travel, while the sponsors underwrite your hotel and meals. The payoff to the student is the chance for visibility of themselves and their work within a company as well as the opportunity to interact with "real world" researchers and to broaden their knowledge base. Companies invite a team because they are basically interested in the work being done at Stanford.