Research opportunities (in machine learning) for undergraduate students at colleges without good research programs
One thing to consider is research experience for undergraduate (REU) placements over the summer. Many of these are actively built on affording research opportunities to students in schools that do not necessarily have their own research infrastructure.

Here is a list of those funded by the NSF, but this is by no means all of them: http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list_result.jsp?unitid=5049