Research isn’t like school. Having the opportunity to do research as an undergraduate is exciting and terrifying. I knew that it’d be difficult and that I would learn a lot, but I didn’t fully understand that I would be treated like an adult. I have always been a good student: reading assigned material, completing worksheets given to me and asking the teacher a lot of questions when I was confused. Research isn’t like that. For my first task there was no assigned reading, no worksheets and no teacher to guide me every time I didn’t understand. It was my responsibility to go online and find tutorials, practice, make mistakes, and only ask my mentor a few questions because he has his own assignments. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, they are there to help you but you have to understand that part of learning is to struggle on your own.

Failure is good, no really. My first assignment in lab was to learn how to use a new circuit-design software and then teach others in the lab how to use it. Two other people in the lab are familiar with the program but my main source for learning came from finding videos and tutorials online. When I learned that I had to present, I became nervous and scared that I would let my lab down and fail. After more and more struggling and messing up designs I finally started to understand. Even some help that I received was not as useful as failing on my own. Always ask for help when you need it, but understand that you learn a lot from failure.

Standing for hours in Best Buy is less fun than it sounds. I lost the charger to my laptop during the move into my apartment the day before my internship started. All nearby electronics stores were sold out of the model that I needed so I had to wait for a few days while the new charger was shipped over. With no other options, I would stand in Best Buy a for a few hours to use the showcase charger that they had for their display model. Make sure to pack things, especially important items, like a laptop charger!

Hit me with your best shot. The main purpose of research, and EUREKA, is for you to learn. Though sometimes your work and presentations will be criticized, it is important to make the distinction that it is not personal. Your main objective as a researcher, especially if this is your first time working in a lab, is to learn. Learning requires failure and criticism. Labs do not just take on any students and programs like EUREKA are even more selective. You were chosen because you have potential. So when you walk into lab with no clue what you’re doing, take a deep breath, mess up, fail, but try until you understand it. You got this.

Learning is more than just science:

Undergraduate research is a great opportunity to not only learn, but to see if you enjoy your major and academic research. The last few years my career goals included becoming a professor. I love learning as well as teaching, but I am realizing that being a professor is not what I expected. As of now my understanding of the responsibilities of a professor include some teaching, some planning but a lot of hunting for funding. I respect my P.I. because not only is he brilliant, but because he cares about everyone who works in his lab – even a young intern like me. He constantly checks in with everyone and helps to solve any problems that arise. Not only did I learn a lot about PCB design, working in a lab helped to give me the perspective to understand more of what it means to be a great professor.

The best researchers are constantly overwhelmed:

Nearly every person who does academic research that I’ve talked with says that they are constantly overwhelmed, but that’s a good thing. After learning how to design printed circuit boards (PCBs) on my laptop, I was expected to actually make one. I have only taken one basic circuits class so I didn’t even know what most of the terminology was, let alone how to actually do it. Even when I was utterly lost, which is normal for any researcher, my mentor told me that I could figure it out. It seemed that I wasn’t making any progress but I kept experimenting with the program, looking up more tutorials and asking lots of questions. It wasn’t like class where the answers were posted online. I had to figure it out because only through struggling, and with help from my group, was I able to learn.

Find a lab where the experiments excite you and the people welcome you:

I was lucky enough to find a lab that is very welcoming and friendly. My mentor, and other people in the lab, are always willing to answer my questions and help me in any way that they can. They’re very busy people that are working on much larger portions of the project than I am, but they care enough to help me when I get confused. Even luckier, I got to go kayaking with them! It was an awesome experience and helped me see another side of the people that I worked with.

Do awesome research, but make amazing memories.