The day you finally get data from your research is very exciting. However, obtaining the data is only the first step in the research process. Analyzing it is actually the hardest part, and can be very frustrating at times.

This summer, I am doing research in professor Meiburg’s lab using numerical simulations to model the flow of particles in a dense suspension experiencing shear forces. My part of the project is to write Matlab programs to perform a statistical analysis of the data output by the simulations. I began my work using a random distribution to test my programs, while my mentor, a post-doctoral student, prepared the simulations. At the end of my fourth week in the lab, we finally got the data from the simulation. I was very excited and hopeful that all of our hard work would pay off and we would immediately discover something. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The most challenging part of my work was yet to come: analyzing the data.

Several of the programs I had written that worked perfectly with the random distribution needed to be modified to work with the actual data. When I got those programs to work, I once again got excited. However, results don’t suddenly appear when you run a statistical calculation. My mentor and I spent many painstaking hours analyzing the statistical graphs to determine what they conclude about the data. The general conclusion was that we needed to run the simulation for a longer amount of time to collect more data.

Once we got the new data, I ran the statistical calculations again. As before, the results were not clear. This time, my mentor concluded that we needed to do more calculations to determine if the results from the previous calculations were meaningful. At this point, I began to get frustrated. I had not realized that drawing conclusions about data could be such a long and difficult process. However, I wrote the programs to perform this next set of calculations, and continued to hope that these calculations would reveal some interesting conclusions about the data.

I learned several important lessons from this experience. The research process often takes months, or even years, to draw conclusions and make discoveries. So do not think that you can make a big discovery in a few weeks, as I did. Enjoy the excitement of obtaining data, but do not be too disappointed or frustrated when things do not work or turn out the way you expected. Most importantly, continue working and trying different techniques, and don’t give up.

When many people think about research, they think of laboratories with chemicals, beakers and test tubes. To be honest, this is what I thought before I began working in Professor Meiburg’s lab this summer. In this lab, all of our experiments are done using computer simulations. This different approach to research really surprised me at first.

In Professor Meiburg’s group, we are researching fluid dynamics. In particular, we are studying the behavior of particles in a dense suspension experiencing shear forces. This research has a variety large scale applications, from rivers, pipes, and channels with large amounts of sediment and debris, to ocean currents after an earthquake. These situations are extremely difficult to study in real life, so my lab uses sophisticated computer simulations to model them instead. The computer simulations allow us to analyze the flows on the particle level and compare the particles’ position and velocity across very small time intervals. This level of analysis would be very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve in physical situations. Although this is not quite what I expected going into my first research experience, this approach makes a lot of sense when considering the type of research that we are doing.

At first, I was a bit disappointed that I would not be working in a lab with exciting hands on experiments. However, I soon realized that there is much more to research than exciting experiments. Solving problems, obtaining results, and drawing conclusions is what makes research exciting. The applications of the research, and knowing that you are advancing scientific knowledge and helping the world is what makes research thrilling, and what I love about it.

In the past three weeks, I have grown to really enjoy working in Professor Meiburg’s lab. Before beginning work, I was worried that I would not fit in to the research environment since I am an undergraduate, who just finished her first year, and everyone else is a graduate student. However, my experience was exactly the opposite. All of the people are so friendly and helpful. I got a very warm welcome the first day when I entered the lab, and have felt very included and at home ever since. We all go to lunch together almost every day, and I was even invited to a dinner and game night at my mentor’s apartment. The lab group is a very close family that I am really glad to have joined. I am excited to go to work every day and really enjoy what I am doing.