Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research

“My Summer in Kuala Lumpur”: Iman’s Internship Journey

Posted on October 16, 2025October 13, 2025 by Aishah Shahid

This summer, Iman Bedru ’28 traveled from Woodbury, Minnesota, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for an internship with Chumbaka, an organization dedicated to empowering youth through technology and education. As a rising sophomore in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iman went to Malaysia through Princeton’s International Internship Program (IIP), drawn by the opportunity to connect her technical background with her passion for education and community engagement.

When browsing through IIP’s opportunities, Chumbaka stood out immediately. Its mission, which is to equip students and teachers with the tools to explore and innovate through STEM, aligned perfectly with Iman’s vision of using engineering knowledge to create meaningful social impact. The fact that the internship was based in Malaysia only added to the appeal. A country rich in cultural and ethnic diversity, Malaysia promised not just professional growth, but also immersion in a vibrant new environment.

Picture of Iman Bedru at Kuala Lumpur temple. — *Picture of Iman at a Kuala Lumpur temple*.

Finding Your Focus: 5 Tips on How to Narrow Down Your Topic

Posted on October 14, 2025October 8, 2025 by Alison Fortenberry

A brainstorming man looks at a wall covered with notes and ideas — *Brainstorming Ideas. Photo Credit: Per Lööv*

As someone in the social sciences and humanities, I had a broad idea of what I was interested in when going into my independent research. But once it came time to propose a specific topic, I was overwhelmed by how many possibilities there were. I was drawing on a massive archive of documents that dated back to the 1890s, so trying to decide on just one moment or figure to focus on made me feel like I was leaving a lot of important stories out. The best research projects are the ones that you’re genuinely excited about, but what do you do when you’re excited by a lot of different topics? Here are five tips that have helped me narrow down a broad research interest to a specific research topic.

Patient Stories, Clinical Data and Children’s Lives: My Experience with Pediatric Oncology Research

Posted on October 9, 2025October 8, 2025 by Gabriel Ascoli

Picture of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia — *The main building of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.*

The nine-year-old patient sat in his bed, nose buried in a book, his peach-fuzz hair just visible over the book he held close to his face. As my mentor quietly began explaining the next steps of his treatment to his family, I crouched next to the bedside to ask him about his book, which I had loved dearly in elementary school. Neither the patient’s beeping machines nor his swollen body slowed him down as he began excitedly chattering to me about the story. A few minutes later, we thanked the family and moved onto the next room.* This child was just one of many leukemia patients whose story and data I had pored over in my clinical research experience this summer.

Research, Friends, Mountains, and Everything in Between

Posted on October 7, 2025October 6, 2025 by Angel Toasakul

*The view of the Neuschwanstein Castle on the way back from a 5-hour hike*.

When I boarded my flight to Munich this summer, I thought I knew exactly what awaited me: labs buzzing with experiments and discoveries, even a big “Aha!” moment that would shape my research career. After spending over a month home in Thailand, beach hopping and exploring the underwater world with my scuba diving gear, I was ready to slip back into my academic shoes and make the most out of my time in a new country.

What I found was… not quite what I expected.

While I had overestimated how sparkly the research world would be, I didn’t even come close to imagining how many lessons I would learn or how many memories I would make.

Welcome to the 2025-2026 Academic Year

Posted on October 2, 2025October 1, 2025 by Rebecca Cho

Welcome back to PCUR! We are very excited to start the new year with some great posts starting this week, so check your email Tuesday morning for the first post of the academic year.

*Top, from left to right: Rebecca Cho, Aishah Shahid, Angel Toasakul, and Stanley Stoutamire.*
*Bottom, from left to right: Alison Fortenberry, Gabriel Ascoli, Shannon Yeow, and Haya Elamir.*

Now & Next: The All-Women Spaceflight and the Expanding Horizon of Commercial Space

Posted on May 7, 2025May 7, 2025 by Shannon Yeow

Image of the six-person NS-31 Crew — *The NS-31 Crew*. *Photo Credit: Blue Origin*.

On April 14, 2025, Blue Origin launched its 11th human spaceflight, NS-31, marking the first all-women commercial spaceflight crew. Aboard the New Shepard capsule were Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sanchez. While the flight made headlines as a symbolic milestone, it also marked a change in how we think about access to space and accountability in a warming world.

In 2021, I worked alongside the U.S. Space Force at the Air Force Research Laboratory during the year Virgin Galactic launched its first fully crewed spaceflight. A few days after the flight, I visited Spaceport America to see the launch site in person, an early glimpse into the operational reality of commercial space. When Blue Origin’s NS-31 mission made headlines this year, I was genuinely excited. It brought back the sense of possibility I felt standing at Spaceport America years earlier. Commercial spaceflight had taken another step forward, and I wanted to understand what that meant. What does this flight reveal about the technical maturity of suborbital travel? And how might it shape the future of spaceflight design, regulation, and environmental impact? In this article of Now & Next, I take a closer look at what NS-31 tells us about the state of commercial space, and where it’s headed.

The Art of Bouncing Back

Posted on May 5, 2025April 29, 2025 by Haya Elamir

this image is to set the tone for the rest of the blog post; that it is about internship rejection — **screenshot of the beginning of most internship rejection emails**

Spring is a bit of a bittersweet time for me every year. When the sun comes out, so does any brain cell willing to do work. Summer is right around the corner, and things just seem to drag–even in the quick Princeton semesters. However, that ‘summer right around the corner’ thought is not always an exciting one. With summer comes the prospect of internships, and perhaps more pressing: the lack of thereof. In a previous post, I discussed tips for applying to internships, but by now, you may have already heard back. If you have heard back and the email made your heart sink to your stomach, this post is for you. I’m here to remind you that internship rejections are not the end of the world.

Princeton Research Day Presenters Invite You to Watch Their 3-Minute Videos

Posted on May 2, 2025April 29, 2025 by Caitlin Larracey

Princeton Research Day 10 Years May 8 2025

Princeton Research Day is a campus-wide celebration of research and art from Princeton undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early career staff. PRD is open to the public, and videos are online now! We hope you consider checking out the channel and voting for your favorite. PRD is celebrating its ten-year anniversary, and we are very excited to come together to showcase the new innovations, findings, and creative work of the Princeton community.

All PRD presenters submit a 3-minute video highlighting one story about their research or art. The videos are designed for broad audiences, demonstrating the importance of research accessibility. If you are local to the area, many presenters will also be talking about their work during our poster session on Thursday, May 8 in the Frist Campus Center from 12:00-1:00.

You can find the PRD videos here and information about attending the May 8 in-person event here.

–Caitlin Larracey, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Research

Encounters with Mentorship

Posted on April 30, 2025April 29, 2025 by Stanley Stoutamire, Jr.

Sunlight narrowly streams in an ornate window of the highest floor of Firestone Library in the afternoon. — *Firestone Library in the afternoon*

As I was graduating high school, everyone – whether it was friends, teachers, or family – told me I had to find a good mentor. I didn’t really know what this meant in the context of college. I had experienced instructive relationships with coaches and teachers before, but I didn’t really know how that would translate into a research-driven environment.

Now as a sophomore, I understand that especially before declaring a major, it can be challenging to forge mentorship connections. Still, during the first two years of my undergraduate experience, I have encountered mentorship in a variety of ways that I would have never expected. Whether it was through my lab-based courses, an internship, or even a recent serendipitous moment, quality mentorship has been a defining part of my Princeton experience.

Thanking Your Mentors: Tips on Writing Your Research Paper Acknowledgements

Posted on April 28, 2025April 28, 2025 by Alexis Wu

Photo of Princeton's Blair Arch with green grass in the foreground and a blue sky in the background. — *I have yet to print my senior thesis, but once I do, I’ll be taking a photo with it in front of Blair Arch (per tradition!).* *Photo by author.*

When I sat down to write the acknowledgements for my senior thesis, I realized something surprising: my department’s resources on how to write a thesis or independent work paper didn’t include any advice on writing this section. In some ways, that makes sense. Most readers focus on sections like the abstract, methodology, and results, which really serve as and highlight the key contributions of the paper. But having guidance on how to write acknowledgements can go a long way in helping students thank the people who made their research possible. In this article, I’ll share a few tips for writing acknowledgements—whether you’re submitting a STEM paper to a conference or wrapping up your senior thesis.

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