Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research

More than Just Building Toy Cars: A Conversation with Jeremy Kiil ’24 about Car Lab

Posted on November 6, 2024October 21, 2024 by Alexis Wu

Portrait of a young man with short brown hair, a blue checkered dress shirt, smiling warmly at the camera in front of Nassau Hall. — Jeremy Kiil is an alum from the Class of 2024 who majored in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He now works as a power engineer at Qualcomm in Raleigh, NC. While at Princeton, he was a member of Princeton Racing Electric, a worship leader in Princeton Christian Fellowship, and Vice President of Colonial Club.

At Princeton, I’ve formed close friendships with students across all years and departments, witnessing their challenges, hard work, and achievements, from difficult courses to their independent work and senior theses. When my friends often name-drop courses from their departments and share exciting insights from their day, I realize I haven’t taken many of those classes myself. This realization sparked a desire to generate deeper conversations about their academic interests, even if I don’t fully grasp all the technical details and concepts of their field.

One of these conversations was with Jeremy Kiil ‘24 about his experience in ‘Car Lab’ (formally, ECE 302: Robotics and Autonomous Systems Lab), a required course for all ECE juniors. To my surprise, our conversation wasn’t focused on the nitty-gritty details about hardware components. Instead, Jeremy shared insights applicable to all students. I found his advice on making consistent progress, staying resilient, and taking care of oneself as wonderful reminders for everyone. Inspired by our conversation, I wanted to document and share it with a broader audience.

Into the Unknown

Posted on November 4, 2024October 21, 2024 by Yubi Mamiya

Reflection on my personal experience tackling a new research paradigm

Yubi Mamiya presenting her findings on "Clinical trial simulation of ensitrelvir for SARS-CoV-2" to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Infectious Disease Sciences Department. — *Yubi Mamiya presenting her findings on “Clinical trial simulation of ensitrelvir for SARS-CoV-2” to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Infectious Disease Sciences Department.*

I’ve always believed in challenging myself to learn new methodologies and explore new fields in my research. Yet, there’s a fine balance between tackling a new challenge and feeling over your head. Reflecting on my past summer conducting a project in a completely new research paradigm, I wanted to take a moment to share my experience in the hopes of encouraging other students to be unafraid to undertake novel endeavors.

I had the life-changing opportunity to research the dose-response of the oral antiviral ensitrelvir for treating mild to moderate symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 with the Schiffer Lab starting this past June as an intern in the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Infectious Disease Sciences Internship Program. This project employed a very different application of my interests in healthcare and computer programming than I’d ever done before. Wide-eyed with amazement and curiosity, I delved into the fields of pharmacology, clinical trials, mathematical modeling, infectious diseases, and computational simulations. I remember learning about my project goals for the first time and thinking: “Wow, there are thousands of other students who would make a much better intern on this project”. This overwhelming imposter syndrome is something that I’ve often struggled with during my past research experiences when walking into new fields for the first time. But, thanks to the incredible mentorship of the Schiffer Lab and the tips that they shared with me, I overcame this fear and was able to grow into a more interdisciplinary and confident researcher this summer. I hope to pass on this same inspiration to other students here.

The Difference is Discipline

Posted on November 1, 2024October 21, 2024 by Stanley Stoutamire, Jr.

Image of Firestone Library as seen from Firestone Plaza in the evening — *Firestone Library*

A few weeks ago, while I was volunteering with the Trenton Youth Orchestra, a student asked me, “Do you think you have a lot of discipline?” I honestly didn’t know how to respond. Discipline hasn’t been something I’ve spent time thinking about as a college student. While the concept of discipline had been hammered into my brain by soccer coaches and band directors before college, I found myself thinking about what discipline really means here.

A Hidden Gem for Humanities Researchers: The Princeton Index of Medieval Art

Posted on October 30, 2024October 23, 2024 by Ignacio Arias Philippi

Picture of a filing cabinet — *The Princeton Index of Medieval Art used to be a physical register, much like this one.*

Many academic disciplines engage with visual art, whether from the standpoint of art history, material culture, or even paleography. The Princeton Index of Medieval Art is a unique database well-suited to the needs of researchers across various fields. Whether history, comparative literature, art, or classics, the index gathers a vast amount of information on Late Antique and Medieval Artworks, neatly sorted in an accessible way.

Choosing A Lab: To Stay or To Go?

Posted on October 28, 2024October 21, 2024 by Rebecca Cho

Photo meant to show students in a laboratory setting. — *Students collaborating in a molecular biology laboratory. Photo credit: Matt Raspanti.*

Many students at Princeton spend their summers exploring a research project or a lab internship in their field of interest. But what’s next? Maybe you really enjoyed your experience and wanted to continue. Then, you come across the question: should I stay in the same lab or join a different lab?

This was the question I pondered when entering my sophomore year. I had an incredible summer experience as an High Meadows Environmental Institute intern in the Sigman Research Laboratory in the summer of 2023. I worked on a project that enabled my exploration of biogeochemical reconstruction via an investigation of the marine environment during a historical mass extinction through the use of a biological proxy known as foraminifera. But, where did I want to go from there? If you’re in a similar position, here are some things to keep in mind!

Mystery Writers in Research Labs: How to Analyze Your Data

Posted on October 25, 2024October 25, 2024 by Haya Elamir

The image is to depict a study corner in the Trustee Reading Room to add the feel of a study session to the post since it is about analyzing data. — *Trustee Reading Room, Firestone Library*. *Photo credit: Matt Raspanti*.

“So what does this data mean?” My professor asked, looking at me expectantly. What does the data mean? “What does this data tell you about the cancer cells?” If he thought rephrasing it made it any better, it didn’t. I am not quite sure what I said to save face (and frankly, I really do not want to remember), but I must have said something because my professor just nodded. “When you look at your data, I want you to create a story. It may be a mystery, but then you’d be providing a certain set of clues.”

It is very easy to get caught up in generating data, especially if the data is particularly tricky and you’re concerned about making sure it looks right, generating the right graphs, having the right axes, numbers and titles. It can be a headache. By the time the graphs are done, I would rather not look at it anymore or think too hard about the numbers. However, as lab reports and analysis questions stack up for our classes, it becomes prudent to know how to analyze these graphs. While I am not a seasoned veteran, I have a few tips that helped me approach these types of situations.

The Alumni Advantage: Tapping into Princeton’s Network

Posted on October 23, 2024October 21, 2024 by Gabriel Ascoli

Princeton alum, many in Orange and Black, participate in the 2013 P-rade. — *Princeton alumni P-rade, 2013. Photo credit: Daniel Day*.

As Princeton students in 2024, we’ve all heard other students throwing around the terms “connections” and “networking.” Although I myself was eager to take advantage of Princeton’s vast resources, I didn’t quite know where to start, or how to start. To those of you who are facing a similar dilemma, let me introduce you to an incredible, vastly underutilized resource: our alumni network.

The Art of Chasing: Securing a Response to Your Emails

Posted on October 21, 2024October 21, 2024 by Alexis Wu

Image taken from above of Firestone Library, with ten individuals studying or working on laptops. — *Students working in Firestone Library, perhaps sending an email to an adviser!*

In a world where instant responses to messages are possible, it can be especially frustrating when, after several days, you’re still waiting for a response on a time-sensitive issue. Many of us have experienced this before: asking an adviser a question, checking with a teammate if they’ve completed their tasks, and so on. Yet even with conventional wisdom on how to receive a response (crafting a compelling subject line, personalizing a message, or keeping an email short and sweet), responses can be elusive.

The truth is, the people we work with as students, researchers, or employees often have busy schedules. They may have several responsibilities vying for their attention, and sometimes an email just falls lower on their list of priorities. We want to resolve our questions and continue making progress as quickly as possible, yet help does not always come that quickly. In this article, I share key tips I’ve learned through discussions with my managers, colleagues, and advisers over the course of my time as a student and working in industry.

Exploring Memory: My First-Year Research Experience

Posted on October 18, 2024October 18, 2024 by Angel Toasakul

The picture shows Dr. Augustin Hennings and I in the MRI control room on the C Level of Princeton Neuroscience Institute. We were monitoring the screens in one of the pilot scans. — *Dr. Augustin Hennings and I in the MRI control room, C Level, PNI*

It felt a little odd to begin an email with, “I wrote about your lab in my application to Princeton!” but it was the truth. Since high school, I had been fascinated by memory and its profound effects on shaping our lives, which motivated me to pursue a degree in neuroscience. Professor Kenneth Norman’s work in the Princeton Computational Memory Lab captured my attention while I was exploring Princeton’s resources for my application essays. I wrote about how I wanted to be a part of the lab and study human memory, specifically focusing on how the brain and mind can overcome the emotional consequences of trauma-based memories. After arriving at Princeton, I had been eagerly awaiting the right time to reach out to Professor Norman about getting involved in his research.

Surf’s Up: A Guide to Internet Surfing, and other Assorted Browsing Research Skills

Posted on October 16, 2024October 16, 2024 by Advik Eswaran

This image depicts a Google search of "What is research," which symbolizes the purpose of this post—i.e. figuring out how to research online. — *What is research? Perhaps we can ask the Internet…*

If you’re anything like me, you first thought that “research” essentially amounted to surfing the Internet. Back in the glory days of middle school, “research” meant the rewarded privilege of getting to use the laptop carts, productively using class time on googling information about our various project topics (and definitely not secretly playing games). Now, as the mature, worldly college student you now are, perhaps you think you know better. “True” academic research, the clever reader now knowingly tells themselves, is historians dusting through archival documents and scientists mixing frothy chemicals in the lab.

Yet there’s a missing part here: a crucial element that takes us back to our elementary and middle days of excited googling. To make any significant intellectual contribution to any field, one first has to understand the current state of knowledge in that same field. To borrow the term favored by the Writing Program, we need to understand the scholarly conversation. How do we know if we’re making a contribution to something, if we don’t understand what that something is? Understanding the current state of research in a given field is a crucially important skill—really, a prerequisite—for conducting your own effective research in that field.

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Reflection on my personal experience tackling a new research paradigm

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