Summer Research

Heads Up: You Might Need Study Approval from the Institutional Review Board

Posted on April 7, 2025April 3, 2025 by Alexis Wu

Image of a fountain in the foreground whose spray creates a rainbow. Background includes the School of Public and International Affairs — *A rainbow at the Fountain of Freedom (colloquially called the “SPIA Fountain”), taken during a break from working on my thesis*

Independent research at Princeton offers an incredible opportunity for students to explore their academic interests and gain experience in the research world. This year, I’m working on my Senior Thesis with Professor Aleksandra Korolova, conducting an audit of Google ad delivery optimization algorithms. Specifically, I am studying whether aspects of advertisements—the image, text, links, and so on—impact the demographics of the audience to whom the advertisement is delivered.

In the fall, many people were curious about how my thesis was progressing. The truth was, for a few weeks, I hadn’t started running any experiments, since I first needed my research to be approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Through this experience, I both gained insight into the IRB process and found that many students had never even heard of the IRB. In this article, I share my experience and offer advice for students who are planning to conduct independent research.

Research is Better with the Right Mentor—How I Found Mine

Posted on April 2, 2025April 7, 2025 by Angel Toasakul

Glass brain plots from the data analysis of the project I’m working on with my mentor, who spends a couple hours every week going through the fundamentals of coding in neuroscience with me. When I started working with him, I didn’t even know I could make plots like these. Our weekly meetings paid off.

When I first came to Princeton, already interested in neuroscience research, I kept hearing about all the incredible opportunities available to undergraduates. Professors conducting groundbreaking neuroscience studies, cutting-edge labs filled with brilliant minds—it all sounded amazing. But as a first-year student, I had no idea how to actually get involved. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing, while I was stuck wondering: Where do I even start? Will a professor really take time to mentor someone like me? If I cold-email them, will they even read it?

Staying Connected

Posted on March 31, 2025March 12, 2025 by Stanley Stoutamire, Jr.

A blossoming cherry blossom tree towers over Joline courtyard in Spring as people work in the chairs below. — *Joline Courtyard during Spring*

Each spring semester, it feels like many of us find ourselves scrambling to find unique, competitive, and exciting research experiences. In these intense weeks full of interviews, rejections, and offers, it is also important to think ahead about what comes next. Although staying connected with your research team after a program or internship ends can present a unique set of challenges, it can just as easily open up a number of new opportunities. This was a dynamic I had to adjust to at the end of my research internship last summer. Through that personal experience, I have found that consistent and clear communication are key after any research experience.

The Art of Cartography: Creating Maps for your Research

Posted on March 24, 2025March 11, 2025 by Advik Eswaran

*A figure of national research stations in Antarctica, which I recently created for my research using the Python library Cartopy.*

Ever since I was a child, I’ve always loved maps—I was a major geography nerd growing up. Jumping forward to today, my like-minded roommates are just as obsessed as I am: the walls of our dorm are literally covered floor to ceiling with maps. These include (but are not limited to) a glaciological map of Antarctica, public transport maps of numerous cities (Toulouse, Christchurch, and New York are just some examples), and a road map of my home state of Washington!

Maps aren’t just a fun hobby: They’re also enormously important in numerous research fields (in addition, of course, to just being plain useful). Whether your research field of interest is history or meteorology or epidemiology, there’s a good chance that you’ll be reading—and making!—some maps. In my own field of glaciology, maps are of paramount importance, whether it’s a map of glacier melt contribution from southeast Alaska or a map of Antarctic ice core sites. I’ve written this guide to provide some helpful resources and tools for making maps for your research, so hopefully it will serve as a good starting point! I should note that this isn’t a tutorial, but plenty of great tutorials should exist on the Internet for all of these tools.

Computer Science Independent Research: A Conversation with Anna Calveri ‘26

Posted on February 26, 2025February 19, 2025 by Alexis Wu

Anna Calveri ’26 is a junior in the Computer Science department. On campus, she is a member of Princeton University Robotics Club, Sympoh Urban Arts Crew, and Colonial Club.

The senior thesis is a hallmark of the Princeton experience, giving students the opportunity to conduct original research under the mentorship of a faculty adviser. Every senior is required to write a thesis, with the exception of Computer Science majors in the Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E.) degree program. Instead, these students are required to undertake a substantial independent project, called independent work (IW), which can take the form of a traditional one-on-one project with an adviser, an IW seminar where a small group of students independently conduct projects tied to the seminar’s main theme, or an optional senior thesis.

In 2022, I interviewed Shannon Heh ’23 about her experience in an IW seminar, where she highlighted the structure and guidance the professor and course seminar. This year, I wanted to explore the perspective of a B.S.E. Computer Science student who pursued a different option: the one-on-one IW project.

Anna Calveri ’26 stood out as the perfect person to speak with, not just because of her exciting research at the Princeton Vision & Learning Lab led by Professor Jia Deng, but also because she began her project during the summer as a ReMatch+ intern and built on it during the fall semester. While many students only work on their IW within a single semester, Anna’s approach of extending her research across both the summer and fall gave her the chance to deepen her research and hit the ground running with impressive progress.

Looking Ahead to Spring (And Summer)

Posted on February 21, 2025February 19, 2025 by Haya Elamir

This image is a picture of a pretty set of windows during the warmer months to hint towards the warming weather and provide some optimism to the stress that applying to internships can cause. — *Rocky Common Room Window, taken by Haya Elamir*

For Princeton students, it’s not premature to start thinking about summer. If anything, this post may be a little behind for some of those proactive students. Rest assured though, you are not behind if you have not started the search for summer internships (even though many students will say they’ve already applied). Opportunities are aplenty, and no, you are not behind if you didn’t start applying for research internships back in the womb.

Demystifying Big Data: An Introduction to Some Useful Data Operation Tools

Posted on February 10, 2025February 7, 2025 by Advik Eswaran

*A sample image of computer code that works with data*. *Photo credit: Markus Spiske.*

“Big data” and “data science” are some of the buzzwords of our era, perhaps second only to “machine learning” or “artificial intelligence.” In our globalized, Internet-ized society of plentiful information galore, data has become perhaps the most important commodity of all. Across all kinds of academic disciplines, working with large amounts of data has become a necessity: universities and corporations advertise positions for “data scientists,” and media outlets warn ominously of the privacy risks associated with the rise of “big data.”

This isn’t an article that discusses the broader, societal implications of “big data,” although I highly encourage all readers to learn more about this important topic. Instead, I’m here purely to provide you some (hopefully) broadly applicable tips to working with large amounts of data in any academic context.

In my own field of climate science, data is paramount: researchers work with gigantic databases and arrays containing millions of elements (e.g., how different climate variables, such as temperature or precipitation, change over both space and time). But data, and opportunities for working with data, are present in every field, from operations research to history. Below is an overview of some existing data operation tools that can hopefully assist you on your budding data science career!

A Guide to Poster-Making

Posted on February 7, 2025February 7, 2025 by Rebecca Cho

You’ve finished a research project and now you’re on to the final step: presenting your work! It’s time to share the incredible work you’ve done with the general public, and one of the best ways to do so is to create a poster conveying the significance and conclusions of your research. This will be an essential skill during your time at Princeton whether for a course or as a part of your junior and senior independent work. If this is your first time creating a poster presentation, check this blog out!

A student presenting her junior work as a poster presentation. — Sara Akiba ‘26 with her poster presentation on “Foraminifera-bound δ¹³C as a Paleo CO₂Proxy: Methods Testing” for the Geosciences Junior Poster Presentations! If you want a poster as great as hers, continue reading below for some advice.

The Skills for the Job

Posted on February 3, 2025December 12, 2024 by Stanley Stoutamire, Jr.

Image of East Pyne Courtyard facing the the arch that exits towards Cannon Green. Evening sunlight streams in through the archway. — *An evening in East Pyne Courtyard*

Research is always top of mind here. Princeton is a research university. Princeton faculty are engaged in research. Princeton students complete independent research to graduate. These are just some of the ways that we collectively understand what research is as Princeton. Yet, the images that can come to mind when thinking about “research” are quite limited. The idea of research conjures up images of bubbling chemicals and expensive technical equipment. That picture of grueling lab work is illustrative of some disciplines, but it’s largely immaterial to the work of many researchers. This can lead to a misunderstanding of what skills are necessary to succeed in research environments. Getting involved with research is daunting enough without confusion about the skill set required. This past summer, when I worked in public health research, I identified core skills that are critical, no matter what your research experience looks like.

Crafting Your Ideal Princeton Summer

Posted on January 31, 2025December 12, 2024 by Angel Toasakul

Yellow/orange fireworks against a black night sky on Princeton's campus in summer 2024. — *Fireworks on the 4th of July, taken at the closest firework show to campus this past summer*

As a Princeton student, the possibilities for summer are exciting but can also feel overwhelming. Between research opportunities, internships, volunteering, and even traveling, it’s easy to feel like everyone around you is planning something impressive. But the key to a fulfilling summer isn’t about packing in as much as possible—it’s about finding what fits your personal goals and needs, whether that’s academic growth or much-needed rest.

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