Summer break is a great opportunity to explore your research interests and build related skills.
Over the last few weeks of the semester, I needed to make two posters. In preparation, I attended a poster workshop that made me think more intentionally about how to make an effective poster. I’ve outlined some of my key takeaways below that I hope can offer guidance to anyone preparing a poster of their own.
For those planning to spend their summer researching whether it’s your first foray or your senior thesis, there are a few things that I have taken into consideration this year with my own planning that I think will be useful for others.
Continue reading Sun, Science and Schedules: Don’t Let Summer Happen to You
I have a physical disability, and when I entered Princeton, independent research was something that really daunted me. I have been surprised to find that independent research has been very accessible to me because of the flexibility and control it has given me over my work. Two years ago, I started an archival research project right after a surgery, which put increased limits on my ability. Since the project was self-managed, I was able to schedule archival research appointments around physical therapy appointments. I also received simple accommodations in the archive, like archivists moving boxes for me to support my limitations post-surgery.
That said, disability is diverse, as are research methodologies. Accommodations and approaches to research look different based on the kind of disability you have and the kinds of questions you want to answer. I spoke with Asha Nambiar, the director of Princeton’s Office of Disability Services (ODS), to gather advice on getting involved with research as a student with a disability.
Continue reading Navigating Research with Disability: An Interview with ODSAs a first-year, Sadat Ahmed—now a sophomore majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering—returned to a community that had shaped some of his most defining high school experiences. For Sadat, the Muslim Interscholastic Tournament (MIST) had always been more than a competition. It was where he discovered leadership, formed lasting friendships, and learned to believe in his own potential. Coming back as a Software Engineering Intern gave him the chance to reconnect with the program in a new and meaningful way.
One of the greatest benefits of being a Princeton student is the unparalleled access to international opportunities. Whether it’s traveling for classes and clubs, completing an IIP (International Internship Program), doing fieldwork through HMEI (High Meadows Environmental Institute), taking a Global Seminar course through PIIRS (Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies), or participating in Princeton’s many language programs abroad, many students find ways to leave the Orange Bubble—literally. To become better-informed global citizens, it is important not only to study the world from Princeton, but also to spend time in the world beyond Princeton.
One powerful way to do this is by conducting research abroad. When I was a junior preparing for my senior thesis, I knew I wanted to incorporate an international dimension into my work and, if possible, travel over winter break of senior year. Although I had been fortunate to travel domestically through Princeton, I hadn’t yet taken advantage of any study or research opportunities abroad. Winter break of senior year is one of the last, and most popular, chances to do so. Princeton has a wide range of thesis funding sources, which makes it very possible to take your research to an international site.
Continue reading Beyond the Orange Bubble: A Guide to Thesis Research AbroadThis summer, Princeton sophomore Kyaw Naing returned to his hometown of New York City for a 12-week internship with Amazon’s Grocery Subscription team, an opportunity made possible through the Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) program. AFE is a highly competitive national initiative that aims to support students from underrepresented and underserved communities in STEM, offering college scholarships, mentorship, and paid internships at Amazon. Kyaw was one of only 400 students selected for the program. As an Electrical and Computer Engineering student from Queens, Kyaw saw the internship as a chance to push himself beyond the classroom. During his time with the Grocery Subscription team, he tackled real-world technical challenges at massive scales while working on services that millions of customers rely on every day.
The team owns the whole lifecycle of Grocery Subscription and focuses on building the Amazon Grocery Subscription, enabling customers to subscribe and order groceries. Work on the team involves significant research into sophisticated cloud infrastructure and pipelines and for Kyaw, this was the perfect environment to connect what he learned in his COS classes with real-world practice and research.
This summer, Zara Hommez traveled from Princeton to Doha, Qatar, for an internship at the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), where she worked in the Humanitarian AI division. As a sophomore majoring in Operations Research and Financial Engineering (ORFE), she was drawn to the placement through Princeton’s International Internship Program (IIP) because it offered a rare blend of quantitative modeling, computer vision, and real-world impact, which is the exact intersection she hopes to pursue.
When browsing IIP opportunities, QCRI immediately stood out. Its mission to use data and AI to address global humanitarian challenges aligned perfectly with her academic interests in optimization, systems thinking, and applied machine learning. The chance to live in Doha, a rapidly growing, modern city at the heart of the Middle East, added an exciting cultural dimension she was eager to explore.
There’s no doubt that the summer is one of the most promising times to experiment with your research interests, and the International Internship Program (IIP) can provide awesome opportunities for Princeton students to explore those curiosities. From creating theoretical frameworks to engaging with lab-based experimentation, there’s a wide range of ways to explore research through the summer program.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Katya Grygorenko (‘27), who spent her summer doing research on artificial intelligence (AI) for the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), a public policy institute based in Sofia, Bulgaria. The rise of Large Language Learning Models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI systems has inspired uncertainty, and even fear. The idea of a “black box where people don’t really know what’s going on”, as Grygorenko put it, can feel daunting to think about. But the idea of tackling the ethical challenges of implementing these complex digital systems didn’t scare Grygorenko at all— it excited her.
Continue reading Who Guides the Guardrails?
This summer, I had the opportunity to do a fellowship at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. The Schomburg is one of the largest archives of Black History in the world, and as part of my fellowship, I got to use their collections to craft an independent research project. Coming into the program, I had a very specific idea of what I wanted to find in the collections. I had found a disagreement in the scholarly literature about the historical relationship between two church denominations. Some scholars argued that the two denominations were historically one, while others argued that they had always been separate organizations. In the Schomburg’s research catalogue, I saw that there was a collection of personal papers belonging to one of the denominations’ founders, which I saw as an opportunity to add a new perspective to this debate.
Continue reading Expect the Unexpected: Exploration in Archival Research
The summer is always a great time to get involved in research, whether on campus or off campus. One common challenge, however, is figuring out how to actually become a part of those research opportunities. At the end of this summer, I was fortunate enough to be able to return to the research team I worked with last year. While it was exciting to once again be working on the study (an investigation into the effectiveness of peer coaching on high blood pressure) it was a different experience the second time around. Jumping back into any project can introduce new challenges, and research is no different.
Continue reading Jumping Back In!
