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.