self-reflection

Simplify Your Research Poster Printing: Using Princeton’s Makerspace Large Format Printer

Posted on November 20, 2024October 28, 2024 by Alexis Wu

Photo of three students wearing black suits and smiling at the camera. Machine learning research poster in the center. — *Alexis Wu (author), Jenny Pang ‘24, and Jimmy Hoang ‘24 at the COS 484: Natural Language Processing Spring 2024 poster session.*

The end of the semester is often accompanied by deadlines for semester-long projects and final papers (including the infamous Dean’s Date deadline, which past correspondent Ryan Champeau has amazing advice on!). For some classes, students may be asked to create an academic or research poster and present their work to their peers in a poster session. A couple of courses I have taken where I produced a final research paper were COS 484: Natural Language Processing and ASA 238: Asian-American Psyches.

In ASA 238, the department provided funding so that all students in the class could have their poster printed through Princeton Print & Mail Services. However, this option typically is not free-of-charge to students. Moreover, since this process typically takes 4-5 business days after the proof is approved to be printed, course instructors may set conservatively early deadlines so that all students’ posters may be printed on time. With more deadlines in other classes, this can create additional stress.

The great news is, this stress can be avoided with a free, straightforward alternative: utilizing the Makerspace’s Large Format Printer. The Princeton University Library (PUL) Makerspace is a creative space on the A-level of the Lewis Science Library open to current students, faculty, and staff. If you’ve never used the space before, it might be daunting, but I hope this article will clarify the process and assuage any fears you may have!

Let Your Happy Self Shine: Why Happiness Shouldn’t Be Saved Only for Moments of Victory

Posted on November 8, 2024October 21, 2024 by Angel Toasakul

This is a picture of the Princeton Chapel, taken by myself the summer I first arrived at Princeton. — *Princeton Chapel in the summer*

“What’s your priority this semester?” my friend asked after our first meal together post-summer break. My instinct was to say classes, internships, research—after all, we’re at school, preparing for life after college. The pressure to secure a job or get accepted into graduate school looms large. What could be more important than staying focused on the future? But none of those answers felt right. I paused for a moment before saying, “being happy.”

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.

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.

Mentorship Matters: A Summer of Research and Growth

Posted on October 14, 2024October 14, 2024 by Nathan Nguyen

This image shows a lab technician pipetting a clear solution into an another orange-colored solution inside a fume hood in a lab — *Photo of a chem-bioengineering lab, photo credit to Iris Rubinstein.*

When I first walked into the lab this summer, I thought research was all about running experiments and gathering data. What I didn’t expect was how much the people around me—the mentorship and the shared triumphs and failures—would shape so much of my learning and how I view scientific research.

Starting a research position at a bioengineering lab over the summer was really intimidating for me, especially as an undergraduate. At the start, I felt like the most inexperienced person in a room full of graduate students, postdocs, and faculty who seem to have it all figured out. Although I’ve learned or at least seen a lot of the quantitative and qualitative components in my Chemical and Biological Engineering course, I did not have much hands-on experience and critical thinking that comes with actually doing experiments. That’s when I realized how big of a role a mentor plays.

My Go To Study Break

Posted on October 11, 2024October 11, 2024 by Stanley Stoutamire, Jr.

Photograph depicts the university side of Nassau Street adjacent to the library. Alongside the sidewalk to the left is a row ow trees turning golden orange on a clear autumn day. — *A walk along* *Nassau Street*

Princeton moves fast. The semester is short, the classes are dense, and before you know it, you’re taking midterms and turning in papers for your writing sem. At least, that was my experience as a first year. Even now as a sophomore, it can feel hard trying to keep up with the pace of the orange bubble. Balancing the demands of coursework alongside the demands of work for research teams and professional clubs can limit how productive I feel at any given moment. Those moments, when I feel I’ve done all the readings I can do and written everything I can think about, are so challenging because it feels like I’ve hit an academic wall. That’s when I find ways to shake things up with a study break. For me, that looks like taking a walk. I know it sounds cliche, but taking a walk can be one of the best solutions because it’s so simple.

Seasonal Series: Interview with Bjarke Nielsen, EEB/HMEI

Posted on April 26, 2024April 7, 2025 by Xander Jenkin

Bjarke Frost Nielsen, from Denmark, received his PhD in Physics from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen and is currently a Carlsberg Foundation Research Fellow Postdoctoral Researcher at Princeton in the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) within the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) department. He currently works on using mathematical and computational tools to solve problems in pathogen evolution and infectious disease epidemiology.

Following the seasonal series theme of “Niche vs. Expansive Research Topics”, I interviewed Dr. Bjarke Frost Nielsen on his journey going from a Physics PhD to working in our EEB department and all of the different topics he’s worked on along the way.

Dr. Nielsen shares, “In general, I have a very broad notion of what physics is. I don’t think for something to qualify as physics it has to, you know, involve Newton’s 2nd Law, be describable in terms of the Schrödinger Equation, or something like that. I think that physics is essentially the science that tries to mathematically tackle the aspects of our physical world that can be attacked mathematically. That’s more or less what physics is, right? It’s choosing the areas where you think that a mathematical description can really capture the problem. … It’s a very broad science in that way.”

Read on to learn more about Dr. Nielsen’s reflections on his research background in Physics and current work in EEB.

Reading for Fun: How and Why

Posted on April 12, 2024April 8, 2024 by

Often when I mention the subject of reading for pleasure’s sake in conversations with other Princeton students, I hear the same story repeated with a twinge of sadness and a sense of resignation to the seemingly-inevitable. Most of us seem to have begun our respective childhoods as avid readers who could barely be seen apart from a book. We enjoyed all sorts of reading, and it was not a tiring task but an exciting opportunity. Over the course of many grueling years of schooling filled with assigned readings and the like, this voracious appetite for literature seems to have been largely snuffed out. If you, like me and many others, have drifted away from the pleasurable pastime of reading for fun and wish that you could regain a bit of that excitement which marked your early years, this article will give a few suggestions for how and why you might go about effecting this turnaround.

A few books on my shelf in my dorm— not for class.

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Reflection on my personal experience tackling a new research paradigm

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