back to indexHow Can Someone Find Interest in Research?
Chapters
0:0 Cal's Intro
0:13 Cal plays a call about finding interest in research
0:28 Cal's initial thoughts
1:0 Get involved with a research project
1:30 Don't be picky
2:4 Cal's project at Dartmouth
00:00:06.760 |
I'm a chemistry major student at KFUBM in Saudi Arabia. 00:00:17.080 |
Is it by engaging in projects or just by reading papers? 00:00:25.600 |
Well, when it comes to research as a student-- 00:00:34.760 |
involved in a formal student research project. 00:00:40.840 |
So it's very difficult on your own as a university student 00:00:43.600 |
to just start reading papers and to feel like you are 00:00:50.400 |
to have some sort of setup that allows students 00:00:53.960 |
at the university level to get involved in research. 00:01:02.920 |
You're just talking to specific professors and say, 00:01:05.000 |
can I be an informal research assistant on your project? 00:01:12.920 |
with a professor who knows what they're doing, 00:01:14.880 |
that you are working and helping a actual research 00:01:17.960 |
project that's moving towards real publication. 00:01:21.520 |
That's where you're going to learn how things really work. 00:01:24.040 |
That's where you're going to gain experience. 00:01:25.320 |
That's where you're going to open up options. 00:01:27.480 |
The only caveat I'm going to give you, don't be picky. 00:01:31.840 |
You're not going to be able to have a huge contribution 00:01:34.280 |
at this level when you're brand new to research. 00:01:36.640 |
You're not going to be the one who figures out 00:01:41.440 |
You're not going to be the one who makes Fermat's last theorem 00:01:46.200 |
It'll probably be pretty prosaic what you're actually doing. 00:01:56.360 |
And so the interestingness of what you have available 00:02:01.920 |
The very first-- I'll just say real quickly-- the very first 00:02:05.280 |
research project I was involved with as an undergraduate, 00:02:08.880 |
I was literally walking around campus on Dartmouth. 00:02:14.280 |
of where all of the various Wi-Fi access points were. 00:02:34.360 |
And I would name the file with the name of the access point. 00:02:37.120 |
And then I'd walk down the hall to the next one. 00:02:40.320 |
And then I'd walk down the hall to the next one. 00:02:45.840 |
It was actually a pretty interesting data set 00:02:49.560 |
strength of the beacons between different access points 00:02:52.240 |
and try to figure out how those things varied 00:02:54.360 |
based on the distance between those access points. 00:02:56.280 |
And ultimately, you're actually able to build 00:03:09.460 |
was literally the most boring thing you could do. 00:03:11.680 |
Walking and standing still at locations, pressing a button,