How Can Someone Find Interest in Research?

00:00:00.000 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:00:03.360 | Hi, Cal.

00:00:05.760 | My name is Saleh.

00:00:06.760 | I'm a chemistry major student at KFUBM in Saudi Arabia.

00:00:11.000 | I would like to ask about how someone can

00:00:14.440 | find his interest in research.

00:00:17.080 | Is it by engaging in projects or just by reading papers?

00:00:23.240 | And that's it.

00:00:23.840 | Thanks.

00:00:25.600 | Well, when it comes to research as a student--

00:00:29.400 | and this is obviously something that I have

00:00:31.600 | some personal experience with--

00:00:33.320 | I think it's important that you get

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

00:00:47.520 | part of the research community.

00:00:48.920 | So typically, most schools are going

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.

00:00:56.600 | Sometimes it's formal.

00:00:58.160 | Here is our student research program.

00:00:59.840 | And you apply, and you get a grant.

00:01:01.640 | Sometimes it's less formal.

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?

00:01:07.640 | I'll just be really useful.

00:01:09.200 | But that is what I would recommend.

00:01:10.800 | You want to be formally involved in research

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

00:01:38.960 | the double helix structure of DNA.

00:01:41.440 | You're not going to be the one who makes Fermat's last theorem

00:01:44.320 | proof actually go through.

00:01:46.200 | It'll probably be pretty prosaic what you're actually doing.

00:01:50.640 | But what you're gaining is actual exposure

00:01:52.560 | to how research works in connection

00:01:54.400 | to people doing that research.

00:01:56.360 | And so the interestingness of what you have available

00:02:00.560 | is going to increase.

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.

00:02:12.120 | I had a map from the IT department

00:02:14.280 | of where all of the various Wi-Fi access points were.

00:02:19.520 | I would go to each Wi-Fi access point.

00:02:21.880 | I would stand under it.

00:02:23.840 | And I would open up a program that

00:02:25.920 | would sniff packets out of the air

00:02:28.120 | and record the signal strength at which they

00:02:30.000 | were receiving those packets.

00:02:31.240 | And I would stand there and gather data.

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.

00:02:39.440 | And I would do that.

00:02:40.320 | And then I'd walk down the hall to the next one.

00:02:41.880 | And then I would do that.

00:02:42.580 | I mean, it was the boringest possible work.

00:02:44.560 | But you know what that gave us in the end?

00:02:45.840 | It was actually a pretty interesting data set

00:02:47.720 | where we could look at the signal

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

00:02:58.160 | an interesting model.

00:02:59.360 | And a paper came out of that that

00:03:00.720 | was called the Mistaken Axioms of Wireless--

00:03:03.920 | was it Wireless Network Research, which

00:03:05.760 | has been cited hundreds of times.

00:03:06.800 | So it led to interesting places.

00:03:07.920 | But the very first thing I was doing

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,

00:03:15.600 | and then pressing that button again.

00:03:17.120 | So it'll be boring at first.

00:03:18.480 | But get involved with real projects.

00:03:20.000 | That's where the cool stuff comes from.

00:03:21.680 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03:25.040 | (upbeat music)

00:03:27.620 | (upbeat music)

How Can Someone Find Interest in Research?

Chapters