ELBICA team, Summer 2024
ELBICA team, Summer 2023
ELBICA team, Summer 2022
ELBICA students reflected on their experiences and shared their advice with future lab members. we would like to thank Jiayi Chen for conducting the interviews
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“My main takeaway academically is that doing research has more twists and turns than I thought (…) And thanks to the college and Professor Eliott, I had the opportunity to attend my first conference, which really inspired me a lot. And I really admired the passion many researchers have when talking about their research. I think this MAP strengthens my belief to be a future researcher since I love the exploring process and the excitement when having some breakthroughs of the project.”
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“This summer research was totally different from the research that I did in courses because summer research was self-paced and did not have a specific assignment. Instead, I had to explore diverse inter-disciplinary fields to formulate and answer the research question. Going to the conference to meet professionals in the field was an invaluable experience as well. I was motivated by how passionate people in academia are. (…) The labs helped me to build my career. I had opportunities to think about my future career and learned to prepare for the career by building a CV.”
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“Research can take many forms and is a substantially different process from taking classes/working in a (nonresearch) CS-related job. (…) I’d tell myself to set up a schedule – the MAP is much less structured than normal classes and a lot more open-ended, which took some getting used to. Set up a schedule for yourself, and don’t hesitate to ask Professor Eliott if you need any help.”
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“It was a lot more open-ended than I expected, and I was already expecting it to be open-ended. (…) Try to find the balance between doing the readings/deliverables and doing your own research. At first, you’ll mostly be doing readings, but after you start to have a bit more direction, you’ll have to readjust your readings/working balance.”
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“I read a lot of inter-disciplinary papers, ranging from computer science to cognitive science, which significantly broadens my insights into these subjects and provides me a lot of potential topics to work with. Personally, the ability to communicate and present my work is enhanced because of both individual meetings and weekly peer and cross-group meetings.”
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“Doing research is fun, and time management is essential. (…) Take time to rest, and do not work too long if you are stuck with one problem. The answer will come to you when you are doing something else. “
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“Research involved much more shifting plans and wayfinding than following strict goals, so it was more dissimilar from a solid curriculum than I expected. (…) In terms of advice to give to future lab members, my best idea would probably be to prepare to be flexible in their work and changes that may arise in priorities at any time, although this likely applies to any research.”