Why Every Student Should Engage in Undergraduate Research

Iman Mevaa

I became an undergraduate teaching assistant for a biotechnology research class which helped me refine my professional interests.

Getting involved with research can seem intimidating. Although there are many approaches to starting undergraduate research on campus, how to decide which approach is the best? Should you talk to your professors although you are not really interested in their course? Should you rather attend the Research Roundtable organized by the Office of Undergraduate Research and talk to professors there? Or should you send cold emails to professors you haven’t met?

I am a graduating senior in Biochemistry in the College of Science and for the past 3.5 years, I have been involved in four research projects in three different labs at Purdue. I first worked in a lab in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering department in my sophomore year. I then took a research class and joined a second lab in the same department in my junior year. I finally started research in a bioinformatics lab in the Department of Biological Sciences in my senior year.

My research journey

My research journey is not linear, it was not defined from the start but was rather built and adjusted throughout the years. I got my first research experience in my sophomore year as a lab assistant. I was in charge of reorganizing an entire lab, which I had never done before. The lab specialized in Agricultural Engineering while I majored in Biochemistry and was passionate about drug innovation targeting human diseases. At first, my lab assistantship started as an organizational position and was not heavily research focused. For example, I was responsible for the storage and handling of chemicals and had to reach out to my biology and chemistry lab teaching assistants to make appropriate classifications of the items I had to sort, label, and discard. I got involved with the core of the research after a few months. I was adding valuable inputs, I learned how to use new machines and devices, and I started to see myself as a researcher.

After that experience, I took a research class for my biotechnology minor at the beginning of my junior year. That class had a heavy research component and combined both wet lab (traditional lab work with microorganisms) and dry lab tasks which featured computational work. It was my first time doing research in a class setting and I ended up presenting my work at several Purdue research conferences. That class also introduced me to bioinformatics which I now want to pursue in graduate school. After a few exchanges with the professor teaching that class, I started working on another project she led and discovered regulatory science. I later became an undergraduate teaching assistant for the research class. I pursued this research project over the summer following my junior year which enabled me to refine my research interests and look into bioinformatics graduate programs. With a growing interest in the bioinformatics field, I joined a bioinformatics lab on campus at the start of my senior year to get further experience in the domain.

Why Everyone Should Do Research: The Benefits

You learn the most by doing. I strongly encourage any student on campus to get involved in research, no matter the field, because of the significant learning outcomes it provides. My experience shows that doing research with different mentors on diverse projects not only made me discover exciting research fields but also enabled me to refine my professional interests. Doing research enables students to gain expertise in a specific domain and participate in cutting-edge projects. Research is an opportunity to improve time and project management skills, expand one's curiosity, and gain autonomy. It also enables you to build a trustful relationship with faculty members and exchange with graduate students who can mentor you and give you advice on your academic and professional career. Undergraduate research enables students to expand their professional network and consolidate their oral and written communication skills. Finally, research broadens your career horizons and makes you a stronger candidate for jobs and graduate programs.

How To Get Started With Research

There are plenty of ways to get involved with research on campus, as advertised on the Office of Undergraduate Research website. Yet, when I ask people about how they got into research, very few mention attending the Research Roundtable or other fairs meant to pair students with research mentors. Many rather sent a cold email to professors who did research they were curious about. If you’re not passionate about the research that your professors lead, there are many other options.

My advice is the following: consult your department list of professors, look at professors’ lab websites, email a couple of them with your resume, and explain why you are particularly interested in their research. You can ask to meet them in person or virtually if they wish to discuss further. If they have office hours, I suggest meeting them in person to introduce yourself as that increases your chances to get a research position if they have availability.

Remember, you just need to start somewhere. Even if your first research experience is not in a field that is directly related to your major, you will learn new skills and new methods of work, you will build up your resume, maybe earn a letter of recommendation from an expert in the field, and most importantly, you will have a clearer idea of the type of professional path you wish to embark on.