We spent most of this week finalizing our deliverables. I finished my online professional presence (for the most part. There are still a couple of projects I could probably include on my website, for example), and our paper and poster are almost complete.

We printed out our poster only to discover that the images ended up pixilated when it was actually printed. Fernando was kind enough to offer to help with that, so Julia is just going to do some minor edits to make the formatting consistent and then we’re going to send that off to him. We got a version of our circles activity laminated to use in the poster session as well.

Our video went surprisingly smoothly. After the last one we were expecting to spend the better part of a day trying and failing before we finally got something we liked. We still had a lot of bloopers, but we ultimately managed to complete a three minute video in a single take, whereas last time we had a hard time even when we split it into chunks. Julia wrote on a whiteboard for the background of the video, and Jean Camp actually came by and jokingly offered to hire her just based on that (her handwriting is really nice, and this was just the most extreme of the many compliments she got on it).  Overall I’m very pleased with our work. Julia did a fantastic job on the design aspect of making it look nice. We knew our material and presented it well, I believe.

We’ve done a lot of iterating on the paper this week. We kept drafting until Fernando would only come back with a couple of simple edits each time, then brought it to my mother (Dr. Kay Connelly) to let her take a crack at it. She had a ton of insightful suggestions, which means that we still have a lot of editing to go. That said, I can finally see how we’re going to have everything done by next Wednesday. There have been a lot of sleepless nights involved in getting caught back up, but I finally feel like the end is in sight for the work we need to get done for the REU.

The research seems unending, however. We’re still working on our ARC study, which is going well, and will likely continue to work on it for weeks to come. At the end of the REU I’m going to get back in touch with Nandini and Alex to discuss the machine learning aspect of the forum data. We have a lot of papers to write stemming from the ARC study, and are probably going to get involved with some of Patrick’s other work as well. The current estimate for the number of papers that we publish based on our work in this REU is five, three of which either Julia or myself are likely to take first author on. This is an amazing opportunity, but it also means I don’t expect to sleep much during the semester either (especially if Patrick ropes us into more stuff like his e-NABLE project).

From here on our we’re going to have to be careful about when we work on what, and how to structure our deadlines. With a lot of irons in the fire for research and classes, knowing when we should work on what is going to be key. After the REU finishes, my first order of business is going to be to come up with a list of deadlines for paper submissions and a schedule for future work so I can start mapping out how I’m going to be spending my weeks. I’ll also need to allow leeway for some grunt work that we’ll be expected to do (transcriptions of interviews, in particular).

It can be a little overwhelming at times, but in the end I think I really enjoy doing research and am happy to be building the references for a career should I want that when I graduate.

Things I wish I knew going into the REU:

1. How much work I should actually expect to do each week. The 40 hour minimum makes it easy to assume that that is close to the amount of time you’ll actually be working. While the truth is intimidating, I think making students aware that they will likely be working a lot more, but they are capable of doing it would be really helpful.
2. Mentors appreciate honesty, and are responsive to new ideas. At first I felt uncomfortable coming to Fernando with things that I thought could be improved in his research, because I felt as if I would be challenging his seniority in some way. After I got to know him, I learned that he really appreciated candid discussion, and was incredibly responsive to suggestions. If he disagreed with a suggestion of mine, he would not be offended and would simply debate his reasoning.
3. Research does not always go how you expect it to. A recurring theme for a lot of people’s projects was not completing all of the research by the end of the ten weeks, often due to issues with recruitment. I wish I knew that this was normal, and that I shouldn’t stress out too much over it.
4. Most scientists like to talk about their research. Most people I encountered who I needed information from were surprisingly open with their time if it meant they got to talk to someone who was fascinated with their work. Had I known this sooner I’m sure I would have pursued more opportunities to speak with people who shared my interests.
5. The work will get done (somehow). I don’t think there was any real way to make me aware of this, as the mentors talked about this a bit in the beginning and it still didn’t sink in. There were a few points during the project when I felt hopeless about our final deliverables. While it’s good to be aware that there’s a lot of work to get done, that worry can be paralyzing at times. It’s amazing how much a seemingly impossible amount of work starts coming together in the final weeks if you really apply yourself, and I wish that I had just been able to take that on faith and keep working at times when I was stressed throughout the summer.

Things future students should consider doing:

1. Pace yourself. There is a lot of work to get done, and ten weeks can go by a lot faster than you might expect. It’s easy to bite off more than you can chew assuming that it will all come together in the end.
2. Be proactive. If you have a question, ask it as soon as you can. If you think some of the methodology you plan on using looks off, have a conversation with your mentors as soon as possible. I think that the biggest thing that really helped me make an impression to my mentors was my attention to detail in finding some inconsistencies in data that we had, and the fact that I was proactive about bringing these issues to their attention and figuring out how to solve them.
3. Socialize. We had a diverse group of smart and interesting people this REU, and it was worth taking the time to share experiences and get to know them. I regret not taking more opportunities to spend time with this awesome group of people, and the ten weeks went by fast.
4. Be decisive with sleep. I think most REU students will find themselves in a situation where they’re unsure whether to keep working or to get some rest and come at it refreshed. The right answer will vary based on the individual and the situation, but the wrong answer is always half measures. The worst thing you can do is to stare at the same three sentences for an extra hour, accomplishing nothing and further limiting your sleep time. If you’re going to go to sleep, do so immediately. If you plan on staying up, set clear goals for before you get to sleep and make sure you accomplish them.
5. Limit caffeine intake. This one might not apply to everyone, but when there’s a lot to get done I tend to have a bit of an arms race between caffeine and my own exhaustion. Limiting how much coffee I drank to only when I really needed it helped keep it from getting too far out of hand by the end (though I won’t pretend the amount I’m drinking at the moment is healthy, it’s better than it has been some exam weeks).