Week 10

We just finished wrapping everything up for the REU’s final deliverables. We were on it when we practiced presenting our poster, so the biggest thing for tomorrow is getting all of our packing done early tonight so we can be well rested for the poster meet.

The paper is presentable, but will need to be edited further for when we submit to WISH. We’re going to need to change up the format to match their requirements, and there’s some iteration to be done on the two tables that we have (one of them will likely be replaced by a graph that I’ll make in R, the other we just need to experiment with until we find something we’re completely happy with). We also will have more information to add in the coming weeks as our ARC study unfolds.

That brings us to what we’re going to be doing to continue our research. Both Julia and I are going to be working for 10 hours a week starting immediately after the REU. We’re going to continue helping out with the ARC study and drafting this WISH paper in the beginning. From there, we will begin working on the many papers to come. We’re going to help Fernando edit his CHI paper, and we’re going to be submitting our own paper to the undergraduate design competition.  I also need to iterate further on the forum data, which will allow me to start moving into data analysis, which is my main field of interest. Ideally I can publish a methods paper on the various approaches we end up taking on the forum data, in addition to the paper that Fernando will write about the raw results. We’re also going to be working in some capacity on the eNABLE research that Patrick is conducting. Overall this puts us at a high estimate of six papers that we’re co-authors on out of things currently in the pipeline.

It’s going to be a lot of work over the semester, and I imagine that there will be weeks during the semester where ten hours really means something closer to twenty, but I feel confident in my ability to really put in the time after this summer. Even with classes.

Over the coming months my main goal will be to get published as much as I can and improve my grades, as after this experience I’m pretty sold on grad school. I’m going to apply to more REUs next summer, this time further away from home. At the very least at a different university, but if I get the opportunity I may even try to go abroad.