Get Involved: Northeastern Undergraduate Students
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One of the most exciting aspects of being an undergraduate student at a big research university like Northeastern is the opportunity to get involved in research.
We are enthusiastic about having undergraduate students get involved in our research with the mHealth Research Group! We have projects that touch on CS, design, health, psychology, and data science. You do not need prior experience to get involved. You will need creativity, dedication, and especially persistence. Sometimes we have funded co-op positions available (check the Northeastern Student Employment website), but most positions we have will be volunteer or will be part of a directed/independent study class you would sign up for. A great opportunity for ambitious Northeastern undergraduates is the PEAK Award program. Those in the Honors Program can apply for one of the Honors Program awards. See the open positions page for more information about possible volunteer opportunities with the mHealth Research Group. Khoury professor Nina-Rotaru put together some great information on the Why, How, When, and What of doing undergraduate research, from which I have adapted the info below. Why should you do research (if you are interested in graduate school)? Doing undergraduate research can help you get into graduate schools, especially PhD programs. What you want is to get deep enough into a project over multiple semesters so that three things happen: (1) you develop a rich understanding of what research is related to a topic that interests you, (2) you work closely enough with a research group so a faculty member can write you a stellar recommendation letter that essentially says you are doing work as well as graduate students, and (3) you demonstrate your research and team potential by contributing to, or even leading, a scientific contribution and associated scientific manuscript. Why you should do research (even if you don't plan on going to graduate school)? First, even if you think you won't go back to school at this time, most NU students will end up back in graduate school at some point in their careers. But even if you never go to graduate school, research will help you in your career in these ways:
Professor Nita-Rotaru put it this way: "A successful research experience should require you to interact with a faculty advisor, several Ph.D. students, participate in a lab's activities, and learn more about career opportunities. It should allow you to learn something you have not already learned in a class, and provide a safe place for you to fail. That's right, you need to learn how to fail in order to succeed." How can you start doing research as an undergraduate? There are different ways to get involved in undergraduate research. Some projects will have you contributing to a team by doing work that supports a project. You might be collecting data or coding. Other projects will require you to take more initiative in leading work that will eventually (hopefully) result in publication. You might:
When should you start doing undergraduate research? You could start at any time, but because you will have more experience and skills as you advance through NU, you will be able to take on the most sophisticated projects in junior or senior year. If you are possibly interested in graduate school, junior year is a particularly good time, because it may allow you to complete a project before you apply for grad school. More important than when you start is whether you are ready to make the commitment research will take. It is difficult and requires great perseverance to complete a research project where you are doing something that expands human knowledge! A single semester is unlikely to be enough time, and you need to plan on spending at least as much time during each semester as you would spend on a difficult course. Most projects will require two semesters or more, with milestones being doing a literature review to learn about a topic, designing an experiment, implementing a demonstration system, getting approval to run the experiment, collecting data, analyzing data, and writing a final manuscript. What are outcomes of undergraduate research? Your work might lead to (1) code, (2) a report, (3) an undergraduate thesis, and/or (4) a published manuscript in a scientific venue. Important! Research is challenging and time-consuming, so to be most successful, you should identify a research group that is working on a topic or problem you are passionate about. What do you do for fun? What are you most curious about? What do you think would be most amazing to create? Try to find a faculty mentor and research group that works on something related to those core questions and stick with that group for multiple semesters. If you do, you are not only likely to enjoy learning about research but also more likely to make a scientific contribution and have an impact. This might not be with the mHealth group and that's ok. Northeastern is a big place with all sorts of amazing research going on. How can I get involved? You should start by learning about the research group from this website. Consider trying to read a few scientific papers published by the group. Current Northeastern students interested in getting involved should send the following information to Prof. Intille: (1) what project, or type of project, you want to work on, (2) resume, (3) grades of all classes at Northeastern, (4) classes being taken in the current semester (or other commitments), (5) classes being taken in the upcoming semester (or other commitments), (6) hours that could be devoted to a research project, and (7) motivation for getting involved in research. Also, fill out this survey: mHealth Research Group Applicants. What types of topics might I work on? At this time, we are especially interested in having new students join us interested in these topics:
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