A New Lease on Summer Research

While it wasn’t something I saw myself doing when I came to Gonzaga as a freshman, embarking on a summer research project has been one of the most exciting things I have done. Entering Gonzaga as a student in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, I was intrigued by the problem-solving skills the engineering curriculum would build and the field’s firm connection to making things, whether they be machines or structures. I was interested in entering that work through a summer internship but not summer research. From what I had heard, it sounded like the skills you would build through research were not as useful, and the work was more monotonous than getting experience with a for-profit enterprise.

After my sophomore year, my academic path and mindset shifted. I respected the way engineering used models to solve problems, but I realized making models gave me a more versatile approach to understanding my world. The physics classes I had taken radiated that versatility. The next semester, research started to enter my plans.

In the fall of my junior year, I took a class called “Biophysical Systems and Modeling” (you can use physics to describe biology?? Talk about breadth!). The professor, Dr. Chris Fink, is an associate professor of physics and specializes in using physics principles to computationally model the brain in deep sleep. I found our lectures on neuroscience interesting, and the perspective physics brought to the field valuable. So, I discussed with Dr. Fink the possibility of doing research with him over the summer, and he was game!

Over the past few weeks, I have learned firsthand how wrong I was about the nature of student summer research. I have honed important skills like reading complicated, dense materials; writing readable, nuanced code; and communicating technical, specialized knowledge to an audience without a background in the field. In other words, I’ve gotten better at understanding, thinking creatively, and marketing. Those are useful and transferable skills.

I was wrong about the skills, so you can probably guess I was wrong about the work too. Not every day is going to feel revolutionary, but the work is far from boring. I am challenged and engaged every day and am working with a dedicated faculty member who knows how to guide me to objectives that continually push me to grow.

There are two specific things I have gotten out of the Gonzaga Summer Research Program (GSRP) that I could not do in a regular semester – working on a project long term and developing my ability to think independently and to think ahead.

Learning to accurately reflect on my progress and personal workflow, and to plan the next steps in my research, are things I don’t usually get to practice in a classroom setting, where assessment and schedule are determined by the professor. GSRP has shown me how fruitful student research can be and encouraged me to continue this type of work in graduate school.