Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of information to increase understanding of a topic or issue. A research project may be an expansion on past work in the field. To test the validity of instruments, procedures, or experiments, research may replicate elements of prior projects or the project as a whole.
The primary purposes of basic research (as opposed to applied research) are documentation, discovery, interpretation, and the research and development (R&D) of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge. Approaches to research depend on epistemologies, which vary considerably both within and between humanities and sciences. There are several forms of research: scientific, humanities, artistic, economic, social, business, marketing, practitioner research, life, technological, etc. The scientific study of research practices is known as meta-research.
How far in advance should I contact professors about available summer research opportunities? For example, should I wait until a few weeks before summer begins? Right now seems like it'd be way too early.
Thanks.
I'm currently a phd student and am doing high energy particle physics. I am unsure about what I will do when I graduate, but I suspect I willl apply for postdoc positions. What I'm wondering is, let's say I do decide to stay in physics. Am I completely limited to a career in HEP physics, or...
Hi,
So here is the contents of this Elementary Particles course:
introduction to families of particles , relativistic kinematics applied to reaction cross-sections and decay rates; symmetries and conservation laws, isospin, strangeness, charm, beauty; parity and CP violation in weak...
Can anyone offer advice on how to write a research plan for an academic position (in physics) that is competent and believable without giving away the farm and all your ideas?
It seems to me these two things are mutually exclusive. A committee will not be convinced without a believable plan...
I'm currently looking at research opportunities for next summer. I was wondering if people here could give some recommendations? I'm interested in particle physics, geophysics (mostly solid Earth and mantle dynamics sort of stuff), quantum physics, astronomy (including instrumentation) and...
Greetings PF.In my lab, we are having trouble making correct photoresist films(over 100 microns, SU-8 photoresist). They typically are not hardening enough before exposure. We want to solve this problem quickly as this is starting to interfere with the project.
I'm trying to find solutions to...
My goal is to be able to get a Phd in physics and do research, particularly in theoretical physics. Most of the posts I've seen so far have been very depressing on this subject. I am in my sophomore year of high school, straight A's all honors core classes (or ap if available). I've talked...
Writing a research proposal for a postdoc fellowship... I'm not sure how personal to make it. I want to convince the reviewers that it's *me* who has the expertise to do this project, but I'm uncomfortable with too much first person (especially when it's "I" instead of "we").
For example...
I'm a first time poster, long-time lurker on these forums, and I'm seeking advice on how best to prepare myself to be a strong candidate for graduate studies in biochemistry. Here goes, another person putting their life story in a thread hoping for answers. Bear with me if you're interested...
Okay, so, I'm about 2 semesters from completing my AA degree and I decided a couple semesters ago that I really want to be a math major. I am not a traditional student exactly - I was homeschooled and my math education was not strong, so I ended up placing into Intermediate Algebra in my first...
For those of you who have done undergraduate research at your home institution during the fall or spring semester, what was your average number of credits taken during that (or those) semester(s). I had read somewhere that the time commitment for undergrads was generally 10-20 hrs, depending on...
I am deeply interested in classical (Newtonian) mechanics (gyroscopes, spinning tops, toys) and want to pursue a career in research in this field. What are the possible options?
Also, can anyone suggest me all possible branches in applied physics related to mechanics?
I am in my second year of my undergraduate studies and I am involved in a research society. Does anybody know of/can recommend any projects that I could do ?(either individually or part of a group). I am not sure of all the apparatus/instrumentation that the university has, so any ideas would...
Hello,
By next summer I'll have completed my bachelor's degree in geophysics at the University of Zagreb (Croatia). My GPA is perfect (5.0/5.0, although i know that a good gpa from a globally unknown university doesn't stand for much), my GRE's are great (General test, quant-170, verbal-160)...
I'm currently in my final year of an aircraft propulsion PhD and have become passionate about plasma physics, due to its fluid like similarities. I find engineering too-well-defined for my liking and would like to research in a less well defined field, i.e. physics. I am considering taking a...
My astronomy lab group is planning a research project. We will have access to a .6 m reflecting telescope in the northern hemisphere as well as I believe a .6 or larger reflector in Australia remotely.
We are curious how likely or practical it would be to be able to find research subjects...
I am interested in starting to research into the acoustics of speech and music.
In particular I want to analyze the spectral profile of human voice in hopes of finding relationships between it and music. A possible future direction for this research is to improve synthetic speech to mimic...
Alright, so I have a question that's really been bothering me.
Suppose you're an undergrad, and you've done research for a year or two. And you've been fairly successful under two groups so you know what research is like. Then what is the point of being pushed ("encouraged") to do MORE...
Can someone help me get the research paper from here:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360319999000087
I tried asking my teacher and even the deputy head but they couldn't help me.
I hope someone from here can.
Is it really that bad to withdraw from a class? I am taking 18 credits and I am taking the following classes:
Computer Based Experimentation
Classical Mechanics
Multivariable Calculus
Linear Algebra
Computing for math & science
Students in Transition Seminar
I'm going to drop 1 class, computer...
Hi, I'm a junior year electrical engineering student with communication major. Within 3 or 4 months i'll have to select a research topic. Can anyone help me with some latest topics? It is bad luck for me, I'm not adroit with circuits.:mad: Actually, I'm very much interested in physics and from...
Starting this next week, I will be involved with volunteering as an undergraduate student in a biomedical research facility. I will be helping out the postdoc around the lab on a project that he is currently working on and I will be primarily involved with helping out with basic tasks around the...
indeed, this is the question:
"to what degree can mathematicians research physics and vice versa ?"
also, say you're in the analysis department of math for instance, to what degree is your research confined to the branch of analysis?
thanks
Hi,
What research internships are there out there for students between undergrad and grad school.
This upcoming summer I'll have graduated from undergrad and will (hopefully) be going to grad school in the fall.
But I want to be doing some research this upcoming summer. I'm not...
I'm looking at universities to go to next September. I'm still quite torn between theoretical physics and particle physics. In an absolutely ideal world, my plan is to do my masters, then a PhD and my dream job would be a university professor, or at least working in physics research.
I know...
Hi everyone, first off i'd like to thank you all for maintaining this awesome forum, seems really cool :D
I wasn't sure whether this should be in the homework forums or not, but since I'm not asking for any solution of some sorts, i decided to post here.
I'm a senior high school student...
I'm applying for some REU's later on this year and I'm wondering whether knowing a programming language is necessary, and if so what book(s) I should get to learn. Also if anyone else has done an REU, is there any other skills or outside school actives I could do to increase my chances of being...
hello everyone,
How much important is doing undergraduate research during summer ? I'm a physics student of the second year, and next summer I could ask for doing research at LIGO or SURF. I'd like to ask you: Is this highly evaluated in the curriculum ? Is it important for my future work as a...
Hello everyone,
I'm beginning a research project for a Math History class on Archimedes. Since technically it is a math class, I have to demonstrate and explain some of his math. Naturally, I can't explain and go into detail on everything the man did, and having only about a month to prepare...
I'm currently a third year undergraduate doing semiconductor research for about one semester and a summer and I absolutely hate it! My professor doesn't have that many grad students and his lab is severely under funded. I don't have my own mentor/grad student and I've been blindly doing a...
I just finished my first 2 years of college and completed all the lower division classes.
I spent 2 quarters part-time researching and a summer full time researching for my professor (who is a theorist) in solid state physics. The work I done was mostly calculation through programming and I...
I'm interested in mathematical or theoretical physics (and, I am quite aware of how daunting it is to obtain a career in this field). I'm curious, if I do research with the mathematics department, does this look good?
Currently I might have a project in dynamical systems, although I could...
Freshman year, I knew that I wanted to get involved with research but had so many interests that I thought I could just pick any lab and be happy. I started working in a neurobiology research lab in January of this year and continued through the summer until now. I'm planning on continuing in...
Hey everyone,
Tomorrow I'll be meeting with an undergraduate professor (does work in Astrophysics/Astronomy) to discuss work as an undergrad for the quarter. I know it'll mostly be grunt work and I'm not harboring any illusions on that but, I have no idea what she'll ask me during this...
Hi Guys,
I have a BSc in physical sciences and an equivalent in mechanical engineering and I am going to apply to grad school for a masters in aerospace engineering.
Problem is, where I am from, aerospace engineering is like way off the map, Both the institutions I study do not offer it...
So I've been accepted into a research program at my school, and I'm to come up with a research topic to work on over the school year. My mathematics is limited to geometry, though after this year will encompass trig and pre-calc. Anyway, I'm interested in pure mathematics, but obviously my...
A recent abstract discusses the first report ever of the remission of an autoimmune disease from which I suffer, ankylosing spondylitis. As a layman without access to subscriptions to professional journals, I was wondering if there might be any posters who are aware of the best internet sites...
Hello
I have asked similar questions in the past but am having a lot of trouble with this!:
I am welcoming all advice on finding good official ranking tables of US Universities according to the quality and volume (and perhaps other metrics as well!) of their scientific research. For...
I'm currently doing a MS in physics. The way I'm progressing, it looks to me that I'd probably have to take 3 years to finish the thesis. This is because I'm having to take extra classes since I didn't have a critical 1 year class (E and M) during undergrad; I didn't major in physics. I'll be...
Dear all,
I've just finished my second real lab experience (after my bachelors thesis). I spent 3 weeks in ISOLDE working on the beamline that would collect the data for my master thesis. The experiment was a huge success.
I enjoyed it a lot, but at some point I just felt like I was...
Hello. I am a senior in high school who is looking for some guidance deciding on what would best suit my interests. I would like to work with a national lab or something along those lines in the future.
I think that construction of particle accelerators, laser experimentation and electronics...
Hi, I am planning to take my master next year, I have several misunderstanding that I wish anybody can explain.
Okay, at first, last year, I've been checking Master programme on Universities. I found that some of them distinguished Master by research and master by coursework. And I keep...
I understand that undergraduate research is big at UCSC and that it is required for both of my prospective majors (physics and robotics engineering). What I'm trying to figure out is the specific differences between undergraduate and graduate research. I would guess that undergraduate reseach...
Hello everyone,
I am doing a little bit of research on Digital Delay and Pulse Generators, and I would like to ask a question to anyone who works with that kind of equipment. How do you choose a DD/PG? The main criterion I guess should be it's function (DD/PG models are normally very...
Hello, everyone.
I am an undergrad physics major - returned to school after many years, in case you had forgotten *_*
It is almost Fall and time to start a new semester. I was all set to take a pretty full load of Chemistry, Computational Physics, Physics, Math, and Philosophy classes...
Hello guys
I am wondering how to find a research position as an undergraduate. Typically, only third year student will be able to find something "real" research job in the summer. Does this mean that it's not possible to do research or maybe assisting research during the regular school time...
making stupid mistakes during research - "ettiquette"
Hi, I have been doing research this summer, and I have been making a lot of stupid mistakes that my adviser has to correct me on. For instance, a graph does not go to 0 where it should due to a preceding function w/zeros, different math...
Hi all, I am currently doing research in Ramsey Theory and my research question is: does Schur's Theorem apply to fractions? Right now I am up to the point where I have proven several basic bounds of Schur and Ramsey numbers and have proven that an arithmetic sequence of fractions does not obey...
I have been thinking about doing my 'high school project' in mathematics and I would like to do some original research.
So my question is: Which areas of mathematics would be most suited for me? Having in mind that I'm still in high school, although I have taken some (fundamental) math...