Karina

Ravi

Please provide a brief summary of your research.   
My research is about quantum networks that could one day be used to create a worldwide quantum internet. More specifically, I do theoretical and computational physics research to understand how theoretical models from statistical physics can give rise to quantum networks. I seek to understand how these quantum networks are organized and what implications this has for a future quantum internet.

What made you interested in pursuing interdisciplinary research more broadly?
When I first arrived at Northwestern I knew that I was interested in physics, but I wasn’t sure how I as just a college student could get involved. Thanks to Science Research Workshop, a program offered by the Office of Undergraduate Research, I discovered that undergraduates DO make important contributions to research in a wide variety of fields! After attending SRW, I was eager to jump into research and make a small contribution to our knowledge of the world.

What made you initially interested in researching your project in particular?
Before my current research, I was part of a physics lab that focused on experimental soft matter projects. While I found that work interesting, I also wanted to try something more computational or theoretical in nature. I looked at the Physics department website, and after finding someone who seemed fitting, reached out to my current advisor by email. When talking to my advisor I was most interested in the idea of quantum networks and how we can understand how they are connected.

Describe your experiences with research thus far in your career.
I have had a couple of different experiences with research so far. One was in an experimental physics lab, and my current research is on the more theoretical side. Regardless of the setting of the research, the most important skill that I’ve learned is the ability to manage long research projects, and to maintain confidence in myself while doing so.

Any tips or advice you have for students interested in pursuing undergraduate research?
No matter what field you’re interested in, the most important thing about undergraduate research is to believe in yourself. Being an undergraduate in the world of academic research is scary. But, you do have an important role and an important perspective.

Also, check out this article about undergraduate research by a recent Northwestern alumnus. The article is geared toward the sciences, but has lessons that I think apply to all fields. It was very helpful as I navigated my undergraduate research experience!

Favorite breakfast food?
Waffles!

What is your most useless talent?
Solving a rubik’s cube (but not fast at all)

Isabel Podolsky (she/her)

Please provide a brief summary of your research.   
What’s so special about New York City’s Riverside Park? Is it its location? It’s one of many waterfront parks within New York City. In fact, the entire west side of Manhattan, NYC’s central borough and the location of Riverside Park, is a greenbelt. Riverside is a large section (330 acres) of this area, but many people are unaware of this fact, as they utilize the park in chunks rather than in its entirety. One could claim that this makes it a city park in size, but a neighborhood park in usage, but that would be an oversimplification. Is it its heritage? It features the pastoral landscapes that defined the style of Frederick Law Olmsted, but Olmstedian influences are common within NYC’s major parks due to the reach of his practice. When thinking of an example of an “Olmsted park,” the world-famous Central Park is far more likely to come to mind. Furthermore, Riverside is barely even a product of Olmsted; Robert Moses, as part of the West Side Improvement, expanded the park to its current size and scope, with its western border being the Hudson River. What truly makes Riverside special is the development that occurred after Olmsted and Moses: the individual efforts that shaped the park into its current physically diverse, vibrant, and community-oriented state. The primary intention of this research project was to understand how individual users relate to and interact with Riverside Park, and how the relationships that people have with the park are unique from those witnessed within the bounds of any other park in the city. Utilizing a nuanced picture of what makes the park unique developed through observations, readings, and interviews, I endeavored to establish conclusions about steps that should be taken to preserve and improve the park for future generations.

What made you interested in pursuing interdisciplinary research more broadly?
I came to Northwestern knowing that I wanted to pursue an unconventional and interdisciplinary course of study. My academic interests center on the processes, interactions, and tensions that occur between people and the places they shape and occupy. In the classroom, I’m able to explore this through my American Studies major, which allows me to craft my own concentration spanning a variety of departments from Civil Engineering to English. However, there’s only so much that I believe I can learn just by reading theory, so I knew that I wanted to make research a priority early in my college career. The Winter 2021 Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Research Workshop gave me the opportunity to do just that, guiding me through the grant-writing process so that I could apply for (and eventually receive) a Summer Undergraduate Research Grant.

What made you initially interested in researching your project in particular?
I’m a New Yorker, born and raised. I’m also an aspiring urban planner, a career path that I decided to pursue at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stuck within the boundaries of my neighborhood for the first time, I became fascinated with the ways in which the public spaces I’d taken for granted became the nexus of social life. Chief among them was Riverside Park, which morphed from a pleasant place to walk to my refuge from the uncertainty of 2020. Concurrently, I became interested in scholarship about parks in urban spaces. I realized that Riverside Park contains the facilities of a “city park” yet is patronized like a “neighborhood park,” so I proposed to define this middle ground accordingly, deeming it a “multi-community park.” This formed the basis of my grant proposal.

Describe your experiences with research thus far in your career.
This was my second independent research project (I did my first project in high school), but working independently on this project was definitely not easy. I love setting my own schedule, but independent research requires a different level of holding yourself accountable for accomplishing tasks. Conversely, since the only expectations I had to satisfy were my own, I was able to be very adaptable, allowing my project to evolve in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Ultimately, I found the experience to be challenging but incredibly rewarding. Most significant to my personal growth was the strengthening of my communication skills. When I was a freshman in high school, I quit after one day of cold-calling constituents on behalf of my city councilperson. I disliked having to contact strangers, but at least the phone offered a shield of anonymity. I never thought that I’d be the person standing on a street corner, asking passerby if they’d like to sit for a short interview, but when I wrote my grant proposal, I decided to make interviews the bulk of the data that I’d gather. I was very hesitant at first, but my confidence was bolstered by how friendly people were when I approached them, even if they didn’t consent to the interview. By talking to strangers within my community and the adjoining neighborhoods, I also gained a deeper appreciation for the space that I inhabit. As the interviewee who changed my project said, “possession is a powerful motivator,” and I know that my fresh sense of belonging will motivate me in my future endeavors.

Any tips or advice you have for students interested in pursuing undergraduate research?
Two things: your STEM-focused friends working in labs aren’t the only ones who get to have all the research fun, and no idea is insignificant! My project focused on what is effectively my own backyard. If you’re passionate about something, chances are there’s a project that you can pursue in order to explore it. The Office of Undergraduate Research is very supportive, and you can reach out anytime for advice! I also strongly recommend participating in one of their research workshops; grant proposals are tricky, but much more manageable when you have a group of people to bounce ideas off.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned/read about/listened to this week?
It’s common for weatherpeople reporting on hurricanes to have a fan blowing wind on them offscreen for dramatic effect.

What is your most useless talent?
Saying the alphabet backwards in under five seconds!

Elizabeth

Jack

Antonia

Please provide a brief summary of your research.   
My project consisted of creating a podcast in order to introduce a new way of thinking about meditation, mindfulness and wellbeing to young adults. I interviewed different experts in the fields of psychology, art, philosophy and more in order to bring different perspectives to the table.

What made you interested in pursuing interdisciplinary research more broadly?
I really believe in the power of creating interdisciplinary projects. By combining my passion for storytelling and psychology, I realized that I was able to create something that was different but that also resonated with many people.

What made you initially interested in researching your project in particular?
The reason why I wanted to dive deeper into the world of meditation is because I realized that although students may excel academically, talking about mental health is not as common. And so, I wanted to find a way of making wellbeing and meditation seem like topics that weren’t as scary as they sounded.

Describe your experiences with research thus far in your career.
This project was tricky, as I depended a lot on my interviewees and finding the right people to interview was hard. I was also working mostly on my own, so interviewing, editing the episodes, managing the social media accounts, etc. was a lot of work. Nonetheless, I have learned any skills, such as being proactive, asking many questions and experimenting with different kinds of media.

Any tips or advice you have for students interested in pursuing undergraduate research?
Don’t be afraid to pivot! Ask many questions and make sure you are continuously referring back to your project’s goal.

Here’s where you can find Antonia’s podcast:
Website
Spotify
Other Streaming Platforms
Instagram
Twitter

George

Please provide a brief summary of your research.   
I used high resolution time-lapse confocal microscopy to determine how mitochondria-lysosome contact dynamics are influenced by Charcot-Marie-Tooth Type 2 Disease (CMTD-2) associated genes. These mitochondria-lysosome contacts enable the cell to crosstalk and regulate function such as metabolite transfer, regulation of organelle dynamics, and maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Mutations in multiple genes can cause different forms of CMTD-2, so over the summer, I imaged CMTD-2 causing mutations in genes LRSAM1, GARS1, and HARS1 and analyzed HeLa cells associated with either the wildtype condition or disease condition. After performing statistical analysis, I discovered the GARS1 and HARS1 mutants showed increased mitochondria-lysosomal contact tethering (they were stuck together for longer), and this leads the way for elucidating the mechanism behind how certain mutations can lead to CMTD-2.

What made you interested in pursuing interdisciplinary research more broadly?
I thought working with novel cells no one has ever looked at before really appealed to me – especially as an undergraduate who has had little prior lab experience!

What made you initially interested in researching your project in particular?
I thought looking at organelle dynamics at the microscopic level was a very unique method to better understand how a complex disease works.

Describe your experiences with research thus far in your career.
The hardest part for me was to really understand my lab’s research, and the only way to understand it was to immerse myself in loads of background reading while taking notes, constantly asking my professor questions, and thinking critically about why I am manipulating a certain variable for the bigger picture of my research, for example. After I completed my summer project, I presented my findings to the rest of the lab in a PowerPoint format. Also living independently – outside of on-campus dorms – taught me a lot about balancing my time and staying organized. Thank you to Dr. Wong for her amazing mentorship and a very productive summer!

Any tips or advice you have for students interested in pursuing undergraduate research?
Talk to as many professors conducting research as you can, and find the one you click with the most! Not all will respond to you however, so keep networking!

What meme lives rent free in your head?
What the dog doin?

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned/read about/listened to this week?
People with blindsight have damage of their visual areas in their brain (they are blind) but can still react to visual stimuli right in front of them without conscious perception.

What is your most useless talent?
In freshman year I was top 300 in league of legends, an online game played by millions.

Aru

Please provide a brief summary of your research.   
Overall, the goal of my research is to be able to distinguish between two of the phenotypes of small cell lung cancer (SCLC), adherent and suspension cells, using machine learning imaging techniques. Yet, this summer, the primary finding of my research work was establishing significant differences in displacement between the two phenotypes using a computer vision technique called optical flow. By establishing this difference, we are now able to use this as one form of information to train our machine learning algorithm to distinguish between the two different phenotypes. After this step, we can now look towards extracting features from the longitudinal images of each cell type in order to use this information to train the classification machine learning algorithm. These features can be how morphology of different cell types changes or stays the same over time, whether that be size or shape, or how each cell population moves over time, as established by optical flow. After collecting these features for each of the two populations separately, we will train an initial machine learning algorithm and then experiment with different machine learning techniques to see which one produces the most accurate classification results of the SCLC phenotypes.

What made you interested in pursuing interdisciplinary research more broadly?
What made me interested in pursuing interdisciplinary research was honestly the amount of potential machine learning has for any field in the world. The ability of machine learning techniques to extract patterns and information so quickly from large amounts of data can be so seminal for a field like medicine where there is still so much ambiguity with why certain patient outcomes occur and the unfortunate persistence of disease. I think it can really change the game with finding patterns in the behavior of disease that we have never even considered.

What made you initially interested in researching your project in particular?
The same reason as above! I think it’s so amazing to see machine learning’s abilities to potentially find motion and morphological patterns of cells over time in order to make the cell populations more distinct. The power of this is so important because classifying phenotypic behavior can help oncologists accordingly target this behavior, especially in regards to metastasis.

Describe your experiences with research thus far in your career.
My experiences with research have always been testing of my ability to persist. When I first started research in high school, it was one of the most disorienting academic experiences I’ve ever had. In any place of academia, people are so knowledgeable and experienced with their field of research, so it’s easy to feel out of place and behind nearly all the time. I think that’s what made it really tricky, keeping a growth mindset while believing in yourself to contribute something meaningful. From this past summer’s research experience, I think the biggest skills I gained was gaining confidence in asserting myself in research related conversation. This came from presenting my research findings to my entire research group each week. Additionally, I was very lucky to have two post-doctoral fellows that were really open to having good, thorough discussions with me about my research work. So, I had the opportunity to truly tap into my curiosity and feel like it was meaningful.

Any tips or advice you have for students interested in pursuing undergraduate research?
I think the biggest piece of advice I have for an undergrad pursuing research is to be patient with yourself. Research will probably be one of the biggest learning curves you will come across since the people you work with are some of the smartest and dedicated people in their field. Don’t be taken aback by how much less you might know than them, and rather take it as an opportunity to really lean into learning about a topic really deeply and being truly curious about it. And always remember that everyone you work with was once at a point you were at. So, don’t count yourself out of doing something incredible and always believe in your ability to grow.

If you had unlimited time, money, resources, support, etc. what is something you would research?
How common disordered eating is among adolescents and young adults and how certain personal/family and societal factors contribute to them.

What meme lives rent free in your head?
Dula peep.

Favorite breakfast food?
Good buttermilk pancakes.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned/read about/listened to this week?
In Neuro 202 this week, I learned that people with intellectual disorders tend to have shorter dendritic spine necks, meaning it takes longer for an electric current to pass through their neurons.

What is your most useless talent?
I can always tell when people have gotten haircuts no matter how little they got cut off. (And jaywalking).

Scarlet

Olivia