What exactly goes on for an undergraduate student involved in research with their professor's ?

Question

What exactly goes on for an undergraduate student involved in research with their professor's ?

Answer 1

It varies.  In some cases you are relegated to clerical tasks such as photocopying, getting books from the library, transcribing notes, etc.  Best to avoid these. In other cases you might do more meaningful work, such as conducting surveys, helping to analyze things, etc -- You may find yourself working with graduate students in these cases, which can be quite interesting, although more likely you will be there to support them rather than doing your own independent thing.

In any event, it is a good break from the monotony of taking a regular course and will help you if you plan to do graduate studies as you can get a meaningful letter of recommendation from the prof.

Answer 2

You would be performing various tasks related to the research.  As an added bonus you'll be learning a whole lot of interesting and useful stuff.  Go for it.

Answer 3

I've done three of these projects and even got an award for one of them so you're definitely making a smart move. In general, most of the projects are on a small scale since undergraduates really don't know the much (it's not a master's thesis). Try and find one that will challenge you. I was a mechanical engineer so most of mine involved researching past methods, designs and info by yourself, coming up with a solution to a problem, planning it out and designing it, building it and then testing it then repeating the process to eliminate problems or unexpecteds. Detailed notes of the entire process should be made because it is good practice and it also makes writing your reports easier.

If you can, try and get a project that is linked to your professors work so that you can get your name on a publication. This looks really good for jobs and especially graduate school.