Tips for Getting Involved in Research

Welcome to our second post highlighting tips for getting involved in research! Today we have Aryan Kodali ‘26 (aryankod@unc.edu), a rising junior at UNC who has been in his lab for 9 months. Here is Aryan’s advice for diving headfirst into research!

Which lab are you in and how long have you been there?

I've been at the Boerwinkle Lab in the School of Medicine since August 2023.

How did you figure out your research interest? How did you decide what department of labs you wanted to join? 

Coming into college, I knew I was interested in both computer science and neuroscience! Knowing this, I looked at all the labs in the Department of Neurology in the School of Medicine. I also looked at all the labs in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. Once I got all their names, I filtered them down to the labs that used computer science. That's how I created a list of labs I was interested in. 

How did you first get in contact with your lab? If you cold emailed, who did you email in the lab and what was the general structure of your email?

I first contacted my lab by cold emailing the lab manager. After introducing myself (name, major, etc.), I expressed interest in the research they were currently doing, as well as mentioning why I was interested. I also listed  my prior research experiences and programming experience. I ended the email by saying that I'd be happy to assist with their research in any way possible.  

What did your first semester look like in the lab?

My first semester was really unorthodox. When I started, I began working on a large, new project  with a postdoc in the lab. I had to conduct a literature review with the post-doc, and then I had to learn some new Python skills so I could help write code for some parts of the project. So pretty much as soon as I was done with basic certifications (HIPAA, Researching with Human Data, etc), I started working on a big project and writing code for it.

If this is not the only lab you have been in, did you use your past experience to join your current lab? If so, how?

I haven't exactly been in a lab before, but I did conduct research in high school. I used examples of what I had done previously to exemplify my skills in my cold emails. Also, a lot of my past experience with programming was helpful for working in a dry lab. 

And that’s it! We hope this provided some insight into how you can use your previous skills and knowledge to find a research opportunity. Stay tuned to hear from more amazing students in future posts!