REU's are an excellent opportunity for undergraduates to gain real-world research experience.
Ginger participated in an REU at Oklahoma State University, resulting in a poster presentation at the OK-WISE conference in Tulsa.
Why apply for an REU?
REU's help undergraduate students gain experience with graduate level research. You can also get paid for your work!
Ginger says, "I learned that I want to have a career in doing research and that I can accomplish more than I thought when I work hard, such as learning an entirely new language in just a few weeks."
To search for an REU, visit the National Science Foundation website at nsf.gov (opens a new tab) or the American Mathematical Society website at ams.org (opens a new tab)
Application process
Find REU opportunities and their specific requirements
Gather/write documents such as a personal statement, letters of reference, resume, and transcript
Apply to any REU that interests you- Ginger applied to 7!
Start early- Ginger applied in December and heard back in May
Ginger's REU Work
The goal of Ginger's project was to make Network Embedding systems faster without losing accuracy. Network Embedding is a way to model large amounts of real-world data so it can be studied.
Ginger contributed to the project by writing an implementation in Python to test an algorithm created by her mentor.
She tested for accuracy and speed.
The algorithm made processing over 50% faster!
Ginger says, "I was surprised by how much work I was doing independently. I had to learn Python and would work on my own writing an implementation and running tests."
Ginger's mentor was Esra Akbas, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Oklahoma State University
Learn more!
Talk to your librarian to learn more about applying for an REU!
Visit library.ecok.edu (opens a new tab)
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