There are a lot of things that I hope to learn through this program that both do and do not relate to my project. The quote, “Good artists copy great artists steal” can be applied here, especially with research. There are so many different projects (lab related science, literature review, gender studies, historical, etc.) that each idea of research will be different from one another. I hope to be able to “steal” how other people are conducting research, as it will likely not be the same conception that I have about research and would allow my project to bear more fruit. There are also many other things that I could “steal” that would benefit my project greatly, such as the knowledge of particular databases, how people are managing their time, and programs to make research more efficient. I also just want to learn about what people are learning, what they think are the implications about what they’re learning, and how that will help them achieve their goals in the future.

I found my project having a lot of similarities with the more humanities-based projects (such as Max’s and Alison’s). The type of research is similar in that is more based in historical documents and literature rather than original scientific research. However, I found myself particularly interested in Evan’s project because he is, in a way, creating something new by figuring out how to combine these languages into a more fleshed-out modeling system. Even though I can barely understand his topic, that idea of being an independent creator is something I think computer programmers and musicians (especially composers) have in common. There were a lot of differences that I noticed between my projects and others, with most of them being fairly obvious. As I am not doing any sort of scientific research, a lot of the projects that are in that area have completely different goals and methods of research (such as Kamron and Ella). They have more quantitative based research that can be applied, with my project being more theoretical and qualitative in in nature.

Some benefits of working with people across disciplines is, again, that idea of opening your horizons and being exposed to modes of thought and action that you weren’t before. Challenging your own train of thought and being exposed to different ways of thinking is one of the most crucial things to do as not only an academic, but an intelligent citizen in general. The obstacles will be present, mainly, in the Ideathon. Because all of us need to work together on a project instead of independently, we will have to solve any conflicts that might occur in our different modes of thinking in a professional and timely manner. I also think communication about people’s personal projects will be harder across disciplines, because people from a different discipline are going to need a lot of simplification and no jargon as to be able to understand the significance.