So far this summer, I have met with several recipients of the Brackenridge Fellowship and the SHURE-Grid Program.  With Brackenridge, there are different research projects categorized as STEM, Social Sciences, and/or Humanities because it is considered an interdisciplinary research Fellowship. On the other hand, the SHURE-Grid program primarily involves the concepts of cybersecurity, and it is funded with the help of the Department of Energy, making it closely related to a STEM research project. To compare, both programs have to analyze current or past information on their project topics and also try to find an outcome to advance the research that they conducted.

With my experiences so far, I have learned about a few different projects that other students are doing. For instance, Richa (one of the members of my Cohort) is conducting a project on the epidemiology of the Bubonic Plague outbreak in Bombay and its connections with the conditions of the people and towns in India. This project caught my attention because I never thought that such connections could be made from different areas around the world, and it was interesting that Richa did end up traveling to the United Kingdom to research this project. Also, I find it interesting that her project is based upon both of her majors, which are Anthropology and Computational Biology. With this being said, I feel that her project will help her advance in her studies as it would be wise for her to make connections with both of her majors and incorporate them into one research project.

Another project that caught my eye was Lillian’s Project, which is based on her Environmental Science Major. Her project is based on the connection between the climate and the relationships between United Kingdom Citizens and Pirates. As this project is based in another location, I find it interesting because it also connects to her minor in history, which will allow her to grow academically and in other fields of research. Also, I found through this project that environmental science isn’t just based on the life of plants, animals, and the qualities of different ecosystems. Instead, I learned that Environmental Sciences are more theoretical and political than I originally thought since Environmental Science evaluates the conditions of nature based on human interaction.

After learning about a few of the other Fellowship recipients’ projects, I hope to learn more about the methods the recipients are using towards finding an outcome for their projects. While some people are using statistics or archived documents based on their topic, I would like to learn if anybody is using a group case study or even a certain concept in their field that will help enhance their research. In addition, I hope to learn about the applications that the recipients can use from their projects in today’s world. As many fellowship recipients plan to use this experience to expand into a Ph.D. in their area of interest, I feel applying their project to different field areas will create another potential research project in the future and also make that person well-rounded.

Lastly, I feel that working with people from different disciplines is beneficial because you can make connections from two or more vastly different field areas. Also, I believe that different research methods can be learned, and this can be used in either bettering or expanding upon current research projects. However, I feel that communicating research outcomes will be an obstacle. In other words, it will be difficult to explain a research topic to someone who doesn’t specialize in that field, and I feel that simplifying, or “watering down” the explanation of this research will make it seem inaccurate.

This is my Cohort this previous Tuesday in front of the School of Public Health as a part of our Scavenger Hunt!