<p>For computer science, what type of research could be done at an undergrad level? I just don't see what there is to research. Seems to me that the only advances are new, more efficient ways of doing things.</p>
<p>For the most part, research at the undergraduate level isn't finding revolutionary ideas in the field but usually the investigation of a very specific problem that might involve being a graduate student or professors lackey. It isn't that the field has been completely explored but instead that most undergraduates do not have the sufficient coursework, training or funding to do the typical ivory tower view of research.</p>
<p>Computer Science research is very diverse. Yes, there are many breakthroughs that involve optimization code or finding a quicker way to run things but CS also commonly delve into Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Fuzzy-Logic, Computational theory, Cryptography, Graphics and as well was computational methods in physics or biology.</p>
<p>The nice thing about computer science is that once you take an upper division course or two in a specific subject (say, computer architecture, operating systems, networks, etc.; I have a bit of a systems bias, though), as soon as read some of the latest research papers in that field, you will be able to contribute to a computer science research project, given the time, energy, and motivation. Undergraduates can get involved in computer science research, and work on very interesting projects as well. No, as the above poster mentioned, they usually don't do anything earthshattering; that is the job of professors and graduate students. However, you can help out with their projects (coding, data collection, performance analysis, etc.), and you might even be published if you did a significant portion of the work.</p>
<p>Yes undergrad research isnt all about doing something ground breaking (with some exceptions) its more about getting involved in it early to see if you like the atmosphere (grad school)</p>