<p>“Doing one’s own research” is really truly an option only commonly available to professors! In all other cases you are constrained in some way. In industry, you are constrained by your superiors’ ideas of what might be profitable. For undergrads or grad students, the range of possible research subjects will be tightly constrained by the resources of their advisor.</p>
<p>Ultimately, what is important is that as a student you have a significant and broad role. Depending on the individual, this may mean a small project that is executed with only minimal assistance from the professor, or it may mean handling part of a much larger project. Either is acceptable, provided you get experience with all the phases of the project - conception, planning, execution, analysis, writing, and presentation.</p>