Hey everyone. Nice to meet ya’ll.
So I recently found out about the whole Summer Programs thing 4 days ago. Of course, I’ve done all my research on programs I saw were quite interesting(MOTSEC, Clark, SAMS, HSHSP, and Simons given I got enough time). Yes, I have started my essays.
I was curious as to what the research of the previous kids at the programs were(chose Clark kids). I looked at the fields that closely related to stuff I was interested in(STEM, specifically Machine Learning/AI) but realized how complex these research papers were.
The thing is, I haven’t done any research like this before. And yes, I understand not everyone goes in being a research background, but I’m just a bit unsure of whether these people that entered had some form of prior, I guess, theoretical knowledge(like that one dude that wrote one on math). To be more specific, a large part of my CS/Math journey was based on competitions(AIME, USACO, stuff like that), and making stuff(websites for my school’s hackathon event, dabbling in different personal projects that may or may not be done). I realize that research probably needs me to know some form of theory. I really chose ML/AI mainly because it’s something I’ve always been really curious about and played around with. The thing is, I haven’t dug to much into the theory side as opposed to the “application” side. I haven’t really read research papers on them if that clarifies things.
Yes, in a part I’m applying for college apps, but a large part of my motivation is actually digging deep into the CS field because I really want to experience working with professional mentors on something that interests me.
If anyone’s got advice, been through these research programs and done deep research, please feel free to reach out.