<p>I've been in a research lab for 1.5 years right now, working under a post-doc. However, it's not my project and I basically follow him around... he plans the experiments and I help to carry them out. For example, if we're trying to make a DNA construct, he'll tell me where the DNA is and which restriction enzymes to use. So, I don't do any of the planning. I don't feel like I'm learning much from this... I'm not very engaged in the project. I plan to ask for an independent project soon. </p>
<p>How did you guys get your own research projects? And what did you do for it? Just in terms of what you did daily? I would imagine that you would still have to ask for help. And how many papers did you read related to your topic per week, for example?</p>
<p>How much interaction do you have with your PI? If you could impress him/her with new ideas or bringing up things you read related to the current project you might get thrown a bone. That said (and keep in mind I never did research as an undergrad) I'm not sure how much responsibility and freedom they'd be willing to give you since you are still in college and I assume part-time.</p>
<p>I see... what do you think the percentage is of grad students who have conducted original research during undergrad based on the people you've met?</p>
<p>If you want to take some of the direction in the project, then why not try to do so? Think about the technical activities that you're doing and how they relate to the experimental design, and then suggest a few experiments to your postdoc.</p>
<p>In my undergrad lab, it was standard policy to have undergrads start a relatively independent project after they'd been in lab for about a year. In my project, I did a screen, then picked a candidate to follow up on. I investigated the functional consequences of the interaction between the candidate and my favorite gene. I had a lot of help from my postdoc, but the project was my baby.</p>
<p>Well, I don't think the question is research vs. no research. I think it's a question of truly independent research vs. doing technical work only.</p>
<p>I suspect that there's a continuum there, and most people are somewhere in the middle -- doing neither mindless drone work nor truly original independent research.</p>
<p>You should start asking your PI why you're doing each thing you're doing. Why are you using this enzyme, why are you doing X for Y amount of time, what is the ultimate goal of the project, and questions like that. I did mindless drone type work where I was given a small task and I had to get it to work for a while. It became much easier to motivate myself to do better work once I started asking what was the larger goal my effort was going towards.</p>
<p>I agree with the previous post. Ask questions about the work that you're doing. Show interest in making meaningful additions to the work. I didn't really have this problem in undergrad since we were required to do a thesis project/paper for our degree.</p>
<p>Also, in terms of reading. There's not a minimum or maximum or even average amount of papers you will read in 1 week. Some weeks you may read 20 papers, some weeks you may read none. It depends on your experience and familiarity with the work you are doing. Reading papers is always a good thing though. It's difficult at first, but it's a necessary skill so get comfortable with doing it.</p>
<p>You may also discover that the grad student or post doc that you're working with will not willingly give up control over the project. When I was confronted with this situation as an undergrad, I went to the PI with the grad student I was working with and asked if I could take on an independent project IN ADDITION to helping out the grad student still. What happened was that I was given a project that supported the grad student's work without her having any direction over my work. It freed her up to do experiments without me in the way, gave me independence in my work and nobody had hard feelings.</p>
<p>I have the same arrangement with my postdoc as belevitt, though I still help out with his experiments whenever he needs an extra hand. It's great because he keeps me updated on how the work's progressing, and it gives me something to do during long incubation periods.</p>