The COVID-19 pandemic brought about abrupt change to traditional research approaches for undergraduate research. As a first-year undergraduate researcher who worked through the Â鶹app Innovation Scholars Program and through the Research Experience and Apprenticeship Program (REAP) for my projectsÌýWireless Data Processing System for IoT-Enabled DevicesÌýand theÌýDirect Conversion of Methane to Methanol Over Gold Catalysts, I learned how to adapt myself to optimize my time spent away from the physical laboratory. By setting up my own home equipment and by using the virtual medium, I conversed with research groups, tinkered with homemade projects prototypes, and thoroughly reviewed literature, allowing me to deeply familiarize myself with theory and experimental data to build hypotheses that I could later test in the laboratory. Such experiences showed me that research is versatile and constantly adapts between the disciplines. By overcoming the obstacles created by the pandemic, I learned skills that transformed my perspective toward research.
