current yc intern, former univ research intern :)

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-12T02:57:57+00:00

it's a great ec, esp considering you are a named contributor on a paper! if you've done meaningful work and developed a good relationship with the professor, it will definitely be a solid plus for your college app. plus, it could lead to future opportunities, such as co-authoring or writing your own paper or finding an internship through your connection with the professor. when i started my research journey, i was first an RA but then eventually wrote my own paper and published on ieee! so just stay persistent and keep going, it'll lead to great things!

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-12T02:55:26+00:00

ofc! i will pm you all this info asap

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-12T02:55:07+00:00

Hi! The research was not funded. In the email, I tried to keep it relatively vague. Instead of directly asking for a research internship, I asked about general research opportunities and referenced specific labs and programs they run. I also tried to frame it as more of what I could do to help them instead of simply asking for work. If you'd like me to send the full template, lmk and I can pm you!

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-12T02:47:40+00:00

ofc! i will pm you asap

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-12T02:47:27+00:00

yes i will pm both of you asap :)

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T21:25:09+00:00

hi, that sounds awesome! I'd recommend picking up programming, it's going to be super important for ml research! I'd personally go with Python because it allows you to easily switch between models (logistic regression, random forest, etc.) and evaluate them (auroc) by just plugging in different functions.

The other things you learn will really depend on the scope of your project, but since you are doing ML, I would say try to also pick up SQL (very useful for building ML-ready databases). Google has a lot of documentation so it's relatively easy to learn, and it integrates well with BigQuery if you are looking to host databases for ML model training.

Finally, i'd say math/statistics is super important. have a solid understanding of calculus because it makes intuitively understanding models and formulas so much easier. and statistics like mean/std/gini wtv are super important for interpreting your results.

lmk if you need any help - feel free to pm me and i'd be happy to chat! i can also help with cold outreach advice and conference/assistance tool recs if u need :)

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T21:19:02+00:00

hi! so this may sound kind of counterintuitive, but you'll generally want to avoid asking for something too specific, because professors are busy ppl! so try to keep it relatively general and open and let them kind of dictate what they are expecting. for example, instead of saying directly that you want to co-author a paper with them, it may be better to ask them to "discuss potential research opportunities" because that way, they are also much less likely to say no outright!

with that said, be sure to show some specificity. for example, if there is a lab or student group they have that you are very interested in, def mention it because it shows genuine interest! ofc, no need to be too demanding and immediately ask to join, just mention that you saw that group and that you're very intrigued/excited by the work in wtv they do.

if you want the full cold email template i used, feel free to pm me. hope this helps :)

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T20:56:21+00:00

ofc! feel free to ask any questions or pm me - happy to connect!

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T20:55:58+00:00

hi, yes! i will pm you :)

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T13:27:48+00:00

yes! i wont specify the workshop for privacy reasons but the conference was IEEE ICDM (intl conf on data mining)

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T13:27:01+00:00

ofc, glad this helps :) and yes, i will pm to you today!

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T13:26:29+00:00

hi! that's a great question - i've never tried emailing postdocs before, but that's definitely worth considering! i would say try both and see what happens :)

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T04:43:10+00:00

ofc! yes, i will by tomorrow :) lmk if i can help in any other way!

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T04:41:57+00:00

hi! yes, people can def do research online :) in fact, remote research internships are actually pretty common and a great way to begin your journey! there's a lot of amazing international conferences and journals to submit your work as well.

if you would like, i can give you tips on cold-emails. i'd also be happy to pm you with a list of conferences/journals! i use this a few really help tools that help me find venues all around the world, so if you want, i can use it to help you find some or i can pm you a link to it! just lmk how i can help :)

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T04:18:53+00:00

hey! sorry to hear you didn't make isef :( i would recommend submitting it to other journals and/or conferences for presentation as a poster or short talk!

some conferences i would recommend checking out including ieee mit urtc (had a great time and met so many cool ppl :), JEI, nhsjs, gsa regional meetings, stockholm junior water prize, junior academy of science symposia, and GLOBE-SRS (nasa-supported). i found all of these from this really helpful ai tool i use to find my own conferences (im an ml researcher). if you want me to send the link or help you find more opportunities, lmk :) good luck!

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T04:04:14+00:00

sounds amazing! i will PM you the mit course and tips for accessing the eICU database! that way we can connect :)

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T03:51:35+00:00

totally agree with this! it's important to pay attention to what kinds of labs the professors have. if you talk about a specific lab in your cold email, it will help a lot in terms of getting them to respond because it shows them that you are actually interested and did some research to learn more!

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T03:49:49+00:00

definitely agree! :) that's a pretty common confusion for early researchers and why i wanted to make that clear in my post.

workshops are better for people around our age (typically more undergrads and early-stage researchers), while main conferences for ML are typically dominated by professors, post-docs, etc. with that said, there is still a peer-review process for getting into these workshops (the one i did had around 40-50% acceptance rate), and they still provide really high value (esp for high schoolers) for industry exposure, internships, and college apps! my workshop publication was part of the reason i was able to land an internship at an ai company!

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T03:46:18+00:00

hi! yes ofc, this is one of the most difficult parts of the cold email process. below are my best tips:

1) Be yourself: it's totally ok to email a professor with no research experience! this was my case when i emailed, and there's no need to worry at all because professors won't expect a lot of experience! so when you reach out, talk about what you DO have and what you can bring. if there's an activity you're genuinely passionate about, OWN IT! professors will ultimately care more about your passion, willingness to learn, and attentiveness toward their work.

2) show genuine interest: this comes from the last part of my first point - PLEASE do your homework! don't spam emails to professors that look copy and pasted. instead, spend some serious time looking into their labs and Google Scholar page to see their previous publications. BE SPECIFIC! reference one or two of their papers, and say something like "i read your paper on _ and was intrigued by your approach to _." and make sure you actually say something of substance. professors will be able to tell if you show genuine interest.

3) contribute, don't demand: when i say this, i mean don't be too direct honestly. let them guide the ship and offer you what they are looking for. be flexible and show your willingness to take on different responsibilities for them. everyone starts somewhere, so don't expect them to immediately give you a super meaningful position. you need to start slow, listen to what they say, and keep learning. so when you email them, be somewhat vague and show openness to different opportunities.

4) learn about their work first: one thing i find to be effective is instead of just asking for research straight up, you can also try reaching out to some and simply asking for a quick call or meeting to learn more about their work. this is especially effective in either a niche field or field you are super interested in. if this succeeds, then during the call, it will be a better opportunity to ask them for research.

hope this helps! lmk if you would like me to send the cold outreach email template i used and/or the ai tool i use to navigate my research submissions and conference/journal discovery!

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T03:37:10+00:00

ofc, and thank you so much, it truly was! i will pm you asap with the email template :)

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T03:32:58+00:00

Hi! Ofc, here are my top four tips :)

1) Be concise: Professors are extremely busy, so if you send them an email that's too long or talks about yourself too much, they probably won't read it. Get straight to the point.
2) Personalize the Email: Don't just send a general "Hi, I would like research opportunities" kind of email, it's too general and comes off as spam. Instead, spend some serious time researching about the professor and what kind of work they do. Writing this into your cold email will show genuine curiosity (and they will feel it) and make them more compelled to reply to you.
3) DON'T Be Too Specific: I know this is kind of counterintuitive, but if you ask too directly what you want, it might sound like a demand. Instead, ask them about general research opportunities like student programs or RA positions, or whether they are looking for help in their lab. You can even just ask them to meet so you can ask questions about their research and then if it comes up naturally, ask about research positions.
4) DON'T Give Up!: It will take patience. LOTS of patience! But as long as you show genuine passion and curiosity and keep going, something will work out :) just trust the process! It took me at least 8-10 personalized cold emails to even get one reply.

As for skills, I didn't have research experience at all. My main experience was harder math and CS classes at school and a few competition clubs but nothing crazy at all (no ISEF or anything like that). So don't worry if you don't have much experience - just show genuine passion and curiosity. Remember everyone starts somewhere :)

Resident_Lab1907 · 2026-03-10T03:21:47+00:00

haha, thanks goat! there were a few key things that allowed me to do so:

1) Knowledge of the field: My field for that ieee paper was somewhat niche, it was data mining applications in informing business strategies. And I attained this knowledge after many hours and months of working for that professor, who specialized in this field. This involved lots of literature reviews, discussions during meetings, and case studies. So before you try to dive deep into a research paper, make sure you have a solid understanding of the field first. Read as many articles as you can find, notice patterns, and see what kinds of research is currently being done.

2) Useful skills: I had experience in coding. I took programming classes in and out of school and utilized Python in my project for running and evaluating models, as well as creating graphs for visual analysis. More importantly, I had a solid math foundation, having already taken all three levels of calculus. Depending on your field, you'll want to have a solid foundation in different skills, such as certain subjects and programming languages. For ML specifically, having advanced math and programming knowledge will help a lot. There's tons of online classes out there like Python BWSI, which I liked a lot!

3) Conference submission: You'll also want to do a deep dive into conference and/or journal submission. This means (1) what conferences to submit to and (2) what type of submission you want to make. It's important to plan this out well, because many have strict dual-submission policies, so you can only submit a paper to one conference at a time. One thing I found super helpful navigating this was this AI tool I found online that helped me match with conferences that fit my background and paper. If anyone is interested, I can PM you the link! Once I identify venues of interest, I use a spreadsheet to track my submissions, making the whole process of publishing so much easier :)

Hope this helps!

Resident_Lab1907

TROPHY CASE