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Finding a research problem as an Undergraduate

Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 7:04 am
by Guitarfire
Hey there!

I am an Undergraduate student in Engineering. I would like to apply for graduate school in 2014. Since my major is not in Physics, I would love to do research in a topic and hopefully publish a paper! I tried searching for 'unexplained' in arXiv.org, but I can't find a good problem to start with. My area of interest lies in Quantum Mechanics and Computation. I contacted some of the professors from my country but they didn't seem interested to take a Undergraduate student. So,in a nut shell, can someone point me to a research topic that an undergrad would be able to solve??

Thank you!!

Re: Finding a research problem as an Undergraduate

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2013 8:02 am
by Sentin3l
I would try to find a physics professor at your university who does research in the field you're most interested in. Ask him if you can do research with him. Sometimes professors will let undergrads jump onto their own research as assistants instead of helping them find their own research.

Re: Finding a research problem as an Undergraduate

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2013 8:12 am
by Guitarfire
Sentin3l wrote:I would try to find a physics professor at your university who does research in the field you're most interested in. Ask him if you can do research with him. Sometimes professors will let undergrads jump onto their own research as assistants instead of helping them find their own research.
That might be the case in US. I already sent about 50+ Emails to professors from my country and nobody is interested in taking an Electrical engineer. Some of them replied,and said that they were busy for the next summer! So I am looking for a problem on my own.

Re: Finding a research problem as an Undergraduate

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2013 9:57 am
by blighter
If you are interested in quantum computation and quantum information in general, a lot of EE guys work on that. You don't really need physics professors.

Re: Finding a research problem as an Undergraduate

Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2013 1:24 pm
by Guitarfire
blighter wrote:If you are interested in quantum computation and quantum information in general, a lot of EE guys work on that. You don't really need physics professors.
I would look upon that. Thank you for the reply!

Re: Finding a research problem as an Undergraduate

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:41 am
by Saeed
The same problem I happened to when I was an undergrad. The best work you can do is to read those articles which have been listed at the end of your interest book. For example, if you're studying statistical physics and like to pick it up as your research interest, then you should better look for articles which typically listed below the bibliography that usually comes at the last pages, and they are such that you would be able to read them more conveniently than those that are outside of the book. During the reading process, you'll probably get some ideas.

Let me know if you need further help. I would be happy to answer them.