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 University of New Hampshire Innovation Scholars Program and through the Research 188体育app_188体育在线-平台官网 and Apprenticeship Program (REAP) for my projects?Wireless Data Processing System for IoT-Enabled Devices?and the?Direct 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.
