Cornell · Undergraduate research assistant
Next Gen Problem Solvers for Democracy
Selected as an undergraduate research assistant in the inaugural Next Gen Problem Solvers for Democracy cohort in Professor Jan G. Voelkel’s Lab for Solution-Oriented Science in Polarized Democracies. Accepted the offer in October 2026, with the Workday hold resolved in November. The initial role is five hours per week, combining weekly progress meetings, independent work toward agreed goals, and regular research updates.
The vaccination review: my assignment & methods
Review of vaccination randomized controlled trials
My first project was assigned on November 3. The current task is to develop a reproducible procedure for collecting candidate papers from PubMed and the Social Science Citation Index, capturing each paper’s DOI, author, title, and abstract.
- Current deliverables: candidate papers, a reproducible collection script, and a five-minute presentation for the next lab meeting.
- Planned review stages: identify randomized controlled trials, determine whether outcomes measure vaccination uptake, and distinguish objective from subjective outcome measurement.
- Selection work: identified two original vaccination-uptake trial examples, coded three supplied papers, and proposed AI-assisted screening with independent human validation.
The data collection and screening workflow are at the assignment stage; completed research findings are still to come.
