Go to grad school and you can focus on this sort of thing.
Timing is a problem for undergrad research. Big research projects have long and unpredictable timescales. As Robert Sapolsky once said: "one reason you can't easily study the long-term effect of stress on human health is that you can't spend thirty years in graduate school." From the article:
More than 130 students worked on the project over 7 years
Nobody wants to pay tuition for seven years. Instead, undergrads are encouraged to graduate expeditiously, and then look for some grants to support them during the ensuing long slog of research.
This is correct. I was one of the students that helped out incrementally on the project. There were always several students who spent a lot of extracurricular hours, while a good portion of the work came from students who would help out for a semester or two (myself included) when free time was available. There's a lot to get done in school, focusing on one single project so much wouldn't lead to a rounded individual.
In this case it means "someone who is taking advantage of the gigantic amount of money they're spending on college by actually taking courses in college".
Molding fiberglass and fixing engines are excellent activities, but you don't have to pay college tuition to do them. You can do them in your garage for a few thousand dollars in tools and the cost of materials. Or, if you crave that high-tech social atmosphere, you can go to grad school and have them pay you. (They pay you a pittance, but that pittance is awesome compared to paying them thousands of dollars per month.)
Mind you, I have nothing against undergraduate research, but you should balance that against the other parts of being an undergrad. Should you desire, there will be plenty of time later for a completely-unbalanced focus on one big project. Indeed, that time -- years two through N of grad school -- will seem to last forever. ;)
When I was at BYU as a student in the early 2000's, the engineering department had another all electric vehicle they were working on based on a prototype from a large U.S. car manufacturer. It was a standard 4-wheel road-worthy car that they were trying to improve. So they have a history of these types of engineering projects.
It was a first generation Honda Insight IIRC. Although it was also extensively modified if what I heard was correct. It's still in the same building (Quonset hut) as of 2010.
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[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 32.0 ms ] threadTiming is a problem for undergrad research. Big research projects have long and unpredictable timescales. As Robert Sapolsky once said: "one reason you can't easily study the long-term effect of stress on human health is that you can't spend thirty years in graduate school." From the article:
More than 130 students worked on the project over 7 years
Nobody wants to pay tuition for seven years. Instead, undergrads are encouraged to graduate expeditiously, and then look for some grants to support them during the ensuing long slog of research.
Molding fiberglass and fixing engines are excellent activities, but you don't have to pay college tuition to do them. You can do them in your garage for a few thousand dollars in tools and the cost of materials. Or, if you crave that high-tech social atmosphere, you can go to grad school and have them pay you. (They pay you a pittance, but that pittance is awesome compared to paying them thousands of dollars per month.)
Mind you, I have nothing against undergraduate research, but you should balance that against the other parts of being an undergrad. Should you desire, there will be plenty of time later for a completely-unbalanced focus on one big project. Indeed, that time -- years two through N of grad school -- will seem to last forever. ;)
http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/39888