The exploratory phase While this is the most fun part of
any research project, the fun part is inaccessible to someone who has
never done research before. Honestly, the exploratory research is
done by me and my graduate students (you are welcome to participate in
all discussions, if you'd like, but you may not appreciate them).
Instead, you will be asked to help implementing some component of the
project. This is not a typical software development, as you may have
seen in a company, simply because the project is not specified yet and
evolves as we progress during our research. Some people feel
frustrated by the fact that they don't understand the problem well,
and that there are no clear specifications and deadlines. Despite the
apparent confusion, there is rime and reason to the research project,
but is almost never understood by the undergraduate student. While I
try to spend between 30' and 1h per week with each undergraduate
student, we usually end up discussing basics, instead of focusing on
the exploratory part of the research project.
Some (most ?) of the undergrad students do not get past this
chaotic stage: some do not have the right background (hence the reason
for the test above), others simply get frustrated by what appeared to
be an ill-managed development project.