Courtesy of Karen Mei

The Yale Computer Society, or YCS, has created a new platform for undergraduates who are in the process of looking for a lab to do research. 

A new project from YCS, titled y/labs, was released on Friday. This project is a collaboration between the Yale Undergraduate Research Association, or YURA, and YCS, with the goal of connecting undergraduates and professors for research. The team hosted a launch party to share with prospective users the mission of their new site. 

“I first became aware of the issue this project intends to fix within my first few weeks at Yale,” Ryan Fernades told the News. “I was considering applying for a lab, but had never done research before, so I really had no idea where to start. I tried going to department websites, but sorting through all of the tabs was a major headache, and it was tough to tell which research projects were already completed.” 

YCS already had an existing y/labs project, but Fernandes described it as “outdated,” stating that it was just a Google Sheet with information. The project Fernandes is referring to is YURA’s research database from 2017. 

Upon joining YCS, Fernandes got paired with the research database team and began working on a web scraper to pull all of the information from department websites and put them in one place. 

The website claims to provide professors with a simple interface to create and update lab listings for students who are looking for research positions. The team hopes to create an all encompassing repository of research at Yale, allowing students to find a lab they are truly excited to join, learn and develop their skills in. 

“The process of looking for a lab is not very well laid out, and so a website like this, having all of the stuff presented to you in one place that is easy to navigate, streamlines the entire process of finding research,” Cameron Jensen told the News. 

The team was not sure at first what the scope of the project should be, but the guiding principle was to “increase communication and transparency” between the undergraduates and research faculty. 

“From the feedback we have received so far, we already have plans to further pursue the goal by adding more fields to listings such as pay range, course credit and the ability for students to apply to labs directly through the website,” Fernandes told the News. “We hope to build on top of the infrastructure we already have to house everything in one place and give PI’s more tools to easily identify who is a good fit for their lab.” 

YCS acknowledges that most students already have research plans for the summer or already found a lab in the academic year. They are now focused on working with students doing research to get the word out to PI’s and get the word out before the Class of 2029 arrives. 

“One of the main values of YURA is trying to not only make research accessible but also collaborate with others to make research more accessible,” Karen Mai, told the News. “This is also connecting professors back into the process and connecting student groups together with this collaboration.” 

YCS and YURA have demonstrations set up at Bulldog Days, Yale’s three day admitted students program, where developers and leaders from both team will speak with prefrosh about using the website and research experience at Yale in general. In the fall, the team plans to collaborate with department heads and the office of admissions to use the website as a way to publish the research occuring at Yale. 

The team hopes to continue to try out the website and fix any issues that arise by the time fall comes. 

Yale is designated as a Research I institution by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.