Liao Zhu

Major(s): 4^th Year - Computer Science BS & Mathematics BS
Intern at Columbia in Amazon's SURE Program

What did a typical day look like as a researcher at Columbia in the Amazon SURE program?

It’s not your classic 9-5 job. Some days I would be in the lab for 10 hours — working at home for another 2-3 — while others I would be in the lab for 5. It really depended on how fast you can work and your workload. After lab, I would spend the rest of the day either doing hobbies or exploring the city with friends from the program.

Could you please explain your research for a lay audience?

I worked in the Wireless and Mobile Networking Lab, focusing on two key areas:

1. How weather affects 5G signals, analyzing how things like rain or even dense cloud formations impact network performance.
2. Spectrum management in densely populated urban environments like New York City, developing strategies to efficiently share and manage wireless frequencies in areas with heavy signal traffic.

My research lab was assigned; however, my research topics were self-selected. The reason I researched the areas I did was due to their extension from my current research here at the University of Iowa, focusing on data analysis and machine learning.

How did you seek and obtain this internship?

I actually had an offer from a separate company for Summer 2024; however, I was curious about what full-time research would be like and, after discussing it with my research professor here, I decided to give it a try and applied to a few schools. The application process was very standard: resume, statement of purpose, and two to three letters of recommendations. Columbia University was one of the schools that got back to me and when I looked at a few of their research areas I decided to give it a try.

What skills did you develop or enhance during your time as an intern?

The biggest was time management, as there were many times I would be swamped with various projects going on at once. I learned how to manage my time efficiently so that I could benefit my lab and also have enough time to do the things I enjoy.

How do you expect this experience to help with your remaining semesters at Iowa?

As a fourth year, I’ve started taking more math-heavy machine learning courses. Though I never did any real math during my experience, just knowing more about machine learning as a whole will better prepare me for these courses.

What was your favorite aspect of your internship?

My favorite aspect of researching was proving a claim we made through code. It’s a straightforward process but knowing that our logic held up and that the data supported our theory was the part I enjoyed the most. 

However, if you were to ask me about my favorite aspect of my time as a whole, it would be exploring NYC with my friends. I met a lot of really cool people from the program, but there were also a lot of people from the University of Iowa that had internships in NYC. We would spend our free time doing things like museums, tourist attractions, and poker.

You mentioned you were curious about what full-time research would be like. Can you see yourself engaging in full-time research post-graduation or as a career?

I could definitely see myself pursuing research full-time; however, I'm still figuring out if that's something I actually want to pursue in the future.