Lever Magazine

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Project Lever is mentioned as the tool of choice for figuring out research advisors by Huffington Post!

2. Do your research first!

After refining your interests, find out who are the experts in your field and read about their work. Make sure you do thorough research before you talk to the professor to know his or her work and current projects. Start by browsing departmental websites or using academic network tools like Project Lever, Vivo, or Scholar Universe. Look at thedatabase of National Science Foundation or National Institutes of Health to see what professors have ongoing research grants.

Stay tuned for more great press!

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Project Lever is featured on the front page of eCampusNews today! Read the full article here. 

For many students, just starting a research project can be the tallest hurdle standing in the way of completing one. Nearly sixty percent of students at Harvard University who say they plan to do research projects end up graduating without actually doing so.

The students are frozen at the starting line with a series of basic but difficult questions. Which professor would make the ideal adviser for the project? Where are the best resources to use in the research? How do I find this information?

Or at least this is the view of a new Boston-based company that is trying to help students answer those questions with an “eAdvising” platform called Project Lever.

“An overwhelmingly favorite part of college for many students is the people they meet,” said Svetlana Dotsenko, the company’s CEO.  “College is a network for life, from other students you meet in study groups, to your advisers, to the professors that lead you on this intellectual journey. We decided to create Project Lever to connect those people.”

Project Lever began in 2012 and is now in use at Harvard University, Tufts University, John Hopkins University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

The platform is based around a simple search function. After registering with the Project Lever website, a student can type her field of study into a search bar. Below that, the student can go into more detail about what her particular project is about.

“You can type in as much as you want,” Dotsenko said. “We encourage people to give us a lot of information.”

The site then uses an algorithm to match the student’s research interests with that of a specific professor at her institution. It also informs the student of “top matched funding” and similar “top matched projects.” The listings of the professors include what courses they teach, which students they have advised in the past and what publications they have been published in.

The potential mentors are ranked by percentages.

Option A may be a 90 percent match, for example, and Option B may be an 80 percent match. The student has the option to choose either adviser based on the rankings, not unlike on a dating website.

The service is free to students, but universities must pay a small fee. The company hopes to expand their reach to other universities soon and ideally start allowing students to search between different institutions, Dotsenko said.

“It seems like were solving a really large problem” she said. “Research projects sometimes really depend on how good of a mentor you have. This takes out that process, demystifies it a little bit. We’re very hopeful that if more universities adopt Project Lever, or something like this, they’ll see significant boons in research projects.”

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Big positive news for Project Lever from Steven Mintz, opinion leader the Chronicle for Higher Education: e-advising is named No.1 educational innovation of the future! 

Innovation 1: e-Advising

Why do only half of college students graduate? Noncognitive factors seem pivotal, and social disconnection appears to be a crucial factor. When students feel alone, they withdraw and eventually give up. Conversely, students who feel part of a community persist. Another key factor is a lack of direction: Many students accumulate wasted credit hours. Sophisticated e-advising systems will monitor student engagement and degree planning, send out automated warnings, and signal faculty and academic advisers about impending trouble, thus helping ensure that students remain on a path to graduation.

We could not agree more! Student advising can help students get an early start on their careers, develop their academic network, improve graduation rates, and create a positive dialog between students and faculty members. We look forward to empowering students to reach their educational goals! 

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Programming? Check. Electronics? Check. Machining, brainstorming, and reading? Check, check check. Despite their varied nature, the above tasks are all in a day’s work for Ishan Chattrejee, a rising sophomore at Harvard University.  

Working in the Harvard Biodesign Lab under the auspices of its founder, assistant professor Conor Walsh, Chatterjee is assisting with medical engineering projects this summer after beginning work in the lab during his freshman spring. His immediate focus: designing a force sensor for straps to be used in an assistive walking exosuit.

“It is gratifying to see your project through from idea to product, and having new and interesting challenges each step of the way,” Chatterjee said. “That’s the nature of engineering.” 

The Biodesign Lab represents some of the interdisciplinary and rapidly growing programs of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, on the cusp of physical growth with its impending relocation to Allston. As the SEAS website articulates, the Biodesign Lab “brings together researchers from the engineering, industrial design, medical and business communities to develop smart medical devices and translate them to industrial partners in collaboration with the Wyss Institute's Advanced Technology Team.”

After learning about the lab on Harvard’s SEAS website, Chatterjee expressed interest, met with the principal investigator, and subsequently began work as a researcher. 

During the summer, Chatterjee’s research qualified him for Harvard’s undergraduate Program for Research in Science and Engineering, or PRISE. PRISE is one among several summer research programs that unify students in an on campus community from June to August, with planned activities like hikes and go-kart building. 

“I learn as much from the other students as I do on my own research project,” Chatterjee said.