Feb 2, 2024
If you are interested in Research in the CLPS department as an undergraduate, I will strongly encourage you to look at the department People page. On this page are all of the faculty. Many of them have laboratory pages (there's a link that says "Lab Website" below their name, which you can click on to get access to what that lab does). But even if a person doesn't have a "Lab Website", they might still work with undergraduate students doing research.
I personally want students to have a few classes under their belt, so I usually will tell students that it's not a good idea to try to have a research opportunity until they are in their 2nd year. But in general, it doesn't hurt to ask. Emailing the faculty member is always a good idea. Introduce yourself. Tell them if you have taken relevant classes. Ask if they have opportunities for research for students. They might say no. They might ask you to email their lab's email directly or a lab manager or graduate student, who handles supervising undergraduates. But they also might just say yes. You always miss at pitches when you don't swing.
The list of faculty on the people page, however, is a little intimidating. There's ~25 of us. So, here's a way of cutting through this. If you go to the "Research Focus Areas" on the department website. You will get a dropdown menu of the major topics of research done in the department with a list of the faculty doing that kind of research. Let's say that you're interested in Behavioral Neuroscience. You get a list of four faculty members. Now, you can go to the people page and refine your search.
Again, this is a good first step. Talking with you faculty is the best way to gain opportunities.