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Wake up. Go to lecture. Do homework. Take an exam. Study for the next. Go to sleep. Repeat: 5 days a week, 16 weeks in a row, twice a year.

Everyone has a different response to the inevitable academic burnout that plagues so many undergraduate and graduate students. Some may never experience it at all; others may feel so burdened that they leave academia entirely. Some may switch their major several times; others may stay put and silently envy those who do. Even when I was a senior in high school, committing to electrical engineering as my major of choice, I knew that I was signing up to challenge myself to my academic limits: that crossing the gap from a scientific enthusiast to a working professional in the field would not be easy. On my worst days—staying up until the late hours of the night to work on the second lab report of the week—I sometimes wonder if I should have chosen a different path.

As distressing as this thought can be, the great thing about a university like UNH is the immense number of resources that can help you avoid burnout, whether it be tutoring, counseling, or simply joining a club with your friends. One resource that has helped me immensely through my academic development is my experience with undergraduate research—especially a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) in 2024, under the guidance of Dr. Richard Messner. Throughout this ten-week project, I aimed to design an external autofocus system for cinema cameras using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology. This system was designed using an Arduino Nano microcontroller, which acts as the “brain” of the system and stores the code needed for operation, and a TF-Luna LiDAR sensor, which accurately senses distance using near-infrared light. The finalized system is housed in a 3D-printed chassis with the ability to save the “focus profiles” for three different lenses, can be entirely powered through USB power, and comes at a total material cost of $71.69—far less than any similar autofocus technology available to independent filmmakers. By developing a project that encapsulates my personal interests and career goals while also reinforcing the material learned in my classes, I was able to better understand my future in the field and how engineering remains a vital part of my life—even outside of academia.

For me, what I find most rewarding about undergraduate research is how I can combine the knowledge learned from the classroom with my passions, both directly and indirectly related to my major. My skills in electrical engineering relate to hardware design, microcontroller programming, and electromechanical systems, but it is my passion for filmmaking and cinematography that cemented this project’s existence. This passion for filmmaking has existed in my life as largely an artistic outlet (fundamentally separated from my work as an engineer), but when designing a project for my SURF proposal, I had the rare opportunity to link these disparate passions together.

When training to work in any profession, there is a clear distinction between learning information and fully applying said information, and as an undergraduate student, much of one’s time is focused on the former and not the latter. I often have trouble with focusing entirely on learning information without the application, easily getting lost in the weeds of memorizing equations and studying for nonstop exams throughout any given semester. Even in lab-based engineering classes, it can often feel that the laboratory section—as hands-on as it is—functions more as a means to an end to learning the material, fundamentally separated from how to truly apply that information through my own lens. Undergraduate research, however, has allowed me to exercise the application side of my major: developing my skills in problem-solving, troubleshooting, and creative thinking while also linking it to my passions beyond my major. Even if this research doesn’t prevent academic burnout from happening in the first place, it serves as a grounding mechanism to pull myself out of its grasp and rekindle the passions that led me to choose a career in electrical engineering.

To use a (perhaps obvious) analogy, I like to think of academia as architecture. One cannot build a building without a proper foundation to build it on—otherwise, no matter how extravagant the building that sits on top of it, it will quickly crumble. However, a lone foundation does not serve any purpose on its own, either. In the same way, while one’s classes are necessary to build a strong foundation, it is how you build on top of that information that is what truly matters.

Much like any other decision students make, choosing to do research—whether it be through SURF, the Reseach Experience and Apprenticeship Program (REAP), or any other opportunity on-campus and beyond—is a very personal choice. Leading a successful research project can be just as dependent on your passion for your project as it is on your skills in your area. Similarly, choosing the right topic for your research can be the difference between a failed experience and a career-defining one. Choosing a project that directly links with my artistic endeavors has been eye-opening for my future as an engineer (as well as an artist), as it has allowed me to gain the perspective, albeit limited, to look beyond the all-too-common scope of “What do I need to do this week?” to “What do I want to do with my career?”.

This is not to say that my opinion on research is universal. The freedom that I find affirming about research may be seen as unfocused and overwhelming to some, and what I can find discouraging about the academic process can be exciting to others. I certainly don’t have enough experience to talk with expertise on how to manage a work/life balance for everyone, but I hope my experiences with research can help shed some light on how to make the most of a very exciting and uncertain time in our lives. At the very least, for all the students who are working their way through the jaws of academic burnout, remember that there is so much more to the college experience than the monotonous schedule mentioned at the beginning of this article: sleep, go to class, study, and repeat.