My role within the research group was that of a junior researcher. I was working under Michelle, a PhD student. The research project I oversaw was related to her PhD topic of study. I thus spent a lot of time learning from her and conducting original research to the topic of project ownership transfer.
I used and further developed numerous design engineering skills. Of note are planning a research process, conducting structured in-depth interviews, learning how to deal with ambiguity while researching a topic not yet well covered in scientific literature, as well as how to manage administrative and ethical requirements of a research process.
The principal output was a draft of a research paper. This consisted of a detailed analysis, coding as well as graphical representation and interpretation of interviews taken. Various methods of visualization of the information were explored.
Furthermore, I built upon the research paper developing recommendations for both students and professors on how to speed up the transfer of feeling of ownership of PhD projects to students, e.g., earlier third-party affirmation. The research resulted in additional insights about how PhD students’ mental health can be influenced by project ownership and vice versa, how proper transfer of projects can impact students’ morale.
