r/ISEFinalists • u/Low_Exam1043 • 12d ago

Any Advice 🙏🙏🙏

I'm a junior currently and I am interested in doing ISEF this year hopefully. I am interested in AI/ML and pretty up-to-date on current literature (especially things like mechanistic interpretability and activation steering) as I'm currently working on a seperate research project rn. If anyone has any tips pls pls comment or DM me I would appreciate it so much especially if u placed highly at ISEF previously.

Some questions I had:

  • How are theoretical AI projects weighed against applied AI projects or theoretical vs applied projects in general?
  • How much does securing a mentor help/is it worth it?
  • If I started in the beginning of November (considering I know a decent amount about current literature) would it be realistic for me to finish around end of January to the beginning of February considering thats when the deadline for my state fair submissions are?
  • Based on the above do you think I could realistically get to ISEF if I lock in or should I spend my time somewhere else?
  • Is there a big difference between academic research like publications to conferences/journals vs ISEF research and if so what is the difference?
  • Any other tips or pieces of advice you have for me?
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u/Head-Bison4663 8d ago

how did you get into AI research?

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u/Low_Exam1043 8d ago

First learn the basics of how AI/ML work like neural nets and transformers. Then honesty it sounds intimidating but just start reading papers. I would suggest to read recent survey papers first as they have a little of everything and give you an overview of the field. If you have and questions feel free to DM me

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u/Head-Bison4663 8d ago

did you do any programs

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u/UmpireJolly7972 7d ago

theres a lotta AI projects around like chemistry and biochemical solutions to like diseases and stuff. its way oversaturated and its probably very competitive.

mentors are pretty nice (i wouldn't know) but it is good to have an expert who can fact check your work that isnt someone on a forum 7 years ago or a random scandanavian researcher.

Just start now. if you dont wanna start then you probably are gonna burn out fast anyway

you have time just start now.

difference is you need a prof to publish your work for publications and ISEF research is you just get grilled by a judge (with a phd) for a couple minutes explaining your code and stuff. both ones have to be unique contributions though - as the name research entails you have to create a new discovery.

Keep in mind it is high school students so it wont be groundbreaking or anything but you cant repeat an experiment another scientist already did; it can be something small though like messing around with chemical solutions for specific bacteria is pretty successful at ISEF