Role
UX Research Intern
Methods
Semi-structured interviews, design workshops, fNIRS
Type
Exploratory/ Generative
Timeline
June - July 2025
The Laboratory for Analytic Sciences (LAS) is a center based in North Carolina State University that collaborates closely with the US intelligence community to create systems and applicaitons that can serve their needs.
During my summer with LAS, I worked on several projects that broadly focused on how we can incorporate AI recommendation and summarization tools into intelligence analysts' workflows. While I cannot share details of my work, below I share my process of leading end-to-end, rigorous research projects during our accelerated research schedule (two months from orientation to presentation of our work).
TL;DR This eight-week internship required rapid onboarding, independent research ownership, and constant adaptation to feedback and participant constraints. By leading two of four projects end-to-end, I strengthened my ability to deliver rigorous research with limited time, oversight, and resources.
The internship lasted eight weeks, and from day one we were expected to quickly come up to speed on previous research and identify opportunities to contribute new insights. This environment required rapid learning, independent execution, agility in response to feedback, and thoughtful planning given a limited participant pool.
In the first two weeks, we reviewed three years of prior work to identify research gaps and feasible directions. Because we needed to deliver both a presentation and written report by the end of the program, we effectively had six weeks to conduct rigorous studies. To move efficiently, collaborators and I held frequent brainstorming sessions to consolidate ideas into coherent, feasible project directions. Weekly check-ins with the Human-Computer Interaction lead helped ensure our work aligned with research goals and offered clear contributions.
The internship structure emphasized independent ownership. Rather than having direct supervisors who oversaw our day-to-day progress, we worked with area leads who offered high-level direction on how our projects fit into the broader research vision. This meant that the responsibility for defining timelines, structuring studies, assigning tasks, and ensuring methodological rigor fell largely on us.
To manage this, my collaborators and I developed shared project plans, established internal checkpoints, and divided responsibilities according to individual strengths. We regularly consulted with area leads to validate feasibility and alignment, but ultimately we were accountable for driving each project from concept to completion. This experience strengthened my ability to self-manage, make independent research decisions, and maintain quality standards without continuous oversight.
Given the fast-paced nature of the internship and the number of collaborating teams, feedback often arrived at unpredictable times — sometimes after we had already advanced a portion of the study. When this happened, we had to quickly evaluate how the new input affected our research direction, identify what needed adjustment, and revise our plans accordingly.
This sometimes meant rethinking research questions, modifying data collection procedures, or updating analysis plans, all while staying within our limited timeline. Working under these conditions taught us how to remain agile: we learned to treat plans as living documents, prioritize clarity in communication, and maintain momentum even as our direction evolved.
One of the major challenges we faced was working within a small and often busy participant pool drawn from the same conference environment we were part of. Recruitment was not always guaranteed, so we had to design studies that maximized the value of each session.
This required careful planning around what data we absolutely needed, how to structure each session efficiently, and how to respect participants’ limited availability. We often iterated on study protocols to shorten tasks, extract higher-quality insights, or bundle multiple research objectives into a single session. Through this process, we learned how to conduct meaningful research even under tight constraints and how to adapt study design to real-world limitations.
By the end of the eight-week program, I contributed to four projects, taking lead roles in two, where I was deeply involved in study design, execution, project management, and paper writing. This experience strengthened my ability to conduct rigorous research under tight constraints while collaborating effectively in a high-impact, fast-moving environment.