Anna Anello, Sure Program

Anna Anello is a Senior at Kent State University and is double majoring in Neuroscience and Computer Science. Anello has participated in the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program multiple times and is eager to tell us about her background and what drove her into research.

Your choice of majors is very interesting—can you explain why you chose both your majors and how they were related?

Anna: My grandmother had Parkinsons, so neuroscience is something I’ve always known I wanted to pursue. I took a course on neuroendocrinology in high school, and I ended up liking it quite a bit. Because of this, I ended up majoring in neuroscience eventually. With neuroscience, you work in labs a lot, and people usually end up doing some research. As I did research, I really became fascinated with the technology behind it all and the stuff we used for data analysis and data manipulation. I ended up taking a class called “Programming for Scientists” and I discovered I really enjoyed programming. That is what eventually sold me on double majoring with Computer Science as a second major.

How did you get into research?

Anna: My professors talked to me about research during my neuroscience courses. After looking more stuff up online, I stumbled upon Dr. Richard Piet’s research and emailed him about it. We met in person, and I actually ended up helping him set up his lab, and I started working with him sometime after that. In the consecutive years, I participated in SURE, focusing on neuroscience. However, last year, with my recent interest in Computer Science, I wanted to do some more technical research, and I ended up meeting my SURE mentor for 2023 (Dr. Kim Kwangtaek) the same way—by reaching out.

What is your research about?

Anna: During SURE 2023, I did research with Dr. Kim Kwangtaek in the Immersive Computing for Touch Lab on Parkinson’s rehabilitation using haptic mixed reality systems. I worked with a button-push method on rehabilitation in a MR environment to help reduce tremors in patients.

What was something new or what was your takeaway from the SURE program?

Anna: I got to see how Dr. Kim’s lab worked and how they collaborated with an exercise lab, and I thought it was really cool how they’d work together. I loved the collaboration aspect of this particular experience. I also got to learn how to do data analysis on my own, and being able to do my own simulations is a direct learning outcome from the experience. Winning the three-minute theses presentation also gave me a huge confidence boost and helped me affirm that I would like to work with data in the future as well.

What would your advice be for future students?

Anna: It never hurts to reach out. By asking and trying to open doors that otherwise wouldn’t be open to you, you are presented with many new opportunities. Identify what you are interested in and lead with that.

Edited by Lenore Kohl