After being interested in their research since my freshman year, I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the Engineering for Democracy Institute (EDI) during the spring semester of my junior year. The researchers at EDI were warm, welcoming, and always willing to provide support and constructive feedback. Joining the EDI team gave me my first experience as an undergraduate researcher, which was a very valuable one. 

I initially worked on a project focused on the process of signature curing and learned about a website designed to make signature curing simple and accessible. Halfway through the semester, the project was paused due to external factors, so I pivoted to work on a different project. For the rest of the semester, I contributed to the Warehouse Space Requirement Calculator (WSRC). The WRSC is developed in collaboration with the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions (PLEJ) and will help election officials determine the space needed to store election materials. For this project, I researched the dimensions of in-person voting equipment. These findings were presented on a poster at the URISE Undergraduate Research Showcase. It was a great experience to share what I have learned about my project and elections, as a whole. 

Although I did not stay with the same project for the whole semester, I enjoyed being able to contribute to the various aspects of elections and voting that EDI is involved in. I can say that after this experience, I learned a lot about how research evolves, how elections are supported, and how important the work at EDI is to many people. 

Written by Grace Marrier