The Penn Undergraduate Research Mentorship (PURM) Program

Since its inception in 2007, PURM, which is under the Penn Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships (CURF), has provided freshmen and sophomores in any of the 4 undergraduate schools the opportunity to spend a summer conducting cutting-edge research with Penn faculty members. After hearing about this amazing opportunity from an email from CURF, I applied to the PURM program in the second semester of my freshman year, hoping to deepen my understanding of research methods and develop further presentation skills.

I was able to apply to 3 specific projects from a list of 150+ projects, which faculty outlined specific responsibilities and descriptions for. My first choice was “Numerical Methods for Macroeconomists”, advised by a veteran macroeconomics professor and PhD student. I was delighted when I learned that I was admitted to the program and that I would be working with a research partner. The overarching goals and objectives of the project were for us to navigate through the actual tools that economists use, including R, Excel, MATLAB, and the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) and Census data in order to better understand the role of an economist and learn the various skills they possess to analytically make conclusions from utilizing the given data.

It was truly astonishing to see the amount of coding embedded into the research experience, and I am very grateful to have learned the fundamentals of coding languages I was previously not familiar with. Ricardo mentioned that practical applications were the best way to harness computational and computer science skills, and I believe that wholeheartedly after conducting several mini-projects: analyzing income inequality in the U.S., applying spline function knowledge to replicate an image, understanding how LCA programs can show us data on working professionals from foreign countries, and observing the cyclicality of job-to-job transition rates as people become both unemployed and employed. In addition to enhancing my knowledge about different aspects of macroeconomics, I was also able to help along the process of creating a working copy of an economics textbook for Professor Greenwood’s course, so I enjoyed that aspect of the research as well. It was an incredible and gratifying experience to see my work come to fruition!

You can view my project poster and presentation here if you’re curious to learn more about my work!

- Rachel L.