This information is accurate as of Feb 9th, 2025. What is research? The goal of academic research is to add to the body of knowledge within a field. Generally speaking, research either aims to understand (e.g. “Are there biases in the outputs produced by large language models?) or to create (e.g. “Here is a new protocol for sending messages across the internet”). Depending on the specific field, this could involve running experiments or simulations, designing algorithms or processes, interviewing or observing participants in a study, and so on.

This page was last updated on February 9, 2025. What is COMP 1805? Is it math or programming? COMP 1805 involves no programming, though at times reading pseudocode may be involved. It is very explicitly a math course, though it’s probably not the math you are used to doing in high school. Whereas high school math courses teach you techniques for doing different sorts of calculations and algebraic manipulations, there are close to no calculations in COMP 1805.