For us students, SAI.DAO is a wonderful place to kickstart your path in research. From my own struggles, I know how hard it is to get started on research. The countless hours spent wandering from paper to paper, looking for a suitable topic or direction is AGONIZING. Searching for a mentor is also agonizing and awkward.

Here at SAI.DAO, we propose a buffer region before you step into research. The peer review channel is a fantastic place to quickly cultivate a scientific mindset and build a fundamental repertoire of research basics and info. We recommend that new ambitious researchers start out by reading and interacting with mature-ish research proposals. Learn from the experience of your peers, and absorb the logic of how they organize their research and approach their topic. After providing feedback or improvements to these projects, you should have a pretty handy stack of $SAI at your disposal.

When you feel ready to formulate your own research proposal, feel free to post it in the forum to seek advice and comments. We also encourage looking for collaborations; simply tagging your post “COLLAB” can enlist the brainpower of your peers!

Once you feel confident enough with your research project (at least with a clear direction and well thought-out plan of upcoming steps and procedures), you can reach out to a mentor in the mentor outreach channel. Keep in mind that these guidance projects will come with a fee, to be determined between you and a mentor. Make sure to post your project with fully relevant details, as well as the amount and type of guidance you expect to receive!

Students who are in the middle of a research guidance contract with a mentor can choose to have their progress reviewed by the public. If you feel the mentor is doing too little or too much work, the progress peer review channel will have your work evaluated by other mentors and highly qualified students. Make sure to just include the guidance materials and chat history received from your mentor for optimal evaluation.

Happy researching! Always remember, interact with your peers – it’s much more effective than seeking advice from ChatGPT.