Robert Snider

Although I had a bit of research experience coming into Penn, having completed the AP Capstone program in high school, I was still very intimidated by the prospect of conducting academic research at the collegiate level; I didn’t even know what I wanted to study, much less how to study it. Eventually, I settled on majoring in linguistics (with a minor in international development) and mustered up the confidence to apply for PURM. Through this program, I developed, with a research partner, an original experiment in the subfield of evolutionary linguistics studying the role iconicity plays in the bootstrapping of a novel artificial communication system. Our project is set to pilot and run this year, and we have already presented our work at a research conference in Berkeley.

I would love to chat with anyone to help demystify the research process—for example, I wouldn't have known what half of the words in my description of my research project meant at the beginning of the PURM process! For more specific advice though, feel free to send me an email about research interests in linguistics (or adjacent fields!), tips on presenting research, or questions about the Ben Franklin Scholars program, a cappella, or Greek life at Penn!

Research positions:

• Student Researcher at the Cultural Evolution of Language Lab under Dr. Gareth Roberts, initially through PURM (2022-Present)
• Presented at Penn PURM Poster Expo, Fall 2022
• Accepted to present at 7th Annual Berkeley Undergraduate Linguistics Symposium (April 2023)