A mentor’s support turns curiosity into courage, doubt into discovery

Carrie Lin, now a graduate student, presents her research at an international conference in Montreal.Photo provided by Carrie Lin

When Carrie Lin, ’24, joined Dr. Ayokunle (Ayo) Olanrewaju’s lab during its earliest days, she didn’t arrive with a polished research résumé.

Using Office of Undergraduate Research resources, Lin reviewed faculty profiles, reached out to professors and learned what to expect from a research experience. But once in the lab, she asked questions — lots of them. Then she was given a project she could shape herself, and everything changed.

“That sense of ownership made me fall in love with research,” Lin said.

Katherine Zhang, ‘21, found the lab through the Office of Undergraduate Research’s database, drawn to its global health focus and work developing low-cost tools to monitor HIV medication adherence.

“I wasn’t sure if I was ‘smart enough’ to do research,” Zhang said. “I was already overwhelmed by my technical coursework and worried I wouldn’t be able to keep up.”

In the Olanrewaju Lab, that fear didn’t last long. What neither student knew yet was how profoundly formative the experience would become, even as it led them in strikingly different directions.

Ayo Olanrewaju found a research opportunity later in his undergraduate years in Germany. It wasn’t easy to find and today he aims to make it easier for undergraduates to connect to research.Provided by Ayo Ọlánrewájú

As a child in Nigeria, Olanrewaju developed a love for math and science, which ultimately took him to Montreal where he earned his doctorate in bioengineering. He came to the University of Washington for a postdoctoral position before launching the Olanrewaju Lab in January 2022, with appointments in both bioengineering and mechanical engineering.

In the lab, his team designs low-cost biomedical tools that can make health care more precise and accessible. Microfluidic systems that work with tiny volumes of fluid, they develop platforms that support objective monitoring of HIV medication adherence. The goal is practical: To create technologies that help clinicians and patients make better decisions, especially in settings where resources are limited.

But despite growing national recognition, Olanrewaju has never forgotten how difficult it can be to access research as a student or how intimidating it feels once you’re inside. Zhang remembers how that awareness shaped her early experience.

“Ayo has a way of teaching that makes complex ideas feel approachable,” she said. “I felt comfortable asking questions — and re-asking them — without worrying I’d be judged.”

Lin recalls the same openness. “I needed a lot of guidance at the beginning,” she said. “Both my PI and the graduate students were incredibly involved and supportive.”

Olanrewaju’s commitment to access shapes how the lab operates. Undergraduates work in collaborative teams alongside graduate students, learning through structured support and shared problem-solving. Curiosity, not prior experience, is the prerequisite.

Early on, Lin was paired with another undergraduate and worked closely with a master’s student. As her confidence grew, so did her autonomy. “I was given a continuation of an existing project and I made it my own,” she said.

That ownership was tested when Lin faced a tight deadline to prepare her first conference abstract. “At one point, I just felt like I couldn’t do it,” she said. “The grad students were like, ‘OK, let’s sit down for an hour,’ and everyone helped me work through it.”

For Lin, the moment proved as formative as the project itself — a reminder that research can be challenging without being isolating, and that strong lab culture is built through trust, collaboration and care.

The confidence that came from working in a research lab as an undergraduate led Katherine Zhang to find a different sense of purpose after graduation.Photo provided by Katherine Zhang

Zhang recalls a similar sense of collective support. For her, ownership showed up through purpose.

“What I found most fulfilling was that my research was contributing to a solution for a real and prevalent problem that would help people,” she said.

The lab’s community extended beyond the work itself.

“I truly felt like my lab mates and Ayo liked me for me, independent of my contributions,” she said. “Some of my favorite moments were just being in the lab together, catching up on life while running experiments.”

The work undergraduates contributed to, including figures and co-authorship on early manuscripts exploring low-cost 3D printer characterization for microfluidics, helped establish the feasibility of the lab’s approach. That preliminary foundation produced early evidence that strengthened Olanrewaju’s publication trajectory and positioned him to compete for sustained federal support.

In 2025, those efforts paid off: Olanrewaju received a Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The highly competitive, $2.1 million grant provides long-term stability for ambitious research programs.

For Lin, the experience solidified a future in research. After graduating, she stayed on as a post-baccalaureate research technician before continuing into a doctoral program, transitioning from mechanical engineering to bioengineering.

“Because of Ayo’s mentorship, I continued into a Ph.D.,” she said. “His guidance shaped not just my research skills, but my confidence in pursuing graduate school.”

For Zhang, undergraduate research offered something equally valuable: clarity.

“Participating in research actually helped me rule out research as a career,” she said. “That was important. Being surrounded by peers applying to graduate school, I felt pressure to do the same — but having real exposure gave me the confidence to choose a different path.”

Today, Zhang works as a post-market quality engineer, where the skills she developed in the lab shape her work every day.

“A big part of research is understanding how changing one variable affects outcomes,” she said. “That translates directly to troubleshooting and root-cause analysis in my job now.”

Communication skills developed through presenting research have proven just as critical.

“Being able to tailor complex information to different audiences such as engineers, customers, regulatory bodies or sales representatives allows for better collaboration and higher-quality work,” she said.

Olanrewaju’s philosophy extends beyond the lab itself. He partners with the Office of Undergraduate Research as a faculty mentor in the Undergraduate Research Collective, a two-year cohort program that provides first- and second-year students — including first-year transfer students — with funded research positions, preparation and community support.

Today, Lin mentors undergraduate researchers of her own, a role that feels both familiar and full circle.

“I’ve gone from being the person asking questions to being the person students come to for answers,” she said.

For alumni like Zhang, the lab’s influence shows up in leadership, service and impact beyond academia: Work grounded in critical thinking, collaboration and care.

Together, their paths reflect what Olanrewaju and the Office of Undergraduate Research aim to make possible: Research experiences that don’t prescribe a single future, but equip students to discover where they belong and how they can make a difference.

In that culture, mentorship multiplies, confidence compounds and undergraduate researchers do more than participate in science: They help shape its future.