Joining a research lab is one of the most important decisions a dual-degree student makes at International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIITH). Usually students have two years to figure out which lab they want to join and who they want to work with. As a lateral entry (LE) student, however, you don’t quite have the same luxury of time. When I first came to IIIT in July 2022, research was, in my mind, something I had to do to graduate. That was about it. I realised that most students start approaching professors in the first semester of their second year. My friends and I (a little too ambitiously) decided that the…