The Research Topic Hunt That Almost Broke Me 😩

“ From feeling completely lost to facing a mountain of research, here is the real story of my first week trying to find a meaningful topic.”

Hi, I’m Bijosilin, a final-year BSc (Hons) Software Engineering student at the University of Bedfordshire. Alongside my lectures, I was doing a Software Engineer internship, running a small startup with real clients, and learning new tech stacks. Most of my friends could pick research topics in their free time, get suggestions from lecturers, and even receive good names for their proposals. Meanwhile, I had to search day and night, using every free minute just to find a topic that actually mattered to me.

After lectures, I felt the weight of the task pressing down. I opened Google Scholar, scrolled through papers, checked IEEE Xplore, and read everywhere I could find research. I even asked ChatGPT and other AI tools for ideas. But most of the suggestions were just trending topics or buzzwords. They looked impressive but did not excite me at all. Nothing felt meaningful or impactful.

One of my friends suggested I try Reddit to find real problems that people face in tech and healthcare. I spent the whole week browsing Reddit threads, reading discussions, and trying to discover pain points that could become a research topic. I thought it would help, but instead it just made me feel more lost. Every new idea seemed bigger, harder, or already solved, and I still could not find something that truly inspired me.

Every minute spent reading or searching felt like time slipping away. Balancing lectures, internship, startup work, and learning new tech while hunting for a topic was exhausting. Each paper or article added more pressure. Instead of helping, it made me feel lost. Was I understanding enough? Was I missing something? Could I find a topic that really mattered?

Seeing my friends get guidance from lecturers and refine their topics made it even harder. They moved forward confidently while I felt stuck. The constant comparison and the endless reading made me feel drained and hopeless. My eyes hurt from reading PDFs, my brain was full of new technical terms, and the thought of reading even more felt overwhelming.

This was more than research. It was a test of patience, focus, and resilience. Every small distraction reminded me how little time I had. But despite the frustration, I learned an important lesson. Research is not just about picking a flashy topic. It is about persistence, curiosity, and following your own path, even when it feels very hard.

I am documenting this journey, the confusion, the struggle, and the little sparks of motivation. If anyone has ever felt lost in research, compared themselves to others, or felt overwhelmed by reading too much, you are not alone.

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