Perch, 
an 
online 
research platform created 
by 
a 
team 
of 
mostly 
University of Michigan 
students, 
launched 
Monday. The startup aims 
to connect more students 
and graduates across the 
country 
with 
research 
positions.
Engineering and LSA 
senior 
Akira 
Nishii 
came up with the idea 
for Perch after having 
trouble finding research 
opportunities 
when 
he 
entered 
the 
University. 
He found that outside 
of 
the 
Undergraduate 
Research 
Opportunity 
Program, 
which 
is 
aimed at freshmen and 
sophomores, 
there 
was 

no 
centralized 
system 
that 
listed 
research 
opportunities 
and 
was 
accessible to all students.
“A lot of students are 
relying on very inefficient 
methods, 
like 
cold-
emailing, or relying on 
personal 
connections 
to 
get 
into 
research 
opportunities,” 
Nishii 
said. 
He 
gathered 
a 
team 
of peers, and together 
they started working on 
a solution to centralize 
all 
the 
research 
opportunities. 
Now 
Perch has launched an 
encompassing 
database 
of 
inter-university 
research 
opportunities 
and 
research 
faculty. 
They 
have 
16 
partner 
universities, including the 
University of Michigan, 

Harvard 
and 
the 
Massachusetts 
Institute 
of Technology.

Nolan 
Kataoka, 
chief 
technology 
officer of Perch and 
Engineering 
senior, 
highlighted 
Perch’s 
future plans for the 
platform.
“In the long term, 
we’d like to have a 
database of all the 
faculty 
in 
all 
the 
universities 
in 
the 
U.S.,” Kataoka said.
Perch 
also 
helps 
graduate 
students 
find 
employment 
and streamlines the 
process 
of 
helping 
graduates 
find 
positions outside of 

academia, Nishii said.
“In 
addition 
to 
the 
database of faculty and 
industrial 
research 
opportunities, 
we’re 
providing 
a 
matching 
algorithm where we help 
search through a Ph.D.’s 
list 
of 
publications, 
qualifications, 
skill 
sets,” Nishii said. “We 
help Ph.D.s identify jobs 
that are most relevant to 
them.”
On campus, Perch is 
partnered with a separate 
student organization at 
the 
University 
called 
Perch Education, which 
aims to expose students 
to the research world. It 
now hosts the Michigan 
Undergraduate Research 
Symposium, 
and 
offers 
courses to equip students 
with the skills to succeed 
in research.
Senior 
Associate 
Librarian at the Shapiro 
Undergraduate 
Library, 
Jo Angela Oehrli, played 
a 
key 
role 
in 
Perch 
Education and acts as 
an advisor for the Perch 
platform team. Due to her 
background in education, 
she 
was 
able 
to 
help 
construct 
the 
teaching 
curriculum from scratch 
for Perch Education. 
Oehrli first served as 
a library mentor when 
Perch won the Library 
Student Mini Grant, and 
she 
looks 
forward 
to 
the addition of graduate 
opportunities.
“With the skill set of 
these 
Ph.D. 
candidates 
and recent Ph.D. earners … 
the research will be richer 
after 
that 
connection,” 
Oehrli said. “And that can 
make an impact on the 
world as well.”

MICHIGAN S PORTS ARE BACK

2A — Tuesday, September 3, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

ALEC COHEN/Daily
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Perch, partnering with Perch Education, aims to help undergraduates, graduates find 
employment opportunities, centralizes resources into single database on website

Students create online research platform

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A lot of students 
are relying on 
very inefficent 
methods, like 
cold- emailing, 
or relying 
on personal 
connections to 
get into research 
opportunities.

