career path - How can I get into computer science research as a high school student?

I am in High-School but want to pursue research in Computer Science, but as you know High-School usually does not offer any such options or tasks.

So I want to explore avenues where I can get these options and tasks as I am very very interested and really want to do it.

I would also like to say that I have good-strong knowledge of C++, C and assorted APIs from that (3 years programming for 5+ hours daily). So I wouldn't call my self too new to programming and think I can handle programming and so on.

Now, these are my questions:

1. 
   

   How can I get involved in research?

   
   


2. 
   

   How can I contact academics to ask them for research position or even an intern position in research for that matter without coming across as a "waste of time"?

   
   

Answer

Good on you!

I have a relatively simple suggestion: do a replication study. First, find a collaborator -- a fellow high school student or college student of similar skill and experience. You'll learn more in a team than doing it alone. Second, read a dozen or so research papers (probably conference papers) in the field or sub-field that interests you the most. Pick one, preferably the simplest one you can find. Your goal is to replicate the methods as described in the paper and compare your results to theirs. (Don't pick one where you have access to their code.) Once you have a paper picked out (or a few), recruit an adviser/mentor -- either a college professor or an experienced researcher. You'll want to meet with your adviser/mentor weekly to talk about progress and problems you encounter along the way. Mostly, this weekly meeting holds you and your partner accountable for progress.

In my field (Computational Social Science) there are many simulation models that are simple enough to be replicated from their specification. This varies widely in subfields of Computer Science, so your mileage may vary.

The point to all this is to get you an experience in the realm of research without requiring that you first go through all the preliminaries. By focusing on replicating one paper, you only need to understand the material and methods in this one paper. You aren't trying to break any new ground. Instead, you are following in the footsteps of other researchers. If they have done their job well, then you should be able to replicate their results. Replication is a valuable scientific endeavor in itself.