In this authentic research course, students will join the research team of Prof. Smyth, and tackle questions regarding how pathogenic bacteria can reside and survive in buildings, the urban built environment and in local water bodies in and around NYC. Designed as a follow up to Microbial Ecologies or The Microbiome of Urban Spaces, students continue their research projects from these courses or develop new areas of research that align with the research questions of the Smyth Lab. Throughout the course, students will engage with the literature at the forefront of urban microbial ecology particularly in the area of antibiotic resistance, and design, conduct independent research, generate data, document their progress in online laboratory notebooks, participate in weekly lab meetings and troubleshoot their own experiments. In addition to the weekly lab meetings, students will be expected to work independently in the lab for up to 6 additional hours per week to complete their projects. Students will submit an abstract for presentation at a local, national or international conference or meeting. Students will have access to a range of classical and next-generation microbiological techniques and will be able to use our iSeq machine, a novel DNA sequencing technology available in the Biosafety Level 2 lab. This course satisfies the laboratory requirement for the Interdisciplinary Science major or minor or the intermediate/advanced level requirement for the IS major. Prerequisite: Microbial Ecologies or the Microbiome of Urban Spaces.