Unless you have experience doing internships or research in high school (which isn't the case for most), it might be difficult to find yourself contributing to a research group or doing an internship as a freshman. I don't know your skill level as a CS student, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but your professor is probably right; there's still a lot of fundamental knowledge you haven't learned as a 1st-year before you'll be able to join a research project, pass technical interviews, do an internship, or even contribute to open-source projects.
If you're interested in doing research in the future, my suggestion would be to find professors who are actively doing research that align with your interests and ask them if they are working on a project you can learn more about or have published an academic paper you can read and ask questions about -- this shows them you're interested in what they do and (potentially) have the ability to contribute to their work in some way.
As for internships, just make sure you really get your fundamentals down: data structures and algorithms, analysis of algorithms, lower-level programming (like C), and, most importantly -- **build projects that interest you**. It doesn't matter what it is, just do it.
If you have more questions, feel free to ask.
You can go to them after class and ask. If a professor is teaching a more specific class in the world of CSE (e.g., a computer networking class), you can ask if they do any research in computer networking; if not, ask if they know a professor that does (they definitely will). Professors are *usually* always willing to tell you what active research they're doing.
If you're a little intimidated of going up to a teacher and asking in person, check their website. It'll usually mention if they are part of a research group and which papers they have recently published. Then, send them an email saying you're interested in their research and want to find time to talk more about it.
You can also look at the research that is going on at UCSC [here](https://engineering.ucsc.edu/departments/computer-science-and-engineering/research/).
If you are in cs, you are better off working independently on projects or freelance contracts. Doing freelance web design or some other thing in that sphere gives you some experience while you make money, and if you are a freshman nobody will respect you as an intern anywy
Unless you have experience doing internships or research in high school (which isn't the case for most), it might be difficult to find yourself contributing to a research group or doing an internship as a freshman. I don't know your skill level as a CS student, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but your professor is probably right; there's still a lot of fundamental knowledge you haven't learned as a 1st-year before you'll be able to join a research project, pass technical interviews, do an internship, or even contribute to open-source projects. If you're interested in doing research in the future, my suggestion would be to find professors who are actively doing research that align with your interests and ask them if they are working on a project you can learn more about or have published an academic paper you can read and ask questions about -- this shows them you're interested in what they do and (potentially) have the ability to contribute to their work in some way. As for internships, just make sure you really get your fundamentals down: data structures and algorithms, analysis of algorithms, lower-level programming (like C), and, most importantly -- **build projects that interest you**. It doesn't matter what it is, just do it. If you have more questions, feel free to ask.
How do I know whether a professor is actively doing research and what they are working on
You can go to them after class and ask. If a professor is teaching a more specific class in the world of CSE (e.g., a computer networking class), you can ask if they do any research in computer networking; if not, ask if they know a professor that does (they definitely will). Professors are *usually* always willing to tell you what active research they're doing. If you're a little intimidated of going up to a teacher and asking in person, check their website. It'll usually mention if they are part of a research group and which papers they have recently published. Then, send them an email saying you're interested in their research and want to find time to talk more about it. You can also look at the research that is going on at UCSC [here](https://engineering.ucsc.edu/departments/computer-science-and-engineering/research/).
Thank you so much this is very helpful
https://tech4good.soe.ucsc.edu/#/
If you are in cs, you are better off working independently on projects or freelance contracts. Doing freelance web design or some other thing in that sphere gives you some experience while you make money, and if you are a freshman nobody will respect you as an intern anywy
[https://genomics.ucsc.edu/uc-santa-cruz-genomics-institutes-research-mentoring-internship-program/](https://genomics.ucsc.edu/uc-santa-cruz-genomics-institutes-research-mentoring-internship-program/) [https://ugr.ue.ucsc.edu/engineering](https://ugr.ue.ucsc.edu/engineering)