Feeling stuck on research and getting insecure / paranoid over it
Hi y’all, I’m a computer science undergrad going into my third year (planning to graduate May 2028), and have spent the summer working on a few projects / research problems with my research advisor. I’m coming from the math/theory side rather than the programming/engineering side, and I’m starting to worry I have nothing to show and am just wasting everyone’s time, having spent like three months with no meaningful results.
My advisor is great and supportive but unfortunately very hands off — completely unfounded fear but like I don’t want to come off as needy or incompetent and ask her too many questions. She gave me a paper to look at for one of the problems I’m working on and I read it, but like after reading it, I can see the connection but not the takeaway that I’m supposed to get.
How often is reasonable to be in contact with an advisor (especially as an undergrad)? Especially for any mathematicians / CS theorists, how do I get over the feeling that I’m making no progress? Any advice on workflows? I just try to read as much as possible and then write what I think is a reasonable direction, and I feel comfortable with writing proofs, but I haven’t even decided yet what exactly I’m trying to prove. I can’t tell if I made, or am on track to make, real progress