[osamagirl69]

For what it is worth, no graduate student would say they are doing 'Ph.D level' research. It is called 'graduate level research' or just, you know, 'research'

Sounds like a fun project, I wish you the best. I ran a similar program (independent study that encouraged freshman/sophomore undergraduates to explore using microprocessors, at the time the EE curriculum was completely focused on analog circuit theory and ended at boolean logic) and it went well enough that it eventually became part of the official undergraduate curriculum.