If you really want to do research then no question you need to go to grad school for at minimum an MS. If you are still a student that means getting in touch wi

If you really want to do research then no question you need to go to grad school for at minimum an MS. If you are still a student that means getting in touch with ML professors at your school and trying to get published before you graduate. Top ML programs in the US are extremely competitive and you likely don't stand a shot of getting in without a few NeurIPS/ICML/CVPR papers. If you just want to work as an ML Engineer then take as many courses as you can on the subject before you graduate and get internships/apply to jobs. Nothing special here.