About
I am a third year undergraduate student studying Computer Science at the University of Southern California.
I'm a proud immigrant from South Korea and grew up in the beautiful state of Maryland. Although I'm a recent SoCal transplant, the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) stays close to my heart. If you love eating blue crabs, I'm your person!
My career in tech and computer science is a little unusual. Prior to college, I didn't even know what a Software Engineer was and didn't take a single programming class! I originally entered college as an Astronomy major, but I found that the Astronomy path wasn't for me. After switching to Applied Mathematics, I took a programming class out of pure curiosity. I quickly fell in love with the problem solving and wide application of computer science, and so I switched (once more) into the computer science major!
I believe that my strong skills as a communicator and desire to convey technical information to a wide variety of audiences stems from my eclectic background of working odd jobs. I've been a librarian, waitress, barista, theater set painter, dishwasher, tutor, you name it, I may have done it! Working in environments beyond just tech has developed my skills to connect to people from all backgrounds.
Although I did not continue my Astronomy education, my love for space and supporting scientific pursuits never ended. I'm excited to say that currently I am supporting the NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) mission. Fun fact: I have a tattoo of the pulsar map from NASA/JPL's Voyager missions.
If I'm not working hard at my degree, you can find me hiking, planning out my next travel/camping destination, watching documentaries, learning about personal finance, and trying out the best local restaurants!
Thanks for reading a little about me and I hope I can learn about you!
Projects & Clubs
Sometimes I run out of space on my resume to talk about the cool projects and clubs I was involved in! So here are the behind the scenes look at them.
Clubs
Open Alpha USC (Jan 2021 - Present)
Open Alpha USC is a game development club, focusing on bringing a game from conception to an open-alpha release each development cycle (semester/year). Check out their website here: Open Alpha USC
I have always been interested in game development as I loved to play video games since I was a kid. This was an amazing opportunity to learn new technologies such as Unity and C#, but also work in a diverse team of game designers, storytellers, and developers. I had the great opportunity to learn how valuable paired programming was, and learn about version control practices in regards to a larger team setting.
USC Data Science Club (Dec 2019 - Jan 2021)
USC Data Science Club is a USC student organization that is focused on promoting education and discussion around data science and its applications to every industry.
At USC DSC, I was the Officer of External Affairs, which meant I was responsible for reaching out to professionals in the data science industry and coordinating speaker events for the club. I also presented and assisted in workshops that covered data science fundamentals for beginners, such as Intro to Python, Intro to Pandas, and more.
I joined this club because I wanted to learn more about data science and its applications in the field. I had a wonderful time coordinating industry speaker events, featuring the first data science at Uber and Associate Professor in Department of Cognitive Science at UCSD, Dr. Bradley Voytek, and data scientists from Kaiser Permanente.
Projects
Sinking Inn (Feb 2021 - May 2021)
Steam Link: Sinking Inn
Technologies: C#, Unity, GitLFS, Azure DevOps, Notion
Sinking Inn is an indie-thriller game that I contributed to as a Game Programmer member of Open Alpha USC. This game focuses on solving strange puzzles and exploration to figure out the truth of the creepy motel.
For Sinking Inn, I was able to contribute as a Game Programmer. My responsibilities included implementing features and game logic using Unity and C#. As part of the team, I also conducted usability tests, also known as playtests, with volunteers and came together as a team to iterate upon the crowdsourced feedback.
ASTRA (May 2021)
Website Link: Astra
GitHub: Astra GitHub Repo
Technologies: HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap, PHP, MySQL, Heroku, REST API
Astra is a full stack web app that I developed from start to finish for my Full Stack Web Development class. I used NASA's Astronomy of the Day API to create a web app where users and guests can search the astronomy photo of the day and save photos to their account. I created a backend in PHP and constructed my own MySQL database to store user information such as their saved gallery.
Classmates (Feb 2021 - May 2021)
Website link: Classmates
GitHub: Classmates GitHub Repo
Technologies: HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap, Google Firebase, Heroku, Java, Figma
Classmates is a full stack web app for my Software Development class. I served as the Project Manager and Frontend Lead. We created the frontend in HTML/CSS, Boostrap and JavaScript, with the backend and authentication being implemented in Java with Google Firebase, and ultimately deployed on Heroku. As the Frontend Lead, I was in charge of the software design and the overall user experience. As the Project Manager, I was responsible for coordinating communication between the frontend and backend teams, and making sure deliverables were submitted on time.
Skypark (Feb 2020)
YouTube demo: Skypark Demo
GitHub: Skypark GitHub Repo
Technologies: Python, alwaysAI API, Raspberry Pi 4, Computer Vision, Object-Detection
Skypark is the first software development project I did, as well as my first hackathon I attended. Skypark is a Raspberry Pi 4 with a GPU accelerator that calculates the number of parking of parking spaces in real-time from a Raspberry Pi 4 camera feed.
As the main developer, I wrote the real-time object detection in Python, using alwaysAI's API. I learned a lot in this project, as this was my first hackathon. I learned how to develop in a limited time frame, ask questions, and use an API for the first time.