The Computing and Control Engineering Laboratory (CoCEL) of the department of Convergence IT Engineering was founded in Sept. 2014 with the mission to develop futuristic AI-powered instrumentation and control systems for a safe and convenient life for those in need. From innovative fundamental ideas and theories, we realize world-changing instrumentation and control technologies through multidisciplinary research in computing and control engineering including machine learning, dynamics, embedded systems, control theory, signal processing, information theory, communication, and networks.To achi

The previous 17 months were beyond my wildest imagination. I became aware of COVID-19 in January 2020. What started with tens of patients at the beginning of January grew exponentially to thousands by the end of the month. At the time of this writing, there have been 152 million cases with 3.18 million deaths worldwide. (This is about the same number of military casualties in the Korean War.) Even though the first vaccines became available a few months ago, it looks like it will take at least a year and probably even more time until the pandemic ends.But science will eventually terminate the p

Looking back on my high school vacations, the only memory I have is watching movies like a couch potato. While my friends spent fruitful vacations of learning, I refused to make myself a better person. I could not feel the need to improve myself. Instead, enjoying a cozy, lazy life seemed more suitable for me. Now I regret wasting my valuable time that will never come back again. I started to wonder how I can recover my lost time and learned two lessons.Understanding why I wasted my high school vacations helped me find a solution. On the first exam I took in high school, I studied the same way

(Disclaimer: This article does not reflect the opinion of my employers nor my company.)I am a Machine Learning Scientist at Amazon. When I was an undergraduate student at POSTECH, I was imaginative about what my future would be: I considered becoming not only a college professor or a software engineer but also a business consultant and even a sound engineer. Yet I didn’t really imagine much of what I have actually become today, for better or for worse. To the best of my knowledge, my job title—“Machine Learning Scientist”—did not even exist ten years ago, so it could not have been my dream job

Scatter Lab’s Facebook chatbot Lee Luda (pronounced “Iruda”, meaning “to achieve”), an A.I. that started beta testing in June 2019, caused a big stir in the Korean society after its official release in December 2020. Unlike conventional A.I.-based chatbots, Lee Luda had spread rapidly among teenagers as it comprehended teen slangs. However, Lee Luda failed to surpass the limitation that A.I. must “learn from humans” and eventually disappeared into history only two weeks after its release.Certain issues are inevitably raised during A.I.-related discussions. Among such topics, this column addres

I studied and taught mathematics, and soon I will retire. In this column, I would like to describe some of the things that I felt and realized at POSTECH for the past 33 years.The Philosophy of Instruction: Study and Instruction Have No Difference.For those who teach at college, one of the questions that follow like fate is “education or research?” None of the professors do research only, and few do education only. I believe that good research must precede good education and that good research comes from education. In other words, education and research are essentially the same. With the missi

The long 2020 fall semester has come to an end. It would have been a satisfying semester for some, but it could have been a very disappointing and painful semester for others. For me, the 2020 spring semester was a painful one.At the beginning of the spring semester, I was obsessed with the thought that I should perform everything perfectly. One could call it perfectionism. I was afraid of losing even five points from a task of 100 points. So, I spent an enormous amount of time to complete even the smallest tasks.However, it was such inefficient work. I spent too much energy on small tasks and

Sitting on the passenger’s seat and watching my father driving, my yearning to drive grew inside me. During my childhood, I anticipated that driving would fulfill my thirst for speed and thrill. I imagined driving on a straight expressway at the maximum speed.In Korea, one must be 18 years old or older to attain a level 2 license to drive regular vehicles. The 2019 winter vacation was a suitable time to prepare for the driving license exam for me, who had just become 18 years old and had plenty of time.I had to pass three steps of exams to attain a driver’s license: written exam, driving cours

A quantum computer (QC) is a machine that uses special quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to quickly solve problems that would normally require repeated substitutions over a very long period of time, mainly through a process of drastically increasing probabilistic prediction. The unit of information on a classical computer is called a “bit”, whereas it is called a “qubit” on a quantum computer. The special properties of quantum particles are hard to see in the macroscopic world but become more evident in the microscopic world; protons, electrons, and atoms al

I was the club president of PoApper from last year until this summer. PoApper is a club that acts as a developer network in POSTECH where people who share an interest in software development can join to participate in seminars or projects. As POSTECH’s only software development club, we also received lots of outsourcings. Most of the time, orders were small and simple: a website for the POSTECH-KAIST Science War, a game for freshmen orientation, etc. As time passed, we received requests for larger and more complex projects. However, more often than not, those requests ended up being canceled d

Since freshmen, I have enjoyed getting involved. I filled my everyday schedule with all sorts of activities. Hanging out with friends, club activities, internships, and etc. were always of high priority. For me, POSTECH was a spectrum of endless experiences. As a true experience-centered being, I could not help but join numerous school clubs, enroll for every interesting lecture, and participate in literally every school event possible. Late-night movies in the theater, hanging out with friends, and even studying up late for exams in the library was fun. Naturally, my weekends were always load

Last fall, my book, A college student’s science books dialogue, came out into the world. The release of the book that had plagued me terribly for a year was an emotional moment. As I was contacted by The Postech Times, I was excited to talk about my book in writing, not in words, for the first time. Ironically, I started to write the book in my junior year, when my major studies were most difficult. The classics introduced in my book are books that I admired ever since I was a freshman in POSTECH: Carl Sagan’s The Pale Blue Dot, Heisenberg’s Physics and Beyond, Bill Bryson’s A Short History of

Have you ever baked a cake for yourself? I, for one, could not say I was experienced in baking. But it has been different for me ever since I stayed in the U.S. last semester. My aunt, who has been living in the U.S. for 30 years, made my sister a cake on her birthday. I was surprised as it seemed common for Americans to bake on special occasions. Is baking that easy? I felt like I should try.Once I started baking, I realized that it was simpler and more fun than I thought. Following YouTube tutorials, all I had to do was whip, mix, and chill. It was okay even if I did not have enough tools—I

When I sit in front of a computer, I always question myself: “What can I do to make the most out of this machine?” I then proceed to customize and modify my rig one by one. These start from simple tasks such as organizing my files to more complex procedures such as undervolting/overclocking the processor. There are literally millions of ways to improve your computer and squeeze every last juice out of those tiny chips. But the story does not end here; dive in a little deeper, and you will be fascinated by a universe full of imagination. A world where literally anything you imagine can become a

We come across many YouTube channels now that our generation seems to be about investing our huge chunk of life into YouTube. Unexceptionally, I also spend quite a bit of my time just binge-watching a lot of YouTube videos. There is a Q&A content where YouTubers answer viewers’ questions about their YouTube channels or themselves.Even though I have watched a lot of Q&A videos, the most recent Q&A video I watched made me feel somewhat different. I envied this YouTuber for having such explicit answers for all given questions. I imagined myself getting thrown tonnes of questions about my ambition

I wore my first bra in 5th grade. Since then, I was so accustomed to a bra that I even wore it to bed. So, when I first saw paparazzi pictures of my favorite Hollywood star without one, I was startled. Until that moment, I had never encountered or even heard of anyone who did not wear a bra when going out. However, after multiple accounts of braless celebrities, I realized that wearing a bra is treated as a personal preference in some countries and hoped to do the same if I ever travel abroad. Why do I long to be free from a bra when I was so used to it? That is because bras are uncomfortable.

Why I Chose “Start-up”.Feb. 11, 2015. I still cannot forget this day. There was the biggest 106-car collision on the Yeongjong bridge due to a heavy fog. I was regretful; I thought, “this would not have happened if we had a radar that perfectly detected objects, even in heavy fogs.” As I had been conducting research on the radar technology for 10 years, I decided to make ‘zero road accident deaths’ possible. In Jan. 2018, I quit my job and founded bitsensing. With the slogan “Design future Safety”, bitsensing is now developing technology that can ensure safety in our daily lives. Our main focu

Seventy-five years have passed since Korea was divided into two, and the reunification of our country still looks like an unattainable task. In this difficult situation, I turn to Germany, which was in a similar position as Korea in the past. In 1945, after Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany was defeated in World War II, Germany was divided into East and West Germany. It took 28 years for the German reunification, and despite the relatively short period of division, the process of reunification and the after-effects after the reunification were significant. It is true that Korea is now in very di

After 13 years of being a student, I was tired of being one. During my first semester of being a sophomore, I discovered the Summer Experience in Society (SES), a school internship program acting as an intermediary between students and various companies, being offered every summer. I always dreamed of building my career. After much consideration and research on the applicable companies, I decided to apply for a Deep Learning job offered by Polaris3D, a growing start-up providing indoor autonomous navigation solutions. I submitted my CV and fortunately got a chance for an interview. For half an

What is a smart city and why do we need it?We are now facing one of the largest waves of disruptive changes known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is expected to change almost every aspect of the way people interact with the world. The whole city is going through a major transformation as a strong wind of “connectedness” and “intelligence” blows towards the city where we live. A variety of smart devices are being introduced frequently, and they are gradually turning our living environment into a “Smart City”.Besides those personal and/or privately owned devices, we are already quite fam