Name: JiYoon Kang
Class Year: 2025
Major: Computer Science
Hometown: Seoul, South Korea
Internship Organization: Yonsei Vision and Learning Lab
Job Title: Research Intern
Location: Seoul, South Korea
What's happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!
For my research internship experience at Vision and Learning Labs, I have three main tasks: learning general knowledge and the important responsibilities of researchers, coding basic machine learning programs, and understanding Embodied AI. Professor Choi, my supervisor, shared extra lecture videos which helped research interns like me understand basic and practical methods of machine learning and its applications. Based on these video lectures and his guidance, I easily learned these machine learning concepts and applied this knowledge to coding for the KNN, Kmeans, SVM, and other methods. I was able to further this by coding programs and drawing graphs of the data that were collected by other research interns. However, due to my lack of experience in machine learning, I could not work on the current research project. Instead, I worked on the previous project’s data set so that I could easily practice the skills I learned such as making graphs and applying data sets to machine learning algorithms. During the weekly meetings with Professor Choi, my fellow research interns and I used his feedback to adopt new techniques and find better data and solutions. I was then able to progress forward and ask the professor to be assigned to small projects designated for his research members. With this, I gained more opportunities to explore the machine learning and AI industry. Currently, I work on the SVM breast cancer project based on utilizing Confusion Matrix Visualization. I also attended the Smart Teach Korea (STK) at Coex on June 30th to explore more about AI and robotics in the real-world industry. I try to focus on understanding the robotics field that I will study in the master's program.
Why did you apply for this internship?
I wanted to learn intro-level robotics and explore the diverse areas within it. Based on the experience, I want to understand what specific field of robotics I want to study with my robotics master's program at UPenn. I will be taking robotics courses next semester. The most basic course within the robotics masters program is a machine learning course. I was kind of worried about taking this course due to my lack of experience with machine learning. I wanted to see a glimpse of the robotics field and feel comfortable with its materials. Based on the experience from the Yonsei Vision and Learning Lab, I would be able to better prepare myself and jump into robotics and delve deeper into it. Moreover, I was hoping to learn how to handle the research and write a thesis. I want to be open to the possibility of becoming a researcher or enrolling in a Ph.D. program to further study robotics. So, I applied to Vision and Learning Labs without hesitation.
What has been your favorite part of this internship?
My favorite part of my internship is building strong networks, such as with other lab interns. Yonsei University has a summer program for all international students who want to study abroad in South Korea. There are around 2,000 students from the U.S., Singapore, Switzerland, etc. I have had a few chances to converse with students from Yale, Princeton, Carleton College, and the National University of Singapore. We were able to share our university experiences and dreams with each other. From these conversations, I could feel that I got more motivated to further explore computer science and robotics. I loved to hear about their dreams about computer science. For example, one of my friends, another AI lab intern, said, “I want to create AI that can be a senior health assistant. A cute example is Baymax from Big Hero 6. Hi? My name Is Baymax~ HaHa.” And another friend said, “I am a pet person. So, I really want to make the most lovely pet robot that can also be an emotional support animal.” Every conversation is fun, but at the same time, I am motivated by them. Right now, I do not have a clear goal that I want to achieve in the robotics field. However, based on conversations, I understand how many robotics fields there are. I get more confident about robotics and more excited about my future career. I know I can study and work harder to build and achieve my dream career. I feel that networking is the most basic but most important resource for my career.
Visit the Summer Internship Stories page to read more about student internship experiences.