Junwoo HWANG
What am I up to?
Currently, I am:
- Bachelor’s student in Electrical Engineering, Korea University (2019.03 ~ )
- Invited Visiting Student at Autonomous Systems Lab, ETH Zurich (2022.11 ~ 2023.03)
- PX4 Development coordinator at Dronecode Foundation (2023.02 ~ )
In the past, I was:
- Intern at Auterion for PX4 Flight Control Software Engineering (2022.02 ~ 2022.11)
- Exchange student at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich (2021.02 ~ 2021.08)
- Intern at UVify for PX4 Engineering & Robotics (2020.02 ~ 2020.08)
For detailed info, please check out my CV.
Quick Intro
Being an avid aerospace enthusiast, I started building model airplanes when I was 15. That passion led me to an Open-Source Flight control software called iNav. Where I contributed several bug fixes and code optimizations throughout high school years. Currently, I’m a volunteer for PX4, which is a more widely known flight control software. I am especially interested and looking for ways to contribute to Visual obstacle avoidance and Safe landing features inside PX4.
I am a self-motivated, fast-paced learner. Through projects like ‘Return glider radiosonde’, ‘High altitude long endurance solar airplane’, ‘Electrical skateboard’, I learned so much about embedded systems, from designing a PCB to writing the code that utilizes low-level features of a microprocessor like Timer and Interrupts. Seeing how the code performs in real life even if it’s just blinking a led, is fascinating for me.
My current interests include Flight control software, Vision-based navigation, Rocket propulsion, Optimal trajectory planning algorithm for propulsively landing on planets, Autonomous high-speed aerial vehicles, Embedded programming and Coding in general.
If you want to see a detailed list of my past projects, visit: My Portfolio
Favorite activities
🪂Paragliding (2016.01 ~ 2016.03 / 2022.03 ~ )
Ever since middle school, I dreamed of flying on my own. For instance, by a paraglider! So I learned how to fly, and flew for the first time right before going into my high school, in 2016.
After a 6 year break due to high school & university, I finally restarted paragliding in Zurich, Switzerland, and am aiming to become a pilot by March of 2023!
🚁 Drones (2016 ~ )
When I was in Highschool, I came across an Arduino-based Drone project called ‘YMFC’. From there, my love for drones started. And still to this day, building a drone from scratch (buying all the individual parts) and programming them is so fun and something I am passionate about!
Whenever I look back at these early days, I just smile. Because I can clearly connect the dots looking backward, of how I got here since then. And all those memories just make me smile.
Since I do paragliding & drones, it shouldn’t be a surprise but …
🧗 Rock Climbing (2020.10 ~ )
When I came across an Oscar-winning documentary ‘Free Solo’ back in March of 2020, I got completely immersed in the idea of climbing up a 900 meter wall of shear Granite without any rope. I admired the mastery, confidence, passion of Alex Honnold (the Climber in the movie).
So I became a member of our University’s Alpine club and went on my first rock climb on September 26th, 2020. And since then I have been enjoying rock climbing. I am super passionate about climbing!
I especially like crack climbing, because cracks are the most beautiful and distinctive feature of a rock to me. The Idea that you can jam your hands inside the cracks is attractive as well.
For me climbing isn’t just a hobby, it’s a form of expressing myself & feeling happy. Something that I am passionate about for no reason. That’s why I like it.
Youtube Channel
I occasionally edit videos and upload them to my channel!
Link to my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@junuhunuproductions
Cooking
During my exchange stay in Zurich, I realized my love for cooking (which wasn’t possible because I never had my own kitchen I could use until then). So I try to cook different recipes, and you can find some of them in my playlist!
Podcast
Oh, and I started a Podcast with my friend in 2022, called “Before They Change The World”. Check it out if you are interested!
Some Interesting Projects I’ve done
Highschool Graduation cap drone (2019.02)
Haha, this one is pretty funny. I planned a scheme to disguise a mini quadcopter as a ‘graduation cap’, then flew it in front of all the students & teachers & parents. It was a really fun experience.
And more …
- (2016 ~ 2017)Developed, and built many C-language-based programs such as ‘The Game: 2048‘ and ‘BMP_Encrypter(Steganography tool)‘.
- (2017 ~ 2018)Bug-fixed Arduino libraries(such as DHT-22 temperature/humidity sensor), built my own Servo library(Stacking-structure PWM library utilizing Timer2 in Atmega328P micro-processor) from the ground up.
- (2017 ~ 2018) (High School) Made some minor contributions and bug-fixes on the GPS-focused open-source drone software ‘iNav‘.
- (2017 ~ 2018) Actively(although not so sophisticated) review / comment-ed on over thirty Pull-Requests / Issues. Meanwhile understanding / reading many core modules, such as ‘navigation’, ‘pid’, ‘mixer’, ‘rx’, ‘config’, and so on.
- (2017.08 ~ 2017.12) Developed a ‘Cafeteria Waiting Line Monitoring System‘, an attempt to solve my High-School Cafeteria’s congestion problem that had persisted for over 2 years. Made/designed Physical-FootPads with acrylic/cork materials, configured an electrical system that can detect humans on the pad, programmed real-time sensing & broadcasting(Web) MCU program based on an ESP8266 WiFi-enabled chip, along with a Real-Time-Clock module.
- (2018.02) For the system above(cafeteria-monitor), I won the 1-st place, awarded by the ‘Minister of Education Department of Korea’, in a ‘2018 – Cafeteria Idea Competition(NEWS1, NEWS2, NEWS3, BOOK? … )’.
- (2018.02 ~ 2018.09) Built an Electric Skateboard & designed(PCB) / programmed(c++) / a custom nRF24-chip-based Transmitter / Receiver. With support on bi-directional packet delivery, with speedometer feature on the remote. During High-School 3rd year(2018). Which, alongside produced the ‘Most viewed Post(Battery Pack-DIY)’ for my Blog.
- (2017.09 ~ 2018.01) While Studying & Researching Solar-Powered Airplanes, I contributed bug-fixes as well as code-simplification ideas to ETH-Zurich ‘Solar-Impulse(record-breaking solar-powered airplane)’ Team’s “Fixed Wing Conceptual Design(MatLab code) repository”.
Major Interests
I am interested in a lot of things, such as:
- Rocketry
- Robotics
- Earth Science
- Biology
I just can never satisfy my curiosity enough! That’s what keeps me up at night.
More Technical, Formal fact about Me
- Quick understanding– / modifying / utilizing– various programs written in C++ / Python / C / MatLab.
- Dive deep into the fundamental bare-bone code, and understanding the framework/structure (For example, various driver libraries(ADC, Accelerometer, Current-Sensor, Serial-Port, etc.) from Open-Source Drone-Software, as well as simple Libraries(Servo, HID, SoftwareSerial, etc.) from Arduino IDE).
- Fearlessly take the challenge of understanding completely new- concepts(as of now, October 30th, 2019, ‘Second Order Cone Programming’ is my challenge :0 ). And searching for related paper/resources, analyzing them, and in the end- grasping a firm understanding of the concept.
- p.s.) As an example of how fast I can adapt to take new knowledge when I entered High-school at 2016(3 years ago), I didn’t know ANYTHING about <MCU> STM32 registers, interrupts, timers, pull-up resistors, or <Rocket> Rocket-Propulsion, Isp, Characteristic-Velocity(c-star), Isentropic-Flow, De-Laval Nozzle, <Drone> PID-controller, Filtering, Complementary-Filter, Quaternions, PWM-signal, PPM, ESC, BLDC, <Astrodynamics> Perigee, Perihelion, Conic Sections, radar-tracking with Cramer’s Rule(Linear Algebra), <Mechanics of Materials> Young’s Modulus, Elasticity, Shear-force, H-beam bend analysis, and SO MUCH!
- p.s.2) I learned most of my knowledge from Books / Papers / Pdf-files / Articles-Online / Forums / Github / Blogs, etc. I did whatever I could to learn what I needed to learn. And there was no specific/rigid road-map, I just fearlessly took the challenge, and embraced them because I love learning new things.
- Keep / Organize an objective record of everything. When it comes to ‘really understanding’ something, I am a slow-and-steady type. But along the way, I document the process meticulously, so later on, write-ups for each project can be written with ease. And I also create a document for each project, which acts as a solid foundation for each project, and supplements my memory. For example, my ‘Making a 6S8P Li-ion Battery Pack‘ post was possible because of all my intentionally preserved photo/data / Logs.
Contact Info
- isp528s <at> gmail <dot> com
Edit Notes
- 2019.10.30 : Initial Writeup
- 2019.11.06 : Edited Email ‘<dot>’
- 2020.01 : More colorful descriptions
- 2021.01.26 : Changed main photo and added ‘Climbing’ section
- 2021.04.19 : Added ‘informal’ About section & Re-grouped past activities to “Things I LOVE doing” and “Interesting Projects”
- 2023.03 : Major update with more hobbies added & videos! Wow lots of stuff to add. I did it just to contact a person in betaflight community haha.
Junwoo Hwang 