Taeyoung Kang

Global Challenge: Means of providing basic necessities and sustainable technologies; eradication of poverty

Bio:

Eliot is junior at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, majoring in Computer Science. Traveling all the way from South Korea, he has started his academic journey in the U.S. since 2019 first in Florida and now in New York. His traits resemble those of an adventurer; he believes that every growth, whether it be professional or personal, comes from personal challenge. He tends to seek ways to challenge himself and eager to gain experiences. Through many hardships one can face as a study-abroad student, he has learned to break out of his comfort zone when necessary.

At NYU, Eliot is involved in FAMS, one of the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) teams. He strongly resonates with the project’s goal of integrating robotics and AI into the surgical environment; with his CS background, Eliot is a member of its computer vision subteam and hopes to utilize and expand his knowledge on the particular field. He has acquired basic computer vision techniques during his first year at FAMS and readied himself to take on more challenges. To put what he has learned into practice, Eliot worked as an intern at Crest Robotics, an Australian start-up company, this summer and contributed to its computer vision project. During his time at the company, he has acquired technical skills that are practical in the industry and gained hands-on experience tackling computer vision problems like object detection and 6DoF object pose estimation. Also, he has embraced the common mindset and approaches to problem solving under the guidance of his mentor and worked closely with his supervisors. With what he has learned over the summer, Eliot wishes to continue provide for his team at school and make contributions to the field of AI/ML one day.

During his time in NYU GLASS, Eliot has taken a role as a peer ambassador where he, with his colleagues, organized and hosted events and activities to help other scholars connect with each other as well as exchange students. While serving this role, he has worked closely with staff members and his colleagues and learned to utilize tools such as Airtable. He has also led students throughout activities where he practiced his leadership ability.

Eliot has completed his study abroad semester at NYU London. In London, he has made meaningful connections both in and out of class. Being in the environment and conversing with local allowed him to expand his knowledge on cultures and perceptions; the people’s efforts to promote eco-friendliness especially impacted his view on sustainability and made him rethink about the hygiene of the streets in NYC and its consequences on the nature.

Furthermore, during his trip to Germany, its garbage recycling culture left an outlasting impression to Eliot; the people in Germany practiced an act of exchanging a plastic bottle or can for a quarter. Consequently, the practice kept the streets clean and, most importantly, motivated people to recycle. He has made an observation that the act of garbage collection was a means of making living for certain people. The simple, effective way to promote the reduction of waste has not only served its purpose of keeping the street clean but also motivated people to contribute to their society positively. Inspired by what he has observed during his time abroad, Eliot wishes to apply his specialities in Computer Science in brainstorming ways to leave positive effects in the human society like the ones he has witnessed.

Eliot believes that being a GLASS scholar follows responsibilities and expectations. He values and strives to hold up to the title; he tries his best to maintain high academic status, acquire as many different views as possible, and expose himself to the uncomfortable for challenges. He appreciates and fully embraces the challenges that follows being part of the GLASS program, because it’s always through those hardships that he adopts the traits of the global leader defined by the program. Through the program, Eliot has come to pay more attentions towards global challenges. He has exposed himself to different cultures and struggles through serving as a peer ambassador and studying abroad in London, directly interacting with people from around the world. One of the UN’s sustainable development goals that he resonated most with is the matter of providing quality education. He believes that making education accessible is the absolute first step when tackling societal issues such as poverty, because quality education develops quality individuals. He visions the future where the human society is strong enough to provide hopes and countless opportunities to people regardless of where they stand. The GLASS program has made him realize global challenges everyone’s responsibility as an earth citizen and he hopes to train his technical and soft skills through both personal and professional experiences and one day apply them to make education more accessible around the globe, acquiring the first necessary step.