1. Photo of the week: What impressed you to take, select and write about this photo?

This is the group of graduate students studying in Korea this summer with the EAPSI fellowship. I have already made some great friends who I am sure I will keep up with as our professional paths continue to cross this summer and beyond.

2. New Korean, not from Hubo Lab, that you met: How did you or the person initiate the encounter, what made the encounter challenging or easy, and how did it help you?

I met “John” Yue in Gongju during a tour of the historical palace grounds of the Silla Kingdom. He spoke excellent English so it was easy to strike up a conversation, and he knew a lot of interesting facts about the history of the Silla Kingdom like their interest in astronomy and the relationship between their architecture and astronomical patterns.

3. What new cultural insight about Korea did you learn this week?

I was immediately impressed by the extent of development everywhere we went in Seoul, Gongju, Daejeon, and everywhere in between. South Korea seems to be ahead of the US in transportation, medicine, education, and many aspects of technology.

4. What did you learn about yourself?

In my past international travels, I have never quite felt at ease. This trip however, I feel “comfortable” from the start. It is hard to say how much of this is due to South Korea being such a welcoming and advanced society vs how much I have matured and become more used to international travel.

5. What is the status of your technical projects and what skills did you learn?

We were constantly traveling and participating in tourist activities, so I did not have a chance to work on any technical projects. We did tour a POSCO steel factory, and I loved seeing the creative engineering that has been developed to make the company one of the top steel producers in the world.

1. Photo of the week: What impressed you to take, select and write about this photo?

I felt obligated to include a picture of Korean BBQ because it is delicious, and I can't get enough!

2. New Korean, not from Hubo Lab, that you met: How did you or the person initiate the encounter, what made the encounter challenging or easy, and how did it help you?

I met a photonics engineer at a bar in downtown Daejeon, we began talking while ordering drinks. His English was great, and he regularly talks with foreigners, so communication was quite smooth. I had received an email the same day from the US embassy warning about an upcoming Anti-America protest in Seoul the next day. I was able to ask him about his views of America and gauge whether I needed to worry about the protest. He seemed surprised to hear that the protest had been organized.

3. What new cultural insight about Korea did you learn this week?

I learned that they do not generally drink water or beverages during meals. I tried bringing my water bottle to the cafeteria a few times this week because I would get very thirsty during lunch, but now I am getting used to it.

4. What did you learn about yourself?

Once I got to my dorm, I felt compelled to do all my shopping for groceries and home goods ASAP. I think I wanted to feel like I was in control of my living space since I was feeling a loss of control in other regards (being away from home, family, and friends).

5. What is the status of your technical projects and what skills did you learn?

I spent this week writing a manuscript for ICCE. I also would walk around the lab periodically and observe the various experiments taking place. Sometimes I asked questions, but I do not want to be a burden to the researchers, and the language barrier definitely slows things down.

1. Photo of the week: What impressed you to take, select and write about this photo?

The past 2 years I have been involved with developing a UAV robotics competition for middle and high school students. The above picture shows “drone soccer” an event at RobotUniverse that gave me ideas for the competition I have been working on.

2. New Korean, not from Hubo Lab, that you met: How did you or the person initiate the encounter, what made the encounter challenging or easy, and how did it help you?

At RoboUniverse I spoke with some Korean students about the robotics competitions they were participating in. They were very excited about humanoid wrestling and nxt sumo. They are starting very young and pick up many valuable skills doing something fun.

3. What new cultural insight about Korea did you learn this week?

Although smoking cigarettes was once very popular in South Korea, it is decreasing both in participants and social acceptance. There are smoking lounges outside buildings with strong ventilation because smoking outside entrances is being phased out.

4. What did you learn about yourself?

Although I was initially discouraged by how difficult it was to get plugged into projects at Hubo Lab, I am finding that the other lab members are warming up to me and I am becoming more involved. My persistence is paying off, and the more effort I make to learn Korean and practice humility, the more it seems I am becoming a part of the team.

5. What is the status of your technical projects and what skills did you learn?

This week I presented my first conference paper at URAI in Jeju Island. I was exposed to a ton of theories and research practices I had not considered, and now I have a notebook full of ideas to follow-up on. Though I was nervous, I had sufficiently prepared and I ended up having a great time networking with new colleagues.

1. Photo of the week: What impressed you to take, select and write about this photo?

This photo shows a farmer working his land on a Sunday in front of the enormous Vaccine Research Center. One thing I have been very impressed with is the utilization of land here in Korea. Even here amidst the many government and corporate research centers, plots of land ranging from a few square meters to acres are diligently farmed.

2. New Korean, not from Hubo Lab, that you met: How did you or the person initiate the encounter, what made the encounter challenging or easy, and how did it help you?

This week I had several “conversations” with the security guard who mans the entrance to the dorms. His English is much better than my Korean, but still we mostly exchanged incomplete sentences and supplemented words with gestures. He has been very helpful with calling taxis when I need to go somewhere unusual, as the taxi drivers often hangup after a few seconds of my terrible attempts at Korean. I only experience this with phone calls though. When I try to speak Korean in person, no matter how horrible, people tend to try very hard to communicate and help me with whatever I need.

3. What new cultural insight about Korea did you learn this week?

I learned that Koreans, especially the older generation, is very concerned with eating healthy. There are many popular vegetarian restaurants, and a popular burger chain, “Play Burger”, serves only veggie burgers.

4. What did you learn about yourself?

I had been discouraged about how slowly I was learning Korean, but occasionally I surprise myself with my progress. I think if I keep devoting a small part of my day to studying, I will be much further along by the end of the summer.

5. What is the status of your technical projects and what skills did you learn?

This week we established a team for working out continuous scanning and footstep planning for Hubo. We have been reading different papers to evaluate the different approaches, and I am learning a lot more about humanoids. I am most interested in the manipulation of point clouds, and I hope to implement some of these scanning approaches on UAV when I return to the US.

1. Photo of the week: What impressed you to take, select and write about this photo?

This is JunNyeong and JongUn from Daegu. We met to discuss combining forces for an academic translation and editing startup. They showed us a great time in Daegu with awesome meals and nightlife. Even if the startup does not work out, I hope we have begin a longterm friendship.

2. New Korean, not from Hubo Lab, that you met: How did you or the person initiate the encounter, what made the encounter challenging or easy, and how did it help you?

JunNyeong and JongUn study at a technical university, so most of their classes are in English. This made communication mostly smooth, but often we had to repeat or slow down the conversation to make sure everyone was on the same page. I think it was a great experience for me to learn more about how to do business in Korea even while they were very grateful for the opportunity to practice English in both a business, and later, an informal context. I tried to practice some Korean with them, but I am like a toddler with my language skills so we mostly spoke in English.

3. What new cultural insight about Korea did you learn this week?

When we first met JunNyeong and JongUn, we went directly to a restaurant and started feasting on seafood. I began bringing up aspects of the potential business, until finally JongUn stopped me and explained that in Korea, business should not be discussed during dinner and that we would go to a cafe afterwards to talk about the startup. I like this arrangement, and now I know how it's done for the future.

4. What did you learn about yourself?

I have worked for some very terrible bosses in the past. During our business meeting and in discussions with my American business partner, I felt myself tempted to emulate some of the authoritarian/assholey/egotistic practices that I have seen in my past bosses. During these moments, I was very intentional about pausing and choosing to be the type of entrepreneur I want to see in the world, not like the ones I have been exposed to.

5. What is the status of your technical projects and what skills did you learn?

This week I began focusing on point cloud registration. This is where you find matches between a the point cloud from a new scan and those from previous scans. Once matched, the transformation can be used as odometry data, and the point clouds can be combined for a richer model of the environment. I began experimenting with code, and I am beginning to find ways to change parameters to correct for over/under-fitting.

1. Photo of the week: What impressed you to take, select and write about this photo?

This week my girlfriend came to visit from America. We went to Namsan Seoul Tower and participated in a common ritual in which couples place a lock at the base of the tower to representing their eternal love. There seem to be many customs for couples in Korea, it can be a great place for romance :).

2. New Korean, not from Hubo Lab, that you met: How did you or the person initiate the encounter, what made the encounter challenging or easy, and how did it help you?

I visited Seoul Community Radio, an underground radio station that is trying to promote Korean DJ's and introduce international DJ's to Korea. The founder was very friendly and excited to hear that I had been following the project. He spoke English well so it was easy to communicate. It was a great time sharing our favorite artists and talking about music.

3. What new cultural insight about Korea did you learn this week?

I learned that breakfast is not as popular as in the US. It was very hard to find places to eat before 10am. Usually I cook my own breakfast, but when I was traveling with my girlfriend we discovered that food was hard to come by early in the morning unless you make it yourself.

4. What did you learn about yourself?

This week I became much more comfortable navigating public transportation like buses and trains. I had done so earlier in the summer, but as I traveled more this week I “practiced” more. Just repeating the process of looking up routes and watching for my stop made me feel more confident about exploring.

5. What is the status of your technical projects and what skills did you learn?

As of this week, I am waiting on the code for footstep planning that is already being used for DRC Hubo. Several graduate students have offered to send me the code, but I have not seen it yet. I am continuing to familiarize myself with the open source software, RTAB-Map.

1. Photo of the week: What impressed you to take, select and write about this photo?

This photo shows ointment I got for a rash. I had an itchy rash that had been growing on my chest and back, so I decided to go to the KAIST medical center for treatment. I was impressed by the doctor who treated me, and the visit and medicine was $24 total. I had the same rash in America a few years ago, and the doctor I saw could not figure out what it was. It took months for it to disappear. The Korean dermatologist who treated me took a sample, immediately used a microscope in her office to determine the exact cause of the rash, and prescribed cream and body wash. Within a week the rash was gone!

2. New Korean, not from Hubo Lab, that you met: How did you or the person initiate the encounter, what made the encounter challenging or easy, and how did it help you?

I had a short conversation with an auntie who works cleaning the dorms. I could only understand a few words she spoke, but she mimed to talk about the kitchen and food.

3. What new cultural insight about Korea did you learn this week?

I learned that most older women in Korean see themselves as everyones' mom or auntie. They are super friendly and always seem to be trying to help.

4. What did you learn about yourself?

I learned that taking care of the basics helps me be most productive and friendly. Simple things like food and sleep can be the difference between my best and worst self.

5. What is the status of your technical projects and what skills did you learn?

I have been using the Point Cloud Library (PCL) to filter and segment point clouds. There are some helpful tutorials and I am adapting them with Dylan. Learning the minutia of point cloud processing is helping me to understand which parts of the footstep planning pipeline are most important.

1. Photo of the week: What impressed you to take, select and write about this photo?

It was very hard to get access to hardware this summer. This week I finally had the opportunity to run some tests with a DRC Hubo… and its ankle broke right before I got access. It took several days for Hubo Lab members to fix it. I helped some with holding tools and bolts, but even the experienced lab members were mystified by the malfunction and had to run many tests to debug. In the end I was able to gather some data for an afternoon at the end of the week.

2. New Korean, not from Hubo Lab, that you met: How did you or the person initiate the encounter, what made the encounter challenging or easy, and how did it help you?

I was approached by a Korean man who spoke very good English. He asked me some questions about my tattoos. He said he was interested in practicing his English. We chatted for a bit longer about life in America versus life in Korea.

3. What new cultural insight about Korea did you learn this week?

This week I learned more about the military service required of men in Korea. Some of the lab members are satisfying their military service by doing academic research. Others hope to go to America to defer their service. I see many men traveling on public transportation in fatigues, I believe they are traveling to or from their military assignments.

4. What did you learn about yourself?

At this point in the summer it is cool to look back and see how fast the summer has gone. I really missed home at many points in the summer, but time has flown and I will be returning home very soon.

5. What is the status of your technical projects and what skills did you learn?

This week I began integrating the different point cloud projects and research I have worked on over the summer. I mounted a Kinect on DRC Hubo and captured and registered point clouds on uneven terrain using RTAB-Map. I took the master point cloud from the terrain scans, filtered noise, and segmented out planes for walking using PCL functions. I also began working on adapting the the DRC Hubo Gazebo simulation to use a virtual Kinect sensor.

1. Photo of the week: What impressed you to take, select and write about this photo?

The picture shows Dylan and my farewell dinner with Dr. Jun Ho Oh and the rest of Hubo Lab. They were very hospitable, and I am very honored to have had the experience to learn from them this summer.

2. New Korean, not from Hubo Lab, that you met: How did you or the person initiate the encounter, what made the encounter challenging or easy, and how did it help you?

I met a business student in the KAIST cafeteria. We talked about the new sanctions against North Korea, and what Donald Trump means for America. It is interesting to hear that most South Koreans hope to be reunited with North Korea in their lifetimes. They do not want to give up the freedom and development they have in their democracy, but they do see North Koreans as their family.

3. What new cultural insight about Korea did you learn this week?

I learned that every dinner should end with rice or noodles. Even 10+ side dishes and servings of meat are considered appetizers, and the main course is rice or noodles.

4. What did you learn about yourself?

I am proud of my flexibility and perseverance during the summer. I had to work hard to develop relationships with lab members in order to gain access to information and equipment necessary for my research. I pursued several research leads before I found a project I felt would be productive. Many times I was told by lab members that my intended approach would not work, but I asked questions and responded with research when I felt they were wrong. In the end I added to DRC Hubo's footstep planning pipeline, and I accomplished several contributions that I was initially told would not work.

5. What is the status of your technical projects and what skills did you learn?

This week I proposed changes to the DRC footstep planning pipeline that would make footstep planning faster and more accurate. I also presented an updated simulator that includes a virtual kinect and a random debris generator. This can be used to develop a new footstep planning algorithm that is more robust than the current algo.