Short Bio

I was born in Seoul, Korea. I lost my sight when I was five. I attended Seoul National School for the Blind from elementary to high school. I earned my bachelor degrees from Yonsei University in 1997, and my master degree in Seoul National University in 2000. I was a member of SNU Biointelligence Lab (formerly, SNU AI/NLP Lab). I also attended the International Program at the Overbrook School for the Blind in 1991. Before I came to the graduate school here in UW, I worked in the Software Development team at the Siloam Welfare Center for the Visually Handicapped, to develop a screen reader for the blind called DreamVoice running on Korean version Microsoft Windows 9x/ME. (first full-scale Korean screen reader for a GUI environment). I married in 2001, right before coming to the States. Now, I have a two and a half year old daughter, and some of her photos and short video clips can be found here.

Personal Interests

I am leading a bible study group in my church. I like playing the guitar, and singing to it when I have time. But nowadays the most delightful moments come from my daughter with her surprising achievements, unexpected remarks, and insurmountable sweetness. I used to like reading classic novels written by such authors as Hermann Hesse, Fyodor M Dostoevsky, Albert Camus, William Golding, Ernest Hemingway, etc, but now I read more practical books such as Rich dad, Poor dad, The Experts' Guide to 100 Things Everyone should Know, Purpose Driven, etc.