Personal (but not too personal) Information

I grew up just a few hours north of Seattle in Vancouver, where my family settled after a move from South Korea when I was a small child. I went to UBC, not really knowing what I wanted to do afterwards. I took an introductory programming course as an elective out of interest, and because most of my friends were taking it—I wanted to know what the hell they were talking about.

I liked the introductory programming course so much that I decided to declare Computer Science as my major, a decision with what turned out to be outsized impact. After spending some time in the classroom, I decided I wanted some "real-world" experience, so I went on some internships where I got to write some real-world code and learn from some real-world developers.

During the last year of my undergraduate program, I decided I wanted to give grad school a try, having spent some time in the Software Practices Lab at UBC during a past summer. And so, I spent another 2 years beyond my undergrad at UBC, working on my master's degree with Gail C. Murphy. These were some of the most professionally and personally gratifying years of my life.

After graduating from my master's in November 2022, I decided to head back into industry, with the thought that I'd return for a PhD "in five years or so" in my back pocket. I guess I eventually returned, just not in five years.