Live from the stage/performing ‘A chunk of trauma’ in the final presentation of ‘Spoken Word’ class at UCSB
Jungah Son
Driven and efficient self starter with 9 years of experience in user interface, student mentor, and academic research.
Education
Ph.D. in Media Arts and Technology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA December 2023
Research emphases: Affective computing, virtual reality, creativity tool, interactional approach
Committee: Marko Peljhan (Co-Chair), George Legrady (Co-Chair), Tobias Höllerer, Misha Sra
M.S. in Radiation Applied Life Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea August 2012
Conducted independent research in Functional & Molecular Imaging System Lab, focused on anisotropic diffusion and total variation image reconstruction
B.E. in Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea February 2010
Professional Experience
UX/UI Designer - College Sauce, Santa Barbara, CA January 2024-May 2024
Implemented a leaderboard in Flutter, applying what was learned about design to real life applications that will likely become part of the company's permanent identity
Volunteering around the Santa Barbara area to define early design concepts and craft elegant solutions for delivering a compelling customer experience
Graduate Student Researcher - Media Arts and Technology, UCSB, CA September 2016-September 2023
Built 2 user interfaces in MATLAB to investigate ways to generate abstract images through Dynamic Mode Decomposition/Kandinsky’s Analytical Drawing
Designed a computational tool to assist a user in recoloring drawings based on 4 user emotions (happy, sad, angry, relaxing) by using facial emotion detection and k-means clustering to help users express their emotions better
Created emoPaint, a virtual reality application that allows users to create paintings with 18 emotion-based brushes and expressive textures, in Unity
Developed emoBrush, a virtual reality application designed to help awareness and express emotion, in Unity
Public Humanities Graduate Fellow - Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, UCSB, CA March 2019-September 2023
Launched an education website (https://foodbanksbc.org/foodboss) for a FoodBoss curriculum as a Food Literacy Training Intern and worked 20 hours per week for 10 weeks starting June 15, 2020 for a total of 200 hours
Completed 2 seminar courses, “History and Theory of Public Humanities” and “Skills for the Public Sphere”
Delivered a 7-8 minute public presentation, followed by a Q&A panel with other Public Humanities Fellows, about training, work, and identity as a public humanist
Research Intern - Four Eyes Lab, UCSB, CA July 2014-September 2014
Implemented an artifact removal algorithm based on Adaptive SWT-based Denoising (EEG Preprocessing)
Published results in part of the proceedings in the ACM Digital Library
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Teaching Assistant - University of California, Santa Barbara, CA January 2015-March 2022
Led a section and critiques, and evaluated projects for Art, Science and Technologies
Directed two sections and graded written assignments for Playful Spaces: A Cultural History of Games
Managed 12 students' use of programming in a wide range of projects for Introduction to Computer Programming in the Arts
Taught discrete mathematics and graded homework & examinations for Foundations of Computer Science
Led two sections, and graded homework assignments and exams for Multimedia Systems
Taught MATLAB in two sections for Introduction to Programming
Guided two discussion sections, held office hours, and reviewed programming assignments and written assignments for Introduction to Computer Vision
LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE
Mentor - Research Mentorship Program, UCSB, CA June 2023-August 2023
Supervised two research projects for high school students
Research projects entitled: ‘Pictoforte: Constructing Electronic Instruments Based on Image Border Properties’ and ‘Optimizing Noise Reduction Filters to Improve Clarity in Ultrasound Liver Images’
Student Leader - Light and Life Isla Vista, UCSB, CA September 2014-June 2017
‘Light and Life’ is a student organization and multicultural church serving the communities of Isla Vista, California
Secured meeting sites, recruited students, planned student events, and served the local homeless community with a weekly lunch program
TECHNICAL SKILLS
Primary Languages: Objective C | C++ | C# | MATLAB
Secondary Languages: Python | Processing | Java | MIPS Assembly
Software Knowledge: Knowledgeable in virtual reality application development
Languages: Native in Korean | Fluent in English
GRANT AWARDS
Visual, Performing, and Media Arts Award, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, UCSB
Graduate Collaborative Award, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, UCSB
PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
“Reflection on Abstract Art through Reconstruction of Kandinsky’s Teaching at the Bauhaus”, Recap of Art Papers at SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 in Sydney, Short Presentations of Artworks & Research for the Kindred Spirit, Virtual Event, Jan. 2024.
Jungah Son, Marko Peljhan, and George Legrady, “Reflection on Abstract Art through Kandinsky’s Teaching: Reflection on Abstract Art through Reconstruction of Kandinsky’s Teaching at the Bauhaus,” SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Art Papers. Sydney, Australia, Dec. 12 – 15, 2023.
Jungah Son, Marko Peljhan, George Legrady, and Misha Sra, “A Computational Tool for Recoloring Based on User Emotions”, Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Oct. 8 – 12, 2023
“Design of an Emotion-Aware Painting Application With an Interactional Approach for Virtual Reality”, Late Breaking Results, International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction Workshops and Demos (ACIIW), The MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, Sep. 2023