Farming
Since I was young, I have grown various plants like carrots, beans, vegetables, herbs, and berries. My farming journey began in my home garden and my grandfather's summer house. Growing plants sparked my interest in farming and related activities. Thankfully, my parents supported my passion by taking me to farm stays and cooking classes around the world. Talking with farmers who manage large-scale farms deepened my understanding of how vital farming is to people's lives. Cooking exotic dishes with local ingredients showed me the importance of preserving the environment and valuing natural resources. I have also volunteered and visited farms in Indonesia and the Philippines, and supported farmers and children in Africa. All these experiences have inspired me to pursue a future in farming, with the goal of enriching lives by developing sustainable solutions for food and growth.
STEM
My farming activities made me really interested in science, especially biological science and engineering. Unlike most of my STEM friends, I started by growing crops and figuring out how to preserve food using science. To learn more, I took Harvard X’s Food Fermentation: The Science of Cooking with Microbes during summer break. Though difficult, the course taught me so much about fermentation. I also did my own experiments making vinegar, syrups, and other fermented foods. My passion was recognized when I was selected to participate in the Biotechnology Camp at Seoul National University’s College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, a highly advanced research program. It was tough, but I studied hard and loved the challenge. After the camp, I even wrote my own research paper about fermentation and how it can be used in real life.
Utilizing my farming experiences and coding knowledge acquired at a summer coding program, I developed an automatic watering program. This smart farm is a system that applies sensors and communications (IoT), data analytics, and AI to agriculture (crops, livestock, and aquaculture) to automatically monitor and control the environment, thereby increasing productivity and quality while reducing water, energy, and labor. Among these, the automatic irrigation system is designed to keep soil moisture within a hysteresis-based target range, with minimum on-time and cooldown intervals enforced on the pump to prevent excessive switching and overheating. Measurement signals are smoothed (filtered) to reduce noise, all state changes and sensor readings are logged over serial, and a button allows manual override when necessary. Additional sensors such as temperature/humidity and flow/level can be integrated, and cloud logging can be extended for remote monitoring and analysis, enabling the end-to-end loop of “measurement → decision → pump control → record” to operate reliably and transparently.
