“One of the best feelings you get is when something starts working after hours of iterations. Sometimes it takes an entire week to fix it. [Recently] we spent the entire week having the robot know where it is on the field. The process can be tedious, but when you get [the robot] to do what it is supposed to do, it’s great.”

We recently caught up with sophomore Justin Kim, who in January was invited to present at the 32nd Samsung Human Tech Paper Awards in Korea. He earned a bronze medal in the high school physics/earth science division.

The awards were established in 1994 by Samsung Electronics, which says it aims “to expand the base of science and technology and foster scientific talents.” The competition is open to all students enrolled in Korean high schools, regardless of nationality, and all Korean students, including dual citizens, who are enrolled in overseas high schools, according to the rules.

Last summer, Justin spent three to four hours three times a week in a lab, working on a sensor that could be attached to livestock to detect disease at an early stage.

One of the biggest things he learned was “an experiment usually doesn’t go as planned.” He said he had planned out the experiment before getting into the lab, but when he started working in the lab, some things did not work. He said he had to find a way to fix the issues quickly. “Through the process I learned you have to push through things,” he said.

He missed about a week of school in January to present his findings, but he said his teachers were accommodating, giving him work to take with him and spending time with him when he returned. “The teachers are very supportive here,” Justin said.
 

Year: Sophomore

Hometown: Seoul, South Korea

Clubs/activities: Member of the robotics team. President of the Math Society. Part of writing staff for COSMOS, the school’s STEM magazine club. International Student Ambassador (ISA). Manages the website for the Financial Literacy Program. Plays the flute in the band.

On robotics: Justin works on coding for the robot. “One of the best feelings you get is when something starts working after hours of iterations. Sometimes it takes an entire week to fix it. [Recently] we spent the entire week having the robot know where it is on the field. The process can be tedious, but when you get [the robot] to do what it is supposed to do, it’s great. Also, we have three subsections, engineering, coding, and outreach. We all do very different things. But we trust each other, and the teamwork we have really shows in competitions. I like working with the robot, but I really enjoy the people I work with.”

If you could have a robot do any chore for you, what would it be? “Pack my backpack every day so I could spend more time in bed in the morning.” The backpack will have his computer, folders for the various classes that day and not one, but two calculators, in case one runs out of battery life.

Favorite food: His grandmother’s homemade kimchi stew.

Favorite snack: Pocky sticks, thin biscuit sticks covered in chocolate. A bunch come in a box. As he attests, you can mindlessly eat a lot of them.

If you could invite anyone to dinner, who would it be? Albert Einstein. “I’d love to learn from him in private tutoring for a few hours.”