Alumni profile: Dennis Hong
Rock’em sock’em roboticist
Dennis Hong (BSME ’94), Associate Professor, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia (large image) |
When robots take over the world—or at least the World Cup—Dennis Hong is likely to be at least partly to blame.
An assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, Hong is in charge of that university’s Robotics & Mechanisms Lab (RoMeLa). There he advises the team of students who created DARwIn, the Dynamic Anthropomorphic Robot with Intelligence that was the United States entry into last year’s RoboCup, an international soccer competition for robots. For years, he and his students have been working to infuse robots with artificial intelligence in ways that are fun, challenging and useful. “I still cannot forget the mind-blowing sensation when I first watched the movie Star Wars,” he says. “I was fascinated by R2D2 and C-3PO. Since then, I decided to become a robot scientist and never changed my mind.”
Hong’s interests, however, run far beyond creating mechanical athletes. Born in California and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Hong came to UW-Madison to study robotics under Mechanical Engineering Professor John Uicker. But college life is about more than research and academics, and in spite of Hong’s American beginnings, he found the transition to Wisconsin to be far from easy.
“When I first arrived on campus, I had no friends,” he says, “and the unexpected cultural differences were quite a shock to me.”
Madison offered a wide variety of activities to bring out previously hidden facets of Hong’s personality. Trips to the Dane County Farmers’ Market inspired in him an interest in gourmet cooking, and the Union’s Hoofer outdoor adventure group sparked an interest in sailing, giving him both a physical outlet and a social network.
“The Hoofer Sailing Club not only helped me realize the joy of sailing and the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful lakes on campus,” he says, “but more than that, it helped me adjust to the new environment and make a lot of friends.”
Under Uicker’s guidance, Hong’s expertise in robotics grew. He went through graduate studies at Purdue University under one of Uicker’s former students, Ray Cipra (BS ‘71, MS ’72, PhD ’78), before joining the faculty at Virginia Tech. There he founded RoMeLa, where he guides a team of 15 graduate students and 30 undergrads through a variety of robotics research projects. His lab developed not only the human-like DARwIn, but also an autonomous vehicle called Odin that took third prize in a Defense Department competition, and a three-legged walking robot called STriDER. RoMeLa is also designing a whole-skin locomotion mechanism —a robot that would move much like an amoeba, a useful tool for search-and-rescue operations as it would be more capable of crossing rough and broken terrain than any current vehicle.
However, Hong says, the challenges of the lab are secondary to the pleasures of mentoring students—a principle he learned at UW-Madison. “There is nothing more rewarding than teaching students to become leaders in their fields and to become better engineers to contribute to society,” he says. “The Badger spirit still lives inside me, and I never forget to be proud as a UW-Madison graduate.”
In his own words
What do you most miss about campus?
Babcock ice cream! Orange Custard Chocolate Chip.
What was your favorite class?
ME 451, Kinematics and Dynamics of Machine Systems. I enjoyed it
so much, now I teach it (an equivalent course) at Virginia Tech.
What is something every UW student must do?
Check out a sailboat from the Memorial Union on a clear day and
sail on beautiful Lake Mendota!
If you haven't sailed before, take a lesson from the Hoofer
Sailing Club.
What is the greatest benefit of a UW degree?
The right to proudly put a UW Alumnus/Bucky Badger sticker on
the rear window of your car.
What was your first job?
Managing the network system at the Macintosh Computer Center at
Korea University.
What are you reading now?
I am reading two books simultaneously: The God Delusion by
Richard Dawkins and The Language of God: A Scientist Presents
Evidence for Belief by Francis Collins.
Who is your hero? Who or what inspires you?
My dad is my hero.
What’s on your iPod?
Mostly fun movie clips of our robots playing soccer. For music, I use Pandora on my iPhone.
What is your proudest UW achievement?
Graduation (with honors).
What's your favorite quote?
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” And that is what I am doing.
What occupies your free time?
What is "free time?" My job is my hobby.
What would you be if you hadn’t chosen your current career path?
A professional magician or a chef and owner of a small high-end restaurant. But I cannot think of a better job than being in academia.
Do you prefer Mac or PC?
I do use Windows often—on my Mac. I've owned more than twenty Macs since 1989.
Are you a cat person or dog person?
Neither. I am a robot person. We have all kinds of crawling, climbing, walking, rolling, slithering robots in my robotics lab. They do not need feeding, if they break we can fix them, if they get annoying, we just switch them off. But all need tender love and care.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
“Wait! Don’t eat that!”