Hongjun Wu Updated on: September 22, 2023.

Github: @wu-hongjun LinkedIn: @wu-hongjun

Google Scholar: Hongjun Wu Art Station: @wuhongjun

Resume

Feel free to download my most recent resume here: Hongjun Wu’s Resume

About

I combine the power of technology with the beauty of art to create products that are both technically impressive and aesthetically pleasing.

My current research focuses on machine learning and its application in game development. I am also a trained artist working in traditional mediums of printmaking, photography, and illustration.

Education

Cornell University 2021 - 2023

Master of Science in Information Systems.

Technion 2021 - 2023

Master of Science in Applied Information Science.

University of Washington 2017 - 2021

Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Visual Art.

Valley Christian High School 2013 - 2017

Diploma with Honor, Varsity Athlete in Robotics.

Professional Experience

Brownie AI 2023 - Present

Co-Founder, Chief Product Officer
  • Oversee UX, front end development, marketing, and project management for Brownie AI's ChatCareer platform.

    • Trunk Tools 2023 - Present

    Machine Learning Software Engineer
  • Develop LLM based applications using services services such as Pinecone, Weaviate, AWS, etc.

    • Lerer Hippeau 2023

    Artificial Intelligence Engineer
  • Built a LLM based web scraper that automatically ingests company website data from the web and Pitchbook sources, generate tags and summaries for the company.

    • Dreamhaven - Moonshot Games 2022

    Technical Artist Intern
  • I collaborate closely with the other Technical Artists on the team and as well as other disciplines will establish and maintain a process that unlocks the creative potential for all involved.

    • TrackAir 2022

    Co-Founder
  • Co-Founded the startup "TrackAir", a joint effort between the USA and Israel.
  • TrackAir aims to use smart technology to improve the rate of giving birth to healthy babies by pregnant women by continuous and personalized air toxic substance detection.

    • Carter Burden Network 2021

    Data Scientist
  • TechPals is a research study conducted by Carter Burden Network and the Roosevelt Island Senior Center on educating seniors to use Amazon Alexa and observe how introducing state-of-the-art technology impact lives of senior citizens.
  • Create & maintain the database from paper surveys, clean and sort data, fill in missing values.
  • Analyze data using advanced methods including natural language processing and qualitative data analysis.
  • Generate an analysis based on insights obtained from data.

    • Open Source Projects

    Heiya GUI 2023

    Independent Developer
  • User friendly interface for people with no coding experience to interact with the Heiya library.
  • You can learn more about this project from the Official Website.

    • Heiya 2022 - 2023

    Independent Developer
  • Heiya is a one-line solution for photographers to build automatic high efficiency image pipeline.
  • You can learn more about this project from the Official Website.

    • Xwift 2023

    Independent Developer
  • Xwift is an automatic Maya Python toolkit development pipeline.
  • You can learn more about this project from the Official Website.

    • Honors & Awards

    Cornell Tech Startup Award

    Finalist 2022

    Zumtobel Group Awards

    Special Prize for Innovation (EUR €20,000) 2021

    Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute

    Connective Media Fellowship (USD $30,000) 2021

    University of Washington

    Dean's List 2018 - 2020

    FIRST Robotics Competition - Central Valley Regional

    Team Spirit Award 2017

    Productions

    Applied Machine Learning Open Book @ Cornell Tech 2022 - 2023

    Producer
  • I produced Cornell Tech's Applied Machine Learning Open Book (Link) for Professor Volodymyr Kuleshov.

    • SuperFly VR @ University of Washington Reality Lab 2020 - 2021

    Game Artist
  • SuperFly VR experiments with different forms of locomotion and movement within virtual reality to create new gameplay experiences in a procedurally generated city. Customizable comfort settings have been added (incuding dynamic field-of-view, controller-based snap turning, and a virtual nose) for players to modify their experience and reduce the impacts of simulator sickness.
  • SuperFly VR Website
  • SuperFly press release on UW Reality Lab
  • SuperFly on Steam, Vive Port, and itch.io.

    • "Dazzle!" @ University of Washington Animation Research Labs 2019 - 2021

    Lead Animator, Lead Modeler, Technical Artist
  • “Dazzle!” is an animated film made by seven students and their mentors, in six months.
  • The film illustrates a clown named "Dazzle" who is professional in juggling attended an audition for a circus, and was hired after a frenzy of events.
  • Dazzle! - Trailer

    • Publications

    [3]. Felix Heisel¹, Vesela Petrova¹, Hongjun Wu¹, RhinoCircular: Integrated Material and Construction Circularity Evaluation Tool for Early-design Phases, SBE22 Berlin Sustainable Built Environment D-A-CH Conference, 2022.

    Abstract According to the European Commission, “up to 80% of [a] product’s environmental impacts are determined at the design phase.“ (European Commission, 2015) Yet, current building or construction circularity evaluation tools are calibrated for employment at a much later stage in the planning process, often only utilized to analyse design decisions retroactively.

    RhinoCircular (RC) is an early-design circularity evaluation tool for the popular CAD software Rhinoceros3D and its Grasshopper environment. (Heisel and Nelson, 2020) Specifically designed to provide immediate feedback on design decisions pertaining to material selection and construction systems within the uncertainties of the early-design phase, the tool also allows for the creation of material passports (MP) with increasing accuracy in later planning stages. To accommodate varying input requirements, RC relies on two sets of material databases. A generic database provided by RC containing common materials and material families is well suited for early-design evaluations. Through industry collaborations, RC is additionally compatible with product/producer-based databases and their set of materials and products. Based on these complementary inputs, RC then dynamically visualizes the adaptable computation of pertinent circularity values within the design environment, and allows their export into building passport platforms (BP) or in the form of industry standard MPs. RC’s material attribution and calculation outputs are further compatible with other common CAD / BIM software platforms for data and model exchange.

    This paper specifically addresses the challenges of early-design evaluations through the development and implementation of a set of (adaptable) construction archetypes applicable to modelling inputs with a lower degree of specificity. This library of visual construction details connected to both data input sets allows for a design- and user-driven, intuitive and scalable feedback process in times of low-resolution modelling inputs. Through case study examples, the paper aims to evaluate the feasibility and validity of this approach with respect to circularity evaluation, data input and MP export.

    [1] European Commission. 2015. “Closing the Loop - An EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy.” Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, The European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions 614 final. COM(2015). Brussels, Belgium: European Commission.

    [2] Heisel, Felix, and Cameron Nelson. 2020. “RhinoCircular: Development and Testing of a Circularity Indicator Tool for Application in Early Design Phases and Architectural Education.” In AIA/ACSA Intersections Research Conference: CARBON. Pennsylvania.

    [2]. Rina Desai, Lisa Fernandez, Dozene Guishard, Clewert Sylvester, Hongjun Wu, Tech Pals: Results from a Smart Screen Technology Pilot for Homebound Older Adults, Carter Burden Network, 2022.

    Abstract With a growing social reliance on technology to access resources, meet basic needs, and stay connected, it is becoming increasingly vital to help older adults cross the “digital divide”. In particular, homebound older adults experience greater challenges with meeting needs and accessing technology programming. In order to address this disparity, the Carter Burden Network (CBN), an aging services nonprofit organization in New York City, in partnership with the Roosevelt Island Disabled Association (RIDA), a volunteer-led community organization, launched the grant-funded “Tech Pals” technology pilot on Roosevelt Island to connect 40 homebound older adults with smart screen devices, one-on-one set up and training, ongoing troubleshooting support, and virtual programming opportunities. The smart screen device selected for the project was the Amazon Echo Show, based on features that could support the needs of older adults including voice controlled digital assistance, video calling, automatic updates, and a range of accessibility features. The goals of this project were to: improve connectedness, support independence, enhance self-efficacy, and improve quality of life for participants.

    In this study, we evaluated the impact of introducing the Amazon Echo Show and technology education into participants’ lives over a span of two years, using qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods. The study initially consisted of 40 participants who received a set of pre surveys including the validated General Self-Efficacy Scale, the validated Loneliness Scale, and a customized pre survey collecting data on demographics, comfort with technology, health behaviors, utilization of the Echo Show, and perceptions of the project. Participants were provided with corresponding post surveys after at least three months of project participation. In total, 33 post surveys were collected as a number of participants passed away during the course of the project or became unreachable. A focus group was also conducted with nine project participants and four caregivers in June 2021.

    [1]. Taso G. Lagos¹, Yash Singh², Andrew Pace², Erik Levi Stone², Hongjun Wu², Hongyi Yan², Shayla Forbes-Luong², Studying Abroad Meets Marginalization: Roma of Greece, Autoethnography, and Academic Tourism, Journal of Tourism and Management Research, Issue 2022, Vol. 9, No 2: 125 – 139. https://doi.org/10.18488/31.v9i2.3138

    Abstract While Greece has historically hosted many minority groups in various relational statuses with the majority population, the Roma uniquely embody practical, psychological and metaphorical spaces that sets them apart from other excluded groups. This study explores the historico-social space that separates the Roma and contextualizes recent developments, including Covid-19, which further marginalizes the group. The transactional space that defines relations between Roma and non-Roma encompasses a ‘gaze’ that disenfranchises Gypsy cultural standing and reduces mutual understanding between mainstream and marginalized communities. This same transactional space is rife with misunderstanding that profits normative day-to-day relations between Roma and those in mainstream society. The paper explores perceptions of the Roma within the Greek social hierarchy, while suggesting study abroad programming, as part of academic tourism, can play a positive role in altering perceptions of minority groups.

    Manuscripts

    [3]. Xuanyu Fang¹, Yunzhu Pan¹, Hongjun Wu¹, Feng-Shui Compass: A Modern Exploration of Traditional Chinese Environmental Analysis, Ubiquitous Computing, Cornell Tech, 2022. https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.13672

    Abstract The technological advancement in data analysis and sensor technology has contributed to a growth in knowledge of the surrounding environments. Feng Shui, the Chinese philosophy of evaluating a certain environment and how it influences human well-being, can only be determined by self-claimed specialists for the past thousands of years.We developed a device as well as a procedure to evaluate the ambient environment of a room to perform a study that attempts to use sensor data to predict a person’s well-being score in that environment, therefore evaluating the primary aspect of Feng Shui. Our study revealed preliminary results showing great potential for further research with larger experiments.

    [2]. Kehan Wang¹, Jiaxi Yang¹, Hongjun Wu¹, A Survey of Toxic Comment Classification Methods, Applied Machine Learning, Cornell Tech, 2021. https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.06412

    Abstract While in real life everyone behaves themselves at least to some extent, it is much more difficult to expect people to behave themselves on the internet, because there are few checks or consequences for posting something toxic to others. Yet, for people on the other side, toxic texts often lead to serious psychological consequences. Detecting such toxic texts is challenging. In this paper, we attempt to build a toxicity detector using machine learning methods including CNN, Naive Bayes model, as well as LSTM. While there has been numerous groundwork laid by others, we aim to build models that provide higher accuracy than the predecessors. We produced very high accuracy models using LSTM and CNN, and compared them to the go-to solutions in language processing, the Naive Bayes model. A word embedding approach is also applied to empower the accuracy of our models.

    [1]. Chenran Ning¹, Hongjun Wu¹, Yue Liu¹, Deliberation in health-related headlines, Psychological and Social Aspects of Technology, Cornell Tech, 2021. https://psyarxiv.com/e5bn7/

    Abstract Just how big of a difference will deliberated thinking make in the digital age when judging whether the headline of a digital article is true or fake? Misinformation plagued the Chinese internet space, and fake news, especially related to health tips, often went viral on the internet with rapid speed. A previous study 1 was previously conducted on political articles measuring the influence of partisanship on thinking deliberately. In this paper, we conducted a study on how deliberation influenced the accuracy of Chinese netizens distinguishing real and fake news headlines, using a similar experiment procedure from the above mentioned study. We found that deliberation reduces the possibility of these readers being misguided by fake health-related headlines. A similar trend of accuracy was observed when participants thought deliberately compared to the original study, despite using different topics on a different population of participants.

    Research Projects

    United Nations (UNDEF) - CSO Incubation Platform 2022

    Developer
  • Co-developed an incubation platform for the UNDEF to help CSOs to better join forces and communicate.

    • Amada - Mixed Reality Heavy Machinery Prototyping 2022

    XR Developer
  • Responsible for the development of a cardboard prototype of a Press Brake for Amada Co. Ltd. (株式会社天田) in Japan that can interface through visual markers and other sensors with Unity and an XR environment.

    • Cornell University Circular Construction Lab - RhinoCircular 2021 - 2022

    Software Developer
  • RhinoCircular is a plugin for an architecture modeling software (Rhino), that evaluates the degree to which design solutions minimize extraction and waste in favor of reusable, recyclable and renewable material resources.
  • RhinoCircular won the Zumtobel Group's Special Prize for Innovation (EUR €20,000).
  • Refactored legacy program from predecessor, improved readability and efficiency of code.
  • Developed RhinoCircular Documentation, a single source of truth for sustainability of project.
  • Developing HumanUI and C# based Grasshopper GUI for end user to program interaction.

    • University of Washington Lagos Group - A Study on the Roma Refugees in Greece 2019 - 2021

    Ethnographer
  • Research on the Roma community in Greece, their struggles and situations in the present and the past, and work with the Hellenic Republic government to help resolve this issue, as well as raise public concerns on the minorities in Greek communities.
  • Conducted and analyzed mass interviews (600+) on Greek citizens in Athens with jointed effort from American College of Greece.
  • Conducted field studies and interviewed 60+ local Athenians on their opinion on the "Roma" community in different parts of the city. Visited various Roma settlements and slums in Athens.
  • Cleaned & organized information from 500+ interviews conducted by past. Analyzed interviews to reach an academic finding.
  • Our findings, "Decolonization Meets Marginalization: Roma of Greece, Autoethnography and Academic Journalism as 'Social Justice'", is currently under review for publish.

    • University of Washington Aeronautical Laboratory - Wind Tunnel Calibration 2017 - 2020

    Software Developer
  • Custom & open source software with front end & back end for calibrating & acquiring data from equipments at Kirsten Wind Tunnel.
  • Independently developed open source SOC control solutions in LabVIEW for hardware equipments that performs aerodynamics data acquisition and real-time analysis, with a user-friendly interface as well as a complex yet robust back end.
  • The program is capable of receiving, recording, and translating signal from analog to digital simultaneously from 6 axis force sensors.

    • CERN - Deep CNN Long-live Particle & Dark Matter Detection 2019

    Data Scientist
  • A jointed effort between University of Washington, Peking University, and CERN in search for long-lived particles and traces of dark matter using modern scientific analysis methods.
  • Utilized modern machine learning techniques like CNN to help with analyzing big data generated at the ATLAS experiment to search for long-life particles and dark matter.

    • Social Involvements

    Roosevelt Island Seniors Association - Web Literacy Course 2021

    Instructor
  • Volunteer instructor for Web Literacy Course "Get to know iOS", Fall 2021.

    • University of Washington School of Art - Printmaking Association 2018 - 2021

    Graphic Artist
  • A registered student-run organization that aims to connect students with local artists, organize art sales to support young artists, host artist talks and art workshops.
  • Founding member. Designed and produced editions of prints, using printmaking techniques including serigraphy, etching, dry point, and wood cut relief.
  • Participated in the UW Print Sale, held twice a year, every autumn and spring. Raised $4,000+ for Black Lives Matter movement and supported Transgender equity in Summer 2020.

    • University of Washington School of Art - LINK Space Studio 2019 - 2020

    Monitoring Specialist & Technician
  • The UW School of Art LINK space, located at the second floor of UW ART building, is a space for art major students to develop their work and receive critiques from peers.
  • Voluntary work. Monitored a studio room where students can work on their independent projects. Assisted students in using professional equipments.

    • FIRST Robotics Competition - Team 4415 - EPIC RobotZ 2014 - 2017

    Co-Founder, CEO, CNC Lead
  • Based in Cerritos, CA, FRC Team 4415 EPIC RobotZ is a team of high school students and mentors from industry that competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition.
  • The team attended various regional events in Los Angeles, Orange Country, and Central Valley.
  • Co-founded & led a team of 40 students and 20 mentors to compete in the FRC in 2014.
  • Participated in the following games: Aerial Assist, Recycle Rush, Stronghold, and Steamworks.
  • Head of the Computer Numerical Control department, CEO of the team in 2017.

    • Academic Positions

    Cornell University - INFO 5305: User Experience & User Research

    Grading Assistant

    Professor: Shiri Azenkot Spring 2023

    Cornell University - CS 5787: Applied Machine Learning

    Grading Assistant

    Professor: Volodymyr Kuleshov Autumn 2022

    Cornell University - CS 6785: Advanced Topics in ML - Deep Probabilistic and Generative Models

    Course Assistant

    Professor: Volodymyr Kuleshov Spring 2022

    Cornell School of Art, Architecture, and Planning - Circular Construction Lab

    Research Assistant

    Supervisor: Felix Heisel Autumn 2021

    University of Washington - CSE/STAT 416: Introduction to Machine Learning

    Teaching Assistant

    Professor: Vinitra Swamy Summer 2020

    Professor: Valentina Staneva Spring 2020

    Professor: Sewoong Oh Spring 2019