Author: Yehyun Lee, Email: leey93@unlv.nevada.edu
Date Last Modified: 01/27/2025

My first week in Las Vegas has been an interesting experience. What stood out to me the most was how automated the campus is. Everyday tasks are made convenient with automation everywhere—doors, paper towel dispensers, and soap dispensers all operate automatically. On top of that, delivery robots roam the campus, which I found fascinating. While automation is common in Korea, it feels even more widespread and naturally integrated here, making daily life remarkably efficient.

I met my suitemates, Tanny and Carrie, who live next door to my dorm. Tanny is from Puerto Rico, and Carry is from Vietnam. At first, they seemed to think that my roommate and I were also freshmen. When I told them I’m a senior, they were quite surprised! Despite the initial misunderstanding, they kindly invited me to join them and their friends at the gym. They even showed me how to use the school gym facilities and introduced me to volleyball. Thanks to their kindness, I’m now exercising for the first time in my life!

On my first trip to Walmart in Las Vegas, a woman I had never met before complimented me, saying, “I like your pants!” and then walked away with a smile. Later, while using the elevator at my dorm, some students I had just met for the first time complimented my roommate's pants, saying they looked cool. At first, I felt a bit surprised and unsure of how to respond, but now I think this is truly a wonderful part of the culture here. Even between strangers, people can make each other's day brighter with simple compliments.

I realized that I’ve often set goals for others rather than focusing on what I truly want. The people in this lab seem to be doing what they genuinely enjoy, and they confidently talk about it with pride. Seeing this made me reflect on how I’ve lacked that clarity and confidence in my own goals. Through this experience, I hope to discover what I truly want to do, something I can both enjoy and pursue with passion, while adopting their mindset of confidence and pride in what they do.

The first project assigned to me is about a quadcopter UAV. My previous experience involved implementing a semi-automatic flight control system for a fixed-wing UAV. Now, I am tasked with designing and understanding a rotary-wing UAV, which requires studying its dynamics and motion. This week, I focused on deriving the equations of motion for a quadrotor, a key step in understanding control and stabilization. I am also exploring simulation tools to test and validate these models.