Author: Yehyun Lee, Email: leey93@unlv.nevada.edu
Date Last Modified: 02/16/2025

As I was choosing this week's photo, I couldn’t help but pick this one—the picture I took with my fellow members after the final session of the four-week Growth Track. Over the past month, I had the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge in real-world scenarios and even learn things that I wouldn’t have encountered in school. It was truly an incredible experience.

Honestly, there were moments when I found it a bit challenging not having free weekends, but looking back, this program gave me so much valuable learning and allowed me to meet amazing friends. I am sincerely grateful to Dr.Oh for providing this opportunity and to the lab members for generously sharing their knowledge. Of course, there are still assignments left to complete, so this isn’t the true end yet. I’ll make sure to finish strong!

This week, I met Jovani, the suitemate of my Korean intern friend, Hwaan. He recently got close to my friend Jules, and since they had been having meals together, Jules asked me to join them. We went to Aloha Kitchen and had Hawaiian food, which tasted surprisingly similar to Korean food. It made me think this could be a good spot to visit when I miss Korean food.

The funniest part of the meal was realizing that Jovani might have a crush on Jules. He kept looking at her the whole time and reacted to everything she did. Later, when I asked Hwaan, he confirmed it was true. Now I’m really curious to see what happens next

Today, through the Buddy Program, I heard something that really surprised me. Some of my new friends pay around $3000 a month for rent. In Korea, if you live alone, five hundred dollars is usually enough, so I couldn’t believe how expensive it is here. Of course, houses are generally bigger, but still, it feels like way too much for someone just starting out.

I asked one of them how they manage to afford it, and they told me they have three jobs. They also said that because rent is so expensive, many people try to stay with their parents until they reach twenty-five or older. It really made me realize how different things are here. Being financially independent seems so much harder in the United States!

I think I’m someone who is easily influenced by the people around me—both in good ways and bad.

On the good side, I get really motivated when I’m surrounded by hardworking people or when a bit of competition kicks in. Like at the gym—if my friend next to me is still running, I feel like I can’t stop either and push myself to keep going.

But at the same time, if the people around me give up, I start feeling like I can stop too. And if someone is way ahead of me, instead of feeling inspired, I sometimes lose motivation. I guess my surroundings have a bigger impact on me than I thought!

I worked on improving the quadcopter simulator by enabling it to output results in various ways. Now, instead of just running the simulation visually, I can also record and plot data such as velocity, Euler angles, and XYZ positions on graphs. I also experimented with different input values. At first, I simply set the Z-value to make the drone hover at a fixed height. Then, I added X and Y values to make it move through specific positions and even applied Euler angle rotations to test different flight dynamics.

The next step is to connect a joystick to create a more realistic flight scenario and test manual control. Ultimately, the main goal is to ensure that the real drone and the simulator behave identically, proving the simulator's reliability.