WiTech Lab

My research interests broadly lie in using wireless signals to enhance machine perception and understanding of the physical world. As an undergraduate, my first research project involved developing a mmWave imaging system that could perceive its surroundings at a resolution comparable to LiDAR. Moreover, it retained many of the advantageous properties of wireless signals, most notably that it could penetrate occlusions. Seeing our system visualize scenes through smoke in real time was what fascinated me about wireless sensing, and I ended up spending the rest of my undergraduate years working on mmWave sensing and localization projects. At CMU, I’m currently working on modelling acoustic propagation and different ways we can manipulate and shape human acoustic perception. I’m excited to continue exploring how wireless signals can be leveraged to enhance how machines interact with humans and their surrounding environments.

Often, research projects end as early-stage prototypes that only work in certain controlled environments. However, this wasn’t the case for our mmWave imaging system: my collaborators and I decided to give a live demo at the MobiCom 2024 conference. Preparing for the demo required solving problems that researchers typically ignore, including optimizing the pipeline to run in real time, ensuring reliable operation across diverse environments and edge cases, and most importantly, making the system exciting to people. After many iterations, we improved the system’s speed and robustness, packaged the robot so it could survive a three hour trip to the conference venue, and even bought a smoke machine (and a case so the smoke alarm wouldn’t go off) to simulate challenging scenarios. Despite the system crashing an hour before the demo, as demo systems often do, we were able to get it working and eventually even won the Best Demo Award at the conference. The most rewarding part of this process was definitely watching people actually interact with the system we had built.

My experience at CMU so far has been very collaborative. The people in my lab are very friendly and always willing to help, whether that’s discussing a new idea for a project, teaching a new skill, or contributing to different projects. People are encouraged to give lots of feedback, which I think is very important for improving all aspects of the research we conduct. Outside the lab, we are also friends and often spend time together, which makes the environment both productive and enjoyable. People from other labs are similarly open to sharing their work and collaborating. My advisors have been very supportive throughout the research process. They provide resources like lab equipment, offer advice on research direction, and provide high quality feedback while still allowing me the freedom to explore ideas I’m interested in. Overall, I think the lab is a great place for me to grow as a researcher and as a person.

I enjoy being active. Some of my favorite sports are basketball, swimming, and badminton. I also really enjoy hiking. Growing up in Hong Kong, I think one of the most underrated things about the city is all the hikes you can go on with amazing views of the beaches, mountains, and skyscrapers. I am also a licensed Advanced Open Water scuba diver, and one of my long-term goals is to explore more of our marine ecosystems while they are still here.