Starting School
The spring semester feels much more relaxed compared to when I first arrived in the United States during the fall. Attending classes, listening to lectures, doing homework, and taking exams have all become routine.
However, course registration remains as competitive as ever—there are always more students than available classes, and the waitlists for popular courses are incredibly tight. For example, I ended up on the waitlist for a graduate course; on top of that, I’m taking 8803 Hardware Software Codesign, 6133 Physical Design Automation, Computer Architecture, and a VIP course on Responsible AI.
Listening to Indians and Koreans speak English is relatively clear, but I still find it a bit challenging to keep up with the local Americans whose speech varies in tone and pitch.
Snowfall
The forecast predicted heavy snow in Atlanta on Friday.
On Thursday night, Publix was packed with people. For the first time in six months, Publix had opened all of its manual checkout lanes. Yet, even with that, the lines stretched deep into the aisles.
The next day, when I stepped outside, the snow had been compacted into hard ice on the roads. Still, the city was filled with a festive, Christmas-like atmosphere—everyone was busy building snowmen. After all, it’s the snow that truly brings out the Christmas spirit.
On my way out for a coffee, I even saw someone snowboarding on the sidewalk (laugh).
On the Fast Track to Becoming an MLE
Lately, I’ve been studying LLMs (Large Language Models).
Transformers, GPT, BERT, T5—the foundations and key directions for generative language models exploded between 2017 and 2019.
Back in my undergraduate days, I spent some time researching wireless communications and federated learning. At that time, topics such as intelligent reflecting surfaces, federated learning, semantic communication, and integrated perception and computing were hot research areas until around 2022. Then, when ChatGPT was released at the end of the year, it became one of those few engineering breakthroughs of the early 21st century that will likely find a place in history textbooks.
Looking back from the first month of 2025, AI has been advancing at a breakneck pace. Various applications have grown rapidly in unexpected areas—GPT-4, Copilot, Cursor, C.ai, O1, chain-of-thought, Sora, Operator—with industry giants and startups competing side by side: Google, Meta, Anthropic, Alibaba, Deepseek, Minimax, ByteDance.
Wireless communications, on the other hand, seem to be circling within their traditional domain. As the pace of change slows down, there are fewer external opportunities. The more established a field is, the more it relies on credentials; in emerging fields, however, talent is recognized regardless of background.
The rapid sprint in LLMs, AI, and the digital world is unmistakable.
The first step is to realize that a higher calling is reaching out to you—and that realization marks the beginning of self-awakening.
A Day in, a Mountain of Gold
It’s been a month since I returned from my trip to South America.
As Jiang Xun once said, “The Paris I show you isn’t objective; it’s actually my Paris at the age of 25.”
In Colombia, you see people dozing off on the streets alongside countless smiling faces. This land, much like a literary work, is both magical and real. Bogotá, for example, has two distinct modes—night and day. At night, groups of young people gather on the streets to chat, drink, and dance, with graffiti adorning almost every wall. By day, the city presents an entirely different scene.
In Pereira, I met a friendly Uber driver at the airport who was eager to chat. In Salento, I encountered a coffee roaster from Ocasa, and while riding in an open-top jeep on a muddy mountain road, I shared a smile with him. In Cocora, I even met a Colombian teenager carrying a Rubik’s cube.
Medellín is nestled in a valley. During the day, curious young locals might approach you and ask, “Where are you from?” Meanwhile, little children cast their eyes at you with genuine wonder. At night, groups of young people break into spontaneous dancing at street intersections, and the impoverished neighborhoods extend up the mountainside. By nightfall, almost every household lights up, creating a scene reminiscent of a starry white galaxy.
Panama City, on the other hand, feels like an American projection onto Central America—with narrow sidewalks, virtually non-existent public transportation, and a financial district dominated by regional banks.
The World is a Great Cycle
On Saturday and Sunday at noon, an American stands on a stone at the intersection in front of the student center, holding a Bible and loudly reciting passages to passersby.
On Saturday afternoons, an ABC (American-born Chinese) reliably calls his grandmother from the third floor of the library.
On weekdays, three Chinese CS grad students show up in the afternoon to work on assignments while chatting about the latest gossip.
There’s also a Spanish-speaking guy who heads to the library on Mondays and Fridays, chatting on his phone as he studies.
Every morning, the alarm rings at 8:00 AM. I glance at my phone, turn it off, and if I’m lucky, I’ll actually get out of bed about thirty minutes later.
After freshening up, I have a simple breakfast of milk and bread, ride my scooter, and grab a triple espresso at Starbucks.