Interview with Jee-Hwan Ryu

Interviewer: To begin, can I ask you for your full name, your date and place of birth, and then anything that you’d be interested or willing to share about your family background, parents, where you lived and grew up, anything about your earlier life that you’re willing to share?

Jee Hwan Ryu: All right. So my name is Jee Hwan Ryu. I was born in 1972, South Korea, in Cheung. I grew up mainly in the Cheung area, but when I was young, I remember I moved a lot because my father’s job. My father started his career as a teacher, but later on he ran his business. And my mom was a housewife, so like most of Korean mother and father, she supports us a lot. I have one younger brother. He’s an architect now.

Interviewer: What about any college or graduate school experiences you had, any mentors that were important to you during your education?

Jee Hwan Ryu: I see. So I got my bachelor’s from Inha University in mechanical engineering in 1995, and I did my master’s in mechanical engineering from Kaist, and also did my PhD in mechanical engineering as well in Kaist, in 1997 and 2002.

When I was a master’s student, my major was not actually robotics. My major was noise and vibration control, mainly control theory. And I remember one episode that when I was just, you know, finishing my bachelor’s, I had no actually knowledge and background on robotics, but I simply wanted to do a robot.

For Kaist, when we passed the entrance exam, we apply, you know, individual professors who want to be an advisor. And I found one profile of my master’s advisor whose name is Yong-Jin Pa, he’s an expert in noise and vibration control. And I knocked his office door and went to, it was actually not common at that time. We simply apply and wait. But I was really eager to him to be my advisor. So I went to his office and asked him, okay, can you please accept me as your student? Because I found on your profile that you are doing robust control. So that time I was so stupid. So I thought robust control is more like a robot control. But he said, “I’m not doing any robot at all.” I thought robust control is quite close to robot. And he said, “No.”

But you know, he was so good and so kind. So he accepted me as his master’s student. But that actually really good background became later, became my really good background to build my career in robotics engineer. Because I study a lot in control theory and control background, I did robust control in my bachelor.

And after that, since I wanted to be a robotics engineer and my advisor, Yong-Jin Ma, he knew that. And that time his friend, a very close friend who became my PhD advisor, moved to Kaist. So he recommended me to become his first PhD student. So I became his first PhD student at Kaist in Tejan campus. Actually he was in another campus of Kaist. But when we transferred to Tejan campus, I became his first PhD student. And finally, I can study robotics under his supervision. He is an expert in haptics and surgical robot.

Interviewer: I want to come back to this interest, this pre-existing interest that you had in robotics. But before we dig into that too much, I’d like to ask you about your work experience. So after getting your PhD, where have you worked? Any colleagues that you would like to mention or departments that you were in?

Jee Hwan Ryu: I see. So before I, yes, after I finished my PhD, I went to University of Washington.

Interviewer: About when was that?

Jee Hwan Ryu: It was 2002. Yeah, 2002. Right just after I finished my PhD, I went to University of Washington, Professor Blake Hanahord, as a postdoc. Because while I’m pursuing my PhD, I actually visited Blake’s lab when I was a PhD student. Second year, third year PhD student. That was really great experience to me. You know, it was not that common as a PhD student that time in Korea, visit US lab and stay a few months. But I was lucky enough to apply and get funded from the National Science Foundation of Korea (NRF) for visiting study. And I applied this program and I got funded and I visited Blake’s lab and stayed three months. But that was actually a life change experience to me. You know, for the first day that I arrived, Blake’s office, he started to explain some equations. And that was really, you know, thought breaking and inspiring idea and explained to me. He told me I want to solve this problem that actually inspired me a lot. And while I’m trying to answer this question, I invented one idea together with Blake. That actually changed my life, I think. And that’s the reason why I come back to the University of Washington as a postdoc. And I stayed there about more than a year.

But I had to come back to Korea because I had to finish my military service. You know, all Korean men have to serve military service, either physical or alternative. But I have to serve alternative military service. So I had to come back and come back to Korea. And because I still need to serve two more years as an alternative physical military service, so I stay Kaist as a research professor two years.

And after that, I applied to one of the regional university in Korea, which is Korea Tech. And I teach more than 14 years over there. And after that, I got a chance to transfer to Kaist. So I decided to move to Kaist. And since 2019, I’m running and reading a research lab at Kaist.

Interviewer: So what was– oh, I’m sorry. Go ahead.

Jee Hwan Ryu: And there was one– yeah, while I’m pursuing my– no. I was a postdoc at the University of Washington. I also got a chance to visit German Aerospace Center (DLR). That was also a very interesting experience to me. While I’m working as a postdoc at the University of Washington, Blake, he presented our work at one of the conference international symposium on experimental robotics, which is a small robotics conference. But all the core members actually get together and discuss it here. At that time, when he presented our work, the head of the German Aerospace Center, called the Hetzinger, is now retired. But he was kind of big guy who made DLR famous. And he saw our result. And he wanted to implement our control idea to the space robotics system. So he invited me to come to DLR winter. It was quite cold at that time. And I stayed there and tried to implement this idea. And that was a really good experience. And I’m still collaborating with researchers over there more than 20 years because of this experience. So that’s a very good experience to me, memorable experience to me.

Interviewer: Wanted to ask about the idea that you developed while in Washington. Can you share anything about that?

Jee Hwan Ryu: Yes. So the idea that Blake explained to me is, at that time, control engineers in Hetzinger area, the stability issue was one of the big problems of Hetzinger and tele-robotic system. But we know how to stabilize. But the problem was the performance was very poor because of over-conservative design. So he explained to me one idea. OK, what if we can individually passivate component and overall system will be passive? But I don’t know how to do that.

I actually kept thinking about this idea. And while I’m staying there, I had a chance to participate ICRA, San Francisco at that time, San Francisco. And I traveled to San Francisco and attend one of the talks. And that actually inspired me. One of the equations actually inspired me. And after this talk, I went back to Seattle and explained this idea to Blake. And Blake, OK, that’s very interesting. And we actually exchanged ideas every day, maybe every hour. And he even programmed a C code. And we exchanged this C code and developed this idea.

And that became a time domain, so-called time domain passivity control idea that became a– I don’t know. It could be a standard of stability control algorithm in Hetzinger and tele-robotic system and Boke, time-delayed teleoperation system. But that actually became a control idea. And we applied patents. And also, a lot of people are actually using this right now.

Interviewer: So I’d like to return to that in a moment. But I do want to ask about your early interest in robotics. So how did you initially get interested such that when you were applying, you were already looking to work with robotics? Were there books or people, TV, media that exposed you to that? What was the origin of that interest?

Jee Hwan Ryu: I don’t know. I cannot remember. But since I was very kid, I really interested in—I kind of enjoy watching animation and play with toy and cartoon, robotics cartoon. So I think I always wanted to be a robotics engineer and scientist. That’s what I remember.

And one thing that I remember, my mom bought me a Lego block when I was young, even before elementary school. I really enjoy making something with this Lego block. That time, Lego block is just simple cube. But nothing much, just simple cube. But every day, I make something and break it and something. So that actually sparked my idea, I think.

And later, when I was an elementary school student, there was one science competition. So using some science kit. The science kit is a little bit more advanced than this Lego block, simple Lego block, because it has motor, battery. So I can make something work, motorized. And I really like play with this block and participate in one of the competition. And that actually sparked my idea and maybe makes me really enjoy making something. I think that’s the beginning, I think.

Interviewer: Do you remember the first robot that you ever came across or heard about?

Jee Hwan Ryu: First robot. Maybe industrial robot, but I cannot remember. I’m an industrial robot, I heard of.

Interviewer: So the Legos had a stronger influence.

Jee Hwan Ryu: Yes, yes, yes. Much, much stronger influence to me.

Interviewer: Do you think that that early interest in building or, I mean, I guess for lack of a better word, play, you know, like the creativity of play had an influence on your views on robotics or the direction you took later?

Jee Hwan Ryu: Mm hmm. Yeah, I think, you know, this making some actuation mechanism or some linkage and some structure, that actually builds my foundation for mechanical design and control. I would say I’m an expert in control, but recently I got more interested in new, you know, mechanism design and the structure design because that’s maybe even more important than control. Maybe somebody do not agree on this. But anyway, we should some robot, you know, is something that should have some mechanical structure and mechanism. Mm hmm. And we can put on top of this some control algorithm and intelligence.

Interviewer: So you’ve talked a little bit about the first robotics project that you worked on. Is there anything that you would like to expand on about that? Or can you share anything about subsequent projects that you found yourself working on?

Jee Hwan Ryu: I see. So this is my master study with non-robotics. So I started my, you know, robotics project after I started my PhD. And when I was a PhD student, I kind of very lucky because Professor Dongsukuan, my advisor, actually gives me a lot of chance to study abroad. So before I went to University of Washington as a visiting student, there was another chance for me to visit Japan as a visiting student. But it was shorter, like a month or two months.

When I visited Japan, Jucuba, I had a chance to work with one of the PhD students in mechanical engineering research institute in Jucuba, Japan. And he was developing a surgical robot, tele-robotics, microsurgical robot. And he wanted me to work on Phantom, which is one of the haptic devices. And he wanted me to program a simple virtual fixture or control algorithm for this surgical robot teleoperation. But that time I didn’t have any experience on Phantom programming. But I read manual and study myself and figured out how to make it work. And I showed my report and the program how it works. And I remember he quite satisfied. So that was my very early year of my PhD robotics project. And that gives me confidence how to program, how to control, how to work with robotic system.

Interviewer: So after that project, did you find yourself working on other robotic projects or robots in particular?

Jee Hwan Ryu: That time our lab was working on tele-robotics system. And one of the projects that I was involved in was an industry project. So developing a tele-robotics crane. So I remember I actually designed a new type of tele-robotics crane. And also commute to the company during the summer vacation. Because we have to very closely work with the engineer of this company. So that’s one of the follow-up projects that I work with the company to develop tele-robotics crane.

And the other main project that we work on, especially for our lab, we actually work on developing a surgical robot. That time our lab is one of the first robot labs we started a surgical robot collaboration system. So it’s nothing else, just a combination of some industrial robot and micro-manipulatory additives. It was very, very primitive level. But that actually gave us a foundation to build surgical robot company. So that because of this project, my advisor, he’s running a surgical robot company right now. So that’s the follow-up project afterward.

Interviewer: It’s an interesting leap, it seems, from cranes to medical robotics. Is it a big leap or were there clear connections that made one project move into the other?

Jee Hwan Ryu: I think fundamentals are same, physics are same, because tele-robotics systems originally started from nuclear waste handling and nuclear reactor. So something people cannot access or dangerous environment. That’s the starting point of tele-robotics system. But later on, tele-robotics systems also applied to some levels of dexterity that humans cannot access, cannot handle. Or the very tiny, small space and the levels of dexterity that humans cannot access and the levels of scale that humans can access. So in that sense, surgical robot, especially micro-surgical robot, tele-robotics surgical robot is kind of an extended application of tele-robotics systems.

Interviewer: What have been some of the core research questions that you’ve been interested in over the course of your career? And have any of those changed or developed in any particular way over time?

Jee Hwan Ryu: So I think when I started my PhD study, the question that I had, it’s a very general question, but also quite challenging question that I had, was, can we make a world like the one in the movie Matrix? So just like, you know, make a human to feel virtual, what remote environment, just like in real situation, but in a sense of haptics. So basically this question is how to fake human sense of sense of touch. Visual, auditory and other channels are relatively easy to fake humans, but haptic is extremely difficult to fake. So I often ask, can you turn off your visual channel? You can simply close your eyes. Can you turn off your auditory channel? You know, but can we turn off our haptic channel? No, it’s impossible. So this is extremely difficult. But I wanted to, you know, my ultimate goal is, you know, make full immersive virtual environment like in movie Matrix.

So as I dig more deeper and deeper, even though we are still in very preliminary level, I realize the most important thing is basic, basic technology, like sensors and actuators and low level control. Those are the things that make something happen and change. So as I do my research deeper and deeper and further, I think I kind of converge to more fundamental questions. And maybe later on, combining all the ideas and all the technology that I developed, probably I want to make Matrix world. I don’t know when.

Interviewer: I imagine there are some pretty fundamental challenges to accomplishing something like that. Can you talk a little bit about important challenges that you face that have maybe shaped your work and whether or not they were technical or social or had to do with institutions? Yeah, any any core challenges in those respects?

Jee Hwan Ryu: I see. Yeah, there were many challenges to me, but one of the big challenges that I remember, I think this is not a challenge. Maybe this is more like an opportunity for me. I mentioned I worked at one of the regional universities for more than 14 years. So after 14 years of my career, there’s a chance for me to transfer to a bigger and better research environment. Kaist, I had to make a decision. But that was really not an easy choice for me. I thought a lot and also discussed with my family a lot, but I made a decision. OK, let’s move. And that was a big decision to me for me and really not easy choice. But I think I was lucky. You know, moving one university to another university is really difficult because I have to start over from the beginning, from the base. But I was really lucky that I had a very good student who is willing to move together with me and helping me to start over from the beginning. So I was really lucky and they helped me a lot. So, you know, very within very short time, I can build rebuild my lab. Now I’m running relatively big size and vibrant research lab at Kaist.

Interviewer: Did that shift have any effect on the kinds of research you were doing or the kinds of questions you were asking?

Jee Hwan Ryu: No. Just kept on the same kind of trajectory. Yes. Yes. Even though departments change, but I kept on the same question, same research.

Interviewer: And at that point in your career, you know, what was the core question that you were pursuing? Is it sort of already what you’ve outlined or is there anything more detail that you could share about, like, what was going on at that point?

Jee Hwan Ryu: So when I make a decision, what should I consider? Because, you know, I was in regional university in Korea. So one of the difficulty for me is finding good student, you know, highly motivated. Of course, students from Korea, they are highly motivated and they’re really, you know, good at implementing and realizing something. So one example is even though they are not top class student, but they are really highly motivated and really good at realizing some theory to the real product.

And I was running autonomous vehicle competition team in former university. So I participated. That was my hobby, even though my expertise is haptic, telerobotics. But I kind of enjoy developing autonomous vehicle with my students. And they are also very inspired on this. So we participated autonomous vehicle competition. Extra time we done research and extra time we develop autonomous vehicle together with my students. And we became a winning team. 2019, you know, autonomous vehicle competition organized by Hyundai Motors.

But, you know, one of the limitations is they are really good at implementing something. But, you know, you know, academic society writing some paper, high quality research. And this is, you know, something I really want to do further. And I thought if I move to Kaist, then probably I can have, you know, students who are in the top class. So no problem to find a top class student or even foreign countries.

Interviewer: Did that shift have any effect on the kinds of tools or technology that you had available or funding opportunities? And so I guess I can ask that question specifically in relation to that change, but also more broadly, you know, over over that period or over the course of your career, have there been new tools or technologies that have become available that have significantly affected the sort of direction or the nature of the work that you’ve been doing?

Jee Hwan Ryu: So new tools and new methods. I cannot remember, actually, because my research is more like, you know, building robots from the scratch. So we are making something from the scratch. And then, you know, it’s more like hardware related work and some power software. So there is no specific tools and specific, you know, method, algorithm that influenced my research direction, I think. But when I was in former university, this university is really generously support buying some equipment. But after I moved in terms of buying some facility and research equipment, I think, you know, a little less support than for my university. But in terms of student, it’s much, much better, I think.

Interviewer: Who has funded your research over time? So you mentioned that your facilities were sort of there was a difference in availability between the two institutions. But more broadly, the funding for your research over time, where does that come from? And how did you develop those relationships? And I guess also, if you could talk a little bit about if and how the funding sources have had an influence on the work that you’ve done.

Jee Hwan Ryu: So Korean University, most of the funding from government, most of the funding from government. And of course, we are doing some company project, like a big company, LG or Samsung. But the funding that influenced my career and my research, I would like to mention the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funding when I was a PhD student that actually changed my research career and background. So that’s the funding that actually influenced a lot to me. So, NRF funding for my PhD visiting study and postdoc study, that’s the funding that changed my life, I think.

Interviewer: Has the funding that the NRF provided shaped the direction of your research in any way? Or is it largely just sort of supported what you were already doing?

Jee Hwan Ryu: That’s a good question. So when I visit University of Washington, Blake, my PhD study was actually… my topic was a little bit different than the one that I finally got my PhD. So I gave a proposal in one topic that was a different one. Actually, tele robotics one, control related topic, but the main idea was totally different. And as a PhD student, actually, I supposed to give a final defense and presentation aligned with this proposed topic. But after my visit, as I explained, Blake gave me an inspiring question and we found some, you know, very interesting idea that we published our paper and even apply patent and influenced a lot. After that, I decided to change my PhD topic. And I think my advisor, former advisor, was not happy about this. But he actually allowed me to change. So I had a little difficulty when I gave my final defense and presentation, but that actually did change my PhD topic and my research direction a lot.

Interviewer: Have you worked with companies or industry to any extent? And if so, how did those opportunities arise?

Jee Hwan Ryu: So one of the research that recently I’m doing, there is one project that I’m doing with LG Electronics. I’m not sure this is good to open now because they are going to commercialize soon, very soon. So one project, this is basically haptic device. So we’ve been working on a home exercise machine, from exercise machine. There is already several prototypes and commercialized version. And right just after I moved to Kaist, we started discussing about this home exercise machine and how to build, you know, virtual mass and virtual weight without actual weight by simply driving motor and actuators. How to provide realistic sensation. That’s basically haptic. That’s basically haptic. And we’ve been working on this maybe five years already. And we developed very realistic and very, I think, you know, good performance home exercise machine. And they are going to commercialize this very soon, I believe. This is one company project that I’m working on. And I’m very proud of this.

Interviewer: So we talked about some of the paths that you did end up pursuing and some of the sort of shifts and changes and decisions you made along the way. Have there been any paths or questions that you would have liked to pursue but didn’t get the opportunity to? And why not? What happened there?

Jee Hwan Ryu: I haven’t actually tried this yet, but one of the research question, another research question or research challenge that I want to pursue. I open, you know, explain this idea to my students, but none of my students wants to pursue this because that will make their PhD study very long. They believe is can we make her gigantic robot like a Gundam? Right. I think this is very interesting question then. How to scale up all the actuators and sensors and controls and dynamics and all the effect. How to scale up and how to realize this? That’s very interesting question that I have. So I always thinking, OK, we I really want to make gigantic robot like a building, small building size gigantic robot. And I explained this idea a few of my PhD students and they said, OK, maybe my junior, not my. Because they will make their study much longer, 10 years, 20 years. But I think, you know, our lab has been working on what component technology to realize this? We’ve been working on new type of actuator, which is very light, powerful. So can actually such a big size system sensors and control autonomy? Why not? Maybe later on, if you have good funding source who wants to realize this, then I really want to try.

Interviewer: So very much not micro or nano robotics, more like a kind of mega or maximal robotics.

Jee Hwan Ryu: Yes, I like big one.

Interviewer: Can I ask what you might see as your most important contributions to robotics so far might be?

Jee Hwan Ryu: I think my most important contribution in robotics so far is the invention of time domain passivity approach, which I mentioned. So that idea has been invented when I was a visiting PhD student at Blake Lab. And since then, I evolved this idea and extended to haptic, robotic system, communication, family, our robotic system and even motion control of robotic system. So I think this idea inspired many follow research, I believe. This is one of the biggest contribution in robotics personally.

And that actually solves time delay, the teleoperation problem, which allows robot to be remotely controlled by providing haptic feedback. So we were able to control robot from the ground to the space. So one example that we showcase is space tele-robotics system that we developed together with the German Aerospace Center. So we were able to control the space tele-robotics system, even under 500 millisecond, half second communication time, through satellite communication, but still can do the series of tasks that astronauts in international space station has to do daily. And that allows, you know, that can be extended to nuclear plant and delayed social robot and many others. But I think that’s the biggest contribution, I believe.

Interviewer: Looking forward, well, first looking back, how do you feel that robotics has changed through the years, if it has changed in your experience? And follow that up with any ideas you have about where you think it’s going in the next 10 to 20, you know, any important developments you see on the horizon.

Jee Hwan Ryu: So that’s really tough question. Robotics. You know, since when I was a student, there’s always been down, there’s always been down every 10 years. Robotics rise up, you know, a lot of, you know, attention and false doubt, because we couldn’t show any real product. False doubt. Another 10 years, rise up, intention. And again, now we are on the peak. So it’s time to show something actually works. But except cleaning robot and surgical robot, I don’t know what is the real product, which gives a real benefit to human.

But I think it’s time to. Something will appear, something will appear. And I believe maybe AI, big data, this current, you know, big change will help us and will make a change, real change. I believe that’s that. That’s for sure.

And I don’t think we are going to have, you know, suddenly human like humanoid robot and appear and will help us. I believe some assistive device or assistive component gradually will be introduced and later on those will be combined and become, you know, like a human. Like autonomous vehicle, we believe suddenly autonomous vehicle level four and five will appear and, n, autonomous to drive. But no, but better than this, you know, assistive lane keeping parking, obstacle detection, you know, the kind of assistive device gradually adapted to conventional vehicle. And later on, if those combined together, then finally we’ll be a full autonomous vehicle. So like this, I believe robotics technology will be like that.

Interviewer: Do you feel that any of the more recent developments in large language models and different kinds of so-called AI have had a significant impact in robotics?

Jee Hwan Ryu: I believe so. I believe so. So this is actually a hot topic now in robotic community as well. So large language model, you know, BLM, the kind of thing actually change a lot in our society. But I believe most of the change happening in virtual world. Of course, I like virtual world, but most of the thing happening in virtual world. So you ask question to GPT? Answer. Drawing, you know, give you some picture of a nice movie for a troll. But robotics is more like a physical thing. So how to make this large language model and AI influence on the physical world where humans exist? It’s a big question. And will it happen soon? Why not? I don’t know. I don’t know. To make this influence to virtual world, robot is kind of media and will be a tool. But we don’t have enough data to make this happen now. So this is a big question and a lot of actually researchers and robotics engineers during the conference, we are discussing a lot. There are many workshops and many keynotes about this. So this is really interesting question to me as well. Definitely will make some change. I don’t know when.

Interviewer: Do you see any applications down the road for, you know, say developing the haptic problem that you were describing? If you can’t turn on or off haptic kinds of physical systems in the way that you can eyes, do you think that some of those kinds of more complex problems can be addressed by this type of technology? Or do you feel like its sort of origin and orientation are not as appropriate to solving that kind of a question?

Jee Hwan Ryu: You mean the current big data and AI problem? AI engine. Yes. Yes. I think that this, you know, so-called physical AI, physical AI, Jensen Wong mentioned that physical AI, this is exactly the technology that big data AI technology influence on physical world. So how this can happen. And this physical AI, one of the critical and most important question is highly related with haptics, I think. Sense of touch. Robot need to interact with real environment and have to touch, grasp and manipulate, contact with manipulation. Those are all haptics actually. So I mean, haptic area for many years and we’ve been working on, you know, understand how human perceive sense of touch and how to effectively transfer this information to human and also not only human, machine. How robot localize sense of touch and how robot can grasp object and handle this object. But we are more like in a still preliminary level. We are, you know, gradually understand and finding some hidden, hidden, you know, phenomena and that. So that kind of finding and that kind of study will be a cornerstone later on how to implement this AI technology for physical AI, I believe. I’m still trying to find the connection, but that’s a really big question. And hopefully we can find some answers soon and connection.

Interviewer: Speaking of the real world, have you seen the results of your research applied in any particular way in real world situation so far?

Jee Hwan Ryu: Real world situation. Yes. One thing that I mentioned, LG project. Yeah, that’s a real project will be commercialized soon. So that’s that’s the one I believe, you know, one of the algorithms that I developed has been implemented to a real product and space tele robotic system. So people in DLL, they’re using my control algorithm to tele operate remotely, tele operate their space robot system. So that’s the real I think the first type and real system working working on.

Interviewer: Got a couple of more questions for you. You’ve talked about your collaboration with LG and I think you mentioned Hyundai as well.

Jee Hwan Ryu: Hyundai. We are currently doing a project with Hyundai.

Interviewer: Is there anything you would like to expand on about collaborating with or contributing to industry?

Jee Hwan Ryu: I always wanted to. I always wanted to. So the big question for people in academia is. As long as we clearly understand what industry want and real needs, then we are more than happy to collaborate with them. But quite often we do not actually understand what they need. But recently, like LG and Hyundai Motors, they are starting to approach into university and research like me and open their question and open their question on the on top of the table and start to discuss. So that’s really good culture, I think. So I’m always willing to. And I believe. Engineer and robotics engineer, you know. Well, once you develop some idea and methodology. So I want to actually finally implemented this idea to real prototype.

And one of the. Is not hectic, a little different project that I’m working with medical doctor. So colonoscopy. We found very interesting, you know, locomotion idea. And I started this collaboration initially with Alice, no camera from Stanford. And we are developing a. Soft growing robot like a plant or root. And a few years ago, I met one of the medical doctor and he said, this idea would be really interesting to a colonoscopy and we start collaboration, even though companies not involved in. But there are many companies actually interested in this product. And maybe we actually last year finished animal test. So it’s not publicly open yet. But once our paper published, then we will open this idea. And I always think, you know, once we develop some idea and technology, that should be implemented to real problem and you know, beneficial to human. Our society. Not just leave as a paper.

Interviewer: So sticking with this future oriented. Direction that we’re on, I’d like to ask if you have any recommendations to students who are interested in getting into robotics.

Jee Hwan Ryu: So. Whenever a student apply to our lab. There are typical questions that I ask. Probably I’m not supposed to answer, you know, open this because my future applicant will know what question I’m going to ask. But anyway, I often ask, “What is your dream? What is your goal in 10, 20 years?” And many of students actually can’t answer. Because they do not have long term goal. But I believe if you have your long term goal. Then it’s basically a robot planning problem. Then you can plan your trajectory. And whenever you need to make a decision, you can find closest point. You know, which decision will make our past shorter. Which decision will make, you know, expedite our my career to reach to the target. So if you plan your goal in advance and. You know. Plan and schedule in detail as detailed as possible. Then that, you know, as the way to. Make your dream come true. And if you want to be someone, what if you want to make something, then dream as detailed as possible. That that’s the recommendation. And then I give to my students.

Interviewer: Thank you. And the last question I have for you is whether or not there’s anything you’d like to share or talk about that we haven’t covered yet.

Jee Hwan Ryu: I think I did. I did most of them.

Interviewer: Nothing more about the Gundam robots, robotics, the giant Gundam robots, giant, giant robotics.

Jee Hwan Ryu: OK. I really want to try, but maybe later. If there is another interview chance. Yeah.

Interviewer: Well, thank you very much. Thank you. This conversation, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you for sharing your time and your experience with us.

Jee Hwan Ryu: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. And hopefully, yeah, this will influence to. Some students and future generation of robots. Thank you.

Interviewer: Yeah, thank you.