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Hello, I'm

Daniel Hong

About me

Hey! My name is Daniel and I'm an Engineering Science Student at the University of Toronto. Life to me is all about pushing my limits and becoming a better version of myself. What I love about engineering is learning new concepts and applying what I learn to create real, tangible items.

Currently, I have strong interests in aerospace engineering, robotics, machine learning, and software development. I am hoping to specialize in one of these fields in my third year.

As of now, I am an active member of UofT's Aerospace Design Team (UTAT) and Wind Design Team (UWind) where I am developing my hands-on skills. In UTAT, I am currently working on the design of a quadcopter and have so far designed the stringers and bulkheads of the fuselage using Solidworks. In UTWind, I have designed the nacelle of the wind turbine, which will house the generator and gearbox.

Outside of engineering, I am a musician, athlete, and hobbyiest photographer. I have over 10 years of experience playing the piano and violin, and was a member of UofT's Varsity Track and Field Team. At my best, I cleared 190 cm in high jump and achieved top 30 national rankings. Unfortunately, I am currently recovering from a hamstring tear.

I truly believe that life is all about creating the best version of myself, and this core extends to all facets of my life. I'm always trying to improve my health, my mind, and my abilities, and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.

Strengths, Abilities, and Values:

🗣 Communication and Presentation 🗣

I strongly believe that communication, presentation, and representation are one of the most important parts of any project. Without clearly communicating a design to an audience, the design is essentially as good as nothing.

Years of competing in DECA, acting classes, as well as countless presentations has made presentation and communication one of my prominent skills, which I demonstrate in projects such as Pocket Fridge (see projects tab), where my team and I effectively communicated our prototype to win the hackathon.

✨ Creativity ✨

As I have iterated repeatedly, creativity--thinking outside the box--is now a key cornerstone to my engineering design approach. Years of engagement in arts, music, and orchestra have developed my creativity, helping my ability to generate solutions.

🎯 Discipline and Planning 🎯

My background in Track and Field has built into me a sense of discipline and meticulous planning. The rigorous training I endured for years has taught me to always trust in the process, to always put in one hundred percent, and to trust that by putting in the work and following the plan, good things will ultimately happen.

🤝 Teamwork 🤝

Successfully teamwork is essential for success. Working with others cohesively, and seeing different branches of a project come together into a final, working product is one of the most satisfying parts of any design endeavour. I value teamwork deeply, and always make sure to communicate with team members to ensure that everyone is content with their undertakings and feels fully supported. Having a team that works well together--a team that can take and give feedback, plan, and organize--can be the difference between a good project, and a great one.

👁️ Visualization 👁️

As a learner, my strength comes in the form of visualization. I prefer to see images and graphs of things, rather than hearing spoken or written instruction. As such, in all my design activities, I seek to more easily visualize designs by creating sketches, diagrams, and 3D models. It is only through these models that I feels I can truly understand the design, its strengths and weakness, and its implications.

🧠 Being Open Mindedd 🧠

A bias that I occasionally suffer from is an "initial idea" bias, where I become attached to the first idea that comes to mind, and try to justify it even when it may not be the best idea. As an Engineer, I am working on being more open minded to all ideas, and to not be afraid to change my mind when other ideas comes along.

🖥️ Learning New Technologies 🖥️

One of my values is to always be learning new technologies; to spread my wings and explore the wide world of tools the world has to offer. I do this because I believe that it is important to be well versed in the latest technologies to grow my tool kit and be able to create the best products possible. This is also why I love competing in hackathons--they always expose me to a a plethora of industry tools that I have never seen before.

📉 Embracing Failure 📈

Failure to me is simply part of learning. It's a sign to me that better things will come, as without failure, it is impossible to grow. I have learned to embrace each failure as a learning opportunity, and to always strive to improve from it.

What i'm currently working on

Arduino

Learning how to use Arduino to create a variety of projects.
Web development

Improving my web developement skills. Learning frameworks like react.
C and C++

Learning how to use C and C++ to create a variety of projects.
Circuitry

Learning how to analyze, manipulate, and create circuits.

Resume

Education

University of Toronto
2023 — Current
Pursuing an undergraduate B.A.Sc. in Engineering Science, one of Canada's top engineering programs. Expected to graduate in 2027 + PEY.
- - $7,500 University of Toronto Excellence Award Research Funding (April, 2024)
- - $5,000 Frank Howard Admission Scholarship (September, 2023)
- - University of Toronto National Book Award (September, 2023)
- - 4.0 GPA
Bloor Collegiate Institute
2019 — 2023
Graduated from the TOPS program at Bloor Collegiate Institute, one of Toronto's most prestigious high school academic programs with a 98% average.
- - Two-year Student Council Member
- - Founder of Newspress Club (50+ members) in 2022
- - AP Physics B, AP Physics C, Digital Design Subject Awards
- - Graduating athlete of the year scholarship
- - Track and Field OFSAA Qualifier, Varsity Volleyball MVP, Varsity Ultimate MVP, 2022-2023 D2 Basketball Champion
- - 98% average
Winona Drive Senior Public School (Middle School)
2017 — 2019

Experience

Research Internship
May, 2024 — Current
Conducted research with Professor Arun Ramchandran in the Laboratory of Complex Fluids with the Chemical Engineering department at UofT.
UTAT Member
2023 — Current
Designed the bulkheads and stringers for the fuselage of a Quadcopter. Optimized the design by running stress simulations. The quadcopter will be competing in the national Unmanned Aerial Systems competition.
UWind Member
2023 — Current
Modeled and designed the nacelle of a wind turbine using Solidworks for accessibility and aerodynamics. Ran Ansys and Solidwork simulations for optimization. The wind turbine will be competing in the 2024 International Small Wind Turbine Contest in Sweden.
Tutor
2022 — Current
Worked one-on-one with my high school clients to improve their mathematics and physics skills. Subjects include calculus, mechanical physics, and functions.
Spirit of Math Assistant Teacher
2022 — 2023
Led instructional exercises and worked one-on-one with 6th-grade classes 2hrs/week.

My skills

Python
85%
Java
65%
C (programming language)
55%
HTML CSS Javascript (Webdev)
65%
Matlab
50%
Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustratrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Indesign)
70%
Solid Works
50%
Blender
40%