DoangJoo "Alan" Synn
Ph.D. Student in Computer Science · School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
Advised by Prof. HyunJoo Oh & Prof. Sehoon Ha
I study motion as a computational medium across HCI and computer graphics. My research builds systems for designing, generating, and fabricating motion. I aim to make motion programmable and tangible across animated characters, mechanical artifacts, robotic systems, and AI-assisted creative tools.
Before starting my Ph.D., I spent eight years building software systems across AI systems, games, cloud platforms, and social robots.
News
- Sep 2026
Invited panelist at the CEISMC virtual K-12 STEAM workshop on makerspaces, sharing hands-on making ideas from the summer GIFT program with K-12 teachers.
↗ - Sep 2026
Gave an invited seminar at KAIST on Toward Human-Centered Generative AI for Design and Making.
- Sep 2026
On the blog: Industry and Academia Ask Different Things of Research
↗ - Aug 2026
On the blog: When the Field Moves
↗ - Jun 2026
Hosting Georgia Tech GIFT (CEISMC) teachers this summer, exploring MotionSmith through the Motion, Making & Mechanical Design GIFT Workshop (June–August).
↗ - May 2026
Invited panelist at AutomataCon 2026 (Morris Museum, NJ), where I demoed MotionSmith.
↗ - Apr 2026
Passed my Graphics qualifying exam at Georgia Tech and advanced to PhD candidacy.
- Apr 2026
Presenting MotionSmith at CHI 2026 in Barcelona (Apr 13–17) — a sketch-based tool for designing mechanical automata.
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Publications
All publications (6 more)
Education
- 2022–PresentGeorgia Tech, Ph.D. in Computer Science
- School of Interactive Computing; advised by Profs. Oh & Ha
- Research: computational design, mechanical artifacts, and motion synthesis (HCI/Graphics)
- 2020–2022Korea University, M.Eng. in ECE
Thesis: On Efficient Data Delivery for Machine Learning Systems
Advised by Prof. Jong-Kook Kim
- 2012–2020Korea University, B.Eng. in EE
- Alternative military service as a Software Engineer, 2016–2019
Experience
- 2024–2025Ph.D. Research Intern, Dolby Laboratories
- Built a time-series, multimodal datastore supporting low-latency media analytics in the Experience Delivery Lab.
- 2023MLOps Engineering Intern, LG Uplus Corp.
- Led DeepCrunch, a model-compression library supporting multi-backend AI inference for efficient edge deployment.
- 2021–2022Research Scientist, Protopia AI Inc.
Built Stained-Glass, a privacy-preserving deep-learning framework enabling inference without raw-data exposure.
Led framework development and Kubernetes/GPU infrastructure integration; the work contributed to a NeurIPS 2021 Demo.
- 2020–2022Cloud Architect · AWS Educate Cloud Ambassador
Led engineering for four startup services, translating ambiguous product requirements into production backend systems.
Built cloud-native infrastructure using Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, observability, and cost-optimized autoscaling while mentoring early-career engineers.
- 2019Server Engineer, Flysher Inc.
Shipped backend features for four social-game titles; one reached Facebook's global top 10.
Built an ETL-to-Redshift analytics pipeline supporting data-informed feature rollout.
- 2017–2019System Engineer, AKA Intelligence (Musio)
Designed embedded Linux boards and firmware for Musio, a deployed social robot.
Coordinated hardware-software integration and production QA with overseas ODMs.
Projects
A privacy-preserving inference system that protects raw input data while supporting scalable training and deployment workflows. Built core framework components and led Kubernetes/GPU infrastructure integration; presented as a NeurIPS 2021 Demo.
Embedded computing hardware and software for a deployed social robot. Designed Linux-based boards and firmware and coordinated hardware-software integration through production QA.
A TypeScript game-server framework comprising reusable libraries, services, and operational tooling. Built to replace a deprecated production stack for a globally ranked social game.
Teaching
- 2024–PresentHead TA, CS 4496/7496 Computer Animation
- 2021–2022Lecturer, Korea University
- Taught introductory Java programming to 10+ undergraduate students.
- 2021Teaching Assistant, Korea University
- Digital System Design
- Data Structures and Algorithms
- 2012–2014Lecturer, KAIST Engineering School
- Co-developed national project-based coding education programs with South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT.
- Designed and evaluated 20+ curricula combining Arduino, hardware prototyping, and software development for high-school and college students.
Honors & Awards
Brain Korea 21 (BK21) Research Fellowship (2020–2022)
Prize Winner, Creative Challenge Program @ Korea Univ. CTL (2015 and 2016)
Activities & Service
- 2023–2024Georgia Tech Korean Student Association
- President of Korean Students in the College of Computing.
- 2014–2019Hardware & Software Community, Korea University
- President; grew the community from 10 to 200+ active members across hardware and software tracks.
- 2015–2016TEDxKoreaUniversity, Korea University
- Founder & Chief Organizer; led a 47-person team in producing a 200-guest event with 7 speakers and a $4K budget.
Contact
I'm always up for a coffee chat about research, collaborations, internships, or wherever graphics meets design. Say hi anytime.