Minghui Sun, class of 2021, enjoys having dinner parties in order to meet new people and in his free time also likes to read, swim, kayak, and travel. In the Link Lab, he works with faculty affiliate Cody Flemings on projects related to safety in engineered systems.What brings you the most joy in your life?
1. Making connections with people. Even though we might come from different backgrounds, the moments of having honest and open-minded conversations always give me the most joy in life.
2. Helping people. Especially in the U.S., being far away from home, helping people gives me a sense of belonging that I am still useful to someone. Life is not only about achieving my own goals, but also helping people to achieve their goals.
3. Other little things, like reading, swimming, kayaking, traveling and having dinner parties with friends especially from different backgrounds. I not only enjoy doing them, they also help me find those like-minded people at UVA and in Charlottesville.
What three words have described your life in the last year?
Grateful, growth, tested
Why did you choose those words to describe your life in the last year?
Even though I might be older than many of my peers, I grew up a lot last year. By growing up, I meant I expanded my horizon by trying different things and talking (sometimes arguing) with different people, my first time going to a football game, getting addicted to kayaking, gaining more of an understanding about US culture, and amazingly forging a deeper connection to my own culture and my own identity. None of this can be true without the help of my friends. They introduced me to things and shared their perspectives with me, which is what I am grateful for. However, this process is not always happy. There have been times when I felt I was misunderstood or judged either because I messed up or they had their stereotypes about me. But this is just life and I see this as a test for maturity, to keep me growing. At the end of the day, these are all unique experiences that I had by staying here at this time. They are the things that really belong to me no matter where I go in the future. So again, I am really grateful and looking forward to more adventures in the coming year.
What projects have you worked on while at the Link Lab?
Broadly, my work is about ensuring safety for complex engineered systems, such as civil airplanes, air traffic control, etc. More specifically, my work is to answer, to what extent that the safety design process of these complex systems can be automated and the design solution can be rigorously verified, and how. Also to identify the part that still relies on qualitative human expertise and how to integrate the two parts to have real world impact to the industry.
Humans of Link Lab is a new initiative of UVA's Link Lab to exhibit the interesting people who work in the space and their passions both inside and outside of the Lab. To see more content, connect with us on Instagram (@linklabatuva), Twitter (@UVALinkLab), and LinkedIn (UVA Engineering Link Lab).