He is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Chicago, advised by Aaron J. Elmore and collaborating closely with Goetz Graefe. His research focuses on database systems, with interests in query optimization and indexing. Before his Ph.D., he earned his M.S. and B.S. from KAIST and spent about five years in industry at SK hynix and a database systems company.
junhyukc (at) uchicago.edu
Education
University of Chicago
Sep. 2022 - May. 2027 (Expected)Ph.D. in Computer Science | Chicago, IL, USA
- Advisor: Aaron Elmore
KAIST
Mar. 2013 - Aug. 2016 (Early Graduation)B.S. in Electrical Engineering | Daejeon, South Korea
- Cum Laude (Major GPA: 3.82 / 4.0, Upper GPA: 3.98 / 4.0)
- Double Major: Computer Science
- Minor: Business and Technology Management
Seoul Science High School
Mar. 2010 - Feb. 2013Experience
TikTok (Bytedance)
Jun. 2025 - Sep. 2025Research Scientist Intern | San Jose, CA, USA
- Optimized OLAP database performance on Spark.
- Implemented a zero-copy serializer/deserializer using Apache Arrow to accelerate data spilling.
SK hynix
Aug. 2021 - Sep. 2022Tech Leader | Bundang, Gyeonggi, South Korea
- Designed and developed a platform for NAND media.
- On leave for Ph.D. studies since Sep. 2022.
TmaxData
Feb. 2018 - Aug. 2021Team Leader & Researcher | Bundang, Gyeonggi, South Korea
- Led a team of 10 engineers for the database's active storage.
- Designed and developed the primary database storage manager and architected re-balance and re-sync.
Kiswe Mobile Inc.
Jun. 2016 - Aug. 2016Software Engineer Intern | New Providence, NJ, USA
- Developed a real-time interactive advertising system.
- Engineered a real-time voting system with live results.
SK hynix
Dec. 2015 - Feb. 2016NAND Design Engineer Intern | Icheon, Gyeonggi, South Korea
- Designed and verified NAND read/write functionality through simulation and testing with Verilog and HSPICE.
