Astra Hwang - Graduate Student

Astra Hwang

Graduate Student

Chicago, Illinois, United States

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Summary

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Senior

🎓

Top School

Astra Hwang is a PhD candidate in Genetics, Genomics, and Systems Biology at the University of Chicago with 11 years of research and data-analysis experience translating complex genetic questions into reproducible assays and pipelines. She developed a novel genomic assay to measure co-transcriptional splicing timing and has contributed to large consortium work on 3D genome organization, demonstrating strength in both wet-lab innovation and computational analysis. Transitioning toward consulting, Astra has led stakeholder engagement and pro bono strategy projects that increased participation and delivered a $21K annual profit projection through data-driven pricing and operational frameworks. An active open-source contributor, she has improved robustness and performance in notable CesiumGS projects—working on OBJ-to-glTF conversions and refactoring core geometry and validation logic for a world-class 3D mapping library. Beyond the bench and code, Astra blends creative rigor with leadership: she roasts coffee as a small-scale artisan, composes an annual holiday cocktail, and performs as a lead Korean drummer at major Chicago parades. Her interdisciplinary background in molecular genetics, archaeology, and landscape architecture fuels a pragmatic, systems-oriented approach to problem solving.

11 years of coding experience

3 years of employment as a software developer

Ridgewood High School

Bachelor's degree, Archeology, Bachelor's degree, Archeology at Cornell University

Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Molecular Genetics, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Molecular Genetics at University of Chicago

Github Skills (16)

webgl10

cesiumjs10

resium10

error-handling10

javascript10

3d-graphics10

gltf10

3d9

algorithms8

uid8

data-structures8

algorithm8

data-structure8

front-end-development8

ui-design8

Programming languages (8)

TypeScriptC#C++BatchfileJavaScriptGoHLSLPython

Github contributions (5)

CesiumGS/cesium

Jan 2017 - Jul 2017

An open-source JavaScript library for world-class 3D globes and maps :earth_americas:

Role in this project:

Front-end Developer

Contributions:96 commits, 43 PRs, 99 comments in 6 months

Contributions summary:Astra primarily focused on refactoring and updating the Cesium library's code base, replacing `DeveloperError` with a new `Check` type to enhance error handling and validation. They also updated documentation, improved Sandcastle examples, added features, and made performance improvements such as adding triangle count to the inspector. These changes included modifications to several core geometry files and improvements to the UI in the Sandcastle app.

3d-globegltfjavascript-librarygeospatial3d-tiles

CesiumGS/obj2gltf

Jun 2017 - Aug 2017

Convert OBJ assets to glTF

Role in this project:

Back-end Developer

Contributions:11 commits, 2 PRs, 16 comments in 1 month

Contributions summary:Astra primarily contributed to the `obj2gltf` repository by implementing and refining the functionality to parse and convert OBJ files. Their work included adding support for concave faces with more than three vertices, refactoring the face parsing mechanism to handle multiline face definitions, and correcting issues with winding order. They also addressed bugs related to cross-product calculations and improved the overall robustness of the OBJ to glTF conversion process.

playcanvaswebgl23d-converterassetsobj

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