Nothing but blue skies ahead for UIUC's Hongjae Jeon

Innovators do more than address problems — they re-imagine them to better our lives.

Meet Hongjae Jeon, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering doctoral student, who dreams of enhancing our transportation system.

“We have limited infrastructure. We have more and more cars on the roads and people are buying cars every day,” Jeon said. “I think it will become a deficient system in the future. I want to help (improve) the system.”

For Jeon, that vision began during his childhood, where he aspired to become a scientist or an engineer.

“I was good at math and science, and I liked to watch scientific movies — that really inspired me,” he said.

His favorites? “Star Wars” and “E.T.”

The Seoul, South Korean native earned bachelor’s degrees in urban planning and electrical and computer engineering at Hanyang University. Before attending UIUC to begin his graduate journey, Jeon was an avid mobile applications developer.

Well, at least until autonomous vehicles caught his attention.

“When they come onto the market that will be very important for transportation,” Jeon said.

While the future of transportation may have sparked his career interest, Jeon’s already knee deep in innovative transportation research serving as a graduation research assistant.

Jeon recently served as one of the researchers for the Illinois Center for Transportation and Illinois Department of Transportation research project, “R27-127: Evaluation of Adaptive Signal Control Technology,” alongside UIUC Professor Rahim Benekohal and IDOT Engineer of Traffic Operations Kyle Armstrong.

The team wanted to see if adaptive signal control technology — adjusting stoplights based on traffic volume — would help streamline traffic flow along six intersections on Champaign’s Neil Street.

“(It’s) getting information from the system and finding that optimal timing response to (help) real-time traffic,” Jeon said.

The vendor’s adaptive system, however, did not outperform the previously used timed signals. Despite the outcome, the research team was able to walk away knowing it had easily implementable methodology for transportation agencies’ future use.

While this research effort may have reached completion, Jeon knows the sky’s the limit for his future. Jeon’s dream of becoming a difference-maker in the world of transportation is just around the corner.