2024 - A Year That Gave Me a Lot to Think About
Looking Back on 2024
2024 was a year that brought both significant setbacks and newfound hope into my life. Time truly flew by. At the end of 2023, amidst an organizational restructuring within my team, I was appointed as a Part Leader(Head of AI Solution Part). I couldn’t help but wonder: Am I really suited for this position? It was a year of deep reflection on what it means to be a manager at Samsung.
- First Part Leader of PJT AI Solution
- Generative AI and My Career
- What It Means to Be a Manager at Samsung
- A Friend’s Journey to Silicon Valley
- Goals and Aspirations for 2025
First Part Leader of PJT AI Solution
In 2023, I gave a talk titled “ML/Statistics-based Machine Failure Prediction” at the Data Scientist Festival hosted by Samsung’s Memory Division. I was honored to receive the Good Practice Award, the only such award given at the Samsung Electronics Onyang Campus.
This recognition was especially meaningful to me. Since completing the Data Science Innovation Expert Program at Seoul National University (SNU-Samsung DS2) in 2018, I had continued to challenge myself as a Data Scientist and this was the first award I had earned through those efforts.
As a result of this achievement, I was appointed as the first-ever Part Leader of the newly established AI Solution Part. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the Master who believed in me and gave me this chance.
Generative AI and My Career
Since the launch of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, large language models (LLMs) have driven groundbreaking progress in AI and are now being adopted across industries. With the recent releases of OpenAI’s GPT-4o and GPT-o1, it truly feels like the era of generative AI has arrived.
| Version | Release Date | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT (based on GPT-3.5) | Nov 30, 2022 | Introduced as a conversational AI capable of natural interaction with users. |
| GPT-4 | Mar 14, 2023 | A multimodal model that processes both text and images with near-human performance on various benchmarks. |
| GPT-4o | May 13, 2024 | A real-time multimodal model that handles text, images, and audio, faster and more cost-effective than its predecessors. |
| GPT-4o Mini | Jul 18, 2024 | A lightweight version of GPT-4o, more cost-effective, designed to replace GPT-3.5 Turbo. |
| o1-preview | Sep 12, 2024 | A preview version focused on deeper reasoning before response generation, improving accuracy. |
| o1 | Dec 5, 2024 | Official release of the o1 model, replacing the preview version and offered to ChatGPT Pro users with a Pro Mode. |
As my first project in this new role, I decided to pursue a Generative AI service. But the road was anything but smooth. The responsibilities of the new part were not clearly defined, and there was even internal debate over whether our part should be doing this kind of work at all.
I also knew all too well the realistic limitations of working with semiconductor data, having analyzed it for years. On top of that, the requirements from the team often felt disconnected from reality, which only added to my frustration.
Still, I wasn’t afraid of this challenge. I’ve always believed that uncertainty creates opportunity, and that the harder the path, the more it’s worth pursuing. If someone had to lead this new endeavor, I felt it should be me. Reflecting on my past experiences, I was confident this project would be worthwhile and beneficial to my career.
What It Means to Be a Manager at Samsung
In the past, I had proven myself as both a Software Engineer and a Data Scientist. I had demonstrated the potential to predict deep scratch-type wheel mark defects in the backlap process before testing, and proposed a new direction for predictive maintenance of test handlers from a data-driven perspective.
However, after becoming a part leader, I found that it was nearly impossible to remain hands-on with technical work. I often thought, “If only I had more time like before, I could still make significant contributions in this field…” (Maybe this was just a sign of my limitations… I love tennis, but I hardly played in 2024.)
Moreover, I often felt a sense of disconnect when creating reports for the sake of reporting, or when dealing with poorly planned reporting requirements. It made me question: “Is this what a manager at Samsung is supposed to be?” The disappointment was real. (Are other companies like this too? Honestly, I’m not sure.)
A Friend’s Journey to Silicon Valley
One of my friends recently moved to Applied Materials (AMAT) in Silicon Valley. He had been working at the semiconductor R&D center in Samsung’s Hwaseong campus. Motivated by a mix of disappointment at his current job and the desire for a new challenge, he decided to move to a new company.
It wasn’t an easy journey, but he told me that his PhD and specialization in semiconductor design played a key role in making the move possible.
This led me to wonder:
As someone working as both a Data Scientist and Software Engineer, is a move to Silicon Valley even possible for me?
AI is increasingly impacting the semiconductor industry, and the role of data scientists is becoming more important than ever in areas like process optimization, predictive maintenance, and advanced data analytics. These are the areas I’ve been working in and plan to continue exploring even further.
Yet, I also know the limitations of semiconductor data better than anyone, and without a clear direction, this dream could easily remain just a dream.
Goals and Aspirations for 2025
These reflections are pushing me toward new challenges. It’s not just a vague longing for Silicon Valley. It’s the realization that I need to redefine the role of AI in the semiconductor industry, and deepen my expertise in data analysis and AI technology.
I no longer see this dream as a fantasy. I see it as a concrete step toward taking my career to the next level.
My goal now is to grow into a professional who can deliver Generative AI services as an ML/DL Engineer and drive innovation in the semiconductor industry by integrating Predictive AI as a Data Scientist.
I’m setting out to live 2025 with these goals in mind:
- Start a blog
- LLM & RAG
- Improve my English
- Exercise regularly
- No more part leader roles