Profile: Steven Hong
Meet Steven Hong. Founder and CEO of Oculii.
Name: Steven Hong
Job: Founder and CEO of Oculii
City: Dayton
Hometown: Dayton
Q: What does your company do?
Oculii is creating a next-generation AI software platform for radars that’s exponentially higher resolution, longer range, more accurate, and less expensive than conventional solutions – increasing safety and reliability. The promise of autonomous vehicles depends on high-performance, all-weather, low-cost and scalable perception technology, and Oculii is bringing it to the world.
Q: What’s a problem you're working to solve?
There are 6 million car accidents in the US every year. Sadly, many are fatal. Additionally, 96 percent of those accidents are caused at least in part by human error. The single greatest problem we are working to solve is making transportation safer for all people.
We believe we can do that through great technology, and we believe we are creating that technology at Oculii. To that point, in early March, we launched our two newest products, EAGLE and FALCON.
EAGLE is the world’s highest-resolution commercial 4D imaging radar. Generating radar images with tens of thousands of pixels per frame, EAGLE tracks targets (such as oncoming traffic) at more than 350 meters, allowing autonomous systems to safely operate at high speeds and in all-weather conditions.
FALCON is the world’s most compact 4D imaging radar, delivering high-resolution performance in a 5cm x 5cm package that is smaller than a business card. Built on a single-chip, low-power, cost-effective hardware platform, FALCON consumes less than 2.5 watts of power, enabling it to be leveraged effectively in a corner-radar automotive ADAS (advanced driver-assistance system) application or an autonomous robotic application where energy efficiency is critical.
These products are the very first to solve the problem of improving radar resolution through software, not hardware. That means they are highly cost effective and scalable. When everybody can use safe transportation that gives them time back in their lives, not just those in a certain wealth bracket (as most autonomous vehicles in development today are), not only can more lives can be saved, but also a lot more access to opportunity can be created in places where there isn’t opportunity today.
Q: What’s a lesson you’ve learned that's shaped your work?
When I was considering making the leap to Oculii as my full-time job, I was hesitant at first that I was trying for something too big. Being from the Midwest and from a family of immigrants, I grew up around a culture that was fairly risk-averse. Helping self-driving cars see better? That sounded like an insurmountable problem.
But the benefit of the time I spent in Silicon Valley was that it introduced me to people who had a different mindset. For example, a Bay-Area mentor of mine once said, “If you’re going to solve a problem, you’ve got to work equally hard to solve a small one versus a big one. The difference is, if you go after a big problem, people rally behind you. It lets you scale beyond just yourself. People want to help people achieve big visions. So you might as well try to solve a big problem.”
That’s a lesson that’s stuck with me. Sometimes it’s easier to take a risk and try to change the world because people want to help you change the world. We’ve applied that to how we operate at Oculii, and haven’t looked back.
Q: What’s a trend in technology or innovation that doesn’t get enough attention?
Radar’s potential as an autonomous navigation technology doesn’t get as much attention as it should. Lidar, the more well-known navigation system, gets tons of press, particularly because a number of lidar-focused startups went public in the past year via SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) IPO.
While there are many great lidar companies doing interesting work, radar is often seen as an already-solved-problem. Traditionally, improving radar resolution meant adding more antennae, which increased cost, size, and power. But that was before Oculii. With Oculii’s virtual aperture imaging technology, we’ve found a software solution to a hardware problem. It’s unlocked radar’s potential on an unprecedented scale.
Radar is incredibly cost effective, which could be a key component in getting self-driving technology more broadly adopted. It is also extremely robust, and can perform in all weather conditions. With Oculii’s software, all the benefits of the radar are achieved in additional to high resolution and long range performance. Oculii’s Virtual Aperture Imaging software platform also evolves constantly by leveraging unique and proprietary radar data models. Future generations of sensors built with Oculii AI software will scale exponentially, delivering significantly higher resolution and longer range in a cheaper and more compact package.
Q: What’s one moonshot idea that could help make Ohio a world leader in technology and innovation?
Back in 2016, Columbus won the US Department of Transportation’s highly competitive Smart Cities Challenge grant. It was intended to transform Columbus into the next version of how we think about cities, with IoT-connected data collection technology that could better plan street design, encourage electrification of vehicles, and accelerate autonomous, safe transportation for all people.
I believe the concept behind Smart Cities is the future, and feel that it should not only be deployed throughout Columbus, but as part of an interconnected system throughout the state of Ohio, and eventually the entire US.
Q: What’s a recent book, podcast or news story that you found interesting?
I have a few favorite books, but the one I’m reading right now (again) is The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by a venture capitalist named Ben Horowitz, of the legendary VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. In it, he talks a lot about the experience of building a company and why it’s so hard.
I read it often because it gives me this perspective that, as a founder, this is not a unique experience that I’m going through. Other people go through it, other people face these challenges and are doing incredible, and incredibly hard, things all the time. That gives me a sense of camaraderie with other founders, and helps me feel less alone in tackling a gargantuan challenge.
Q: What's your favorite place in Ohio?
There’s this place in Yellow Spring called Young’s Dairy. It’s a farm that also has put-put, batting cages, and great ice cream. My wife is from California, and when I first brought her to Ohio I took her there, and it struck her as the quintessential “Ohio” experience. It’s become one of our favorite spots to go, especially in the summertime.
Q: What makes Ohio special to you?
Ohio is my hometown and it’s where I spent the majority of my childhood, so it definitely has a special place in my heart. My father was a professor at Wright State University for most of his career prior to co-founding Oculii with me. Being able to see his work ethic and learn from his research has significantly shaped my career and interest in technology. I’m grateful for the opportunity to return to Ohio to build a company with a team that is genuinely passionate about creating technology that can change the world.
Connect with Steven on LinkedIn.