Harvey Mudd Engineering Student Wins International Awards for AI and Mechanical Innovation

Soon Young Kwon ’29, an engineering student at Harvey Mudd College, earned two prestigious international recognitions from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) this spring. Kwon’s achievements span the cutting edge of generative AI and precision mechanical design.

In April 2026, Kwon was named the winner of the Best Technical Execution / Innovation award at the ASME E4C AI Pilot Hackathon. Competing as a solo participant under the team name “Mechy AI,” Kwon stood out among more than 100 participants from across the globe.

Kwon developed Frontier, a sophisticated 25-step agentic AI workflow designed to generate Design Exploration Briefs for engineering and sustainable development. Unlike “black-box” AI systems, Frontier utilizes four distinct AI models—specializing in drafting, structuring, fact-checking and fast lookup—to cross-reference datasets from the United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank and the Engineering for Change Solutions Library.

The judging panel, which evaluated entries on responsible AI use and technical depth, specifically cited Kwon’s “trust but verify” philosophy. The Frontier system source-tags every claim with a confidence level and requires human intervention at multiple checkpoints.

“Frontier identifies gaps in existing solutions rather than just generating new ones,” says Kwon. “The goal was to support human decision-making by highlighting where real-world needs are not being met by current technologies.”

Prior to his success in the hackathon, Kwon secured the first place award in the Technical Poster category at the ASME 2026 E-Fest in March. His project, “Developing a detachable and portable joint with high alignment accuracy for antenna positioned GPS tracking in the celestial sphere,” showcased a modular joint system capable of arcsecond-level alignment.

The design, which features a hybrid of carbon fiber-reinforced 3D printed parts and CNC-milled aluminum, has potential applications in satellite tracking, radio astronomy and aerospace payload mounts. The work originated in the first-year Introduction to Engineering Design and Manufacturing course at Harvey Mudd. Kwon credited his E4 team members Ever Diaz-Ramos ’27, James Cassidy ’27 and Thiven Anderson ’27 for their work on the original course project, which his award-winning poster builds on. Engineering Professor Qimin Yang guided the original coursework and physics Professor Jason Gallicchio provided the technical context.

Kwon’s recent successes come as he prepares to return to the Harvey Mudd campus this fall as a sophomore, following the completion of the eighteen-month mandatory military service in South Korea. On campus, he is the Vice-President of the Mudd Automotive Club.

Kwon is directing his combined $2,800 in prize winnings toward his independent research in piezoelectric actuators. Looking beyond graduation, he aims to tackle bottlenecks in mechanical components to better integrate AI into physical hardware.

“My broader goal is to advance hardware that allows AI to be integrated into everyday human life in a sustainable and impactful way,” Kwon said