Highlights
Professor Sanghun Jeon from the Department of Electrical Engineering has been selected as the top recipient in the academic category of the 2024 Haedong Outstanding Paper Award, hosted by The Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers (IEIE) (President Chungyong Lee, Yonsei University) and sponsored by the Haedong Science Foundation.
The award ceremony took place on November 25 at 6 PM in the Grand Ballroom of the Convention Tower at the High1 Resort. The Haedong Awards by The Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers consist of three categories: Academic Award, Technology Award, and Young Engineer Award. The JSTS Academic Award specifically recognizes the best paper published in the JSTS journal over the past three years.
Professor Sanghun Jeon was recognized for his paper, “Ferroelectricity in Al2O3/Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 Bilayer Stack: Role of Dielectric Layer Thickness and Annealing Temperature,” which proposes dielectric stacking structures and design guidelines to enhance the thermal stability, performance, and reliability of hafnia ferroelectrics – a material gaining attention as a next-generation memory and storage device.
Once again, congratulations to Professor Sanghun Jeon for elevating the reputation of the Department of Electrical Engineering
Alumna Su-In Lee (Class of ’97), Paul G. Allen Professor at the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, was selected in April 2024 as the recipient of the ‘Samsung Ho-Am Prize’ in Engineering. This marks a significant milestone as Professor Lee is the first female recipient in the Engineering category since the establishment of the prize in 1990.
Professor Lee was recognized for her contributions to the field of “Explainable AI,” particularly for developing the “SHAP” methodology, which advances understanding and trust in AI predictions and decisions.
Professor Lee remarked, “Through explainable AI, I aim to unlock the keys to solving critical biological problems and addressing rare diseases using vast big data.”
At the award ceremony on May 31, she expressed her aspirations: “I sincerely hope that many will be inspired by my receipt of the Ho-Am Prize and my research in AI to pursue careers in engineering, tackle challenging problems through bold research, and contribute to making the world a better place by addressing critical issues faced by science, medicine, society, and humanity.”
We are delighted to share the great news about our alumnus with the members of our department, albeit belatedly. Below is the full text of Professor Su-In Lee’s acceptance speech, which serves as an inspiring message of great challenge for future generations. Please find her full speech below.
And the video featuring an introduction to Professor Su-In Lee’s research achievements and the award ceremony can be viewed at the link below.
: https://youtu.be/yRhDcrj_Z14?t=2255
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< Acceptance speech from Professor Su-In Lee > First and foremost, it is a tremendous honor for someone as young as I am, with many goals still to achieve, to receive the Samsung Ho-Am Prize in Engineering.
I sincerely thank everyone who has supported me on this journey. I wish to express my gratitude to my late father, who could not be here due to a disease that exceeded the limits of modern medicine, my beloved mother, and all my cherished family members. I am also deeply grateful to my mentors, friends, colleagues, and all the students who have joined me on this research journey.
I believe that awards are always given to one among many deserving individuals. Therefore, I feel that the chosen recipient bears a responsibility greater than the privilege of the award itself. To me, the true meaning of this award lies not in the honor of the prize but in the messages, I convey and the impact I create by standing here today.
With that in mind, I would like to share some thoughts with you. As a professor and scientist, one of the most fulfilling aspects of my work is inspiring younger generations and influencing their lives. I genuinely hope that many will be inspired by my receipt of the Ho-Am Prize and my research in explainable AI to pursue careers in engineering, conduct bold research, and contribute to solving critical problems in science, medicine, society, and humanity.
We are witnessing how AI is dramatically transforming humanity and the world. In this rapidly changing era, there is no such thing as a “comfortable” or “secure” job. Instead, find work and a career path that makes your heart race until retirement and beyond.
If you choose science or engineering as your career path, I encourage you not to limit yourself to books and papers but to gain a wide range of experiences. Modern science is a team effort. Securing research funding, recruiting excellent team members, and effectively promoting your research results are all crucial skills.
Thus, a great scientist must also be a good “politician,” making diverse life experiences essential. And always remember the essence of research. The goal of research is not to publish papers in prestigious journals, obtain a Ph.D., or secure a job offer.
The ultimate purpose of science and engineering is to expand the boundaries of human knowledge and capability and, ultimately, to create a better world for humanity. Focus on the future and intrinsic value rather than immediate achievements. Concentrate only on the ideas, methodologies, and data that most effectively expand the limits of human knowledge and ability.
Success follows when you pursue these goals. With such fundamental principles, you can genuinely celebrate the achievements of others, set your own standards for evaluating research, and navigate the challenges of research and life. When you encounter difficulties, focus only on what you can control and do not waste time on things beyond your reach. Also, if there is something inevitable, learn to embrace and enjoy it.
At this moment, I think of all the young girls and boys who might be inspired by me to become scientists or engineers. To them, I say: Never lose your curiosity, never fear challenges, and always strive toward the right goals. You can overcome any obstacle and achieve your dreams. Thank you.
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Master’s candidate Woo-Hyun Hwang and undergraduate student Jae-Jun Lee from Professor Seonghwan Cho’s lab achieved remarkable success by winning the Grand Prize at the ‘2024 Korean University Semiconductor Circuit Design Competition Award Ceremony’, held on December 11 at the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas Hotel.
The ‘Korean University Semiconductor Circuit Design Competition’, organized by the Institute of Semiconductor Engineers, aims to nurture IC circuit design skills among university students nationwide, discover creative ideas, and is supported by numerous semiconductor-related companies.
At the awards ceremony on December 11, the Grand Prize-winning project titled ‘A Chip-Scale Operable Magnetic Resonance-Based Two-Coil Wireless Communication System’ was developed by Woo-Hyun Hwang and Jae-Jun Lee.
The project received high praise for its creativity, complexity, and level of completion. In particular, the innovative concept of implementing a “magnetic resonance-based two-coil system” at a chip scale, and the ability to achieve effective design with high completion in challenging wireless communication environments, were recognized and led to the Grand Prize award.
Mintaek Oh, a Ph.D. Candidate in Professor Jinseok Choi’s lab at our department, achieved a Silver Award at the ‘2024 IEEE Student Paper Contest’ held by IEEE Seoul Section on December 7th.
The ‘IEEE Student Paper Contest’ is a prestigious competition organized by the IEEE Seoul Section that identifies outstanding research papers across all fields of electrical and electronic engineering and recognizes students’ research capabilities. Students who present outstanding papers at this year’s contest will be granted a privilege to participate in 2025 IEEE Region 10 Student Paper Contest.
<Mintaek Oh, recipient of the Silver Award at the ‘2024 IEEE Student Paper Contest’>
The award-winning paper titled “Multi-RIS-Aided Beamforming Design for MU-MIMO Systems with Imperfect CSIT” presents research on beamforming design considering practical constraints in wireless communication systems utilizing the RIS, which is emerging as a key technology for next-generation wireless communication systems. This research proposes an optimization approach for MU-MIMO system performance using multiple RISs under imperfect channel state information.
In this competition, amid competition spanning all fields of electrical engineering in Korea, the research excellence in wireless communications was recognized with the Silver Award.
Professor Chan-Hyun Youn’s research team has developed a novel approach to Machine Unlearning, a critical aspect of AI safety, by introducing the past weight prediction model InvWNN. This model aims to selectively remove the influence of problematic data from AI models trained on such data. Existing methods often require access to the entire training dataset or face challenges with performance degradation. To address these issues, the team proposed a new method that leverages weight history to predict past weights and iteratively applies this process to progressively eliminate the influence of the data.
<Figure 1: Machine Unlearning Process of the Proposed InvWNN and Unlearning Trajectory>
This method gradually removes the problematic data’s influence through iterative fine-tuning on the problematic data and the past weight prediction. Notably, this approach operates effectively without access to the remaining data and can be applied to various datasets and architectures. Compared to existing methods, the proposed technique excels at accurately removing unnecessary knowledge from training data while minimizing side effects. Furthermore, it has been validated that this method can be directly applied to a variety of tasks without requiring additional procedures.
The research team demonstrated the high performance of their method across various benchmarks, showcasing its potential to significantly expand the practical applicability of machine unlearning technology. These findings will be presented at the 39th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2025), one of the premier international conferences in the field of artificial intelligence, to be held in the United States in February next year, with the title “Learning to Rewind via Iterative Prediction of Past Weights for Unlearning.”
Professor Junil Choi of our School of Electrical Engineering has been awarded the 6th Next-Generation Scientist Award (IT field), co-hosted by the Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) and the Korean Association of University Presidents, and sponsored by the S-OIL Science and Culture Foundation.
The Korean Academy of Science and Technology (https://kast.or.kr) has been running the S-OIL Awards program since 2011 with support from the S-OIL Science and Culture Foundation. This initiative identifies and recognizes young scientists in the fields of basic science and engineering to foster them as key contributors to national science and technology in the 21st century.
The S-OIL Next-Generation Scientist Award is presented to researchers aged 45 or younger. Candidates are evaluated based on their top 10 representative research papers published over the last 10 years, excluding those from their doctoral studies or postdoctoral periods.
Professor Junil Choi received the award on December 5, 2024, in recognition of his outstanding research in communication systems leveraging machine learning and his contributions to 6G wireless communication systems.
The School of Electrical Engineering at KAIST has demonstrated remarkable consistency, with Professors Hyun-Joo Lee (2022), Jae-Woong Jeong (2023), and now Junil Choi (2024) receiving the Next-Generation Scientist Award in the IT field for three consecutive years.
Ph.D. candidates Eunyoung Jang and Kiup Kim from Professor Hyunjoo Jenny Lee’s laboratory in our department were awarded the Best Paper Award in graduate students’ poster presentations at the ‘2024 Micro and Nano Systems Fall Conference’. This event was held on November 21 at the Asti Hotel in Busan.
