Yi, Yung (In Memoriam)

Professor Yi, Yung received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Seoul National University and his doctoral degree from the University of Texas Austin in 2006. After working as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University for two years, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University from 2008 to 2023. Before passing away at an early age, he served as a professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at KAIST.
While Professor Yi, Yung left behind unique and innovative achievements in the fields of wireless mobile networks, social networks, and network economics, these world-class research results have significantly raised KAIST's status in the field. First of all, representative studies include research on interference control techniques and maximum utilization of mobility in mobile networks, propagation speed maximization and propagation source estimation theory in social networks, and research on the ecosystem of next-generation network technology. In particular, since 2017, he has expanded his research into the field of machine learning and studied machine learning applications, especially multi-agent reinforcement learning. He published 163 international academic papers, which were cited more than 8,000 times. Among them, he published 17 papers at INFOCOM, the best academic society in the field of network theory, ranking first in Asia until 2017. He has also presented various papers in the mobile and network field conferences such as Mobihoc, Sigmetrics, MobiSys, and Mobicom, as well as in the artificial intelligence field such as ICML and ICLR. In recognition of these pioneering research achievements, he was jointly awarded the IEEE William R. Bennet Award, known as the Nobel Prize in network theory, in 2016, and received the best paper award twice a year from IEEE SECON and ACM Mobihoc, flagship academic societies in the field of communication networks. He served as the youngest editor in Korea for IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, a top journal in the networking field (2014-2018), and also served as TPC Chair for WiOpT and ACM Mobihoc, renowned academic societies in the field.
While Professor Yi, Yung was a professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at KAIST, he produced 18 doctorates and 32 master's degrees, including 4 professors from leading domestic universities, and also made great efforts to develop the department and educate students. While serving as Chairman of the Student Committee from 2016 to 2018, he established a new MyEE subject to help new students plan their careers, and laid the foundation for the era of 200 new students entering KAIST EE through continued affection and interest for undergraduate students and department promotion. From his appointment to a permanent position in 2018, he served as Chairman of the Computer Division for 2019, and made efforts to actively recruit rising stars in academia to expand the network system area into the mobile system and system storage areas.
Professor Yi, Yung, famous for his excellent lectures, was a representative practitioner of flipped learning and devoted so much passion to his lectures that he conducted constant one-on-one consultations with each student. He won the KAIST Creative Lecture Award, the school's highest award for teaching, in 2019, and has received numerous KAIST Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department best lecture awards.
The dedication and love of Professor Yi, Yung, who always delivered positive energy to those around him and gave us precious memories and strength with his endless humor, will remain with us for a long time.

Professor Yi, Yung’s official GitHub page: https://yung-web.github.io/home/
Naming ceremony for Yi, Yung’s classroom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkJZ8ECOKWc