Future vehicles will control not only their motors but also the flow of air around them. Researchers at KAIST have developed an active aerodynamic technology that continuously adjusts airflow according to driving conditions, improving both the performance and safety of high-performance electric vehicles.
The research team led by Professor Hyunchul Shim in the School of Electrical Engineering, with support from Hyundai Motor Company, has developed a Multi-Surface Active Aerodynamic System capable of integrated control of multiple aerodynamic devices installed at the front and rear of a vehicle. The proposed technology was successfully implemented and validated on a full-scale vehicle under real circuit driving conditions.
The study, led by Sungwon Nah, a Ph.D. candidate and first author, received the First Prize Best Student Paper Award at the 2026 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV 2026), held in Detroit, Michigan, USA, in June 2026.
This award represents the highest honor presented to the most outstanding student paper at the conference. The research was first selected for an Oral Presentation, a distinction awarded to only approximately 8.5% of accepted papers, and subsequently won the First Prize Best Student Paper Award following the final evaluation of the oral presentations, recognizing both its originality and technical excellence.
The IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), organized by the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society (ITSS), is one of the world’s premier international conferences in the field of intelligent vehicles. It brings together leading researchers from universities, research institutes, and the automotive industry to present the latest advances in autonomous driving, vehicle control, artificial intelligence (AI), and future mobility technologies.
To achieve integrated control of four active aerodynamic devices mounted on the front and rear of the vehicle, the research team first established an aerodynamic model based on wind tunnel experiments that accurately captured the aerodynamic characteristics of each device.
Building on this model, the researchers developed a real-time control framework that continuously analyzes driving conditions, including vehicle speed and steering state, to determine the optimal aerodynamic mode. The proposed framework was validated through both high-fidelity vehicle simulations and full-scale vehicle experiments.
Unlike many previous studies that have been limited to simulation-based validation, the team conducted full-scale vehicle testing at the Korea International Circuit (KIC), an FIA Grade 1 circuit certified to host Formula One races, thereby demonstrating the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed technology under real driving conditions.
Experimental results showed that the proposed active aerodynamic system effectively improved lap time, braking performance, cornering performance, and overall vehicle stability in high-performance electric vehicles. Furthermore, the consistent performance improvements observed in both simulation and real-world experiments demonstrate the technology’s strong potential for future applications not only in high-performance electric vehicles but also in autonomous vehicles and Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs), whose capabilities can be continuously enhanced through software updates.
The first author, Sungwon Nah, also served as the team leader of KAIST EURECAR in the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC), an international autonomous racing competition in which Professor Shim’s laboratory has participated since 2021. Under his leadership, the team successfully achieved autonomous driving at speeds of up to 290 km/h, accumulating world-class expertise in high-speed autonomous vehicle control that directly contributed to this research.
Professor Hyunchul Shim said, “This recognition at one of the world’s most prestigious conferences on intelligent vehicles is particularly meaningful because it is built upon the practical experience our laboratory has accumulated through high-speed autonomous racing competitions such as the Indy Autonomous Challenge. We expect this research to contribute not only to improving the performance of high-performance electric vehicles but also to enhancing the safety and driving capabilities of future intelligent vehicles.“
The paper was led by Sungwon Nah (Ph.D. candidate) as first author, with Seungjin Yang, Youngjun Hwang, and Jungha Wang (M.S. students) as co-authors. Researchers Janghan Choi, JungSoo Lee, and JungKi Son from Hyundai Motor Company also participated as collaborators.
