News

2026

• Sep 2026 Doctoral Student Research Funding. I have been awarded the Doctoral Student Research Encouragement Program grant by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). As principal investigator, I will carry out the project "World-Model-Based Driving Skill Learning for Humanoid Robots and Real-Vehicle Validation in a V2X Testbed" at KAIST from September 2026 to August 2028, with a total research budget of 50 million won. Rather than making the vehicle itself intelligent, the project leaves the car unchanged and replaces the driver with a humanoid robot, which learns to drive in simulation and is then validated on a real vehicle at the KAIST V2X testbed.
• Jun 2026 Selected for the National Excellence Scholarship (Science & Engineering). I have been selected for the Korea Student Aid Foundation's National Excellence Scholarship in Science and Engineering, a program that supports outstanding students entering STEM fields to cultivate core national talent and strengthen Korea's scientific and technological competitiveness. The scholarship will continue until my graduation.
• Jun 2026 First invited talk at the KOTI AI Agent Seminar. I gave my first invited talk at the Korea Transport Institute (KOTI) AI Agent Seminar, titled "Building an LLM-Powered Wiki for Researchers: Toward Automated Knowledge Curation in Research Workflows." It was a meaningful milestone to share how large language models can support research workflows in transportation.

2025

• Dec 2025 Q1 Paper Publication.
  I am excited to share that my paper has been accepted for publication in a top-tier journal, Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. The paper, titled "Micro Mobility Safety Challenges: A Study on Drivers Overtaking Bicycles and E-Scooters in Relation to Road Conditions and Prior Riding Experience," tackles critical safety issues regarding the interaction between motor vehicles and micro-mobility.
• Aug 2025 The 2nd IPESK Young Investigator Award in Engineering.
  I am honored to have received the 2nd IPESK Next-Generation Engineering Researcher Award, which recognizes outstanding graduate students at global research-oriented universities for their academic excellence and research achievements. This award not only acknowledges my recent contributions but also provides unique opportunities such as participation in industry-academic- research projects, career development support, and international recognition. I am deeply grateful for this recognition and will continue striving to grow as a researcher who contributes to both academia and society.
• Aug 2025 LTWG Meeting in Cambodia. From August 12 to 14, 2025, I had the opportunity to attend the ASEAN Land Transport Working Group (LTWG) Meeting in Cambodia. The LTWG serves as ASEAN's key working group dedicated to advancing the land transport sector across member states. At this meeting, we presented updates on two important initiatives carried out with the ASEAN Secretariat: a Gap Analysis Study on the Implementation of Digitalization of Public Transport and Last-Mile Delivery Services in ASEAN Member States, and the ASEAN–ROK Transport Cooperation Roadmap. Since these are projects I am directly leading, I was able to take on the trip with greater engagement and responsibility. Experiencing ASEAN countries firsthand (beyond the reports, images, and texts I had worked with before) allowed me to gain new perspectives and insights that will strengthen the way I approach these tasks. The digitalization study is set to be completed this year, while the Roadmap project is now entering a more active implementation phase.
• Feb 2025 M.S. Graduation.
  I received my M.S. degree from the Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Mobility, KAIST, and am continuing to my Ph.D. in the same lab under the guidance of Prof. Inhi Kim.
• Jan 2025 2025 TRB Outstanding Paper Award.
  I'm thrilled to announce that our paper, "Micromobility Safety Challenges: A Study on Drivers Overtaking Bicycles and E-Scooters in Relation to Road Conditions and Prior Riding Experience," presented at the 104th TRB Annual Meeting, has been honored with the Outstanding Paper Award by the TRB Committee on Bicycle Transportation (ACH20). The paper received a perfect score of 10/10, achieving the Highest Presentation Score among the submissions. This recognition underscores the significance and quality of our research in advancing the safety of micromobility users.
• Jan 2025 104th TRB Annual Meeting Oral Presentation.
  I'm pleased to share that I delivered an oral presentation at the 104th TRB Annual Meeting on the topic, "Micro Mobility Safety Challenges: A Study on Drivers Overtaking Bicycles and E-Scooters in Relation to Road Conditions and Prior Riding Experience." This marks my very first oral presentation at the TRB, making it an especially meaningful milestone in my research journey.
• Jan 2025 Q1 Paper Publication as a 2nd Author.
  I'm delighted to announce that the paper I co-authored as the second author, "The Impact of Information Delivery Systems in Tunnels Depending on Lighting Intensity and Speed Limit," has been published in the prestigious Q1 journal Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology (IF: 6.7).

2024

• Oct 2024 2024 KAIST Graduate Student Outstanding Paper Award.
  I am honored to receive the 2024 KAIST Graduate Student Outstanding Paper Award, presented by the President of KAIST. This award, which recognizes high-impact research publications, is granted to students who have published in journals with significant impact factors. My recent paper, titled "Effects of Driver's Braking Behavior by the Real-Time Pedestrian Scale Warning System," was published in Accident Analysis and Prevention (IF: 5.7) and led to this recognition. The award also includes a prize of 1.5 million KRW, encouraging further contributions to advancing global research.
• Oct 2024 36th ICTCT Conference.
  I attended the ICTCT conference on October 17–18, 2024, in The Hague, Netherlands. At the conference, I gave an oral presentation on my research titled "Micro Mobility Safety Challenges: A Study on Drivers Overtaking Bicycles and E-Scooters in Relation to Road Conditions and Prior Riding Experience." I also participated in the 2024 Traffic Safety Researcher's Course, which was an excellent opportunity to deepen my knowledge and connect with global traffic safety researchers. The conference was a valuable experience, providing new insights and inspiration for my work in traffic safety.
• Jul 2024 Young-Han Kim Global Leadership Scholarship.
  I am thrilled to announce that I have been selected as a recipient of the Global Leadership Scholarship. This highly competitive scholarship is awarded annually to only 25 outstanding students at KAIST, with just 16 spots allocated to those in the College of Engineering. The Global Leadership Scholarship recognizes exceptional academic excellence, research capabilities, and leadership qualities. As part of this honor, I will receive an academic encouragement fund of 4 million KRW per year. This scholarship not only acknowledges my past accomplishments but also supports my future endeavors in academic and research pursuits.
• Jul 2024 Master's Student Research Funding.
  I have been awarded the Graduate Student Research Encouragement Fund by the National Research Foundation (NRF). I will carry out the research titled "Developing an Aggressive Pedestrian Model for Autonomous Vehicle Safety Testing" from July of this year until June of the next year, with a total research budget of 12 million won. The Graduate Student Research Encouragement Fund is a newly initiated program this year designed to support the research of graduate students with creative and challenging ideas.
• Jun 2024 Q1 Paper Publication.
  In June 2024, I published a paper as the first author in the Q1 SSCI journal Accident Analysis and Prevention (Impact Factor: 5.7). The paper is titled "Effects of Driver's Braking Behavior by the Real-Time Pedestrian Scale Warning System." This research examines the impact of real-time pedestrian warning systems on drivers' braking behavior, contributing valuable insights to the field of traffic safety.
• Apr 2024 Best Teaching Assistant Award.
  As a teaching assistant for the Fall 2023 semester's Intelligent Transportation Systems Special Topics course, focusing on "Experiments in Future Mobility within the Metaverse," I facilitated various mobility experiments and practical sessions. Contributing to the course, I utilized KAIST's virtual environment for drone scanning and rendering. In recognition of my efforts, I received the Best Teaching Assistant Award.
• Feb 2024 President's Award from KST.
  In recognition of outstanding academic performance and promising potential in the field of transportation studies, I was selected as a distinguished graduate and received the 15th Korean Society of Transportation President's Award.
• Jan 2024 TRB 103rd Annual Meeting.
  As the second author, we presented a paper at the 2024 Transportation Research Board (TRB) 103rd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The paper is titled "The Impact of Information Delivery Systems in Tunnels Depending on Lighting Intensity and Speed Limit." The TRB Annual Meeting is the largest conference in the transportation field, with over 4,000 papers registered for the upcoming year.

2023

• Sep 2023 Joining Master's Program at KAIST.
  In September 2023, I began my Master's program at KAIST for the fall semester. A new journey has started, and I am looking forward to the days ahead with great anticipation.
• Apr 2023 Best Paper Award from KITS.
  The research conducted together with Jaehyuck received the Best Paper Award from The Korean Society of Intelligent Transport Systems (KITS).
• Apr 2023 2023 Seoul Mobility Show.
  At the 2023 Seoul Mobility Show, we exhibited the multi-agent metaverse platform on behalf of KAIST Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Mobility. The KAIST campus was made into a virtual environment for the children who visited our booth, and the experience of exploring the campus by walking, running, and driving in the virtual environment.
• Feb 2023 2023 Future Mobility Technology Exchange Event.
  Three departments at KAIST, in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Korea Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, and the Korea Automotive Technology Institute, hosted the 2023 Future Mobility Technology Exchange Event. This industry-academia-research exchange event provided an opportunity to explore the future mobility industry. The event featured exhibitions and presentations on autonomous driving technology, next-generation electric vehicles, and related technologies. Over 30 companies participated, along with more than 15 research labs from three KAIST departments. From our department, Prof. Inhi Kim presented on "The Role of the Metaverse in Autonomous Driving."
• Jan 2023 TRB 102nd Annual Meeting.
  As the first author, I presented a paper at the 2023 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The paper is titled "Effects of Driver's Braking Response by the Real-Time Pedestrian Scale Warning System." The TRB Annual Meeting is one of the most prestigious conferences in the transportation field, gathering thousands of professionals and researchers from around the world.
• Jan 2023 Hello, Daejeon!
  I am beginning a new chapter of my life in Daejeon. While no one can say for certain how long I will stay here, one thing is clear: I will be happier than before and will strive to become a better person.

2022

• Dec 2022 Goodbye, Cheonan!
  My eventful journey in Cheonan has come to an end. My time in the lab at Cheonan was more about exploring delicious food and having fun with colleagues outside of campus rather than staying inside. Knowing that these times will not come back, I will cherish the moments spent with my colleagues even more in my future journey. Goodbye, Cheonan!
• Oct 2022 First Paper from KITS.
  After 20 months of joining the lab, my first paper has been published. This achievement was made possible thanks to the meticulous guidance of my advisor and the support of my colleagues.
• Sep 2022 ITS World Congress 2022 in LA.
  I attended the ITS World Congress in Los Angeles from September 18–22, 2022. At this major event for Intelligent Transportation Systems, I presented my paper titled "Validation of Spatial Orientation Skill using Virtual Reality Treadmill." It was a fantastic experience to share my research and connect with industry experts.
• Feb 2022 Bachelor's Degree from Kongju National University.
  Although I'm too embarrassed to include it in my CV, my undergraduate grades were not very good. My university life was quite tumultuous. When I first enrolled, I had little interest in my major and devoted myself to activities in a Christian club. After completing my military service, I focused on my studies, struggling to raise my grades from rock bottom. Looking back now, I realize that I could have managed both religious activities and my studies during my early twenties. I compromised on my studies even when I could have done more, and I compromised on club activities even when I could have participated more. Despite the challenges of balancing life and academics in my younger years, I have no regrets about the past six years. I am sincerely grateful to the people who supported me during the early days of my university life and to my current colleagues who stand by me now.

2020 – 2021

• Oct 2021 Best Paper Award from KITS.
  As an undergraduate researcher, I had my first conference presentation (title: "Validation of Spatial Orientation Skill using Virtual Reality Treadmill"). I am sincerely grateful to my professor and colleagues for providing me with this valuable experience, which allowed me to take my first steps as a researcher.
• Aug 2021 Excellence Award from UNIST.
  It was a great opportunity to learn about and practically apply data science. Among the various domains, I had the chance to work with marine data, which made me realize how widely applicable my field of study is across different areas. Achieving good results would have been difficult without the help of my colleagues. The Marine Big Data Analysis Competition was organized by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and UNIST in 2021.
• Dec 2020 Joined TUPA.
  I joined the TUPA under the supervision of Prof. Inhi Kim. It was one of the significant turning points in my life.
• Dec 2020 President's Award from Kongju National University.
  One of the few proactive choices I made in my life was participating in a competition introduced by my professor during an undergraduate class. I applied on my own for this capstone design program, where we had to come up with and present an idea in a short amount of time. Collaborating with strangers, we shared our respective fields of expertise and proposed an idea related to rescue drones. This effort led to the incredible achievement of receiving the President's Award from Kongju National University. Additionally, our first-place team was given the opportunity to file a patent application, which we pursued. This experience gave me the confidence to start something new, even if it was a small step.
• Mar 2020 Discharged from Military Service.
  From August 2018 to March 2020, I served in the 1st Division of the Republic of Korea Marine Corps (ROKMC). This invaluable experience provided me with priceless memories and the opportunity to develop both a strong body and a resilient mind.