Organizers

 

B. Brian Park

KSEA President

Professor, Engineering Systems and Environment Department, University of Virginia

Dr. Park is a Professor of Engineering Systems and Environment Department and a member of Link Lab at the University of Virginia. Prior to joining the University of Virginia, he was a Research Fellow at the National Institute of Statistical Sciences and a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at North Carolina State University. Dr. Park received the B.S. and the M.S. from the Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea, in 1993 and 1995, respectively, and the Ph.D. from the Texas A&M University in 1998. Dr. Park has received many awards a few notable ones including 2014 George N. Saridis Best Transactions Paper Award for Outstanding Research, PTV Group Best Paper Award, Jack H. Dillard Outstanding Paper Award from the Virginia Transportation Research Council and Charley V. Wootan Award (for best Ph.D. dissertation) from the Council of University Transportation Centers. He is an Associate Editor of the American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Transportation Engineering, Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems and the KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, and an editorial board member of the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation. He has published over 170 journal and conference papers in the areas of transportation system operations and managements, and intelligent transportation systems. His research interests include cyber-physical system for transportation, stochastic optimization, connected and automated vehicle safety assessment, microscopic simulation model application, and transportation system sustainability.

Sungwoo Nam

KSEA SEED 2021 Director

Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Irvine

Dr. SungWoo Nam is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University of California, Irvine. His research interest is at the intersection of materials, mechanics and multifunctionality, where he focuses on understanding mechanically coupled properties in low-dimensional materials and building devices based on advanced materials. He earned a bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering from Seoul National University, where he graduated as valedictorian from the College of Engineering. Following three years of industry experience, he completed a master’s degree in physics (2007) and a doctorate in applied physics (2011) from Harvard University. He then worked as a postdoctoral scholar at University of California, Berkeley. Between 2012-2021, he was an associate professor and the Anderson Faculty Scholar in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He is a recipient of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society Early Career Faculty Fellow Award, NSF CAREER Award, AFOSR and ONR Young Investigator Program Awards, NASA Early Career Faculty Award, UIUC Center for Advanced Study Fellowship, UIUC Campus Distinguished Promotion Award, UIUC Engineering Dean's Award for Excellence in Research, UIUC Engineering Rose Award for Teaching Excellence, and UIUC Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising.

Sang-Eun "Sam" Song

KSEA SEED Committee and KSEA KOFST YG Director

Associate professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Central Florida

Dr. Song is an Associate Professor at the UCF Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.  Dr. Song received B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Ulsan (ROTC), South Korea in 1995, M.S. degree in Mechanical System Engineering from University of Liverpool in 2000, and Ph.D. from Imperial College London in 2005. Prior to joining UCF in 2015, Dr. Song served as a research associate in School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University affiliated with Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and as a radiology instructor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School (2010-2015). Dr. Song was also a research scientist at Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics at Johns Hopkins University (2008-2010), and Institute for Computer Assisted Orthopedic Surgery in Western Pennsylvania Hospital affiliated with Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University (2006-2008). Dr. Song's research focuses on robotic orthopaedic surgery, MRI-guided cancer diagnosis and focal therapy, tele-palpation, and soft robotic surgical/assistive systems. Currently, Dr. Song’s research is supported by National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Department of Defense.

Hanna Cho

KSEA SEED Committee

Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, the Ohio State University

Dr. Hanna Cho is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The Ohio State University. Dr. Cho earned BS and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Yonsei University, South Korea in 2002 and 2004, and a PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2012. Cho’s research laboratory, the Micro/Nano Multiphysical Dynamics Laboratory, focuses on studying nonlinear dynamics in micro/nanomechanical systems to utilize beneficial nonlinear characteristics in developing novel Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) such as sensing, imaging and energy harvesting; and multi-physical dynamics arising in atomic force microscopy (AFM) to advance state-of-the-art AFM. She is a Young Faculty Award and Director’s Fellowship recipient from Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), and received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) C.D. Mote Jr. Early Career Award.


Soyoon Kum

KSEA SEED Committee

Assistant Professor, David L. Hirschfeld Dept of Engineering, Angelo State University

Dr. Soyoon Kum is an Assistant Professor in David L. Hirschfeld Dept of Engineering at Angelo State University, Texas. Dr. Kum received her B.S. degree in Civil Engineering (2010) from Hongik University, M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering (2012) from Seoul National University, and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin (2019). After her Ph.D., she worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at University of California, Riverside. Her research interests are water treatment with membrane technologies and improvement of water security by using alternative water resources. Dr. Kum has been worked globally (the Solomon Islands, Tanzania, Vietnam, and Mexico) to provide appropriate and affordable water quality management solutions for underserved communities. She is a co-director for Clean Water Science Network, a 501c3, and works for water education in Latin America countries. Dr. Kum was the recipient of ADC (Affordable Desalination Collaboration) - AMTA (American Membrane Technology Association) Fellowship and KSEA (Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association) - KUSCO (The Korea-U.S. Science Cooperation Center) Graduate Scholarship. 

Juyoung Leem

KSEA SEED Committee

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Mechanical Engineering, TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Stanford University


Dr. Juyoung Leem is a TomKat Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. Her current research interests are functional materials and application of data-driven approaches to experimental studies, including material design process and electrochemical system for sustainable chemical production. Her research experience also includes microfluidic systems, low-dimensional material mechanics and engineering, and optoelectronic and plasmonic devices. Dr. Leem earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) in 2011 and 2013, and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2020, all in mechanical engineering. She received Korean Government Scholarship (2013-2015), Graduate Teaching Fellowship from the department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at UIUC (2018), Materials Research Society (MRS) Graduate Student Award (GSA) Gold award (2019), MRS Arthur Nowick Graduate Student Award (2019), TomKat Postdoctoral Fellowship (2020-2022), and Carbon Journal Prize for outstanding PhD thesis (2020).

Jinho Park

KSEA SEED Committee and KSEA KOFST YG Assistant Director

Ph.D. Candidate in Materials Science and Engineering, University of Central Florida

 

Jinho Park is a PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering at University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL since 2017. She earned her Master of Science in Biotechnology and Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Science at CHA University, Korea. She has a broad background in biophysics, cell biology, and tissue engineering. Her current research focused on the actin cytoskeleton dynamics under intracellular-mimicked environments and modulation by two-dimensional materials.