Professional Experience

• Associate Dean, Graduate School of Business, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Korea, 2024/09 -

• Associate Professor, School of Business, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Korea, 2023/09 - 

• Assistant Professor, School of Business, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Korea, 2020/03 - 2023/08

• Assistant Professor, School of Business, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea, 2017/03 - 2020/02

• Researcher, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA, 2016/05 - 2017/02

• Senior Researcher, Samsung Electronics, Korea, 2013/03 - 2016/05

Education

• Ph.D., Industrial and Systems Engineering, KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), 2013

• B.S., Industrial Engineering, KAIST, 2008

Editorial Service

• Associate Editor, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2023/09 - 

• Associate Editor, Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society, 2023/01 - 

• Associate Editor, IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, 2020/01 - 

Research Interests

• Production Scheduling / Reinforcement Learning for Scheduling

• Modeling, Control, and Optimization of Production & Service Systems

• Business Analytics / Business Data Analytics

• Stochastic Modeling and Analysis of Production & Service Systems

Publications (Google Scholar)

International Journal Papers

1. "Scheduling step-deteriorating jobs on a single machine with multiple critical dates," Journal of the Operational Research Society, vol. 76, no. 8, pp. 1553-1563, Aug. 2025 (with B.-C. Choi and E.-S. Kim)

2. "Scheduling of steelmaking-continuous casting process by integrating deep neural networks with mixed integer programming," International Journal of Production Research, vol. 63, no. 11, pp. 4180-4201, June 2025 (with W.-J. Shin, S.-W. Lee, M.-H. Song, and H.-J. Kim)

3. "Predicting employment status and types of university graduates in South Korea using machine-learning techniques," Industrial Engineering & Management Systems, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 265-281, June 2025 (with U. Bayardalai)

4. "Optimal scheduling of timed Petri nets with resource marking and ready times: Application to robotic flow shops," IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 3684-3691, Apr. 2025 (with H.-J. Kim)

5. "Scheduling cluster tools for concurrent processing: deep reinforcement learning with adaptive search," IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 22, pp. 3783-3796, Feb. 2025 (with H.-J. Kim)

6. "A resource allocation problem with convex resource-dependent processing times under a two-machine flow shop environment," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research, vol. 41, no. 2, 2350018, Apr. 2024 (with B.-C. Choi)

7. "Deep reinforcement learning with a look-ahead search for robotic cell scheduling," IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Systems, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 622-633, Jan. 2024 (with H.-J. Kim)

8. "The impact of processing time variations on swap sequence performance in dual-armed cluster tools," IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 2668-2677, Oct. 2023 (with H.-J. Kim)

9. "Look-ahead based reinforcement learning for robotic flow shop scheduling," Journal of Manufacturing Systems, vol. 68, pp. 160-175, June 2023 (with H.-J. Kim)

10. "Single machine scheduling with energy generation and storage systems," International Journal of Production Research, vol. 60, no. 23, pp. 7033-7052, Nov. 2022 (with H.-J. Kim, E.-S. Kim, L. Tang, and Y. Yang)

11. "Scheduling of step-improving jobs with an identical improving rate," Journal of the Operational Research Society, vol. 73, no. 5, pp. 1127-1136, May 2022 (with H.-J. Kim and E.-S. Kim)

12. "Reinforcement learning for robotic flow shop scheduling with processing time variations," International Journal of Production Research, vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 2346-2368, Apr. 2022 (with H.-J. Kim)

13. "Scheduling of dual-gripper robotic cells with reinforcement learning," IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 1120-1136, Apr. 2022 (with H.-J. Kim)

14. "A heuristic algorithm for identical parallel machine scheduling: splitting jobs, sequence-dependent setup times, and limited setup operators," Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 992-1026, Dec. 2021 (with H.-J. Kim)

15. "Iterative job splitting algorithms for parallel machine scheduling with job splitting and setup resource constraints," Journal of the Operational Research Society, vol. 72, no. 4, pp. 780-799, Apr. 2021 (with H. Jang and H.-J. Kim)

16. "Cyclic robot scheduling for 3D printer-based flexible assembly systems," Annals of Operations Research, vol. 298, pp. 339-359, Mar. 2021 (with H.-J. Kim)

17. "Scheduling uniform parallel dedicated machines with job splitting, sequence-dependent setup times, and multiple servers," Computers & Operations Research, vol. 126, pp. 1-19, Feb. 2021 (with H.-J. Kim)

18. "Analysis of backward sequence for single-armed cluster tools with processing time variations," IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 2167-2174, Oct. 2020 (with H.-J. Kim)

19. "Performance evaluation of flow lines with non-identical and unreliable parallel machines and finite buffers," International Journal of Production Research, vol. 58, no. 13, pp. 3881-3904, June 2020 (with A. Diamantidis, C. Papadopoulos, J. Li, and C. Heavey)

20. "Uniform parallel machine scheduling with dedicated machines, job splitting and setup resources," Sustainability, vol. 11, no. 24, pp. 1-23, Dec. 2019 (with H. Jang)

21. "A hierarchical location model for determining capacities of neonatal intensive care units in Korea," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, vol. 68, pp. 1-14, Dec. 2019 (with H. Jang)

22. "Closed-form expressions on lot completion time for dual-armed cluster tools with parallel processing modules," IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 898-907, Apr. 2019 (with H.-J. Kim)

23. "Three-machine flow shop scheduling with overlapping waiting time constraints," Computers & Operations Research, vol. 101, pp. 93-102, Jan. 2019 (with H.-J. Kim)

24. "Serial production lines with waiting time limits: Bernoulli reliability model," IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol. 65, no. 2, pp. 316-329, May 2018 (with J. Li and J. A. Horst)

25. "Analysis, design, and control of Bernoulli production lines with waiting time constraints," Journal of Manufacturing Systems, vol. 46, pp. 208-220, Jan. 2018 (with C. Zhao, J. Li, and C. T. Papadopoulos)

26. "Completion time analysis of wafer lots in single-armed cluster tools with parallel processing modules," IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 1622-1633, Oct. 2017 (with H.-J. Kim)

27. "Schedulability analysis for noncyclic operation of time-constrained cluster tools with time variation," IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 13, no. 3, pp.  1409-1414, July 2016 (with H.-J. Kim and T.-E. Lee)

28. "Makespan analysis of lot switching period in cluster tools," IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 127-136, May 2016 (with H.-J. Kim)

29. "Scheduling cluster tools for concurrent processing of two wafer types with PM sharing," International Journal of Production Research, vol. 53, no. 19, pp. 6007-6022, Oct. 2015 (with H.-J. Kim and T.-E. Lee)

30. "Time-feasible reachability tree for noncyclic scheduling of timed Petri nets," IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 12, no. 3, pp.1007-1016, July 2015 (with H.-J. Kim and T.-E. Lee)

31. "Scheduling in-line multiple cluster tools," IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing, vol. 28, no. 2 pp. 171-179, May 2015 (with H.-J. Kim, S. H. Baik, and T.-E. Lee)

32. "Noncyclic scheduling of cluster tools with a branch and bound algorithm," IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 690-700, Apr. 2015 (with H.-J. Kim and T.-E. Lee)

33. "Non-cyclic scheduling of a wet station," IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 1262-1274, Oct. 2014 (with H.-J. Kim and T.-E. Lee)

34. "Scheduling cluster tools for concurrent processing of two wafer types," IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 525-536, Apr. 2014 (with H.-J. Kim and T.-E. Lee)

35. "Scheduling lot switching operations for cluster tools," IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 592-601, Nov. 2013 (with H.-J. Kim and T.-E. Lee)

36. "Scheduling dual-armed cluster tools with cleaning processes," International Journal of Production Research, vol. 51, no. 12, pp. 3671-3687, Mar. 2013 (with H. Kim, H.-J. Kim, and T.-E. Lee)

37. "Scheduling cluster tools with ready time constraints for consecutive small lots," IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 145-159, Jan. 2013 (with H.-J. Kim, C. Jung, and T.-E. Lee)

Domestic Journal Papers

1. "Branch and bound algorithm for single machine scheduling with step-improving jobs(계단형 향상 작업을 갖는 단일설비 스케줄링을 위한 분기한정 알고리즘)," Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 38-46, June 2024 (in Korean)

2. "Machine-learning-based prediction model of business process efficiency based on informatization level of SMEs(중소기업의 정보화 수준에 따른 비즈니스 프로세스 효율성 예측: 머신러닝 기반 분류 모델)," Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 49-69, May 2024 (in Korean, with J. Jeong)

3. "Scheduling of flow shop with sequence-dependent setup times and overlapping waiting time constraints to minimize the total completion time(총완료시간 최소화를 위한 작업순서 종속 셋업시간과 중첩 대기시간 제약을 갖는 흐름생산라인 스케줄링)," Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 39-51, Nov. 2023 (in Korean)

4. "How firms' innovation activities affect job creation: A machine-learning-based classification model(기업의 혁신 활동이 고용창출에 미치는 영향: 머신러닝 기반 분류 모형)," Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 29-39, Feb. 2023 (in Korean, with J.-M. Deng)

5. "Parallel machine scheduling problems with convex resource-dependent processing times(볼록 자원소비함수를 갖는 병렬공정 스케줄링 문제)," Yonsei Business Review,  vol. 59, no. 1, pp.  1-19, June 2022 (with B.-C. Choi)

6. "3-machine flow shop scheduling with overlapping waiting time constraints to minimize total completion time(총완료시간 최소화를 위한 3-설비 중첩 대기시간 제약 플로우샵 스케줄링)," Journal of the Korean Society of Supply Chain Management, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 1-12, Dec. 2021 (in Korean, with H.-J. Kim)

7. "Scheduling of flow shop with overlapping waiting time constraints using genetic algorithm(유전알고리즘을 활용한 중첩 대기시간 제약 플로우샵 스케줄링)," Journal of the Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 34-44, Feb. 2021 (in Korean, with T.-S. Yu and K. Park)

Conference Proceedings/Presentations

1. "Machine learning-based classification of customer characteristics for bank intermediary services," The 10th International Conference on Management and Economics, Daejeon, Korea, 2025

2. "Predicting employee turnover intentions: Key factors and changes using machine learning," The 7th International Conference on IR 4.0 and GVC, Daejeon, Korea, 2025

3. "Predicting employment status and types of university graduates using machine-learning techniques," The 15th International Conference on Economics, Business and Management, Osaka, Japan, 2024 (Best Presentation Award)

4. "A machine-learning-based prediction model for employment status and types of university graduates." The 9th International Conference on Management and Economics, Daejeon, Korea, 2024

5. "Predicting the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes based on the digitalization level of SMEs," The 8th International Conference on Management and Economics, Daejeon, Korea, 2023

6. "혼류 공정을 위한 반도체 제조 장비 투입 순서 결정," The Autumn Conference of the Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers, Ulsan, Korea, 2023

7. "Scheduling of step-improving jobs with multiple critical dates," The Autumn Conference of the Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers, Ulsan, Korea, 2023

8. "Cycle planning for concurrent processing in a dual-armed cluster tool," IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Auckland, New Zealand, 2023

9. "Does a firm with innovative activities create more jobs? - A prediction model based on machine learning," The 7th International Conference on Management and Economics, Daejeon, Korea, 2022

10. "머신러닝과 혼합정수계획법을 활용한 제강공정 설비 할당," The Autumn Conference of the Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers, Incheon, Korea, 2022

11. "Deep reinforcement learning for scheduling of robotic flow shops," IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Mexico City, Mexico, 2022

12. "머신러닝 기법을 활용한 제강 공정 설비 할당," The Spring Joint Conference of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society & the Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers, Jeju, Korea, 2022

13. "A parallel-machine scheduling with bounded convex resource consumption functions," The Autumn Conference of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society, Seoul, Korea, 2021

14. "Deep reinforcement learning approach to production scheduling," The 6th International Conference on Management and Economics, Daejeon, Korea, 2021

15. "Petri net scheduling with state ready times for robotic flow shops," IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Online, 2021

16. "Scheduling of dual-gripper robotic cells with reinforcement learning," IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Online, 2021

17. "Reinforcement learning approach for scheduling dual-gripper robotic cells with processing time variations," IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Online, 2020

18. "Single machine scheduling with a distributed energy resource and energy storage system," IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Online, 2020

19. "Scheduling Robotic Cells with Two Part Types: A Reinforcement Learning Approach," IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Vancouver, Canada, 2019

20. "Analysis of backward sequence in cluster tools with processing time variations," International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS), Berkeley, USA, 2019

21. "Scheduling robotic cells with reinforcement learning," Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) 30th Annual Conference, Washington DC, USA, 2019

22. ''Uniform parallel machine scheduling with dedicated machines, job splitting, and setup resources,'' IEEE Conference on Automation Science Engineering (CASE), Munich, Germany, 2018

23. "Parallel machine scheduling with job splitting, sequence-dependent setup times, and limited setup resources," 29th European Conference on Operational Research (EURO), Valencia, Spain, 2018

24. "Completion time analysis for automated manufacturing systems with parallel processing modules," IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Brisbane, Australia, 2018, pp. 1589-1594

25. ''Iteration algorithms for performance evaluation and buffer design of Bernoulli serial lines with waiting time constraints,'' IEEE Conference on Automation Science Engineering (CASE), Xi'an, China, 2017

26. “Performance evaluation of Bernoulli serial lines with waiting time constraints,” The 20th World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC WC), Toulouse, France, 2017

27. “A branch and bound algorithm for three-machine flow shop with overlapping waiting time constraints,” The 20th World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC WC), Toulouse, France, 2017

28. “Makespan computation of lot switching period in single-armed cluster tools,” Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), Huntington Beach, CA, 2015, pp. 2983-2990

29. “Scheduling timed Petri nets with a time-feasible reachability tree,” IEEE Conference on Networking, Sensing, and Control (ICNSC), Evry, France, 2013, pp. 94-99

30. “A Petri net-based modeling and scheduling with a branch and bound algorithm,” IEEE Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), Seoul, Korea, 2012, pp. 1779-1784

31. “Scheduling a wet station using a branch and bound algorithm,” IEEE Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), Seoul, Korea, 2012, pp. 2097-2102

32. “Scheduling in-line multiple cluster tools: A decomposition approach,” IEEE Conference on Mechatronics and Automation (ICMA), Chengdu, China, 2012, pp. 1544-1549

33. “Scheduling transient periods of dual-armed cluster tools,” IEEE Conference on Mechatronics and Automation (ICMA), Chengdu, China, 2012, pp. 1569-1574

34. “Scheduling transient periods of single-armed cluster tools,” IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), St. Paul, Minnesota, 2012, pp. 5062-5067

35. “Concurrent processing of multiple wafer types in a single-armed cluster tool,” IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Trieste, Italy, 2011, pp. 102-107 (Conference Best Student Paper Award Finalist)

36. “An open scheduling architecture for cluster tools,” IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Toronto, Canada, 2010, pp. 420-425

Research Projects

1. A study on operational parameter optimization for productivity enhancement of semiconductor manufacturing cluster tools (funded by National Research Foundation of Korea, June 2025 - May 2027)

2. Anomaly detection of abnormal bearing temperature fluctuations in high-speed trains (funded by KORAIL, Apr. 2024 - July 2024)

3. Robotized manufacturing system scheduling with reinforcement learning (funded by National Research Foundation of Korea, June 2022 - Feb. 2025)

4. Reinforcement learning for crane scheduling (funded by Jungseok Logistics Foundation, Jan. 2022 - Dec. 2022)

5. Development of an algorithm for crane control (funded by POSCO, June 2021 - May 2022)

6. Optimization of production systems for industrial energy efficiency: production planning & scheduling, and reinforcement learning (funded by National Research Foundation of Korea, Mar. 2019 - Dec. 2021)

7. Development of an algorithm for efficient railroad traffic management in steel manufacturing (funded by POSCO, Feb. 2019 - Oct. 2019)

8. Development of machine learning algorithms for optimal control of a steam power plant (Plant 5) (funded by POSCO, Jan. 2019 - Jun. 2019)

9. A study on Petri net scheduling based on reinforcement learning (funded by National Research Foundation of Korea, Mar. 2018 - Feb. 2020)

10. Development of machine learning algorithms for optimal control of a steam power plant (Plant 6) (funded by POSCO, Dec. 2017 - May 2018)

Awards and Honors

1. 2024 CNU Outstanding Researcher

2. 2024 Best Reviewer Award

   • Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society

3. 2023 CNU Outstanding Researcher

4. 2023 Best Reviewer Award

   • IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering

5. 2023 Best Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation Paper in Theory

   • Technical Committee on Semiconductor Manufacturing Automation, IEEE Robotics & Automation Society

   • Paper Title: Scheduling of dual-gripper robotic cells with reinforcement learning

6. Distinguished Paper Award

   • The 8th International Conference on Management and Economics, Daejeon, Korea, 2023

   • Paper Title: Predicting the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes based on the digitalization level of SMEs

7. 2023 Best Reviewer Award

   • Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society

8. Top-Cited Article published in 2021/22

   • International Journal of Production Research

   • Paper Title: Reinforcement learning for robotic flow shop scheduling with processing time variations

9. 2018 KU Research Pioneer

   • Highly cited researcher in 2018

10. Lam Research Korea Thesis Award

    • 2nd Prize, Seong Nam, Korea, Dec. 2012

    • Paper Title: Scheduling cluster tools for concurrent processing of two wafer types

11. Best Student Conference Paper Award Finalist

    • IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, Trieste, Italy, Aug. 2011

    • Paper Title: Concurrent processing of multiple wafer types in a single-armed cluster tool