Before applying to our lab, please carefully review how research participation is structured. Research in our lab is evaluated based on tangible outcomes, primarily progress toward publishable papers. Effort, attendance, or time spent alone are not used as evaluation criteria.
Students are expected to take full responsibility for initiating and preparing research meetings. This includes scheduling meetings proactively, preparing materials in advance, and presenting concrete progress related to their paper. Meetings are used to review and refine ongoing research, not for reminders, motivational supervision, or basic task management.
At the early stage of collaboration, lab resources such as computing infrastructure, funding, or official lab affiliation are intentionally limited. Resources are allocated only after a research project demonstrates clear momentum toward a publishable outcome. This approach ensures that support is provided to projects with verified research viability.
Lab affiliation is not a default status, but a result of active research participation. Only students who are making sustained progress toward a paper are considered active members of the lab. When research progress is no longer maintained, lab affiliation, access to resources, and confirmation of research participation may be suspended accordingly.
This structure is designed to be transparent and predictable. Students who consistently produce research results benefit from focused guidance, increasing access to resources, and formal lab affiliation. Students who do not maintain research momentum naturally exit the collaboration without additional administrative processes.
Applicants are encouraged to apply only if they are prepared to work in a result-driven research environment centered on publication-quality outcomes.
Applications for undergraduate research positions are typically accepted during the final year before graduation. This policy is intended to ensure that students can commit sufficient time and focus to research activities without being constrained by heavy coursework. Students who are planning to apply to graduate programs and wish to use their final semester to gain intensive research experience are particularly encouraged to apply.
To participate in our lab as an undergraduate research student, applicants are expected to meet several basic requirements. These requirements are intended to ensure that students can effectively engage with ongoing research activities and collaborate smoothly within the lab.
First, students are expected to have solid fundamental coding skills. As a reference, we provide a list of LeetCode problems that should be solvable within a single day of focused effort: https://leetcode.com/problem-list/vur1tcd5/
The problems mainly consist of basic data structure and algorithm questions. Based on prior experience and internal verification with senior undergraduate students from the School of Computer Science at Kyungpook National University, most upper-year students are able to solve these problems without significant difficulty. Accordingly, all students in the lab are expected to understand how to approach and solve these problems, regardless of their specific research focus.
Second, a basic level of English proficiency is required, as most research papers and technical materials are written in English. Our lab environment assumes that students can read and understand academic papers without substantial assistance. In practice, the current members of the lab meet at least one of the following criteria: a TEPS score of 268 or higher, or a TOEIC score of 780 or higher. These benchmarks are not intended as strict cutoffs, but rather as practical indicators of the level of English proficiency needed to conduct research effectively.
Students in the lab are expected to pursue independent and sustained research aimed at producing high-impact publications.
As a undergraduate research program, undergraduate students are expected to achieve at least one publication in KCI-indexed journals.
As a graduation target, graduate students are expected to achieve either at least two publications in SCIE-indexed Q1–Q2 journals, or one regular long paper at a top-tier international conference.
For conference publications, only regular long papers are considered valid. Demo papers, workshop papers, short papers, or other non-archival formats are not counted toward this requirement. The set of valid target conferences is limited to ACL, EMNLP, NeurIPS, ICML, and AAAI; other conferences may be considered on a case-by-case basis with prior approval from the supervising professor.
Research progress toward these goals is monitored through monthly regular discussions and meetings with the supervising professor. Students are expected to take primary responsibility for defining research problems, conducting experiments, and leading the paper writing process. Proactive communication and consistent progress are considered essential components of graduate research training in the lab.
Students are required to proactively initiate and coordinate monthly meeting schedules with the supervising professor. Failure to do so may result in the termination of this program, as regular communication and self-directed engagement are considered essential components of research training in the lab. These meetings are used to discuss research direction, review progress, and plan subsequent steps in the project.
In addition to their main research project, students may be assigned supporting tasks such as literature review, experimental implementation, or reproduction of existing methods. These tasks are designed to help students build the technical and research skills necessary for independent research and successful publication.
If a student’s research progress persistently falls short of expectations, the supervising professor may provide additional guidance, adjust the research scope, or initiate further discussion regarding the student’s research direction and continuation in the program.
Monthly meetings are intended to evaluate concrete research progress and to make decisions that move a paper forward. Each meeting must begin with a clear summary of the current status of the paper, including what has been completed since the last meeting and what remains unresolved.
Students are expected to prepare several discussion agendas in advance. Each agenda item should be directly related to advancing the paper, such as experimental results, methodological choices, scope refinement, or submission strategy. Vague issues such as “implementation is not working” or “the results are not good yet” are not considered valid discussion topics, as they do not provide actionable research direction.
For each agenda item, students must also prepare anticipated responses or feedback from the supervising professor and their own proposed follow-up actions. These anticipated responses should go beyond obvious or trivial answers. The goal is to demonstrate that the student has already thought through multiple possible directions and is prepared to make informed decisions based on the discussion.
Meetings should be structured around research timelines. Students are expected to explain whether the current progress supports the planned timeline for paper submission, whether delays are expected, and how such delays affect the overall research plan. Discussions should focus on what can realistically be achieved by specific milestones and how the plan should be adjusted if necessary.
Monthly research meetings are strictly limited to one hour. This time constraint is intentional and is meant to ensure that discussions remain focused on decisions that directly advance the paper. Meetings that drift into unfocused explanations, background repetition, or speculative discussion without clear direction are considered unproductive.
All meeting scheduling is handled by students and coordinated exclusively through Google Calendar. Students are responsible for proposing meeting times and ensuring that meetings are properly scheduled in advance. The lab does not operate on ad hoc or reminder-based scheduling.
Well-prepared meetings enable efficient feedback within the allotted time. Meetings that lack clear progress, structured agendas, or forward-looking plans may be shortened or postponed.
Participation in funded projects is limited to students who demonstrate clear, paper-oriented research progress. Project compensation is provided on a conditional, month-by-month basis and is contingent upon verified progress toward a publishable paper. Periods without tangible research output may result in suspension or discontinuation of project participation and compensation, at the discretion of the supervising professor.