Dec. 2025
Sonny was selected as a Fall 2025 Core Facility Seed Grant recipient. The primary purpose of this program is to give graduate students in diverse disciplines working on original and unfunded research in micro- and nanoscale science and engineering the opportunity to access the most advanced academic cleanroom space in the Southeast. (Link)
Nov. 2025
The IEEE Atlanta AP/MTT Joint Chapter, where Sonny served as treasurer, received a $5,000 grant through the IEEE AP S Educational Initiative Proposal for introducing a new educational approach that benefits electromagnetics, propagation, and antenna education. (Link)
Oct. 2025
The IEEE Atlanta AP/MTT Joint Chapter, where Sonny served as treasurer, received a 2025 IEEE Atlanta Outstanding Chapter Award.
Jul. 2025
Sonny was selected as a Top 200 Reviewer for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation (TAP) for the period from May 2024 through April 2025. He is honored to contribute to such a high-quality journal like TAP. (Link)
Mar. 2025
Sonny won the Best Student Presentation Award at the KSEA Southeastern Regional Conference for his talk titled “Highly Efficient mmWave On-Chip Arrays.” KSEA is a non-profit professional organization established in 1971. The KSEA Southeastern Regional Conference (SERC) featured contributions from multiple chapters, including the Gainesville, Orlando, Tampa, Georgia, and Alabama Chapters. The conference was held under the theme: “Beyond Boundaries: The Next Era of Scientific and Technological Advancements.” (Link)
Spring 2025
Sonny successfully completed his Ph.D. internship at Tesla in Fremont, CA, as an RF Engineer (EMC), Vehicle Hardware Intern. During the internship, he performed EMI investigations of high-speed Ethernet interfaces and the battery pack. He also conducted 3D electromagnetic simulations using PCB layouts to identify EMI reduction methods and optimize the design. He is grateful to his advisor, Dr. Nima Ghalichechian, recruiter Cassie, mentor Roberto Leyva Hernández, mentor Michelle Liu, and manager Rodrigo Rodriguez for this opportunity.
Jan. 2025
Sonny's ORS mentee, Mindy (B.S. in EE at Georgia Tech), was awarded the prestigious 2024 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) Pre-Doctoral Research Grant. The grant awards $3,500 annually to outstanding B.S. or M.S. students worldwide to support their pursuit of careers in electromagnetics. Mindy’s project aims to develop a novel measurement system for mmWave antennas using robotic arm control and near-field to far-field (NF-to-FF) transformation algorithms. Congratulations, Mindy! (Link)
Oct. 2024
Sonny’s paper, “Highly Integrated mmWave Antenna-on-Chip Arrays Using Substrate-Integrated Air Cavities,” won 3rd place in the Student Paper Competition (SPC) at the IEEE International Symposium on Phased Array Systems. The paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a 60 GHz beamforming array for 6G high data-rate wireless systems. The proposed silicon-based antenna offers the potential for future wireless system-on-a-chip (SoC) applications better equipped to handle high data throughput. (Link)
Apr. 2024
Aaron Wu (B.S. in EE at Georgia Tech) and Michael Meng (B.S. in CE at Georgia Tech), two ORS students from Sonny, were awarded the HKN Outstanding Senior Award and ECE Undergraduate Research Award, respectively. The former honors a senior ECE student's high academic achievement and extracurricular involvement and the latter is given for exceptional research aptitude. Congratulations to both! (Link)
Jan. 2024
Seung Yoon (Sonny) Lee was awarded the prestigious IEEE 2023 Antennas & Propagation Society (AP-S) Doctoral Research Grant. The grant awards $5000 to only 10 Ph.D. students globally every year to support students in their pursuit of careers in electromagnetics. Sonny’s project aims to develop a highly efficient on-chip antenna array operating in the mmWave band, incorporating low-loss vanadium dioxide (VO2) switches through monolithic integration. The primary objective is to design, fabricate, and characterize a 60 GHz electronically scanned array for high-speed wireless systems. (Link1) (Link2)
Aug. 2023
Seung Yoon (Sonny) Lee was awarded the IEEE Ph.D. Student Travel Grant during the 2023 IEEE AP-S/URSI meeting in Portland, Oregon. This competitive grant is a recognition of excellence in their field of research, with 20 exceptional applicants, including Sonny, chosen to receive this travel grant, amounting to $1000 per recipient. (Link1) (Link2)
Aug. 2023
Sonny has been consecutively chosen to mentor four ECE undergraduate students in the Opportunity Research Scholars' (ORS) Program, an undergraduate research initiative. He extends his gratitude to Dr. Gregory D. Durgin, Director of the Program, and Dr. Nima Ghalichechian, his advisor.
Aug. 2023
Tianyun Zhao, an ORS mentee from Sonny, has been accepted into Stanford's EE M.S. program. Congratulations, Delia!
Mar. 2023
Seung Yoon has been selected as a recipient of the CREATION Award, which recognizes students who are involved in activities aimed at enhancing and improving courses, known as CouRse EnhAncemenTs & ImprOvemeNts (CREATION). (Link)
Apr. 2023
Sonny's team successfully submitted their research findings and participated in the poster session during the ORS symposium (ORSS). Their article is titled "Robotic Radiation Pattern Measurement System for 10-110 GHz Based in Both Near Field and Far Field." (Link)
Jan. 2023
In the capacity of a mentor for the ORS program, Sonny participated in an outreach effort directed towards Drew Charter High School, where presented his team's research to the attending high school students.
Sep. 2022
Sonny has been selected as a mentor for four undergraduate ECE students in the Opportunity Research Scholars' (ORS) Program, an undergraduate research program in which he participated as a mentor. He expresses his gratitude to Dr. Gregory D. Durgin, Director of the Program, and Dr. Nima Ghalichechian, his advisor.
Aug 2022
Sonny commenced his doctoral studies in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the fall of 2022, where he assumed the position of a Graduate Research Assistant in the mmWave Antennas and Arrays Lab, under the supervision of Dr. Nima Ghalichechian.
Mar. 2022
The Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) development task force, of which Sonny is a member, has been recognized as an Excellent Research Group in the Advanced Communication Research Center in the first quarter of 2022. He expresses gratitude for the leadership of the task force by Sang-Hyuk Wi Ph.D. and the support of Sunghyun Choi Ph.D., the Senior VP/Head of the Center.
Jul. 2021
The Metamaterial Antenna System task force, which Sonny is a member of, has been recognized as an Excellent Research Group in the Advanced Communication Research Center for the second quarter of 2021. He expresses gratitude to the support provided by the task force leader, Dr. Sang-Hyuk Wi, and the Senior VP/Head of the Center, Dr. Sunghyun Choi.
Aug. 2020
Sonny has recently been joined as an RF/Antenna Engineer within the 6G Research Team at the Advanced Communications Research Center of Samsung Research, Korea.
Jul. 2020
Sonny is honored to have received the VOC Award from the DIC Center at SK Hynix. He is grateful for the support provided by his team leader, Yeong Hyun Seo, and Senior VP, Seonggye Park, Ph.D. This recognition was awarded to Sonny in appreciation of his efforts towards proposing improvements in the MOSCap application method, aimed at enhancing high-speed circuit performance, as acknowledged by the Senior VP.
Oct. 2019
The 7th SK Hynix Conference has accepted Sonny's paper entitled "Novel Inductor Design for 20Gbps High-Speed Memory Product," which is his first-authored paper. The paper describes his contribution to the development of an on-chip inductor that uses a DRAM process for the first time at SK Hynix.
Jun. 2019
Sonny was honored with the DMR Spirit Award by the DMR Group at SK Hynix for displaying exemplary dedication and commitment to the group's mission. Sonny expresses sincere appreciation for the guidance and support received from the team leader, Yeong Hyun Seo, and Senior Vice President, Seokkyu Lee Ph.D.
Mar. 2019
Sonny has been awarded the Class of 2018 Outstanding Master's Thesis Award for demonstrating exceptional research accomplishments among the master's degree candidates. This award is a recognition of his outstanding research work. Sonny expresses gratitude to Prof. Wonbin Hong for providing generous support throughout the research project.
Oct. 2018
Sonny’s co-authored paper, “Wideband 39 GHz Vertically-Polarized Endfire Antenna-in-Package (AiP) Array featuring Near-Planar Profile,” won 1st place in the Student Paper Award at the IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation. This paper describes an extremely thin antennain-package (AiP) with integrated 5G vertically-polarized endfire antenna arrays for millimeter-wave applications. This paper presents an ultra-thin antenna-in-package (AiP) with integrated 5G vertically-polarized endfire antenna arrays for millimeter-wave applications. The AiP, with a height less than 0.1λ0, is compatible with compact device integration and was fabricated using multi-layer LTCC.
Thank you, Junho, for your initiative, and Prof. Wonbin Hong for your guidance.
Aug. 2018
Sonny has recently joined as a Semiconductor Modeling Engineer at the Future Technology Research Institute of SK Hynix.
Aug. 2016
Sonny commenced his M.S. in electrical engineering at POSTECH, South Korea, in fall 2016, working under Prof. Wonbin Hong in the MADs laboratory as a Graduate Research Assistant.