Tasha J. Kim

Other names: Jae Young Kim, Bona

E: tashakim [at] stanford [dot] edu 

Links: GitHub | LinkedIn | Stack Exchange

Address: Stanford, California, 94305, United States

Educational background

• Oxford University, (incoming) Doctor of Philosophy, D.Phil. - Engineering Science, '25-

• Stanford University, Master of Science, M.S. - Computational and Mathematical Engineering, '25

• Stanford University, Graduate Program - Artificial Intelligence, '22-'23

• Brown University, Bachelor of Science, Sc.B. - Mathematics, Computer Science, '21

Professional background

• Stanford Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence - Graduate Fellow, '24-'25

• Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory - Graduate Researcher, '23-'25

• Google - Software Engineer, '22-'24

• National Institute of Standards and Technology - Research Associate, '21

Awards and honors

• Stanford University School of Engineering - Exceptional Graduate Student Award, '25

• Princeton University - Gordon Wu Fellowship, '25-'30 (declined)

• Stanford Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence - Graduate Fellowship, '24-'25

• Google - Educational reimbursement (Stanford honors coop program), '23-'24

• Stanford Artificial Intelligence Alignment - AI Safety Policy Fellowship, '23

• Google - Educational reimbursement, '22-'23

• Brown University - The Albert A. Bennett Prize (mathematics), '21

• National Institute of Standards and Technology - NIST PREP Fellowship, '21

• Major League Hacking Fellowship - Open Source Fellowship, '21

• Brown Office of The Vice President of Research - NIST Software Tool Development Fellowship, '20

• Brown University Harriet W. Sheridan Center - Research stipend, '20

• Brown University - Data Science Fellowship, '20

• Brown University - Karen T. Romer Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (mathematics), '18

• Brown University - Research stipend (mathematics), '17

• The Duke of Edinburgh's Award - Gold Award, '16

Research areas

(I) Human-Machine Cooperation.

Effective human-machine cooperation requires systems that can understand goals and intent, dynamically adapt and communicate with humans. By integrating robotics, human signals, and machine learning, we can deliver impact for critical real-world needs.

(II) Cognitive Reasoning in Machines.

The ability to reason and learn in an interpretable way is essential for building systems that do more than just execute commands. Instilling reasoning capability in machines is a step towards transparent decision-making and versatile adaptation to human needs.

(III) Human-Aligned Robotics.

AI systems operating in shared environments must align with human values to ensure trust and safety long-term. This is especially becoming paramount in high-stakes domains, such as intelligent or autonomous robot deployment in human spaces.

Talks / workshops

• Stanford University Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Commencement - CA, United States, '25 [speech]

• Stanford University School of Engineering, 100th Anniversary Centennial Celebration - CA, United States, '25 [demo] [pr]

• Stanford Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence - CA, United States, '25 [w]

• Stanford Vision and Learning Laboratory, Cognitive AI group - CA, United States, '25 [pr]

• Stanford Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence - CA, United States, '25 [pr]

• Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory - CA, United States, '25 [pr]

• Stanford University Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering - CA, United States, '25 [panel]

• Stanford Artificial Intelligence Alignment, ARENA workshop - CA, United States, '25 [lectures] [w] 

• Stanford University Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, 20th Anniversary Research Symposium - CA, United States, '24 [p]

• The Conference on Robot Learning, CoRoboLearn workshop - Munich, Germany, '24 [pr] [spotlight]

• Stanford Artificial Intelligence Alignment, ARENA workshop - CA, United States, '24 [lectures] [w]

• Stanford Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence, AI4All - CA, United States, '24 [lectures]

• Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory - CA, United States, '24 [pr]

• Google, Knowledge and Information - CA, United States, '23 [pr]

• Meta, Privacy Infrastructure team - CA, United States, '22 [pr]

• Google, Core Data Storage team - NY, United States, '22 [pr]

• Major League Hacking Fellowship - Remote, United States, '21 [pr]

• NASA Lucy Student Pipeline Accelerator and Competency Enabler - Remote, United States, '21 [pr]

• Brown University Sheridan Center - RI, United States, '20 [pr]

• Joint Mathematics Meetings - MD, United States, '19 [p] 

• The Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics - RI, United States, '18 [pr]

• Brown University Science Center - RI, United States, '18 [p]

• Brown University Department of Mathematics - RI, United States, '17 [pr]

• Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island - RI, United States, '17 [w]

[w]: workshop, [pr]: presentation, [p]: poster

Academic service

• {RSS '25 / ICLR '25 / CoRL '24 / NeurIPS '24} workshops - Reviewer

• Stanford University School of Engineering Dean's Graduate Student Advisory Council - Rep. '24-'25

  • Awards subcommittee, '25

  • Masters subcommittee, '24-'25

• Stanford Artificial Intelligence Alignment - Executive leader, '25 / project lead, '24

• Stanford University Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering Student Action Group - Rep. '24-'25

• Stanford Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence

  • AI4All Robotics - Lead mentor, '25 / mentor, '24 

  • Cognitive machine intelligence affinity group - Founder, '24 / co-lead, '24-'25

• Brown University Mathematics Departmental Undergraduate Group - Student lead, '20-'21 / officer, '17-'21

• The Symposium for Undergraduates in the Mathematical Sciences - Organizing committee, '17, '18

Professional affiliations

• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), '23-Present

• Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), '23-Present