Education

• 2000.08 – 2005.05 PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (Advisor: Prof. Lang Tong)

• 1993.03 – 1995.02 MS, Electronics Engineering, Seoul National University (Advisor: Prof. Sangwook Nam)

• 1989.03 – 1993.02 BS, Electronics Engineering, Seoul National University

Employment

• 2018.08 – Present  Professor, School of Electrical Engineering, KAIST

• 2010.03 – 2018.08  Associate Professor, School of Electrical Engineering, KAIST

• 2007.02 – 2010.02  Assistant Professor, School of Electrical Engineering, KAIST

• 2018.01 – 2018.12  Visiting Associate Researcher, Dept of EE, Univ. of Irvine, Irvine, CA

• 2012.08 – 2013.07  Visiting Scientist, RLE, MIT, Boston, MA

• 2005.10 – 2007.01  Senior Engineer, Cooporate R & D Center, Qualcomm, San Diego, CA

• 2005.06 – 2005.09  Postdoctoral Associate, School of ECE, Cornell University, Ithaca NY

• 1995.01 – 2000.06  Senior Research Engineer, LG Information and Communications, ltd.

Research Interests

• Reinforcement Learning

• Statistical Signal Processing

• Wireless Communications

Professional Activities and Services

Conference Activities

• Area Chair, ICLR 2027, NeurIPS 2026 (Top AC), ICML 2026, ICLR 2026, NeurIPS 2025 (Top 10% AC), ICML 2025, NeurIPS 2024

• Workshop Proposal Reviewer, NeurIPS 2026

• TPC Co-Chair, Communication Theory Sympositum (CTS), IEEE ICC 2022

• Organizing Committee Member, 1st IEEE ITSOC EASIT, Daejeon, 2021

• Organizing Committee Member, Croucher Summer Course in Information Theory, Hong Kong, 2025, 2023, 2021

• Organizing Committee Member, East Asia Summer School of Information Theory, Taipei, 2018

• TPC Co-Chair, KICS-North America Information Theory Workshop, San Diego, CA, 2018, 2017

• TPC Track Chair, IEEE VTC 2014

• Publicity Chair, IEEE Globecom 2012

• Sponsorship Chair, IEEE WiOpt 2009

• TPC member: See CV.

Journal Editorial Board

• Action Editor, Transactions on Machine Learning Research (TMLR), 2026.03 – Present 

• ICT Express, Executive Editor, 2021.09 - Present, Editor, 2015.06 – 2019.12

• Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 2017.09 – 2021.09 (Two terms)

• Associate Editor, IEEE Signal Processing Letters, 2012.01 – 2014.01

• Lead Guest Editor, ICT Express, Special Issue on Aritificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Approaches to Communications, 2022

• Guest Editor, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Special Issue on Theories and Methods for Advanced Wireless Relays, 2012

Technical Committees

• IEEE Communications Society, Asia-Pacific Board (IEEE ComSoc APB)

• Vice Director, Jan. 2024 – Dec. 2025, Jan. 2022 – Dec. 2023, Jan. 2020 – Dec. 2021

• Chair, Chapters Coordination Committee (CCC), Jan. 2018 – Dec. 2019

• Chair, Membership Development Committee (MDC), Jan. 2016 – Dec. 2017

• Vice Chair, Information Services Committee (ISC), Jan. 2014 – Dec. 2015

• Vice Chair, Meeting and Conference Committee (MCC), Jan. 2012 – Dec. 2013

• Member, IEEE Communications Society, Member Services Board, 2022.01 - 2025.12 (Two terms)

• Founding member, Special Interest Group (SIG) on Rate-Splitting Multiple Access (RSMA), IEEE Wireless Communications Technical Committee, 2020

• Member, IEEE Communications Society, Signal Processing and Communications Electronics Technical Committee, 2014.01 – Present

• Member, IEEE Communications Socieity, Student Competition Committee, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016

• Member, Asia-Pacific Signal and Information Processing Association (APSIPA), Signal and Information Processing Theory and Methods (SIPTM) TC, 2010.01 – 2018.12

Acitivities in Korea

• Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences (KICS, 한국통신학회)

• International Liaison Division, Director (국제협력집행이사, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015)

• Domestic Journal Division, Director (국내논문이사, 2014)

• Associations Representative (2012, 2011) 

• Technical Committee (TC) Activities 

• KICS, Coding and Information Theory Society, Chair (2015), Vice Chair (2014), Secretary (2013, 2012, 2011), TC Member (2008 – Present) 

• KICS, Mobile Communications Society, TC Member (2010 – Present) 

• KICS, Military Communications Society, Secretary (2011,2010, 2009), TC Member (2009 – Present)

Honors and Awards

• Best Paper Award Finalist, AAMAS 2026, coauthored with Seongmin Kim et al., May 2026

• Samsung Humantech Paper Award (Silver), coauthored with Whiyoung Jung, Feb. 2020

• World Cyber Games (WCG) 2019, New Horizons, Semi-Finalist with students Woojun Kim et al. Jul. 2019

• Samsung Humantech Paper Award (4th Place), coauthored with Woojun Kim and Myungsik Cho, Feb. 2019 

• Championship, the 1st AI Soccer Worldcup, with students Woojun Kim et al., Aug. 2018

• Samsung Humantech Paper Award (Two bronze awards): One coauthored with Gilwon Lee and the other coauthored with Junyeong Seo et al., Jan. 2015

• Distinguished Service Award, Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences (KICS), Nov. 2014

• Samsung Humantech Paper Award (Silver), coauthored with Juho Park, Jan. 2013

• Samsung Humantech Paper Award (Bronze), coauthored with Heejung Yu, Feb. 2011

• Representative of Korean Young IT Engineers and Researchers Appointed by KISTEP for the 1st Korea, China, Japan Young Researchers’ Workshop, held together with Korea, China, Japan Summit Meeting, May 2010

• JCCI 2010 Best Paper Award, coauthored with Juho Park, Apr. 2010

• ICASSP 2005 Best Student Paper Award, May 2005

Publications

• By Area

• Journals

• Conferences

• Book Chapters