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Department of Biomedical Engineering Professor Mikyung Shin Named 2026 Asian Young Scientist Fellow
Professor Mikyung Shin of the Department of Biomedical Engineering has been named one of twelve recipients of the 2026 Asian Young Scientist Fellowship (AYSF), the fellowship announced on September 4, 2026. Professor Shin was selected in the Physical Sciences category as an interdisciplinary researcher working across physical and life sciences. The Asian Young Scientist Fellowship is a privately funded program that supports early-career researchers across Asia in pursuing creative, transformative science. Candidates must be within ten years of completing their doctoral degree and hold a full-time academic position in the region. Each fellow receives $100,000 over two years, along with access to the AYSF's academic network and annual conference, to be held this year on November 9, 2026, at the University of Hong Kong. The AYSF Committee recognized Professor Shin for her contributions to the development of adhesive and electroconductive hydrogels for muscle tissue repair and selected her to support her next research direction: the exploration of adhesive and conductive hydrogel fillers designed to have dual functions with inhibition of brain tumor recurrence and enhanced neuronal regeneration. Professor Shin's research addresses a long-standing challenge in bioelectronics and tissue engineering — conventional implantable materials, such as stiff elastomers and rigid metal electrodes, are often far stiffer than the soft, dynamic tissues they are meant to interface with. Her lab has instead developed a series of tissue-adhesive, electrically conductive hydrogels designed to closely match the mechanical properties of biological tissue while enabling both electrical stimulation and signal recording for tissue repair. Among her group's key achievements is a multilayered adhesive bioelectronic patch that adheres to beating cardiac tissue in under half a second without any external stimulus, reported in *Nature Electronics* (2023). Built from a fibrous self-healing polymer network, a stretchable liquid-metal conductive composite, and a mussel-inspired adhesive hydrogel layer, the patch conformally follows the heart's motion and has enabled stable, long-term electrocardiogram monitoring and precise cardiac mapping in freely moving animal models. Her group also developed an injectable, gold-catalyzed hyaluronic acid hydrogel capable of forming an electrically conductive, tissue-adhesive gel in situ, reported in *Nature* (2023). Because the hydrogel can be delivered through a syringe directly into damaged muscle or nerve tissue, it allows immediate electrical bridging across an injury site — enabling closed-loop, robot-assisted rehabilitation in which real-time muscle signals trigger coordinated robotic support, and supporting accelerated tissue regeneration over the longer term. Building on this body of work, Professor Shin's future research — the focus of her AYSF-supported project — will extend the group's expertise in adhesive, conductive hydrogels to the central nervous system. The goal is to engineer an injectable hydrogel filler that can be applied directly into the cavity left after surgical resection of a brain tumor. Unlike the peripheral nervous system, the adult brain has very limited capacity for spontaneous regeneration, and current treatments largely fail to address the loss of neural tissue itself. ▲ Figure 1. Representative previous research outcomes by Professor Mikyung Shin regarding conductive and adhesive hydrogel interfaces and electrodes SKKU RESEARCH STORY Adhesive bioelectronics for sutureless epicardial interfacing Access Publication (DOI) MS Mikyung Shin Contact: mikyungshin@skku.edu
- No. 395
- 2026-09-04
- 1155
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Engineering Spleen-Targeting Bacterial Nanoplatform to Reprogram Immune Cells and Prevent Cancer Recurrence
A research team led by Professor Yong Taik Lim at the SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University (first author: Ph.D. candidate Jin-Ho Choi), announced the development of an engineered nanoplatform named t-SMC (trained immunity-mediated splenic myelopoiesis converter), which precisely targets the spleen to reverse splenic myelopoiesis toward an antitumoral immune phenotype. In general, tumor progression severely disrupts systemic immunity. In particular, cancer cells stimulate the spleen—a critical command center that generates and regulates blood immune cells—corrupting myeloid lineage cells that should otherwise fight tumors into "protumoral immune cells" that foster tumor growth. As a result, even when primary tumors are surgically excised, this compromised immune environment frequently leads to tumor recurrence and metastasis. To overcome these limitations, the research team engineered a bio-hybrid microbial platform (t-SMC). They employed a "peeling-off and masking-up" strategy by precisely modifying the surface of a trained immunity-inducing Mycobacterium and coating it with human serum albumin to ensure safe, stable intravenous delivery to the spleen. Furthermore, an enzyme-activatable immune booster (TLR7/8 agonist) was integrated into the platform, designed to be selectively delivered to and reprogram immune cells within the spleen. Once delivered, the platform induces potent "trained immunity" by reprogramming the epigenetic landscape of macrophages and extramedullary hematopoietic stem cells in the spleen. In essence, it retrains suppressed and corrupted immune cells into "antitumor immune warriors" capable of launching robust attacks against cancer. Crucially, trained immunity operates through innate immune mechanisms, offering broad-spectrum protection that does not rely on specific tumor antigens. These newly trained splenic myeloid cells then travel through the bloodstream to the tumor site, transforming the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment into a pro-inflammatory, antitumoral battleground. In a surgical recurrence model of colon cancer, preoperative administration of t-SMC combined with standard postoperative adjuvant therapy (anti-PD-L1 immune checkpoint blockade and oxaliplatin chemotherapy) achieved complete inhibition of tumor recurrence in 50% of the treated mice and resulted in a 62.5% long-term survival rate. This demonstrates that the platform effectively turns immunologically unresponsive "cold tumors" into therapy-responsive "hot tumors," overcoming resistance to conventional checkpoint blockades. Professor Yong Taik Lim's team stated, "This study demonstrates that a bacteria-based nanoplatform can normalize the function of the spleen—a central hub of immune regulation—and effectively block postsurgical tumor recurrence. We are currently developing subsequent cancer immunotherapies based on this same nano-immunoengineering concept. We anticipate that these technologies will evolve into preoperative neoadjuvant immunotherapies, substantially improving survival outcomes and response rates in patients with refractory cancers." This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), and the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Republic of Korea. The findings have been published online in the latest issue of Advanced Materials, a world-renowned journal in materials science and nanobiotechnology. ▲ An engineered Trojan Mycobacterium, developed via a “peeling-off and masking-up” strategy, functions as a powerful splenic myelopoiesis converter. This spleen-targeted nanomedicine induces trained immunity to reprogram immunosuppressive myeloid reservoirs into antitumoral effectors. SKKU RESEARCH STORY Anisotropic Masked Mycobacterium Potentiates Amplified Antitumor Trained Immunity via Spleen Targeting and Myelopoiesis Conversion Access Publication (DOI) LT Lim Yong Taik Contact: yongtaik@skku.edu
- No. 394
- 2026-09-03
- 1177
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Development of an LLM-Based Platform for Generating New Materials Synthesis Recipes
A research team led by Professor Sung Beom Cho of the School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, in collaboration with the teams of Professors Jin Sung Park and Hyunsouk Cho of Ajou University and Professor Ju Li of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has developed a "closed-loop materials synthesis planning platform" that uses a large language model (LLM) to propose synthesis conditions and procedures for complex new materials and iteratively refine them based on experimental results. The scientific community has recently been using various computational methods to rapidly identify promising new material candidates. However, actually synthesizing these materials requires extensive trial and error to determine specific conditions, such as which precursors to use and at what temperature and for how long the reaction should run. To reduce this trial and error, the research team devised a workflow in which the LLM searches existing literature for similar synthesis cases and proposes recipes suited to the new material. The team first built a database by extracting key synthesis information — target materials, precursors, synthesis conditions sush as temperature, rpm, pressure, and time — from 4,407 open-access solid-state synthesis papers published in academic journals. The team then applied retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) method, which searches for similar existing synthesis cases based on a researcher's desired material and conditions and proposes candidate recipes accordingly. When the proposed recipes were compared against conditions reported in actual papers, they scored an average of around 4 out of 5 on key synthesis variables. The team went on to use this AI platform to conduct synthesis experiments for an oxy-selenide-based solid electrolyte material for all-solid-state batteries, including previously unreported candidates. Under the 600°C condition initially proposed by the AI model, several impurity phases formed instead of the target material; but when the team fed these results back into the model, it proposed a follow-up recipe that progressively lowered the synthesis temperature. Based on this, the team sequentially tested conditions at 450°C and 400°C, and within just a few experiments succeeded in synthesizing a single-phase new material with no detectable impurities. This research demonstrates the potential to reduce trial and error and shorten development timelines in materials design by combining human scientists' experimental experience with AI's ability to draw on a vast body of literature. Just as middle and high school students refer to existing recipes online and adjust ingredients and conditions based on their cooking results to develop recipes of their own, future scientists are expected to use AI to quickly incorporate experimental results, reduce unnecessary trial and error, and efficiently develop synthesis methods for a wide range of new materials. The findings were published in Advanced Materials, a leading international journal in materials science, and an image visualizing the research was selected as the back cover of the issue. ▲The closed-loop process by which synthesis recipes proposed by the LLM are iteratively refined based on experimental results, and the synthesis results for the new oxy-selenide-based material SKKU RESEARCH STORY Closed Loop Solid State Synthesis Planning for Materials Discovery with Large Language Models Advanced Materials (DOI) SC Sung Beom Cho Contact: sungcho@skku.edu
- No. 393
- 2026-08-26
- 1364
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World’s First Oral Microbiome-Based Nanomedicine to Supercharge Anti-Cancer Immunity
A joint research team—led by Professor Young Seok Cho from the School of Medicine, alongside Professor James J. Moon from the University of Michigan—has successfully developed the world’s first oral, microbiome-based nanomedicine. By leveraging natural metabolites produced by gut bacteria, the new drug significantly enhances the ability of immune cells to attack cancer cells. This breakthrough study was published in the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology, one of the world's premier journals in nanoscience and medicine. In recent years, "immunotherapy" (such as anti-PD-1 drugs) has emerged as a revolutionary treatment option that reawakens the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. However, its effectiveness has been limited because only a small fraction of patients respond positively. To overcome this challenge, the research team focused on the connection between gut microbiome and immunity. They discovered that a microbial metabolite called 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB) acts as a powerful immune booster, safely driving the body’s defenses against tumors. The study revealed that DHB strongly promotes "stemness" in CD8+ T cells—the primary immune cells responsible for destroying cancer. Normally, T cells become exhausted and lose their fighting power due to overactive sugar breakdown processes (glycolysis). DHB blocks this metabolic exhaustion and turns on a survival switch, enabling T cells to stay active and attack cancer cells over longer periods. Despite its promise, natural DHB presented a major obstacle: once ingested, it rapidly breaks down and disappears from the body within minutes. To solve this, the team applied advanced nanotechnology. They chemically modified DHB into a stable prodrug and further encapsulated it into an oleic acid-based oral nano-emulsion (named Prodrug 201). This oral nanomedicine drastically extends the time the drug stays in the bloodstream, boosting its overall absorption rate (bioavailability) by 14.3 times. In animal models with colorectal cancer, melanoma, and breast cancer, the oral nanomedicine effectively directed refreshed, stem-like T cells right into the tumor sites, leading to dramatic tumor shrinkage. When combined with immune checkpoint blockade therapy, it completely eradicated tumors in test models and created long-term immune memory to prevent cancer recurrence. "This study unveils the molecular secret of how gut microbial metabolite regulate our immune system and successfully translates that knowledge into a convenient, oral medication through nanotechnology," said Professor Young Seok Cho, who led the research. "By converting previously untapped microbial resources into a safe and scalable nanomedicine, this work builds a critical foundation for commercializing next-generation microbiome-based cancer immunotherapies." ▲ The gut microbial metabolite DHB promotes the formation of antigen-specific, stem-like CD8+ T cells by suppressing glycolysis and modulating the Akt-mTORC1-Myc pathway. Oral nano-emulsion formulation of DHB significantly improves its bioavailability, demonstrating potent anti-tumor efficacy when combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors. SKKU RESEARCH STORY Oral Nano-Delivery of a Gut Microbial Metabolite Enhances T Cell Stemness for Cancer Immunotherapy Nature Nanotechnology (DOI) YC Youngseok Cho PURE Profile → e: 0.75rem; color: #666; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: -0.01em;">PURE 프로필 →
- No. 392
- 2026-08-12
- 2103
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Discovery of Promising Evidence"Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy" May Reduce Internet Gaming Disorder in College
A research team led by Professor Anderson Sungmin Yoon and Minah Kim has developed a "Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Gaming (MBCT-G)" program to address internet gaming disorder among college students, and has found promising evidence of its therapeutic effectiveness. The research was conducted under the close supervision of the world-leading scholar, Willem Kuyken, director of Oxford Mindfulness Centre, and has drawn significant attention from academic circles worldwide for presenting a new therapeutic alternative-using psychological intervention to ease internet gaming disorder, a growing public health issue among young adults. Internet gaming disorder refers to a state of excessive immersion in gaming severe enough to seriously disrupt daily life. This is particularly common among college students, who often turn to gaming to relieve academic or career-related stress as they begin living independently, away from parental supervision. To address this problem, Professor Yoon’s research team newly adapted and modified "mindfulness-based cognitive therapy"—previously used to treat depression—to fit the specific characteristics of gaming disorder. The program combines mindfulness meditation training — which helps students observe their thoughts, emotions, and impulses objectively when a strong urge to game arises — with cognitive therapy that helps them decenter from these urges and respond more skillfully. The research team conducted an experiment involving 46 college students at high risk of internet gaming disorder. Over the course of an eight weeks’s intervention, participating students practiced mindfulness meditation, social skills, and self-care strantegies each week, while also planning and carrying out alternative pleasurable activities—such as physical activities, social/recreational activities, and creative hobbies—that allowed them to find enjoyment in daily life beyond gaming. As a result, students who completed the program showed a meaningful reduction in gaming addiction symptoms, along with decreases in stress and anxiety. Above all, the most significant outcome was a marked improvement in students' "self-control"—their ability to overcome the urge to game on their own. This effect remained even one month after the program ended, demonstrating a sustained effect. Professor Yoon of SKKU explained the significance of the research, stating, " This study offers promising evidence for a psychological intervention that could help college students and adolescents break the vicious cycle of impulsively immersing themselves in gaming during particularly challenging periods in their development.." He added, "If widely adopted by college counseling centers and gaming addiction prevention centers, MBCT-G could help address IGD-related problems more efficiently, as its group-format delivery requires fewer clinical resources.." Meanwhile, this research was supported by research funding from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency for the development of game-based digital therapeutics technology. SKKU RESEARCH STORY A Pilot Study of a Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Internet Gaming Disorder Among College-Aged Students in South Korea Mindfulness (DOI) A Anderson Sungmin Yoon Profile →
- No. 391
- 2026-08-07
- 2071
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Filling Polymers with Charge, Reconnecting Broken Pathways
A research team led by Professor Kang Bosoek of the SKKU Advanced Institute of Nano Technology(SAINT), Department of Nano Engineering, and Department of Semiconductor Convergence Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University has developed two new molecular design technologies to enhance the electrical conductivity of organic electronic materials. One technology generates a greater number of charge carriers within a polymer, while the other connects transport pathways so that charge can move without interruption. The findings were published respectively in the international journals Journal of the American Chemical Society and Nature Communications. The paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society was also selected as a Cover Article. Organic semiconductors are lightweight and flexible materials expected to be used in next-generation displays, wearable electronics, and sensors. However, for practical use in electronic devices, their electrical conductivity must be improved—which requires generating a sufficient amount of charge and ensuring that the charge, once generated, can move rapidly through the material. Through two separate studies, the research team addressed these two challenges in a complementary way. The first study developed a molecular-level design technology that generates a greater number of charge carriers within a polymer. The team covalently attached the polar molecule aminoalkylsilane to the n-type conducting polymer PBFDO, substantially increasing electron concentration. As the bonded polar molecules aligned in a consistent direction, they naturally induced electron generation without relying heavily on external dopants. As a result, the electrical conductivity of the thin film improved to over 3,000 S cm−1, achieving a high doping efficiency of up to approximately 1.79 free electrons per polymer repeat unit. This is the first study to raise the doping limit to a near-theoretical level, demonstrating potential applications across a range of organic electronic devices, including polymer electrodes and light-emitting devices. The second study proposed a new strategy for designing the charge transport pathway itself. By thinly coating a conducting polymer onto a thin film of a two-dimensional covalent organic framework (2D COF), the team implemented a "molecular bridge" structure that connects charge transport pathways broken by the polycrystalline structure. This structure allows the conducting polymer to serve as a bridge linking separated COF crystals, enabling charge to move more smoothly. The optimized COF–conducting polymer heterostructure thin film showed an electrical conductivity improvement of 109 times compared to a single COF thin film, and approximately 10 times compared to a single conducting polymer thin film. The team also succeeded in fabricating a uniform, large-area thin film at the scale of a 2-inch wafer, and when applied to a nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gas sensor, the film detected concentrations as low as 74 ppb with a rapid response time of approximately 20 seconds. Professor Kang Bosoek said, "This research addressed, at the molecular level, the two key factors that determine the performance of organic electronic materials—charge generation and charge transport," adding, "We plan to expand this research toward high-performance electronic devices by developing heterojunction structures with a variety of semiconductor materials." The research team recently published a study in Nature Communications proposing a plateau transistor that maintains a constant current by leveraging the localization of polarons, the charge carriers in organic electronic materials. Building on this, the team is expanding its research scope beyond charge generation and transport to explore the use of charge states as a new information-processing function. skku research story SKKU RESEARCH STORY Near-Theoretical-Limit Doping of Poly(benzodifurandione) through Carbonyl-Driven Aminoalkylsilane Attachment Journal of the American Chemical Society (DOI) Molecular bridge engineering in covalent organic frameworks for enhanced electronic transport Nature Communications (DOI) Small polaron-mediated zero differential transconductance of 2D semiconductor/CoFe2O4 heterojunctions for plateau transistor applications Nature Communications (DOI) BK Boseok Kang PURE Profile →
- No. 390
- 2026-08-04
- 1723
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Professor Il Jeon's Team Develops Surface Acoustic Wave-Based Reconfigurable AI Semiconductor Device
A research team led by Professor Il Jeon of the Department of Nano Engineering and the Sungkyunkwan Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT) at Sungkyunkwan University, including Dr. Sihyeok Kim and Dr. Jang Woo Lee, has developed a next-generation artificial intelligence semiconductor device capable of independently implementing long-term and short-term memory within a single device using surface acoustic waves (SAWs). The research team proposed a new concept of a reconfigurable artificial synapse that overcomes the limitations of conventional memristors by selectively controlling long-term and short-term memory through electrical signals and surface acoustic waves, respectively. The developed technology is expected to contribute to the realization of ultra-low-power neuromorphic computing and next-generation AI semiconductor devices. As the performance of artificial intelligence continues to improve, the amount of power required for data processing is also increasing rapidly. Neuromorphic computing, which performs memory and computation simultaneously in a manner similar to the human brain, has therefore attracted considerable attention as a next-generation computing technology. Artificial synapses capable of implementing both long-term and short-term memory are essential for neuromorphic computing. However, conventional memristors generally rely only on electrical stimulation to control memory behavior. Repeated electrical stimulation can cause device degradation and reduced reliability, while also making it difficult to independently control long-term and short-term memory. To address these limitations, the research team employed surface acoustic waves, which are mechanical waves that propagate along the surface of a solid, as a new control signal. By integrating a monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) memristor and a SAW device onto a single platform, the researchers designed the system so that electrical signals were responsible for forming long-term memory, while SAWs were used to control short-term memory through a non-contact mechanism. This configuration enabled the team to realize a reconfigurable artificial synapse in which previously stored long-term memory remained intact, while short-term memory could be selectively generated and erased. The researchers reproduced biological short-term synaptic plasticity by adjusting the intensity, pulse width, and interval of the SAWs. They also confirmed that short-term memory could be repeatedly controlled without damaging electrically stored long-term memory. In addition, the device maintained stable operation without performance degradation even after more than 10,000 seconds of repeated operation. When the device was applied to reservoir computing, it achieved a recognition accuracy of 96.1% in a character classification task, demonstrating its potential as practical neuromorphic AI hardware. The researchers stated, “Conventional memristors rely on repeated electrical stimulation to implement both long-term and short-term memory, which limits device reliability and reconfigurability. This study is significant because it presents a new neuromorphic device platform in which electrically stored long-term memory can be preserved while only short-term memory is selectively controlled in a non-contact manner using surface acoustic waves.” They added, “In the future, we plan to combine large-area integration technologies with surface acoustic wave control over a wide range of frequencies to develop more energy-efficient next-generation AI semiconductors and neuromorphic computing systems.” SAW-Based Reconfigurable 2D TMD Memristor SKKU RESEARCH STORY Surface Acoustic Wave-Guided Reconfigurable Memristor Access Publication (DOI) JI JEON IL Profile →
- No. 389
- 2026-07-28
- 1972
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Development of a New Indicator to Speed Up Metallic Glass Discovery
A research team led by Dongwoo Lee, an associate professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), working with a team led by Yanhui Liu at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), has developed a new electrical resistivity-based indicator for rapidly screening alloy compositions with high glass-forming ability. The findings were published in Advanced Materials. Metallic glasses are alloys with a unique structure in which atoms are arranged irregularly, as in glass, rather than in the ordered arrangement found in conventional crystalline metals. Many metallic glasses exhibit high strength and wear resistance and can be precisely formed into complex shapes, making them promising materials for robotic components, aerospace systems, and next-generation medical devices. However, glass-forming ability (GFA), which describes how readily an alloy forms a glass rather than a crystal, is difficult to predict. Researchers have traditionally had to fabricate numerous compositions and evaluate them individually using X-ray diffraction or thermal analysis. This process requires considerable time and expense, making the discovery of new metallic glass compositions challenging. The research team focused on electrical resistivity, which changes as the atomic arrangement an alloy evolves. The team fabricated thin-film libraries with continuous composition gradients and conducted controlled annealing experiments on approximately 3,500 alloy compositions. Alloys with high GFA showed relatively small decreases in electrical resistivity after annealing, reflecting their greater resistance to the development of long-range crystalline order. In contrast, alloys with low GFA crystallized more extensively and exhibited much larger resistivity drops. Measuring the electrical resistivity of a single composition takes only a few seconds, making the approach hundreds of times faster than conventional diffraction or calorimetry-based characterization. The method can rapidly map GFA trends across broad composition spaces without complex fabrication or and characterization procedures. The researchers also confirmed the same composition-dependent trends in melt-spun ribbon samples produced through a markedly different cooling and solidification process, further demonstrating the reliability of the approach. “The electrical resistivity change measured in this study provides a fast and intuitive readout of atomic disorder and crystallization resistance,” Lee said. “It is like having a map for navigating an enormously complex multicomponent alloy space containing hundreds of millions of possible combinations. We expect this approach to substantially accelerate the discovery of next-generation bulk metallic glasses and the development of related advanced materials.” This research was supported by the BK21 Four Project's graduate student overseas training program, the Technology Innovation Development Program of the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA) under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) under the Ministry of Science and ICT. Schematic illustration of a metallic-glass discovery platform that fabricates hundreds of alloy compositions in a single run and rapidly evaluates their glass-forming ability based on changes in electrical resistivity upon crystallization. SKKU RESEARCH STORY Electrical Resistivity Change upon Crystallization as a Robust Descriptor for Metallic Glass Forming Ability Access Publication (DOI) DL Dong Woo Lee PURE Profile →
- No. 388
- 2026-07-28
- 2123
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SKKU Identifies World’s First ‘Zinc Oxide Spin Qubit’ — a Breakthrough for Semiconductor-Based Quantum Technology
A research team led by Professor Hosung Seo of the Department of Quantum Information Engineering and the SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology, working with the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Washington, has identified—for the first time—an atomic defect structure in the zinc oxide (ZnO) semiconductor with outstanding properties for use as a “spin qubit,” a core building block of future quantum computers, quantum communications, and quantum sensors. The results were published in PRX Quantum, one of the most prestigious journals in quantum information science. Electron spins trapped at point defects in solid-state crystals can operate at room temperature and retain quantum information for long periods, making them a leading platform not only for quantum computing but also for quantum communications and ultra-sensitive quantum sensing. The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond has been the most prominent candidate, but diamond is difficult to grow as large-area, high-quality crystals and is poorly suited to standard semiconductor fabrication, posing major obstacles to the integration and mass production of quantum devices. To overcome this bottleneck, the team turned to zinc oxide, a material already widely used in the semiconductor industry and whose physical properties are well established. Zinc oxide is considered an ideal host for qubits: it is “magnetically quiet,” containing almost no nuclear spins, and can be grown as ultra-high-purity crystals. Using state-of-the-art first-principles quantum simulations on supercomputers, the team systematically screened candidate defects across the periodic table and designed a “molybdenum–oxygen-vacancy complex,” in which a molybdenum (Mo) atom replaces a zinc (Zn) atom next to a missing oxygen atom, and analyzed its properties in detail. The analysis showed that, under illumination, the defect emits bright, sharp light in the visible range with high efficiency. Notably, its Huang-Rhys factor—a measure of how much energy leaks into crystal vibrations during light emission—is far smaller than that of previously known defects in zinc oxide, confirming that the defect can produce the sharp, well-defined emission ideally suited for quantum light sources. The team further showed that the defect’s electron spin can stably retain quantum information for about 4 milliseconds (4/1,000 of a second) even in the presence of surrounding magnetic noise. Combined with strong spin-orbit coupling and a stable, symmetric structure, these properties enable high-fidelity “single-shot readout”—determining the spin state accurately in a single measurement—as the team demonstrated theoretically. Single-shot readout is an essential capability for quantum error correction and quantum networks. Professor Hosung Seo said, “This work is the first to show that a robust, deep-level spin qubit is feasible in zinc oxide, a representative oxide semiconductor. Combined with mature oxide-semiconductor growth and fabrication technologies, it could develop into an integrated, scalable platform for quantum light sources, quantum sensors, and quantum networks.” Taejoon Park, a Ph.D. candidate at SKKU, participated as a co-first author together with researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Professor Hosung Seo served as a co-corresponding author with Professor Kai-Mei C. Fu of the University of Washington and Professor Yuan Ping of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. SKKU RESEARCH STORY Deep Spin Defects in Zinc Oxide for High-Fidelity Single-Shot Readout Journal: PRX QUANTUM 7 H Hosung Seo PURE Profile →
- No. 387
- 2026-07-23
- 1917
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Professor Jungrae Kim Wins Korea’s First-Ever Best Paper Award at ISCA 2026, the “Olympics of AI Semiconductors”
A research team headed by Professor Jungrae Kim of the Department of Semiconductor Systems Engineering has won the Best Paper Award at the IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA) 2026. ISCA is the world's most prestigious conference in computer architecture and AI semiconductor systems. With a history spanning more than half a century, the conference is often described as the “Olympics of AI semiconductor architecture,” and even having a paper accepted is considered a major academic achievement. The award marks the first time in ISCA’s history that a Korean university has received the Best Paper Award. No Korean institution had previously received the award or even had a paper selected as a Best Paper candidate. This achievement further strengthens the global standing of Sungkyunkwan University and Korea’s semiconductor research community. ISCA 2026 was held from June 27 to July 1 in Raleigh, North Carolina, bringing together approximately 1,000 researchers and industry experts from around the world. Leading global technology giants, including NVIDIA, Meta, Google, and Microsoft, as well as prominent universities worldwide, participated in the conference. A total of 845 state-of-the-art research papers were submitted. Following a rigorous review process, 161 papers were accepted, and Professor Kim’s research was selected as the conference’s Best Paper. The award-winning paper, titled “Cerberus: Cross-Layer ECC Co-Design for Robust and Efficient Memory Protection,” presents an innovative technology that improves the reliability and efficiency of High Bandwidth Memory, or HBM. HBM is a critical high-performance memory technology for artificial intelligence systems and has become a major focus of global technological competition amid the rapid expansion of AI. At its core, Cerberus detects and addresses the small data errors that occur while computers store and transfer information more quickly and intelligently than conventional approaches. As HBM is pushed toward its physical performance limits, errors occurring during data storage and transmission are becoming more frequent. These errors can reduce manufacturing yield and cause serious reliability and efficiency problems in large-scale AI infrastructure. Hardware failures already interrupt a substantial proportion of large-scale AI training workloads, significantly reducing the likelihood that long-running training jobs will be completed successfully. Conventional systems protect data through several independent error-correction mechanisms: within the memory device, across the data interface, and at the overall system level. Because these mechanisms were developed and operated separately, they require duplicated redundancy and may introduce unnecessary delays and protection holes. Cerberus, developed by Professor Kim’s research team, unifies these separate protection mechanisms and enables them to share error-correction information. Based on an HBM4-class memory configuration, the proposed technology reduces the storage space dedicated to error-correction redundancy by approximately 33% while simultaneously improving data reliability and system efficiency. Professor Kim’s research team has established a strong international track record in memory reliability and security. Its previous research has repeatedly been selected as a Best Paper Award finalist at leading international computer architecture conferences, including ASPLOS, HPCA, SC, and DATE. The ISCA 2026 Best Paper Award further demonstrates the technical excellence, originality, and academic impact that the research team has built over the years. Professor Jungrae Kim said: “As international competition for technological leadership in artificial intelligence continues to intensify, it is deeply meaningful that our research team has become the first in Korea to receive the Best Paper Award at ISCA, the world’s most prestigious computer architecture conference.” He added: “I hope this research will make a meaningful contribution to improving the reliability of HBM, an essential technology in the AI era. I also hope it will provide a strong technological foundation for Korea’s memory semiconductor industry, a key pillar of the national economy, to maintain its leadership in the global market.” This research was supported by the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation under programs funded by the Korean government. ▲ Schematic of Cerberus's hierarchical ECC co-design (Encode-Once, Decode-Many) ▲ISCA 2026 Best Paper Award certificate Cerberus: Cross-Layer ECC Co-Design for Robust and Efficient Memory Protection Conference: ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA 2026) JK Jungrae Kim PURE Profile →
- No. 386
- 2026-07-23
- 1815
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Development of an AI technology to proactively prevent subway door entrapment accidents
A research team led by Professor Jo Woon Chong of the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, in collaboration with researchers from KAIST and Texas Tech University in the United States, has developed the 'Passenger Movement Estimation System (PMES).' This AI based system predicts passenger movements using CCTV footage to prevent subway door entrapment accidents before they occur. Overcoming the limitations of conventional reactive methods, where sensors only trigger after a passenger has entered the danger zone, this study has drawn significant attention from academia and industry for proactively identifying risks before passengers even reach the boarding area. The research findings are scheduled to be published in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (top 1.89% in JCR), one of the world's most prestigious international journals in the field of transportation systems. Professor Chong, who has led research at Sungkyunkwan University on human centered AI, multimodal signal processing, and AI embedded systems, oversaw this study. Hee Jo, the first author and a Ph.D. student, led the data analysis and AI model design. The research team empirically validated a Passenger Trajectory Model (PTM) showing that when a train is present at or approaching the platform, 97.85% of passengers descending the stairs move directly toward the train doors. The research team explained the significance of the study, stating, "Based on these behavioral patterns, we built a system that captures passenger movements using just a single video frame, allowing us to detect risks in advance before passengers reach the train doors." The research team conducted experiments by classifying passenger movements on station stairs into three categories: Ascending, Descending, and Passing. The results demonstrated that real time classification is possible with a high accuracy of 97.58% using an object detection model. In particular, to maximize practicality, the team proposed SD Net (Subway Door Network), an ultra-lightweight custom model that operates smoothly even in limited computing environments. Furthermore, based on these analysis results, they enhanced the system's completeness by developing a Decision Support System (DSS) that guides train operators on the optimal door closing timing, alongside guidelines for passenger warning alarms. This study is particularly meaningful as the fruit of a global, interdisciplinary collaboration among experts in diverse fields, including civil and environmental engineering (Professor Lisa Lim, KAIST) and electrical and computer engineering (Researcher Yifan Li, Texas Tech University). Based on these findings, the research team presented scientific evidence that transportation systems can move beyond simply operating surveillance CCTVs to establishing proactive response mechanisms that secure passenger safety and minimize train delays. This is expected to serve as a new milestone in preventing persistent subway door accidents in subway environments equipped with platform screen doors (PSDs) or automated control systems. ▲Workflow of the proposed research Published in ieee transactions on intelligent transportation systems SKKU RESEARCH STORY Passenger Trajectory Model and Passenger Movement Estimation System for Preventing Passenger Subway Door Accidents Access Paper: IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (DOI) JC Jowoon Chong PURE Profile →
- No. 385
- 2026-07-20
- 1857
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Identifying Cross-National Distribution of Political Rhetoric based on the “Victim-Villain-Hero” Triad
Professor Tay Jeong of the Department of Sociology has analyzed the characteristics of global hashtag movements during the early stages of the Gaza war, drawing on country-specific trending data from social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and a new role-based analytical framework. The study has drawn considerable attention in academic circles for offering a clear and accessible theoretical lens on the flow of wartime public opinion on social media. The Gaza war, which broke out in October 2023, sparked wide-ranging political debate from its earliest days. The study takes as its starting point a debate among the global "progressive" intelligentsia over the symmetry of the conflict. While many mainstream Western intellectuals argued that both sides were driven by primal vengeance, others countered that Palestinian resistance should be understood not as an expression of hatred or revenge but as an expression of hope for liberation. To address this question, Professor Jeong introduced the "Victim–Villain–Hero" model as a qualitative tool for analyzing political oratory. He systematically classified and analyzed war-related hashtag slogans that trended on X across 62 countries worldwide according to this three-role framework. Pro-Palestinian hashtag movements worldwide were dominated by voices highlighting victims' suffering and calling for peace (e.g., #GazaUnderAttack, #CeasefireNOW). However, modes of expression varied by region. Users in Western countries such as those in Europe and the United States tended to emphasize "humanitarian sympathy," mourning victims' suffering and calling for an end to violence, whereas users in Middle Eastern and Arab countries more strongly invoked "heroism," framing victimhood alongside courage and resistance in the face of hardship. This divide is often framed as a West-versus-non-West opposition, but the study finds that, at least in the case of the current Gaza war, the more salient divide is between Arab and non-Arab countries. Contrary to the assumption that the global pro-Palestinian movement is primarily an expression of primal vengeance or antisemitism, slogans condemning or attacking Israel were relatively rare; militant support for Palestine was instead expressed predominantly through the language of heroism. By contrast, pro-Israel hashtag movements were centered on messages condemning and denouncing the "villain" (e.g., #HamasTerrorists), with heroic framing almost entirely absent—a notably distinct pattern. Professor Jeong explains that in conflicts marked by a significant power asymmetry, the weaker side tends to invoke the image of the "hero" to sustain hope, while the more powerful side tends to focus more on denouncing the adversary to justify its violent counterinsurgency campaigns. Professor Tay Jeong stated, "Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, long-standing themes concerning violence by colonized subjects—including the symmetry and asymmetry of political rhetoric, humanitarianism versus anti-imperialism, and the divide between the West and non-West—have been actively discussed, yet these concepts have lacked systematic theorization and empirical validation." He added, "I hope this study contributes, even modestly, to clearing up misunderstandings about the global pro-Palestinian movement." ▲ Role-composition of pro-Palestine hashtags published in political communication SKKU RESEARCH STORY Vengeance or Hope? A Role-Based Analysis of Hashtag Activism for the War in Gaza Access Paper: Political Communication (DOI) TJ Tay Jeong PURE Profile →
- No. 384
- 2026-07-20
- 1820
