Professor

Professor Yong Man Ro received his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering at KAIST. He conducted research at various research institutions, such as Columbia University, the University of California, Irvine, and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He also worked as a visiting professor at The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto. He is currently a full professor of the School of Electrical Engineering at KAIST. He is also directors of Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence, Image Video System Lab., and Integrated Vision and Language Lab. at KAIST.

Prof. Ro received the young investigator finalist award of ISMRM in 1992 during his PhD study and the year scientist award (Korea) for his achievement in 2003. He served as an associate editor for IEEE Signal Processing Letters. He serves as an associate editor in IEEE Transactions on CSVT. He served as a TPC in many international conferences including the organizing chair/program chair of MMM 2020/PCM2015 and IWDW 2004. He organized several prominent special sessions including ¡°Explainable Deep Neural Networks for Image/Video Processing ICIP 2021, 2022, "Digital Photo Album Technology" in AIRS 2005, "Social Media" in DSP 2009 and "Human 3D Perception and 3D Video Assessments" in DSP 2011.

Research Area ¤ýMultimodal Deep learning
¤ýIntegrating Vision, Speech, and Language for AI
¤ýMultimodal Object and Motion Detection/recognition
¤ýInclusive Human Multimodal Conversation
¤ýAnalysis for Competency, Interpretability, Memorability, and Robustness of Deep learning Model
¤ýMultimodal Prompt with Large scale model
¤ýComputer Vision and Multimedia

Professional Experience ¤ýProfessor (current) in School of Electrical Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
¤ýDirector (current) of Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence (CARAI), KAIST
¤ýDirectors (current) of Image Video System Lab (IVY Lab) and Integrated Vision and Language Lab (IVL Lab), KAIST
¤ýChair (fmr) of signals and systems group of the Department of Electrical Engineering in KAIST
¤ýDepartment vice chair (fmr) in the Department of Electrical Engineering in KAIST
¤ýResearchers (fmr) in University of California, Berkeley (research fellow) and Columbia University, New York (Staff Associate)
¤ýTechnical Committee (current) of IVMSP (Image, Video, and Multidimensional Signal Processing), IEEE Signal Processing Society
¤ýAssociate editor(current) in IEEE Transitions on CSVT
¤ýAssociate editor (fmr) in IEEE Signal processing letter
¤ýFounder and CEO (fmr) of IVSYSTEM Co. LTd.
¤ýVisiting professor (fmr) at University of Toronto
¤ýAdvisory Committee (fmr) on Academic Policy, Ministry of Education, Korea
¤ýResearch Advisory Committee (fmr) ADD & ETRI
¤ýTechnical Advisory Committee (fmr) (Samsung)
¤ýMPEG delegate (fmr)

Awards ¤ýKI Convergence Research Award (KAIST Institute), 2021
¤ýImpact Research Award (College of Engineering, KAIST), 2021
¤ýTechnology Innovation Award (College of Engineering, KAIST), 2019
¤ýAward for Academic Excellence (KAIST), 2015
¤ýKAIST Merits Award, 2013
¤ýThe year¡¯s Scientist Award (Korea), 2003
¤ýExcellence in New Technology Award, Korea ministry of information communication, 2003
¤ýDistinguished Scholar Award in Taejon University, 1995
¤ýYoung Investigator Finalist Award in ISMRM, 1992, U.S.A.
¤ýStudent Stipend in ISMRM, 1991, 1992, U.S.A.
¤ýAcademic Excellence Awards in Yonsei university during 1981, 1982, 1983, and 1984

Awards with Students ¤ý1st Place Winner of Ad-hoc Video Search Competition, Video Browser Showdown (2022)
¤ýKI Outstanding Researcher Award, KAIST (2021)
¤ýHonor Prize in Samsung HumanTech (2021)
¤ýSilver Prize in Samsung Human-Tech (2019)
¤ýBest Paper Finalists IEEE ICIP (2019)
¤ýRobert F. Wagner All Conference Best Student Paper FinalLists Award in SPIE Medical Imaging, 2018
¤ýBest Paper Award in IEEE/IEIE ICCE-Asia, 2018
¤ýBest 10% Paper Award in IEEE ICIP, 2015
¤ýBest Student Paper Award in PCM, 2015
¤ýHonorable Mention Poster Award in SPIE Medical Imaging, 2015
¤ýBest Poster Award in Global 3D Tech. Forum, 2013
¤ýHumanTech Paper Award in Samsung HumanTech., 2017
¤ýBronze Medal in Samsung HumanTech, 2011
¤ýThis Year¡¯s Paper Award in Korea Information Processing Society, 2016
¤ýBest Paper Award in Korea Information Processing Society, 2016
¤ýTop Research Achievement Award in KAIST, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2022
¤ýBest Paper Award in Korea Society of Broadcast Engineers Conference, 2013
¤ýBest Paper Award in KISPS, 2009
¤ýBest Paper Award in KISP, 2006, 2007
¤ýBest Paper Award in Korea Multimedia Society, 2005, 2007, 2009 – 2017
¤ýBest Paper Award in Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies, 2005

Research Project Activities (Recent Years) ¤ýResearch on multimodality recognition and generation for human-AI teaming
¤ýResearch on competency-artificial intelligence
¤ýDevelopment of predictive visual intelligence based on visual memory
¤ýResearch on explainable artificial intelligence in plug-and-play manner
¤ýDevelopment of AI-based object automatic recognition/identification
¤ýResearch on robust multimodal recognition model
¤ýResearch on causality-aware multimodal recognition model
¤ýDevelopment of talking face generation
¤ýDevelopment of AI-based object detection in wild environment
¤ýDevelopment of AI-based target identification algorithm
¤ýResearch on human-level learning and reasoning framework for decision making
¤ýResearch on input image abstraction for visual memory