Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore (2017 - Present)
Korea Foundation Professor in Contemporary Korean Society and New Media (Tenured), Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI) (2017 - Present): Inaugural Korea Foundation Endowed Chair Professor. Leading foundational research in Human-AI Interaction, media psychology, virtual presence, and contemporary Korean cultural technologies.
Director, Research Laboratories, Human-AI Interaction Lab (HAIL) & Contemporary Korea Studies Lab (KSL) (2017 - Present): Directing the Human-AI Interaction Lab (HAIL), the User Experience (UX) Lab, and the Contemporary Korea Studies Lab, overseeing empirical investigations, doctoral research, and high-impact federal grant initiatives.
Professor (Courtesy Joint Appointment), School of Computer Science and Engineering (College of Computing & Data Science): Collaborating on intelligent conversational systems, multimodal computer-human interfaces, and human-centered autonomous agents.
Professor (Courtesy Joint Appointment), Nanyang Business School (NBS): Research and executive education on open corporate innovation, user experience strategy, customer experience management, and digital business transformation.
University Fellowships & Academic Governance (2017 - Present):
Fellow, NTU Institute of Science and Technology for Humanity (NISTH)
Fellow, Nanyang Entrepreneurship Academy (NTUPreneur)
Fellow, Nanyang Technopreneurship Center (NTC, 2019 - 2022)
Fellow, Institute on Asian Consumer Insight (ACI), Nanyang Business School
Member, NTU Teaching Council
Member, Faculty Senate on University Development
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Taiwan (2023)
Distinguished Chair Professor (Visiting), Department of Communication and Technology (2023): Awarded the Yushan Scholar chair by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. Led international masterclasses and collaborative research on metaverse experience, AI interaction, and media psychology.
Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), Seoul, S. Korea (2008 - 2017)
World Class University (WCU) Professor (Tenured) & Founding Director, Department of Interaction Science & Interaction Science Research Center (2008 - 2017): Recruited under the Ministry of Education, Science, & Technology (MEST) flagship WCU Program. Served as Founding Director and Principal Investigator (PI) of the WCU Program, founding South Korea’s first interdisciplinary Department of Interaction Science and securing multi-million-dollar government and corporate research funding.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA (2013)
Visiting Scientist, MIT Media Lab (2013): Conducted collaborative investigations into ambient intelligent environments, wearable displays, and cognitive presence in spatial media architectures.
University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA, USA (2002 - 2013)
Associate Professor (Tenured), Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (2002 - 2013): Served for 12 years as one of the youngest tenured faculty members at USC. Affiliated faculty with the Center for Robotics and Embedded Systems (CRES) and the Center for Telecommunication Management (CTM). Recipient of the university-wide USC-Mellon Award for Excellence in Mentoring (2007).
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA (1998 - 2002)
Doctoral Scholar, Head Graduate TA & Asia Pacific Scholar Fellow, Department of Communication, SRCT Lab (1998 - 2002): Doctoral training under the late Prof. Clifford Nass. Conducted pioneering empirical experiments in synthetic speech personality, human-agent interaction, and presence theory. Served as Head Graduate (Ph.D.) TA and was recipient of three competitive Stanford endowed fellowships.
Industry Appointments
Samsung Electronics, Seoul, S. Korea (2011 - 2015)
Vice President, User Experience (UX) Group, Visual Display Division (2011 - 2015): Spearheaded UX innovation for Samsung’s television, audio, and visual display lines. Led the redesign that replaced complex 70-button TV remotes with the ergonomic Smart Hub and Smart Remote, winning the CES Best of Innovations Award (2013, 2014) and iF Design Award.
Founding Director, Creative Lab (C-Lab), Future Strategy Team & Executive Advisor to President (2012 - 2015): Conceptualized, founded, and directed Samsung Creative Lab (C-Lab), Samsung’s premier internal venture incubator that has launched hundreds of products, spun off dozens of venture companies, and garnered over 40 CES Innovation Awards. Also served as Executive Advisor to the President of Samsung Electronics.
IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Hawthorne, NY, USA (2001)
Speech User Interface Designer & Consultant, Pervasive Computing & Multimodal Research Group (2001): Conducted human-computer interaction research on conversational speech user interfaces, multimodal messaging systems, and speech recognition usability.
Quack.com (merged into AOL Time Warner Inc.), Mountain View, CA, USA (2000)
Research Behavior Analyst, Usability Researcher & Designer, Voice Portal & Natural Language Interfaces (2000): Evaluated behavioral responses and speech portal usability for telephone-based voice navigation before Quack.com was acquired by AOL Time Warner.
Advising & Corporate Consultancy
Executive Advisory & Strategic Consultancy Practice (Seoul, Singapore & Global • 2000 - Present)
Samsung Electronics & SAIT: Senior Executive Advisor to President & HRI Consultant. High-level strategic advisor to corporate leadership on display ecosystems, smart home devices, and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT).
Hyundai Motors: Advisor & Consultant on Smart Car Interface & Future Mobility. Strategic consultant on smart car interfaces, in-vehicle conversational speech systems, autonomous vehicle trust, and mobility UX innovation.
KIA Worldwide: Advisor & Consultant on Customer Experience & In-Vehicle Interfaces. Advisory on evolutionary psychology, customer experience innovation, and connected car interfaces.
CJ Group: Corporate Advisor, CJ Future Management Research Center. Corporate advisor on media entertainment technologies, digital contents, and global cultural platform strategies.
