New faculty member integrating research and education to make technology work for people
Hyungil Kim has joined UIC’s mechanical and industrial engineering department as an assistant professor where he will be conducting research in the Human-Centered Engineering Lab.
“My team is exploring innovative approaches to understanding human interactions with emerging technologies and transforming this knowledge into the design of human-machine-environment systems,” Kim said. “With the goal to facilitate human-technology partnerships at future workplaces, I investigate alternative methods for the requirement analysis, design, prototyping, and evaluation of extended reality applications.”
Kim has more than 10 years of research experience in human factors engineering from academia and industry including the Augmented Reality Center at Oakland University, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech, and General Motors.
He has served as principal investigator or co- principal investigator on research projects sponsored by various government agencies and industry partners such as the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Transportation, Google, General Motors, and Honda Research Institute USA.
“These collaborations allowed me to publish more than 30 papers in top-tier journals and conferences such as Human Factors, IEEE Virtual Reality, IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, ACM Automotive User Interfaces, and ACM Intelligent User Interfaces,” he said. “It has been my great pleasure to serve the above research communities as an organizer of international conferences and workshops.”
In addition to research, Kim plans to leverage his teaching and industry experience to offer quality education on theoretical subjects like human factors, methodological subjects like research design and statistical analysis, and their applications like industrial applications of extended reality.
“As a professor, my ultimate goal is to integrate education and research to make technology work for people. By leveraging my industry experience, I will bring unique and refreshing perspectives on human-centered engineering rooted in real-world examples to UIC and facilitate multi-disciplinary research and education.”