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Youngjun Cho
Brief biography
Youngjun Cho is Associate Professor in the department of computer science at UCL and one of the key academic staff in GDI and MSc DDI (Disability, Design and Innovation). Also, he is a co-founder of KIT-AR (UCL/Sintef spinout company). He explores, builds and evaluates novel techniques and technologies for the next generation of artificial intelligence-powered physiological computing1 that boosts disability technology innovation.
He has pioneered mobile thermal imaging-based physiological sensing and automated detection of mental states (e.g. stress). He obtained a PhD in computational physiology from Faculty of Brain Sciences and UCLIC at UCL (and obtained a MSc in Robotics, a BSc in ICT - summa cum laude). In 2011-2018, he worked as a senior research scientist at LG Electronics (full-time: 2011-2015, leave of absence: 2015-2018) and led a variety of industrial research projects. Amongst his contributions, novel 3D input and gesture recognition technologies (for advanced touch screen solutions in vehicles) were successfully commercialised in collaboration with automobile manufacturers including Porsche and BMW.
At UCL, his research has been funded by EPSRC, Bentley Motors, EC H2020, NTT, and DfID. Also, his earlier academic studies (including 4-year BSc, 2-year MSc, 3-year PhD) were fully funded - the primary funders includes prestigious scholarship/grant bodies: EC H2020, UCL-ORS, National Research Foundation of Korea, LG and Samsung. He has authored more than 70 articles (including patents) in areas related to affective, physiological computing, machine learning, human-computer interaction, accessible user interfaces, and multimodal sensing and feedback. Some of the achievements have been featured in forums for the general public such as BBC News, Phys.Org, Imaging and Machine Vision Europe, Science Daily, and SBS News.
1His definition of physiological computing is technology that helps us listen to our physiological and psychological needs and adapts its functionality. Its three technical components are physiological sensing, affect recognition and bio-feedback.
Supervision
As of 2021, Dr. Youngjun Cho supervises 6 PhD students, 5 PDRA/RAs, and over 10 MSc/MEng students (on average per year).
[PhD students, PDRA/RAs]
• Zak Morgan (PhD student, Primary supervision)
• Jitesh Joshi (PhD student, Primary supervision)
• Katherine Wang (PhD student, Primary supervision)
• Pauline Hohl (soon-to-be PhD student, Primary supervision)
• Roxana Ramirez Herrera (PhD student, Co-supervision with Prof Holloway, Dr. Carlson)
• Shu Zhong (PhD student, Co-supervision with Prof Obrist)
• Dr. Temitayo Olugbade (Research Fellow in Bentley Comfort AI, Co-supervision with Prof. Berthouze)
• Frances Wen (Research Assistant in AT2030 sub-programme, Co-supervision with Prof Holloway)
• Vincent Leong (Research Assistant in Bentley Comfort AI, Co-supervision with Prof. Berthouze)
• William Bhot (Research Assistant in AT2030 sub-programme, Co-supervision with Prof Holloway)
• Emil Almazov (Research Assistant in Bentley Comfort AI, Co-supervision with Prof. Berthouze)
[Alumni - primary supervision only]
• Jade Savage (Physiological Computing, 2017/18 MSc in CSML, BSc from UCL) - DeepMind Scholarship | Microfocus
• Delaney Warren (Physiological Computing & AT, 2019/20 MSc in DDI, BSc from UCLA) - UCLFAA Scholarship
• Meg Obata (Physiological Computing & AT, 2019/20 MSc in DDI, BSc from Johns Hopkins University) - UCLFAA Scholarship
• Amit Patel (Machine Learning, 2018/19 MSc in ML)
• Chang Liu (Physiological Computing, 2018/19 MSc in DS) - Currently PhD Student
• Alok Suresh (Machine Learning, 2019/20 MSc in CSML) - Lanterne
• Zak Morgan (Machine Learning, 2019/20 MEng in CS, BSc from UCL) - Currently PhD Student
• Katherine Wang (Virtual Reality & AT, 2019/20 MSc in DDI, BSc from Penn state university) - Currently PhD Student
• James Wong-You (Human-Computer Interaction, 2018/19 MSc in HCI) - NHS
• Brian Min (Machine Learning, 2019/20 MEng in CS) - American Express
• Seunghoi Kim (Machine Learning, 2019/20 MEng in CS)
• Mahdi Nasrollahi (Machine Learning, 2019/20 MEng in CS)
• Su Yeon Oh (Haptics & AT, 2019/20 MSc in DDI)
• Yuliang Chen (Physiological Computing & AT, 2019/20 MSc in DDI)
• Bei Xiang (Haptics and Visual Impairment, 2019/20 MSc in DDI)
• Yu-Wei Yang (Physiological Computing and AT, 2020/21 MSc in DDI) - NHS
• Clara Moge (Physiological Computing, 2020/21 MSc in HCI, BSc from UCL) - Serco
• Yun Jung Yeh (Physiological Computing & AT, 2020/21 MSc in DDI) - JP Morgan
• William Davies (Physiological Computing, 2020/21 MSc in Machine Learning, BSc from UCL) - Amazon
• Steven McDonald (Physiological Computing, 2020/21 MSc in Machine Learning, BSc from Univ of Manchester) - Precise TV
• Yuxuan Liu (Physiological Computing & AT, 2020/21 MSc in DDI) - Huawei
• Pauline Hohl (Physiological Computing & AT, 2020/21 MSc in DDI) - CareLineLive
• Tianyun Hu (Physiological Computing, 2020/21 MSc in HCI) - Huawei
Teaching
COMP0145 (Module Leader): Research Methods & Making Skills
COMP0053 (Module Contributor): Affective Computing and Human Robot Interaction
COMP0159 (Module Leader): MSc Disability, Design and Innovation (DDI) - Dissertation
Boards and Committees
• UCL Grand Challenge of Transformative Technologies member: 2019 - present
• MDPI Sensors Journal Topic Editor Board: 2020 - present
• Snowdon Scholarship review panel (national level): 2019 - present
• Teaching Committee of MSc Disability, Design and Innovation: 2019 - present
• Conference Organising Committee: e.g. ACII 2021 (Special Session Chair), ICMI 2020 (Senior Program Committee), ACII 2019 (Senior Program Committee)
Publication and Patent
Research Publications
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Authors
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Title
|
Year
|
Publication
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Herrera R Ramirez, Catherine Holloway, Ramirez D Morgado, B Zhang, Youngjun Cho | Breathing Biofeedback Relaxation Intervention for Wheelchair Users in City Navigation | 2020 | 2020 42nd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC), Conference paper (text), Montreal, Canada |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, M Joung | Electronic Device for Sensing Proximity Touch and Controlling Method Thereof | 2020 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, M Joung | Pointing Device and Control Methods Thereof | 2020 | Patent |
| K Wang, B Zhang, Youngjun Cho | Using Mobile Augmented Reality to Improve Attention in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder | 2020 | The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Conference paper (text) |
| Youngjun Cho, J Youn, M Joung, S Kim | Vehicle display device and vehicle | 2020 | Patent |
| Tigmanshu Bhatnagar, Youngjun Cho, Nicolai Marquardt, Catherine Holloway | Expressive haptics for enhanced usability of mobile interfaces in situations of impairments | 2019 | Other |
| Youngjun Cho, S Julier, Nadia Berthouze | Instant Stress: Detection of Perceived Mental Stress Through Smartphone Photoplethysmography and Thermal Imaging | 2019 | JMIR Mental Health, Journal article |
| Youngjun Cho, Nadia Berthouze, M Oliveira, Catherine Holloway, S Julier | Nose Heat: Exploring Stress-induced Nasal Thermal Variability through Mobile Thermal Imaging | 2019 | 8th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII 2019), Conference paper (text), Cambridge, United Kingdom |
| Youngjun Cho, N Bianchi-Berthouze | Physiological and Affective Computing through Thermal Imaging: A Survey | 2019 | Other |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, M Joung | The display equipment of vehicle | 2019 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, YOUN Jinho, M Joung, S Kim | Vehicle display device and vehicle | 2018 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, M Joung | Apparatus for identifying a proximity object and method for controlling the same | 2018 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, Nadia Berthouze, S Julier | Automated Inference of Cognitive Stress in-the-Wild | 2018 | Working/Discussion Paper |
| Youngjun Cho | Automated Mental Stress Recognition through Mobile Thermal Imaging | 2018 | International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII), Conference paper (text), San Antonio, the US |
| Youngjun Cho, M Joung | Display Apparatus and Method for Operating the Same | 2018 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, Nadia Berthouze, Nicolai Marquardt, S Julier | Deep Thermal Imaging: Proximate Material Type Recognition in the Wild through Deep Learning of Spatial Surface Temperature Patterns | 2018 | 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2018), Conference paper (text), Montreal, QC, Canada |
| Youngjun Cho, J Youn, H Hwang | Display apparatus for vehicle | 2018 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, M Joung | Display Apparatus for a vehicle | 2018 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, M Joung | Display Apparatus for A Vehicle with Two Different Proximity Sensors | 2018 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, M Joung | Electronic Device for Sensing Proximity Touch and Controlling Method Thereof | 2018 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim | Input device for touch screen and display apparatus having touch screen | 2018 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, SJ Julier, N Bianchi-Berthouze | Instant Automated Inference of Perceived Mental Stress through Smartphone PPG and Thermal Imaging | 2018 | Working/Discussion Paper |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, M Joung | Proximity transducer and control method thereof | 2018 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho | Sensorless Resonance Tracking of Resonant Electromagnetic Actuator through Back-EMF Estimation for Mobile Devices | 2018 | Other |
| Youngjun Cho, M Joung, S Kim | Vehicle display apparatus including capacitive and light-based input sensors | 2018 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, M Joung, S Kim | Device and Method for Generating Vibrations | 2017 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, M Joung | Device and Method for Generating Vibrations | 2017 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, M Joung | Display Apparatus and Method for Operating the Same | 2017 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, M Joung | Display Apparatus and Method for Operating the Same | 2017 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, N Bianchi-Berthouze, S Julier | DeepBreath: Deep Learning of Breathing Patterns for Automatic Stress Recognition using Low-Cost Thermal Imaging in Unconstrained Settings | 2017 | International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII), Conference paper (text), San Antonio, the US |
| J Youn, H Hwang, J Sa, S Kim, Youngjun Cho, M Joung | Electronic device for sensing 2d and 3d touch and method for controlling the same | 2017 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, M Joung | Proximity sensor and control method thereof | 2017 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, SJ Julier, Nicolai Marquardt, N Bianchi-Berthouze | Robust tracking of respiratory rate in high-dynamic range scenes using mobile thermal imaging | 2017 | Biomedical Optics Express, 2017, Journal article |
| Youngjun Cho, N Bianchi-Berthouze, S Julier, Nicolai Marquardt | ThermSense: Smartphone-based Breathing Sensing Platform using Noncontact Low-Cost Thermal Camera | 2017 | International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII), Conference paper (text), San Antonio, US |
| T-H Yang, Y-D Bae, D-S Kwon, Y-M Lee, E-H Lee, J-S Lee, D-B Pyo, Youngjun Cho | Vibration Module for Portable Terminal | 2017 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, J Choi, S Kim, M Joung | Curved Touch Display Device | 2016 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, S Park, S Kim, M Joung | Display Apparatus for Vehicle | 2016 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, M Joung | Display Apparatus for Vehicle | 2016 | Patent |
| J Youn, J Sa, M Joung, Youngjun Cho | Image display Apparatus | 2016 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, A Bianchi, Nicolai Marquardt, NL Bianchi-Berthouze | RealPen: Providing Realism in Handwriting Tasks on Touch Surface using Auditory-Tactile Feedback | 2016 | User Interface Software and Technology Symposium (UIST'16), Conference paper (text), Tokyo, Japan |
| Youngjun Cho, M Joung, S Kim | Electronic device having proximity touch function and control method thereof | 2015 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, M Joung | Display Apparatus and Method for Operating the Same | 2015 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, J Sa, J Choi, S Shin, M Joung | Electronic Device for Sensing 2D and 3D Touch and Method for Controlling the Same | 2015 | Patent |
| T-H Yang, Y-D Bae, D-S Kwon, Y-M Lee, E-H Lee, J-S Lee, D-B Pyo, Youngjun Cho | Vibration Module for Portable Terminal | 2015 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, S Kim, M Joung, J Lee | Haptic Cushion: Automatic Generation of Vibro- tactile Feedback Based on Audio Signal for Immersive Interaction with Multimedia | 2014 | ACTUATOR 2014, 14th International Conference on New Actuators, Conference paper (text), Bremen, Germany |
| T-H Yang, Y-D Bae, D-S Kwon, Y-M Lee, E-H Lee, J-S Lee, D-B Pyo, Youngjun Cho | Vibration Module for Portable Terminal | 2014 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, T-H Yang, D-S Kwon | Actuator Device with Wire Ring Spring Integrally Formed to Solenoid | 2013 | Patent |
| T-H Yang, D Pyo, Youngjun Cho, D-S Kwon | Vibration Apparatus and System, Method Using the Same, And Recording Medium Thereof | 2013 | Patent |
| D Pyo, T-H Yang, Youngjun Cho, D-S Kwon | Vibration Generating Module Using Unstable Structure, Actuator Using the Same, Handheld Device, Method for Generating Vibration and Recording Medium Thereof | 2013 | Patent |
| D Pyo, T-H Yang, Youngjun Cho, D-S Kwon | Vibration Generating Module, Handheld Device Using the Same, Method for Generating Vibration and Recording Medium Thereof | 2013 | Patent |
| D Pyo, T-H Yang, Youngjun Cho, D-S Kwon | Vibration generating module, actuator using the same, handheld device, method for generating vibration and recording medium thereof | 2012 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, T-H Yang, D-S Kwon | Actuator Using Buckling Effect and Hand Held Comprising Thereof | 2012 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, T-H Yang, D-S Kwon | Horizontal Vibration Actuator Using Buckling Effect and Hand Held Comprising Thereof | 2012 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, T-H Yang, D-S Kwon | Hybrid Actuator Electrical Energy Auto-Creation Installation and The Method | 2012 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, D-S Kwon | Method of Outputting Braille Using Braille Output Actuator | 2012 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, T-H Yang, D-S Kwon | Small Size Vibration Motor Energy Nonutility Generation and The Method | 2012 | Patent |
| T-H Yang, D Pyo, Youngjun Cho, D-S Kwon | Vibration Apparatus and System, Method Using the Same, And Recording Medium Thereof | 2012 | Patent |
| T-H Yang, D Pyo, S-Y Kim, Youngjun Cho, YD Bae, YM Lee, JS Lee, EH Lee, D-S Kwon | A new subminiature impact actuator for mobile devices | 2011 | World Haptics Conference (WHC), 2011 IEEE, Conference paper (text), IEEE |
| Youngjun Cho, T-H Yang, D-S Kwon | Apparatus for Small Sized Actuator Using Different Elastic Spring | 2011 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, T-H Yang, D-S Kwon | Apparatus for Small Sized Smart Actuator and The Method Therefor | 2011 | Patent |
| T-H Yang, Youngjun Cho, S-C Kim, JG Lim, D-S Kwon | Apparatus Using Spring Based On Reaction Upon External Force for Providing Passive Haptic Feedback, Module Providing Passive Haptic Feedback Using the Same, Portable Unit Using the Same and Control Method Therewith | 2011 | Patent |
| T-H Yang, Youngjun Cho, S-C Kim, JG Lim, D-S Kwon | Apparatus Utilizing Electromagnetic Induction Based On Reaction Upon External Force for Providing Passive Haptic Feedback, Module Providing Passive Haptic Feedback Using the Same, Portable Unit Using the Same and Control Method Therewith | 2011 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, T-H Yang, D-S Kwon | Hybrid Actuator Using Vibrator and Solenoid, Apparatus Providing Passive Haptic Feedback Using the Same, Display Unit Using the Same and Control Method | 2011 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, T-H Yang, D-S Kwon | Small actuator apparatus and method for haptic feedback using the same | 2011 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, D-S Kwon | System for Interacting Braille Education Using the Feel Presentation Device and The Method Therefor | 2011 | Patent |
| Youngjun Cho, T-H Yang, D-S Kwon | A new miniature smart actuator based on piezoelectric material and solenoid for mobile devices | 2010 | The Abstracts of the international conference on advanced mechatronics: toward evolutionary fusion of IT and mechatronics: ICAM 2010.5, Conference paper (text), The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers |
| D-S Kwon, T-H Yang, Youngjun Cho | Mechatronics technology in mobile devices | 2010 | IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine, Journal article |
| Youngjun Cho | Mobile Thermography-based Physiological Computing for Automatic Recognition of a Person’s Mental Stress | 1900 | Thesis / Dissertation |