About Me

I will be joining the University of Michigan ECE as an Assistant Professor starting Fall 2026. I am looking for prospective PhD students! If you are interested in working with me, please submit your application to the University of Michigan ECE Ph.D. program and select me as a prospective advisor.

I am an incoming Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan. Before joining UMich, I am spending a year at Meta, AI and Systems Co-Design as a visiting researcher. I received my Ph.D. in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department of the University of California, Berkeley, where I was advised by Borivoje Nikolić and Sophia Shao. I am a computer architecture researcher with broad interests and strong expertise across the full-stack, from chip design and hardware development to system software and application algorithms. Throughout my Ph.D., I addressed interconnected challenges of scalable specialization in domain-specific SoC design cohesively, with rigorous, comprehensive research from concept to silicon validation.

I have published seven architecture papers (five as first author) and in top computer architecture conferences including MICRO, ASPLOS, ISCA, HPCA, and DAC. All of my dissertation work is implemented as a full-stack real-system, evaluated rigorously with FPGA-accelerated RTL simulations, physically validated for feasibility, and fully open-sourced for reproducibility.

My work also spans silicon tapeout, bringing architectural innovation into real silicon systems. I also have a paper published at VLSI on the chip I led.

I have been recognized with IEEE Micro Top Pick in Computer Architecture (MICRO 2023), the Best Student Paper Award Finalist (VLSI 2025), the Best Paper Award (DAC 2021), and the Distinguished Artifact Award (ISCA 2023). I am selected as a 2024 Rising Star in EECS by MIT and 2023 ML and Systems Rising Star by MLCommons. I also received the Sevin Rosen Funds Award for innovative research.

Prior to UC Berkeley, I earned B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Seoul National University.

The best way to reach me is at seahkim at umich dot edu.

Education

University of California, Berkeley
PhD in EECS (2025)

Seoul National University
BS in ECE (2019)