PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Hanseok Ko

Also known as Ko Hanseok

Hanseok Ko is an electrical engineer and AI researcher whose work links spoken-language technology with multimodal AI. He earned a B.S. at Carnegie Mellon in 1982, an M.S. at Johns Hopkins in 1986, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Catholic University in 1992. At Korea University, he held faculty and IT leadership roles, worked at the US Department of Defense, and led a Samsung-sponsored research center on multimodal CCTV technology. Through IEEE conference roles, an IET Fellowship, and the INTERSPEECH 2022 General Chair role, he helped organize speech and signal-processing research, and ISCA named him a Fellow in 2023 for innovation in Korean and English speech-language technology. Catholic University installed him as Newton-Bennett Endowed Chair in April 2025, and as of October 2026 he is a professor and directs the Multimodal AI Lab after giving an ICIGP keynote in March 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1982–1992

    Engineering degrees

    He earns a B.S. at Carnegie Mellon in 1982 and an M.S. at Johns Hopkins in 1986. He earns a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Catholic University in 1992.

  2. 1995

    Korea University leadership

    He joins Korea University's ECE faculty in 1995 and later serves as department chair and vice president for its Office of Information Technology Services. His career includes 12 years as a senior and principal engineer with the U.S. Department of Defense and a faculty role at UMBC.

  3. 2001–2009

    Visiting posts at Hopkins and Maryland

    He holds visiting appointments in Johns Hopkins University's ECE department in 2001 and at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies in 2009.

  4. 2008–2013

    A Samsung-sponsored research center

    He directs Korea University's STW-KU Intelligent Signal Processing Research Center, sponsored by Samsung, from 2008 to 2013; its work addresses multimodal CCTV technologies for image and video analytics. His work also includes a core acoustics and speech interface system for Hyundai and Kia Motors.

  5. 2008–2018

    Conference roles and an IET fellowship

    He serves as Program Chair for IEEE Multisensor Fusion and Integration in 2008 and 2017, General Organizing Chair for IEEE AVSS in 2014, and co-General Organizing Chair for IEEE ICASSP 2018 in Calgary. In 2014, he becomes an IET Fellow.

  6. 2022–2023

    INTERSPEECH chair and ISCA fellowship

    He serves as General Chair for INTERSPEECH in 2022. In 2023, the ISCA names him a Fellow for innovation in Korean and English spoken-language technologies.

  7. 2024–April 2025

    ICASSP and an endowed chair

    He serves as General Chair for IEEE ICASSP in 2024. On April 14, 2025, Catholic University installs him as Newton-Bennett Endowed Chair of Engineering.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and AI lab director

    He is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Catholic University and directs its Multimodal AI Lab. In March 2026, he gives a keynote at ICIGP as the lab's director.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Hanseok Ko yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. School of Engineering Celebrates the Installation of Professor Hanseok Ko as the Inaugural Newton-Bennett Chair in Engineering engage.catholic.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Workshop on Audio-Visual Scene Understanding cvssp.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Center for Artificial Intelligence Research - Dr Hanseok Ko sites.google.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Korea University School of Electrical Engineering ee.korea.ac.kr. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Center for Artificial Intelligence Research - International Conference on Image and Graphics Processing (ICIGP) sites.google.com. Checked 19 October 2026.