PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Sungbae Cho

Also known as Sung-Bae Cho, 조성배

Sungbae Cho is a computer scientist at Yonsei University in Seoul whose research builds hybrid artificial intelligence systems for industrial problems. He earned a KAIST doctorate in 1993, received the IEEE Computer Society's Merwin Prize in 1993, and worked as an invited researcher at ATR in Kyoto from 1993 to 1995 before joining Yonsei's Department of Computer Science in 1995. The Korean government awarded him a Service Merit Medal in 2022, and in 2024 he became chair of the Technology and Innovation subcommittee of Korea's National Artificial Intelligence Committee. IEEE named him a Fellow in 2025 for contributions to hybrid artificial intelligent systems for industrial applications, and in 2026 the Sudang Foundation gave him the Sudang Prize in applied science for hybrid AI that combines convolutional and recurrent neural networks. He is an Underwood Distinguished Professor of computer science at Yonsei and a member of the Presidential Council on National Artificial Intelligence Strategy in Korea.

Now at
Yonsei University and Presidential Council on National Artificial Intelligence Strategy in Korea
Works
780
Citations
14,621
h-index
47
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1993

    A KAIST doctorate and the Merwin Prize

    He earns a B.S. in computer science at Yonsei University, then an M.S. and a Ph.D. in computer science at KAIST, finishing the doctorate in 1993. The IEEE Computer Society gives him its Richard E. Merwin Prize in 1993.

  2. 1993–1995

    Invited researcher at ATR

    From 1993 to 1995, he is an invited researcher at the Human Information Processing Research Laboratories of the Advanced Telecommunications Research (ATR) Institute in Kyoto. His 1995 ATR technical report, Synergy of Modular Neural Networks by Fuzzy Logic, combines modular neural networks with the fuzzy integral and tests the method on on-line handwritten character recognition.

  3. 1995

    Professor at Yonsei

    He joins the Department of Computer Science at Yonsei University as a professor in 1995 and becomes an Underwood Distinguished Professor in 2021. His research covers neural networks, pattern recognition, intelligent man-machine interfaces, evolutionary computation and artificial life.

  4. 2022

    A Service Merit Medal

    The Korean government awards him a Service Merit Medal in 2022.

  5. September 2024

    Chairing a national AI subcommittee

    At the launch of Korea's National Artificial Intelligence Committee in September 2024, he is appointed chair of its Technology and Innovation subcommittee.

  6. 2025

    IEEE Fellow for hybrid AI

    In 2025, he is named an IEEE Fellow in the class evaluated by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, for contributions to hybrid artificial intelligent systems for industrial applications.

  7. May 2026

    The Sudang Prize in applied science

    In May 2026, the Sudang Foundation awards him the 35th Sudang Prize in applied science for his original research on hybrid AI that solves industrial problems, combining convolutional neural networks with long short-term memory recurrent networks. His paper on predicting household energy demand ranks among the top 1% most-cited papers of 2020 in the journal Energy. He also receives a Yonsei academic award in 2026.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and AI council member

    He is a professor of computer science at Yonsei University, a Yonsei Fellow since 2023, and a member of the Presidential Council on National Artificial Intelligence Strategy in Korea. His keynote talk at ICVISP 2026 presents an unsupervised video anomaly detection method that models normal patterns as a scene-dependent manifold in a hyperbolic space. He has published over 230 journal articles and over 680 conference papers.

Career

  1. Since 1995Yonsei UniversityProfessor, Underwood Distinguished Professor of Computer Science
  2. NowPresidential Council on National Artificial Intelligence Strategy in KoreaMember
  3. From 2024National Artificial Intelligence Committee of KoreaChair of the Technology and Innovation subcommittee
  4. 1993–1995Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute InternationalInvited researcher

Education

  1. 1993KAISTM.S. in computer science
  2. Yonsei UniversityB.S. in computer science

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Yonsei University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Yonsei University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes KAIST. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  4. 44% of AI career moves go from one university to anotherIncludes KAIST. We estimate how 26,439 AI career moves link universities, companies, labs, nonprofits and government research centers, with decade counts, net flows and the top paths.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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

  1. SCLAB - People sclab.yonsei.ac.kr. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Keynote Speakers icvisp.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. TR-H-0132: Synergy of Modular Neural Networks by Fuzzy Logic results.atr.jp. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Yoon "Leap to Top 3 AI Powers by 2027"... Launch of National Artificial Intelligence Committee (Comprehensive) - The Asia Business Daily view.asiae.co.kr. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Fellows Evaluation Committee - IEEE Computational Intelligence Society cis.ieee.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Samyang Group's Sudang Foundation Honors Professors Hwang, Cho with Sudang Prize - Seoul Economic Daily en.sedaily.com. Checked 20 October 2026.