My Journey to Brain + AI

Wonsang Lucas You has explored both artificial intelligence (AI) and brain science with his whole heart, as he believes that next-generation AI for the fourth industrial revolution can be empowered with brain science. His professional philosophy is that the most creative technologies could come from nature.

Past

Wonsang graduated from Sogang University in 2003 after studying electronic engineering, and received M.Sc in image processing and artificial intelligence from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2008, studying object detection and motion tracking in image sequences (see details).

From 2009 to 2012, he had worked for statistical modeling of endogenous brain functional networks using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a research assistant at Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology in Germany (see details). In 2013, he obtained Ph.D in neural networks magna cum laude in Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. With his dissertation, he suggested a novel theoretical model that explains the self-organized fractal property of brain functions in resting state.

From 2013 to 2019, he had worked as a staff scientist in the Center for the Developing Brain at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC. His research project was to develop analytic tools and data models for in utero functional MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging of the fetal brain and placenta, using deep learning and time series analysis, to find out early biomarkers to diagnose impaired fetal brain development and placental pathology (see details). In 2019, he worked as chief technology officer at Tiger Math Korea Corporation to lead a new business project of developing pet healthcare solutions using artificial intelligence.

Current and Future

Since spring 2020, he serves as an assistant professor and the head of graduate programs at the Department of Information and Communications Engineering in Sun Moon University, South Korea. He is also the founder and director of the Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing Laboratory (AIIP Lab). He is building new research projects based on AI technologies, including (1) a next-generation pet care robot and (2) novel methodologies for diagnosing impaired brain functions using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He ultimately dreams of creating world's best AI technologies, which is explainable and interpretable, as the brain works.

He is a full member of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers (IEIE), the Korean Institute of Information Scientists and Engineers (KIISE), the Korea Information Processing Society (KIPS) as well as other Korean societies for artificial intelligence in medicine (KOSAIM), medical informatics (KOSMI), and computational neuroscience (CBRAIN).