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Sunghoon Kim

Engineer at Samsung Electronics

Education

M.Sc in Electrical Engineering

Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Republic of Korea
Sep. 2018 - Aug. 2020

B.Sc Graduated with Highest Honors in Advanced Material Science(1st), Electrical Engineering (2nd)

Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, Republic of Korea
Mar. 2012 - Feb. 2018

Languages

  • Korean (Native)
  • English (Advanced High (OPIC))

Interests

  • VLSI CAD, Circuit PPA Push / Design Automation
  • Defect/Yield Ramp-up
  • Machine Learning / Tabular Dataset and Graph Neural Network / XAI (eXplainable Artificial Intelligence)

About Theme

Career Profile

Sunghoon Kim is an engineer at Samsung Electornics (Foundry). He received a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Korea, in August 2020. Advisor was Prof. Seokhyeong Kang in CAD & SoC Design Lab.
At Samsung Foundry, his research interests include PPA optimization using AI, AI-based yield ramp-up, productivity enhancement using LLMs, and the development of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) methodologies. At POSTECH, His research focused on energy-efficient deep learning computing at the intersection between machine learning and low power VLSI design. Before joining POSTECH, he received a Bachelor of Science degree with the highest honors in the Material Science Engineering at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Korea in February 2018.

– Last update Mar. 2025 –

Experiences

Engineer

Sep. 2020 - (Ongoing)
Samsung Electornics (Foundry)

Graduate Student

Jun. 2018 - Aug. 2020
CAD & SoC Design Lab in POSTECH, Prof. Seokhyeong Kang
  • Thesis: MDARTS: Multi-objective Differentiable Neural Architecture Search

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Mar. 2017 - Dec. 2017
Nano Spin Transport Lab in UNIST, Prof. Jung-Woo Yoo

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Jul. 2017
UNIST-Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science Summer Cross-Cultural Engineering Program, Prof. Fawwaz Habbal (Harvard)

link

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Jul. 2016 - Aug. 2016
Nanomaterials Science and Engineering Lab in UNIST, Prof. Jae Sung Son

Projects

Circuit PPA push with DSO.ai / Cererus

Samsung Foundry, Aug. 2023 - ongoing (1 year 7 months)

Development and Evaluation of EDA/DT LLMs for Productivity improvement in circuit design

Samsung Foundry, Jul. 2024 - ongoing (8 months)

Reducing Circuit Design Backend Flow Turn Around Time by Developing ML-based Design Rule Violation Predictor

Samsung Foundry, Jul. 2023 - Apr. 2024 (9 months)

AI-based Yield Prediction and Cause Analysis Methodology Development

Samsung Foundry & Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology et al., Dec. 2020 - Dec. 2024 (4 years)

Autonomous Accuracy Scaling for Ultra-low-power Intelligent Mobile Systems

Samsung Science & Technology Foundation, POSTECH, et al., Aug. 2018 - Jun. 2020 (1 year and 10 months)

Deep Learning and Development of Voice Interactive Smart Home Control System based on Internet of Home Things (IoHT)

POSCO Future IT Convergence Research Institute, POSTECH, et al., Dec. 2018 - Jun. 2020 (1 year and 6 months)

Camera-based Real-time Artificial Intelligence System for Detecting Driving Environment Recognizing Objects on Road Simultaneously

National Ressearch Foundation, KETI, POSTECH, DGIST et al., Sep. 2018 - Feb. 2019 (5 months)

Papers

  1. ML-based PPA Push using DRV Prediction
    2. Jungho Kim, Kyeongsun cho, Sunghoon Kim, Mintae Lee and Wook Kim
    Design Automation Conference (DAC), engineer track , 2024
  2. MDARTS Multi-objective Differentiable Neural Architecture Search
    3. Sunghoon Kim, Hyunjeong Kwon, Eunji Kwon, Youngchang Choi, Tae-Hyun Oh and Seokhyeong Kang
    The Design, Automation, and Test in Europe (DATE) Conference , 2021
  3. GRLC Grid-based Run-length Compression for Energy-efficient CNN Accelerator
    4. Yoonho Park, Yesung Kang, Sunghoon Kim, Eunji Kwon and Seokhyeong Kang
    IEEE International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED) , 2020
  4. Spatial Correlation-aware Compression Algorithm for Saving DRAM Access Energy
    5. Yoonho Park, Yesung Kang, Sunghoon Kim, Eunji Kwon and Seokhyeong Kang
    Korean Conference on Semiconductors (KCS) , 2020
  5. Analysis and Solution of CNN Accuracy Reduction over Channel Loop Tiling
    6. Yesung Kang, Yoonho Park, Sunghoon Kim, Eunji Kwon, Taeho Lim, Sangyun Oh, Mingyu Woo, and Seokhyeong Kang
    Design, Automation and Test in Europe Conference(DATE), 2020
  6. Analysis and Solution of CNN Accuracy Reduction over Channel Loop Tiling
    7. Yesung Kang, Yoonho Park, Sunghoon Kim and Seokhyeong Kang
    The Institute of Semiconductor Engineers Conference (ISEC), 2018

Patents

  1. NEURAL NETWORK ACCELERATOR AND OPERATING METHOD THEREOF

    2. Seokhyeong Kang, Yesung Kang, Sunghoon Kim and Yoonho Park

    United States Patent US11960986B2, Granted on Apr. 16, 2024, link2, Transfer of patent to Samsung Electronics with reward

Awards

  1. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd Annaual Awards in S/W Division Silver Prize, 2022 (삼성전자), AI-based Foundry Yield Ramp-up Methodology Development

  2. Best paper award at ISLPED, 2020 link

  3. Excellent paper award in VLSI CAD division at KCS, 2020

  4. Best paper award at ISE Conference, 2018

  5. Graduated with highest honors from UNIST: GPA (4.17/4.3), 2018 link

  6. Kyungdong Scholarship for Harvard-UNIST Summer Exchange Program 2017 link

  7. Republic of Korea National Science and Engineering Scholarship, 2012 - 2018

Teachings

I am a teaching assistant for the following courses:

  1. Instructor for the SW CERTIFICATION PRO Exam Preparation Course at Samsung Electronics (Jul. 11-12, 2024), 삼성 소프트웨어 인증 PRO 시험 대비반 강사 출강

  2. Mentored interns in the Samsung Talent Internship Program, providing technical guidance and career advice (Jul. 2024 - Aug. 2024), 삼성 수재인턴십 멘토 수행

  3. Served as a Senior Samsung Value Program (SVP) as part of the Leadership Development Course (Feb. 2024 - Mar. 2024), 삼성 신입사원 연수프로그램 (SVP) 선배 수행

  4. EECE490F: Introduction to VLSI Design, Spring 2019 at POSTECH

  5. Manage CSDL Tutorial Page: https://github.com/CSDL-postech/CSDL_Tutorial

  6. My Study Page: https://github.com/kim-sunghoon/Study-materials

Skills

Basics - Linux, Git, Python, C++

Infra - Docker, AWS, Linux bash/csh dotfiles

Machine Learning - PyTorch, Tensorflow, Scikit-learn, Skopt (Bayesian Optimization), shap (eXplainable Artificial Intelligence)

Data Processing & Visualization - Pandas, Matplotlib, Spotfire

Large-Language Model - langchain, langgraph, ollama, openweb-ui

Cadence - Cerebrus, Innovus, NC Verilog & Simvision,

Synopsys - DSO.ai, Fusion Compiler, Design Compiler, IC Compiler2, Prime Time, SNPS Copilot Systems (Knowledge Assistant/Workflow Assistant/Run Assistant)

Siemens - Fused LLM System

Xilinx-Vivado, High Level Synthesis, Petalinux