Kevin Hyekang Joo

About Me | I am a Research Associate in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Previously, I obtained an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park, advised by Prof. David W. Jacobs. My primary research interest is in Human Communicative Behavior & Affect Analysis using multimodal as well as spatiotemporal data.

Activities | Outside of research, I like to explore new food, engage in volunteer services, and listen to music. In addition, as a supporter of diversity, equity, and inclusion, I like to learn about the needs of those with disabilities and explore the potential solutions I can offer with my skills.

*I am currently looking for a Ph.D. position starting in Fall 2024!*



News
  • 11/23: An extended abstract accepted at APAN 2023
  • 11/23: A paper [4] accepted at ACM SIGMOD 2024
  • 7/23: Wins the Second-Place Presentation ($1,200) in the Final Round & the Best Poster Award ($500) in Semi-Final Round of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Intern-Collaborated Research Presentation Program (Out of 28 Teams)
  • 6/23: A paper [3] accepted at IEEE ICIP 2023 (Oral)
  • 5/23: Starts Research Internship at the MIT Lincoln Lab in Lexington, MA
  • 5/23: Graduates from the University of Maryland with an M.S. in Computer Science, advised by Prof. David W. Jacobs
  • 5/22: Starts Research Internship with Prof. Ngan Le at the University of Arkansas over the summer
  • 5/22: Serves as a part-time teaching assistant for Google Applied Machine Learning Intensive Summer Program
  • 2/22: A paper [2] accepted at ACM SIGMOD 2022
  • 12/21: Serves as a Student Committee Member for Graduate School Admissions for the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland
  • 10/21: A paper [1] accepted at BMVC 2021 for an oral presentation
  • 7/21: Selected as one of 12 receipients of $10,000 Google Scholars Scholarship in the year of 2021, funded by Google, for my postgraduate studies in Computer Science
  • 6/21: Starts Research Internship with Prof. Leilani Battle at the University of Washington through the NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)
  • 5/21: Graduates from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Computer Science (Machine Learning Track) and a Minor in Technology Entrepreneurship
  • 6/20: Starts Software Engineering Internship at Amazon Devices (Remote)
  • 6/19: Starts Software Engineering Internship at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Herndon, VA
Publications

[Extended Abstract] Tracking Engagement in Real-World Human Communication from Wearable Sensors
Sunreeta Bhattacharya, Hyekang Kevin Joo, Alvaro Garcia, Cheng Ma, Yiming Fang, Fernando De la Torre, Lori Holt
The 21st Symposium of Advances and Perspectives in Auditory Neuroscience, 2023
official source / poster / bibtex
[4] Optimizing Dataflow Systems for Scalable Interactive Visualization
Junran Yang, Hyekang Kevin Joo, Sai S. Yerramreddy, Dominik Moritz, Leilani Battle
ACM Special Interest Group on Management of Data (SIGMOD) Conference, 2024 [h5-index: 71]
official source / pdf / bibtex (~29% acceptance)
[3] CLIP-TSA: CLIP-Assisted Temporal Self-Attention for Weakly-Supervised Video Anomaly Detection
Hyekang Kevin Joo, Khoa Vo, Kashu Yamazaki, Ngan Le
IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), 2023 (Oral Presentation) [h5-index: 61]
official source / video / github / pdf / bibtex (~18% oral acceptance)
[2] Demonstration of VegaPlus: Optimizing Declarative Visualization Languages
Junran Yang, Hyekang Kevin Joo, Sai S. Yerramreddy, Siyao Li, Dominik Moritz, Leilani Battle
ACM Special Interest Group on Management of Data (SIGMOD) Conference, 2022 [h5-index: 71]
official source / video / github / pdf / bibtex (~33% acceptance)

Note: This is the UW REU project that I worked on with Profs. Battle and Moritz in Summer 2021. Keep an eye out for the follow-up version of the work, which is currently accepted for SIGMOD '24!
[1] AEI: Actors-Environment Interaction with Adaptive Attention for Temporal Action Proposals Generation
Khoa Vo, Hyekang Joo, Kashu Yamazaki, Sang Truong, Kris Kitani, Minh-Triet Tran, Ngan Le
The British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC), 2021 (Oral Presentation) [h5-index: 77]
official source / video / github / pdf / bibtex (~3% oral acceptance)
[P2] Guided Hyperparameter Tuning Through Visualization and Inference
Hyekang Joo, Calvin Bao, Ishan Sen, Furong Huang, Leilani Battle
arXiv, 2021
pdf / bibtex

Note: This is an Undergraduate Research Project that I worked on and took the co-lead of under the supervision of Profs. Battle and Huang in my senior year.

[P1] Birds' Eye View: Measuring Behavior and Posture of Chickens as a Metric for Their Well-Being
Hyekang Kevin Joo, Shiyuan Duan, Shawna Weimer, Mohammad Nayeem Teli
arxiv, 2021
pdf / bibtex

Note: This is an Undergraduate Research Project that I worked on and took the lead of under the supervision of Profs. Weimer and Teli in my junior year.

*PI & Co-PI are marked green on mouse-hover

**As a U.S. Citizen, my  legal name  is  Kevin Hyekang Joo, but I occasionally put my name as  Hyekang Kevin Joo  on papers.

Service
UMDCS

Graduate School Admissions

Department of Computer Science
University of Maryland, College Park

Student Committee Member for CS Graduate School Admissions
Spring 2022
UMDACM

Student Groups

Association for Computing Machinery
University of Maryland, College Park

President
2020-2021 2019-2020

Vice President
2021-2022

Secretary
2018-2019
ALD Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society
University of Maryland, College Park

Webmaster
*2022-2023 **2021-2022 2020-2021 2019-2020

*Serves as an Auxiliary Co-Webmaster
**Received the prestigious Order of the Torch Award of the Year '22
cybersecurity Cybersecurity Club
University of Maryland, College Park

Secretary
2018-2019
google-ed

Mentorship

Google Applied Machine Learning Intensive Summer Program
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Teaching Assistant
Summer 2022
After partnering with the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering and Google, the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas is hosting the Google Applied Machine Learning Intensive Bootcamp for 10 weeks over the summer to introduce undergraduate (URM-focused) college students to applied machine learning concepts.

[ See More ]

i4c Diversity & Inclusion in Computing Education (DICE)
University of Maryland, College Park

Mentor
2022-2023 2021-2022
bitcamp IEEE/CVF CVPR 2022
New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center

Mentor for the CVPR Academy (HBCU/MI Workshop)
Summer 2022
diversity

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) Conference*

Tapia Conference
2023 [A] 2022 [A] 2021 [B]
Grace Hopper Conference
2022 [A] 2021 [B]
CSUN Assistive Technology Conference
2022 [B]
CRA Grad Cohort Workshop for IDEALS:
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Leadership Skills
2023 [C] 2022 [B]
*All DE&I conference travels have been generously supported in full by:
[A] University of Maryland, [B] University of Washington, [C] Conference Host

Teaching Assistant Experience
UMDCS

Computer Science TA @ UMD

Computer Vision (CMSC426)
Instructor: Dr. Mohammad Nayeem Teli
Spring 2022
Natural Language Processing (MSML641)
Instructor: Dr. Shabnam Tafreshi
Spring 2022
Object-Oriented Programming I (CMSC131)
Instructor: Senior Lecturer Nelson Padua-Perez
*Fall 2022 *Spring 2020 *Fall 2019
*Led two discussion sessions in each semester as a Discussion Teacher TA

Why so enthusiastic about being a Teacher TA?

Knowledge is meant to be shared! I enjoy interacting with people and sharing my knowledge with others! Oftentimes, I serve as a guest speaker, too, at academic clubs, dicussing my research, industry, and academic backgrounds with fellow students! :)

Here are seven other reasons I strongly prefer to be a Teaching TA for CMSC131:

1. Greatly improves my skills for oral presentation
2. Forms social connections with newcomers
3. Excellent memory refresher of Java
4. Enables self-evaluation of my communication skill
5. Student-evaluation of my skills at the end of sem
6. Builds up confidence as a speaker
7. Solid setting for practicing my leadership,
     organization, and on-the-fly Q&A skills

hinman

Technology & Engineering Entrepreneurship TA @ UMD

Entrepreneurial Opportunity Analysis and Decision-Making in Technology Ventures (ENES210)
Instructor: Prof. James Green
Spring 2021
Marketing High-Technology Products and Innovations (ENES462)
Instructor: Lecturer Michael Pratt
Spring 2021
Leading and Financing the Technology Venture (ENES466)
Instructor: Lecturer Michael Pratt
Spring 2021


Undergraduate Internship Experience
amazon

Amazon

Amazon Devices
Denver, CO (Remote Internship)
Summer 2020

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Herndon, VA
Summer 2019

cocacoda
0xC0C4C0DA
(It's not a typical soda!)


HKJ

v23.11.25


My Erdös number is 4
[ Erdös - P. O'Neil - M. Stonebraker - L. Battle - Me ]


More About Me :) Special Thanks