Jungseok Hong

Jungseok Hong

Postdoctoral Associate at MIT CSAIL.

About Jungseok

Underwater Trash Detection archive layout example Barbados Acoustics

I am a Postdoctoral Associate in Marine Robotics Group with Prof. John Leonard in the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

My research interests include marine robotics, field robotics, and robot vision. My research endeavors have been focused on addressing “How to improve robotic perception in underwater with a vision-based learning and multi-modal approaches?”. I also worked on open-source robots with my colleagues. Additionally, I have expanded my research into argiculutral and manipulation robots. Outside of my research hours, I like to be active (e.g., sailing, swim, and play tennis). I am also a sailor and certified scuba diver. Check out my research projects and publications.

I received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. I was a member of IRV LAB advised by Prof. Junaed Sattar.

Recent News

2024.10 I presented our paper Opti-Acoustic Semantic SLAM with Unknown Objects in Underwater Environments at the IROS 2024 Workshop, Autonomous Robotic Systems in Aquaculture, and we won the Best Paper Award.

2024.07 Our paper Opti-Acoustic Semantic SLAM with Unknown Objects in Underwater Environments was accepted for publication in IROS 2024.

2024.03 We submitted a paper Opti-Acoustic Semantic SLAM with Unknown Objects in Underwater Environments. Check out our project page.

2024.02 I completed MIT Research Mentoring Certificate.

2024.01 Our paper Diver Identification Using Anthropometric Data Ratios for Underwater Multi-Human-Robot Collaboration was accepted for publication in RA-L.

2023.10 I presented “Human-Robot Teaming for Complex Undersea Missions” at the IROS 2023 2nd Advanced Marine Robotics TC Workshop as an invited speaker.

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Released Datasets

trashcan dataset TrashCAN (2020.07)
An Instance-Segmentation Labeled Dataset of Trash Observations.
Download
trasch-icra19 dataset Trash-ICRA19 (2020.07)
A Bounding Box Labeled Dataset of Underwater Trash.
Download

Invited Talks

  • Toward robotic autonomy in data-scarce and visually challenging environments, MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Seminar, Host: John Leonard, Cambridge, MA. March 2023.
  • Toward robotic perception in data-scarce and visually challenging environments. 20th Annual Marine Robotics Workshop & Field Trials, Host: Greg Dudek, Holetown, Barbados. February 2023.
  • Robust Object Detection, Localization, and Exploration for Autonomous Robots in Unstructured Environments. Samsung AI Center New York, Host: Volkan Isler, New York, NY. Januaray 2022.
  • Semantically-Aware Strategies for Stereo-Visual Robotic Obstacle Avoidance, ICRA virtual presentation, 2021.
  • A Generative Approach Towards Improved Robotic Detection of Marine Litter, ICRA virtual presentation, 2020.
  • Towards the Detection and Localization of Underwater Trash by Autonomous Robotic Platforms, University of Minnesota VCAI Seminar, Minneapolis, MN. April 2019.

Industry Experiences

2022.02-2022.09 Samsung AI Center New York Research intern. Worked on visual servoing and semantic mapping. Published an IROS 2022 paper and an ICRA 2023 paper; Obtained two patents (1, 2).

2020.05-2020.08 Sentera Deep learning intern. Developed a weed identification pipeline.

Professional Services

International Journals/Conferences Reviewer

IEEE-TRO 2024
IEEE-JOE 2022
IEEE RA-L 2022-2024
ICRA 2025 - 2020
IROS 2024 - 2019
CRV 2021, 2020, 2019
CRV Program Committee Member for 2021

Faculty Hiring Commitee 2020-2021

  • Student Representative, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota

Selected Honors and Awards

  • IROS 2024 Workshop Best paper Award, Autonomous Robotic Systems in Aquaculture, $ 2,125. October 2024.
  • ICRA Robotics and Automation Society Travel Grant, $1,300. May 2023.
  • Received 2nd place award at the 21st Korean Computer Scientists and Engineers Association in America (KOCSEA) Technical Symposium, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, November 6-7, 2021.
  • UMII MnDRIVE Graduate Assistantship, University of Minnesota MnDrive, $50,000. Awarded in recognition of academic record and potential for future research productivity in Robotics, 2019.
  • Summa Cum Laude, South Dakota State University (GPA: 3.96/4.0) (Top in the EE program), Dept. of EE, 2015.
  • Power System Protection Scholarship, Schweitzer Engineering Lab. (SEL), $4,000. Awarded in recognition of outstanding academic and personal achievements, 2015.
  • BENNET Fellowship, South Dakota State University, $3,000. First international student recipient. Awarded to one student annually in recognition of outstanding academic and personal achievements, 2014.
  • Samsung Full Scholarship, Sung Kyun Kwan University, $40,000. Awarded in recognition of outstanding Korean SAT score and high school GPA, 2007-2015.

Quotes

Do it fast, but do it correctly.

Documentation is a Love Letter That You Write to Your Future Self. –Damian Conway