UMATO2
About
I studied physics (BS, dropout), math (BS), industrial engineering (BS, minor), and computer science (MS). Now I am studying neuroscience (PhD).
Previously, I served in the ROK Army (21 months) and worked at broadcasting company (7 months), nonprofit organization (6 months), consulting firm (3 months), manufacturing company (2 months), big tech (19 months), and IT startup (5 months).
Essay
YouTube
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Community Service
30-Minute Chat
I am open to discussing research ideas, exploring collaborations, offering technical advice, or supporting startups and tech-focused individuals. I am also happy to assist with career guidance, PhD applications, or general advice on graduate life.
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Book a chatPhD Application Materials
I am sharing my application materials for those preparing for PhD admissions: 1) Statement of Purpose, 2) Personal Statement, 3) Interview Notes
Personal
These days, I practice calisthenics like handstand push-ups. I log my daily life to keep track of life's beautiful moments I may not want to forget. I love connecting with new people. I own more than 400 comic books and enjoy watching films and reading novels and poems. I really love this quote:
Dance like nobody's watching; Love like you've never been hurt; Work like you don't need money; Live like
it's heaven on earth.
News
Sep 2025
Back at Stanford, working on human speech BCI project
Jun 2025
Started my internship at Microsoft Research in Redmond,
WA
Mar 2025
Joined Druckmann Lab for
neuroscience research
Sep 2024
Admitted to Stanford
University for my Ph.D. studies in Computer Science
May 2024
Started working as a research engineer at SkillWave, Inc.
Apr 2024
Invited for a talk at Sungkyunkwan University and Seoul National University
Jan 2024
Chart-LLM is accepted to CHI
2024
Sep 2023
Nominated as Fulbright scholarship
recipient
Aug 2023
Two papers are accepted to VIS
2023 and NLVIZ Workshop, respectively!
Mar 2023
ExGPTer is accepted to CHI 2023 Gen-AI workshop!
Jan 2023
Our paper about DALL-E is accepted to IUI 2023!
Nov 2022
My
interview with IEEE Computer Society was published!
Oct 2022
Attend UIST 2022 in person to present my work, perform SV-ing, and
give a lightning talk! Received Gary
Marsden Travel Awards to support my trip.
Jun 2022
Two papers, UMATO and We-toon, are accepted to IEEE VIS 2022 and ACM UIST
2022, respectively!
Jun 2022
Move to KAIST at Daejeon, Korea to collaborate with KIXLAB led by Prof. Juho
Kim.
Oct 2021
Get a full-time posiiton as a research scientist at Naver Webtoon Corp.
Apr 2021
Graduate from Seoul National University receiving Master's degree in Computer
Science and Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Jinwook Seo (specialty: HCI, InfoVis)
Publications
Distortion-Aware Brushing
ChatGPT in Data Visualization Education
ChatGPT in Data Visualization Education: A Student Perspective
Nam Wook Kim, Kwon Ko, Grace Myers, Benjamin Bach
VL/HCC 2024
Chart-LLM
Natural Language Dataset Generation Framework for Visualizations Powered by Large Language Models
Kwon Ko, Hyeon Jeon, Gwanmo Park, Dae Hyun Kim, Nam Wook Kim, Juho Kim, Jinwook Seo
CHI 2024
Zadu
Large-scale Text-to-Image Generation Models
ExGPTer
Moderating Customer Inquiries and Responses to Alleviate Stress and Reduce Emotional Dissonance of Customer Service Representatives
Kwon Ko, Kihoon Son, Hyoungwook Jin, Yoonseo Choi, Xiang Anthony Chen
CHI 2023 Generative AI and HCI Workshop
UMATO
Steadiness and Cohesiveness
Projects
Abstract Sketch to Character
Spring 2022
Convert human-drawn abstract sketch image to an anime character with varying styles