Hojune Kim

I am an incoming Master’s student at Stanford University in Aeronautics and Astronautics. Previously, I was fortunate to work at German Aerospace Center (DLR) under the supervision of Prof. Jinoh Lee. I am pursuing my B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University, where I was advised by Prof. Ayoung Kim with a focus on perception.

My research centers on robot autonomy, utilizing optimization-based approaches for perception and control. I focus on trustworthy and safe-assured solutions, supported by experimental validation, and aim to expand to cooperative robots that interact with humans.

As a project intern at ETH Zürich, I worked on distributed optimization for continuous-time SLAM and crowd navigation with reinforcement learning. I have also developed an autonomous car and quadcopter through student clubs. Furthermore, I co-organized a non-profit organization for AI education, AI Tech Play, and hosted a nationwide AI camp with an autonomous race car competition for students.

Education

1. Stanford University

   Incoming M.S. student in Aeronautics and Astronautics

   Sept. 2025 -
   Seoul National University (SNU)

   B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, summa cum laude (expected) GPA: 4.00/4.00(Major), 3.91/4.00(Overall)

   Mar. 2019 - Jun. 2025 (expected)
   ETH Zürich

   Visiting Student in Mechanical Engineering

   Feb. 2024 - Aug. 2024
   Gyeonggi Science High School for the Gifted

   1-year early admission

   Mar. 2016 - Feb. 2019

Publication

1. 

   2D Ego-Motion with Yaw Estimation using Only mmWave Radars via Two-Way weighted ICP Hojune Kim, Hyesu Jang, and Ayoung Kim ICRA Workshop Radar in Robotics 2024 [Abstract] [arXiv] [Poster]

   The interest in single-chip mmWave Radar is driven by their compact form factor, cost-effectiveness, and robustness under harsh environmental conditions. Despite its promising attributes, the principal limitation of mmWave radar lies in its capacity for autonomous yaw rate estimation. Conventional solutions have often resorted to integrating inertial measurement unit (IMU) or deploying multiple radar units to circumvent this shortcoming. This paper introduces an innovative methodology for two-dimensional ego-motion estimation, focusing on yaw rate deduction, utilizing solely mmWave radar sensors. By applying a weighted Iterated Closest Point (ICP) algorithm to register processed points derived from heatmap data, our method facilitates 2D ego-motion estimation devoid of prior information. Through experimental validation, we verified the effectiveness and promise of our technique for ego-motion estimation using exclusively radar data.

Projects

1. 

   Knowledge-enabled Adaptive Locomotion Using Semantic SLAM with Active Learning German Aerospace Center (DLR) Guest Student Researcher Recursive Estimation, Active Learning, Semantic SLAM

   Sept. 2024 - Feb. 2025
   

   Crowd Navigation with LiDAR via Reinforcement Learning Perception and Learning for Robotics graduate course project, ETH Zürich [Video] [PDF] Teacher-Student RL, LiDAR Encoding

   Mar. 2024 - Jun. 2024
   

   Distributed Optimization with Gaussian Belief Propagation for Continuous-time SLAM Vision for Robotics Lab. ETH Zürich Undergraduate Researcher [PDF] [Slides] [Code] Distributed Optimization, Continuous Time SLAM

   Feb. 2024 - Aug. 2024
   

   Display Virtual Cubes on Your Desk! Computer Vision course project, SNU [Video] [PDF] [Code] 3D Vision, Optical Flow

   Mar. 2023 - Jun. 2023
   

   Autonomous Flight Landing in Quadrotor system Bulnabi, autonomous flight drone club [Code] Motion Planning, PX4-Autopilot

   Jul. 2023 - Aug. 2023
   

   Fault Tolerant Control of Quadcopter Decision Making graduate course project, SNU [PDF] Sliding Mode Control, Backstepping Control, Feedback Linearization

   May. 2023 - Jun. 2023
   

   Thermal camera & Lidar Direct SLAM Robust Perception and Mobile Robotics Lab. SNU Undergraduate Researcher [Code] Direct SLAM, Visual-LiDAR Fusion

   Mar. 2023 - May. 2023
   

   Modeling and Making Multimodal Sensor system Robust Perception and Mobile Robotics Lab. SNU Undergraduate Researcher Design and Manufacture, Multi-sensor Join Calibration

   Jan. 2023 - Feb. 2023
   

   Organized AI Camp and Autonomous Race Car Competition for 200+ Nationwide Students AI Tech Play, non-profit organization for AI education Co-organizer, Hardware Team Leader [Website] [Youtube] Design and Manufacture, Motor Control, Software Integration

   Feb. 2021 - Aug. 2021
   

   Real-time Flood Monitoring System by SAR Satellite Image Satellite Geophysics Lab. SNU Undergraduate Researcher [Website] Semantic Segmentation, System Automation

   Aug. 2020 - Dec. 2020

Awards

1. 

   1st Place, IEEE Humanoids 2024 Adult-sized Biped Walk Competition German Aerospace Center (DLR) Humanoid TORO Team [Video] [Website] Torque Control, Motion Planning, Divergent Component of Motion

   Nov. 2024
   

   Minister of National Defense Award, Minister of Defense Startup Competition Addit, Start-up Co-Founder [Video] [News] [Extension] Web Programming, UI/UX Design, Enterprise

   Feb. 2022
   

   Gold Prize, International Student Car Competition Autonomous Driving Sector SNU ZERO, autonomous driving car club Sensor Technician [Video] EKF-SLAM, LiDAR-Camera Fusion, Clustering

   Oct. 2021

Honors

1. Korea-Germany Junior Research Fellowship Support Max Planck POSTECH/KOREA

   Sept. 2024
   Global Leadership Program Scholarship Seoul National University

   Feb. 2024
   Certificate of Appreciation (AI Tech Play) Deans, College of Engineering in Seoul National University

   Jun. 2021
   Kwanjeong Undergraduate Scholarship Kwanjeong Educational Foundation

   Mar. 2021
   Undergraduate Research Internship Scholarship Seoul National University

   Mar. 2021

Patent

1. Parking Location Tracking System [KR102291377B1] Hojune Kim, Taekin Kim, Jinhwan Na, Jaeyoung Lee, Seunghwan Jeong

   2021

Personal Activties

1. 

   CH-47D Helicopter Flight Attendant Republic of Korea Army [News] Wild Fire Extinguishment, Helicopter Maintenance, Tactical missions

   Aug. 2021 - Feb. 2023
   

   Street Dancer Hoofers in SNU(H.I.S.) [Video] Locking, Popping Dance

   Mar. 2019 - Aug. 2021