Program Book 2021

Committee

Soolyeon Cho Host KSEA President

SPONSORED BY

SUPPORTED BY

Table of Contents

Opening Remarks…………………………………………………..………………………………….…………3

Welcoming Remarks………………………….………………………………………………………………...4

Congratulatory Remarks……………………………………………………………………………….………5

Keynote Speech…………………………………………………………………………………………..….……6

Committee…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7

Program At a Glance………………………………………………………………………………………….…8

KSEA STEP-UP 2021 Program…………………………………………………………………………...….9

Abstract and Biography………………………………………………………………………………………14

UKC 2021…………………………………………………………………………………………………………...33

KOFST………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...34

Opening Remarks

Hello STEP-UP participants: On behalf of the STEP-UP 2021 Committee, I welcome you to the 2nd KSEA STEP-UP. It is our great pleasure to be able to hold this exciting event in the hybrid format, virtually and in person in Los Angeles, California, as we are overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. We thank all of you for being with us today. While the STEP-UP event was initially aimed to promote and enrich the KSEA members’ entrepreneurship and to discuss the success of their current and future innovative ventures, the KSEA leadership decided to extend our invitation to our dear entrepreneurs, scientists, and engineers in Korea with the belief that we can enhance the possibility and quality of success if we partner with them for mutual benefits. We expect to have about 50 from Korea and 150 from the US with us in STEO-UP 2021. We want to achieve the following with KSEA STEP-UP: - Boost the possibility of success of innovative ventures of KSEA scholars, researchers, and young generations by providing them with essential knowledge and experience needed in starting new endeavors with their novel ideas. - Establish a platform for sharing strategies and ideas to accelerate the growth with risk mitigation for small to medium enterprises (SME) and venture companies. - Build a new ecosystem of Korean-American ventures by inducing collaborations among KSEA members, entrepreneurs, lawyers, marketers, and related experts. - Provide Korean startups and SMEs with the opportunity to set up a partnership with KSEA members, professional managers, investors, lawyers, and marketers in scientific and high-tech fields. While STEP-UP 2021 focuses on the fields of data, network, and artificial intelligence (D.N.A.), it covers PARTNERSHIPS among various stakeholders in all scientific and technological fields. We plan to keep finding new fields of focus as we discussed biotech and healthcare in the 1st STEP-UP in September 2020. We will continuously strive to develop the STEP-UP program to a KSEA’s core program that makes direct impacts to the success of Korean and Korean-American startups and SME’s and is available all year-long. The STEP-UP 2021 has many supporters. First, I would like to thank the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies (KOFST) for providing funds that allowed us to host this hybrid program today, and KITEE, SoCal K Group, and INNOPOLIS for helping us with the preparation. I also express my deep gratitude to Consul General Dr. Park, Kyung Jae for supporting KSEA programs in the greater Los Angeles area including the STEP-UP event today. Lastly, my sincere thanks go to the invited speakers and the co-chairs and members of the STEP-UP Committee who made this event possible. For the next four days, please enjoy the informative, inspiring talks and find and network with people that you need to partner with for your success. With gratitude, Kyeong Ho Yang, Ph.D. KSEA STEP-UP Chair

Welcoming Remarks

Dear KSEA members and participants of STEP-UP 2021,

Welcome to the STEP-UP 2021 conference! I am very pleased to have this hybrid event for the KSEA members and those who are interested in the subject. This is our 2nd time offering the STEP-UP conference in the 2020-2021 year. The first event was held in September of last year, with a focus on bio ventures. This time we will cover IT, AI, and Data Sciences with the title of “Starting and Scaling Up Data, Network, AI (D.N.A) Ventures.” The goal of this conference is to promote and enrich KSEA members’ entrepreneurship and discuss the success of innovative ventures, especially in the fields of data science and A.I.

I am very grateful that we have such a great group of people who are so enthusiastic and dedicated to the preparation of the event. I really appreciate the STEP-UP committee chair Dr. Kyong Ho Yang, co-Chairs, and the committee members for their tireless efforts in making this event possible. I have no doubt that the KSEA members and participants will have a great time and experience many new things at this event. It offers an excellent opportunity for all participants to get connected and network with one another through both the online platform (Whova) and in-person meetings at Hyatt Regency Long Beach in California.

For this event, we have invited excellent speakers to share their field experiences and offer advice to entrepreneurs in both starting and scaling up stages. Mr. Tae Hae Nahm, Esq., co-founding managing director of Storm Ventures, will give a keynote speech with the title “How can a Startup Leverage Breakthrough Technology?” I look forward to hearing his words of wisdom on the topic of leveraging state- of-the-art technologies that start-ups can utilize to make their businesses successful. There will also be numerous other excellent field professionals who will speak at this conference throughout a duration of four days.

I am excited for the opportunity that all participants, including myself, will have to learn a lot from this conference. The format will be hybrid, so we will connect with one another via the Whova platform, as well as in-person at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach. As we all know, networking is one of the most important things in business. I hope you can all form new relationships and expand your professional network through this conference. I look forward to seeing you all there.

Sincerely,

Soolyeon Cho, Ph.D. President, KSEA

Congratulatory Remarks

The Honorable Dr. Soolyeon Cho, President of the KSEA, distinguished participants and ladies and gentlemen.

On behalf of the Korean Consulate General in LA, I would like to extend my warm greeting to all of you, Korean and Korean-American scholars, students and industry professionals. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the Chair of 2021 STEP-UP Conference, Dr. Kyeong Ho Yang and all of the other coordinators for their hard work making this event possible.

Korean Consulate General in LA has been supporting and collaborating with the KSEA for many years. Recently, we worked together to make the 2021 National Math Competition successful in this April. We also supported several events such as 2019 Ygnite, 2020 National Math & Science competitions, etc. We will support and promote actively future events such as KSEA 2021 Space Science Camp.

We believe that Data, Network and Artificial Intelligence (D.N.A) are the most important factors in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Therefore, this conference is very meaningful at this point. In this KSEA 2021 STEP-UP, you will discuss technology entrepreneurship which remains an essential key to the success of innovative ventures, especially D.N.A. fields and their application.

In this respect, I hope that all of you who attend here today will contribute not only to strengthening the scientific knowledge but also to the economies of both Korea and the United States through your on-going research effort in D.N.A fields.

Korean Consulate General will vigorously support Korean small and medium-sized venture companies in the fields of D.N.A to enter the U.S. market, and actively help KSEA members start their business in Korea cooperating with local and central governments.

I look forward to meeting you all during the STEP-UP Conference.

Thank you.

Park, Kyung Jae, Ed.D. Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles.

Keynote Speech

HOW CAN A STARTUP LEVERAGE BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY?

TAE HEA NAHM, ESQ. Co-founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures

Biography

Tae Hea co-founded Storm Ventures, a VC firm investing in B2B start-ups, in Menlo Park, California. He also co-authored Survival to Thrival, which demystifies how to build enterprise startups. He is an adjunct professor at KAIST. He is a frequent speaker on Building Enterprise Leaders.

At Storm Ventures, he was the founding CEO and investor in Airespace which was later sold to Cisco for $450m. Storm exits include Berkana (Qualcomm), Com2uS (Korean IPO), EchoSign (Adobe), Marketo (IPO/Vista), MetaCloud (Cisco), RallyTeam (Workday), Sandforce (LSI Logic), Sierra Monolithics (Semtech) and Silego (Dialog). Current Storm investments include Algolia, BlueShift, Haegin, MobileIron (IPO), Pipedrive, Salesloft, Sendoso, solarisBank, Splashtop, Talkdesk, Team Blind, Tekion and Workato.

Prior to Storm, Tae Hea was an attorney specializing in startups as a founding partner of Venture Law Group and partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Tae Hea majored in Applied Mathematics at Harvard and likes building models and playing simulation games. He also has a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. He was born in Seoul, Korea.

Committee

HOST CHAIR

Soolyeon Cho Kyeong Ho Yang KSEA President KITEE President

ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM TECHNICAL PROGRAM PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM CO-CHAIR CO-CHAIR CO-CHAIR

IL Minn Jeho Park Kevin Kim KSEA Entrepreneurship Director, Claremont McKenna College SoCal K-Group President JHU

FUNDRAISING PROGRAM CO-CHAIR ADVISOR FINANCE DIRECTOR

Tae Heum Jeong Jun-Seok Oh Hyojin Kim Managing Partner, KSV Global KSEA Entrepreneurship TF Chair Associate Professor, NJIT Innovations ONLINE PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR IT DIRECTOR LOCAL ARRANGEMENT DIRECTOR

Jayoung Kim Chris Lee Albert Kim Professor, UCLA Communications Director, KITEE Assistant Professor, Temple University ON-SITE LOCAL ARRANGEMENT DIRECTOR PUBLICATION DIRECTOR YP DIRECTOR & SECRETARY

Stella Kim Jun Woo Jeon DK Kim Technical Program Manager, Medical Student, Univ. of Senior Data Scientist, Discover Data Service Company Pennsylvania Financial Services

SUPPORTING STAFF Administration Support Finance Management Website Management Euna Yoon Kelly Han Katie Park KSEA Administrative Manager KSEA Finance Manager KSEA IT Manager

Program At a Glance

Time in Eastern Time

SUNDAY, June 13, 2021

20:00 – 20:55 Opening

20:55 – 21:00 Coffee Break

Session A: Academic Entrepreneurship 21:00 – 23:00 Session B: Entering the US Market

MONDAY, June 14, 2021 19:30 – 21:20 D.N.A. Technologies and Applications 21:20 – 21:30 Coffee Break 21:30 – 22:30 Entrepreneurs in D.N.A 22:30 ~ 23:30 Networking Session

TUESDAY, June 15, 2021 20:00 – 22:00 IP Strategy and the Law 22:00 – 22:10 Coffee Break 22:10 – 23:00 Special Session: Investment

WEDNESDAY, June 16, 2021 20:00 – 22:00 Fundraising for D.N.A. Startups 22:00 – 22:10 Coffee Break 22:10 – 22:30 Closing 22:30 ~ 23:30 Networking Session

2021 PROGRAM

STEP-UP 2021 Program

Time in Eastern Time SUNDAY, June 13, 2021

20:00 – 20:55 Opening - Moderator: Jayoung Kim Opening Remarks Kyeong Ho Yang, Ph.D., STEP-UP Chair Welcoming Remarks Soolyeon Cho, Ph.D., KSEA President Congratulatory Remarks Park, Kyung Jae, Ed.D., Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles Keynote Speech “How can a startup leverage breakthrough technology?”, Tae Hea Nahm, Esq., Co-founding Managing Director of Storm Ventures

20:55 – 21:00 Coffee Break

21:00 – 23:00 SESSION A: Academic Entrepreneurship - Moderator: IL Minn 21:00 – 21:40 “The Creative Startup: Building a brand with creativity”, Jessie Oh, Facebook 21:40 – 22:20 “Translational Research Funding Programs at NSF”, Henry Ahn, National Science Foundation 22:20 – 23:00 “Interdisciplinary research for innovation and entrepreneurship”, Bonggun Shin, Ph.D., Deargen Inc.

SESSION B: Entering the US Market Moderator: Kevin Kim 21:00 – 21:30 “Collaboration with Korean-American Professionals to Effectively Enter the US Market”, Kyeong Ho Yang, Ph.D., KITEE President 21:30 – 22:15 “Strategy in Entering the US Market”, Steve Chung, President, Hitrons Solutions Inc. 22:15 – 23:00 “Entering the US Market: Things to Prepare for Custom Clearance and Trade”, Sungsoo Son, Consul and Customs Attache at the LA Consulate General

STEP-UP 2021 Program

MONDAY, June 14, 2021

19:30 – 21:20 D.N.A. Technologies and Applications - Moderator: Dong Yeob Kim 19:30 – 20:00 "Opportunity of Big Data AI in Korea-US", Jongwook Woo, Professor, Computer Information Systems Dept., California State University, Los Angeles 20:00 – 20:30 "Speech Processing and Applications", Jangwon Kim, Ph.D., Applied Scientist, Amazon 20:30 – 21:00 "D.N.A. Applications for Business", Woosuk Chang, Chief Digital Officer, Riiid Labs 21:00 – 21:20 Q/A & Panel Discussion

21:20 – 21:30 Coffee Break

21:30 – 22:30 Entrepreneurs in D.N.A - Moderator: Jeho Park 21:30 – 22:00 “How To Use DoD SBIR Program To Kickstart Your Dream Deeptech Startup: Lessons from the 10-year Journey of EpiSci", Bo Ryu, Ph.D., President, EpiSys Science, Inc. 22:00 – 22:30 “Hyprsense: Leader in real-time facial animation technology”, Jihun Yu, (formerly) Co-Founder and CEO at Hyprsense, now at Epic Games

22:30 ~ 23:59 Networking Banquet - Moderator: Stella Kim Congratulatory Speech Dr. Kyung Jae Park, Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles Congratulatory Speech Dr. Myung Jong Lee, KSEA 42nd President and Chair of the KSEA SME Committee Dinner and Networking

STEP-UP 2021 Program

TUESDAY, June 15, 2021

20:00 – 22:00 IP Strategy and the Law - Moderator: Jin Ah Lee 20:00 – 20:40 “Starting a U.S. Service Business: from Incorporation to Taxation”, Byoung Jo Kang, Esq. CPA., B.J. Kang Law, PC. 20:40 – 21:20 “Patents for cross border companies”, Janice H. Logan, Ph.D., J.D., Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. 21:20 – 22:00 “IP Options for D.N.A. startups”, J.J. Kim, Esq., Managing Partner, ACI Law Group

22:00 – 22:10 Coffee Break

22:10 – 23:00 Investment (Special session) - Moderator: Kyeong Ho Yang 22:10 – 23:00 “My career experiment: Intro to an investment activity group (FELIX)”, Nathan Byun, Honeywell

STEP-UP 2021 Program

WEDNESDAY, June 16, 2021

20:00 – 22:00 Fundraising for D.N.A. Startups - Moderator: Tae Heum Jeong, Managing Partner, KSV Global Innovations 20:00 – 20:20 “Fundraising experience: Crowdfunding strategy”, Hansol Hong, CEO of Robolink 20:20 – 20:40 “Investment landscape in D.N.A. fields”, Kiha Lee, Managing Partner, Primer Sazze Partners 20:40 – 21:00 “Investment options for cross-border startups”, John Nahm, Managing Partner, Strong Ventures 21:00 – 22:00 Investor Panel Discussion - Tae Heum Jeong, Managing Partner, KSV Global Innovations - John Nahm, Managing Partner, Strong Ventures - Kiha Lee, Managing Partner, Primer Sazze Partners - Hansol Hong, CEO of Robolink

22:00 – 22:10 Coffee Break

22:10 – 22:30 Closing - Moderator: Hyojin Kim Raffle KSEA Announcement Brian Park, Ph.D., KSEA President-Elect Closing Remarks Kyeong Ho Yang, Ph.D., STEP-UP Chair

22:30 ~ 23:30 Networking Session

Abstract and Biography

The Creative Startup: Building a brand with creativity

JESSIE OH Creative Strategist, Facebook

Abstract

Tech brands have always been pioneers of social media content strategy. Their innovative tactics and creative storytelling combined with resonating visuals have garnered devoted fans.

Let's examine the world of today's tech companies and how they leverage content creation to build their brand presence and community on social media. We'll examine best-in-class examples from leading brands and discuss strategies implemented. This session will give you a foundational understanding of content creation in today’s social mediascape and inspire you to establish your own.

Biography

Jessie Oh is a creative strategist at Facebook and executes creative vision for the top Fortune 500 US tech brands. Over the course of a decade, Jessie has built integrated advertising campaigns for companies of all sizes ranging from early-stage startups to some of the largest known Korean conglomerates. Today, Jessie leads creative innovation for leading B2B and B2C tech brands, inspiring companies to build their brand voice and personality through creativity.

Translational Research Funding Programs at NSF

HENRY AHN Program Director, SBIR/STTR National Science Foundation

Abstract

This talk aims to provide an overview of technology transfer (in general) and translational funding programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF). NSF is primarily a funding agency with an annual budget of approximately $8.3B. Within NSF, the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships focuses on promoting translational research to bring technical innovation to marketplace. Transferring technologies from the public/private sector and raising capital to continue the work are essential for a successful startup. This talk will discuss technology transfer from research labs to marketplace as well as translational research funding programs at NSF including Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR), Innovation Corps (I-Corps), and Partnership for Innovation (PFI).

Biography

Henry joined the National Science Foundation in July 2016 as an SBIR/STTR Program Director. Prior to joining NSF, Henry managed seed/early stage investment programs for TEDCO for 12 years including Technology Commercialization Fund, TEDCO’s flagship seed funding program for technology-based companies in Maryland. During his time at TEDCO, Henry was actively involved with various entrepreneurs and entrepreneur support groups as a guest speaker, an advisory board member, a judge, a mentor, among others. Additionally, Henry was part of the licensing/supplier relations team at a biotechnology company called Upstate, where he successfully negotiated, licensed and commercialized approximately 190 biomedical research reagents from around the world. Henry has also done approximately five years of research, mostly in the field of immunology (including graduate work). Henry has an MBA from Rice University, an M.S. in biotechnology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Boston University.

Interdisciplinary research for innovation and entrepreneurship

BONGGUN SHIN, PHD Founder & Chief AI Officer at Deargen Inc.

Abstract

The purpose of this talk is to encourage prospective entrepreneurs who are in academic fields to take the next step by showing how academic research can be linked to entrepreneurship. This lecture contains an autobiographical story of Dr. Shin and will cover how innovations were achieved through interdisciplinary research and how these innovations were led to founding a start-up. As a trailer, Dr. Shin started his graduate research in computer science, especially natural language processing at the beginning of his Ph.D. program. After interning at one of the biotech companies, he was fascinated by the interdisciplinary research between computer science and biology. This passion led to set up his thesis topic as deep learning-based drug discovery, which eventually became the technical foundation of his startup.

Biography

Dr. Bonggun Shin is a chief artificial intelligence officer and a co-founder of Deargen Inc. He authored not only deep learning papers but also bio-application papers. Among them, the COVID-19 related paper was recognized for its prediction on Remdesivir as a promising drug candidate even before the pandemic. Dr. Shin received his doctorate and master’s degree in computer science from Emory University. He also received his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). His research interest includes machine learning (ML), healthcare, and drug discovery.

Collaboration with Korean-American Professionals To Effectively Enter the US Market

KYEONG HO YANG Founder & President, Korean-American Innovative Technology Engineers and Entrepreneurs (KITEE) Co-chair, KSEA Entrepreneurship Task Force

Abstract

This talk aims to promote and encourage Korean Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in scientific and high-tech fields to collaborate with Korean-American professionals when they pursue growing their businesses in the US market. With the global trend of actively founding startups and fostering entrepreneurship, the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA) and its thirty-one (31) Affiliated Professional Societies (APS) have also been striving to find ways to support startups and SMEs founded by Koreans and Korean-Americans, in collaboration with other Korean-Americans in various areas. This talk will review what KSEA and its APS’s have recently done to help Korean companies and also specific programs we plan to execute in the 2nd half of this year and upcoming years to make direct impact to the growth of Korean SMEs in the US market, often partnering with Korean government agencies.

Biography

Dr. Kyeong Ho Yang is a technologist and innovator in the fields of video processing, multimedia systems, and data science with about 30 years of R&D, product development, and management experience at companies of various sizes from startups to large R&D labs like Bell Laboratories. He published over 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conferences and holds over 35 U.S. patents. He is also an entrepreneur who cofounded multiple technology startups in multimedia communications and services. Recent years, Dr. Yang has been very active in advising and mentoring startup CEOs through KITEE that he founded in 2015 to promote and help the transformation of Korean-American technologists to technology entrepreneurs. KITEE meets monthly online or offline to provide its members with opportunities to exchange ideas and support for the revolution of ideas to business opportunities. KITEE also promotes collaboration among US and Korean startups and has mentored 80+ Korean startups for the past 5 years. His current focus in business is an international collaboration among the US, Korea, and Ghana for great benefits to those in the African continent. He received his B.E., M.S., and Ph.D. in Electronics Engineering from Seoul National University.

Strategy in Entering the US Market

STEVE CHUNG President, Hiltrons Solutions Inc

Abstract

This talk aims to promote and encourage Korean Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in general to market their products to US major retailers and business partners. After Covid-19 broke out, the market environment changed so significantly that SMEs should learn how to adjust their stance to this kind of changes. As more than 20 US major retailers’ vendor, marketing experience and sales strategy would be shared in this session.

Biography

Steve Chung is a Marketing Specialist and consultant in the field of Marketing, PR, Advertising, Promotion, Trade show, Sales and Sourcing. As President of Cheil Communication America Inc., which is the marketing and advertising affiliate company of the Samsung Group, he performed significant tasks for Samsung Group such as Global Brand Management of Samsung Group: Marketing & Promoting Samsung Consumer Electronics Division, Digital Products, Implementing Samsung Corporate Identity Project with L&M in USA, Developing and Executing Samsung Group’s Global Marketing Plan, , Implementing Samsung Electronics America Booth in CE shows, Executing Global Push carts advertising in 53 international Airports, Purchasing Nobel Prize Sponsorship for Samsung Group and Executing Samsung Giant LED in Time Square. Since 2008, he served Hitrons Solutions Inc. (”HSI”) as CEO and President. HIS is the importer and distributor of Korea’s most innovative and smartest products in North America. Many of our products are unique, patented, and competitive. HSI goes through a rigorous process of incubation, marketing, promotion, and sales in order to provide the smartest Korean products to customers, such as Wal-Mart, Bed Bath Beyond, The Home Depot, Lowes, Target, Canadian Tire, Menards, Sams Club, Costco, Sears, Toys R Us, and other top U.S. 100 retailers.

How to begin an international trade

SUNGSOO SON Korean consul and Customs attaché in Los Angeles

Abstract

This talk aims to share information and experience of international trade to the webinar participants who are preparing a new business. It will deliver various trade-related issues such as import-export clearance, import requirement, logistics, e-commerce, Free Trade Agreement, etc. And also there will be Q&A time for any subjects regarding international trade.

Biography

Mr. Son currently serves as a Korean consul and Customs attache in Los Angeles. He is in charge of trade and economic issues in his office. He held various seminars for helping Korean business community in LA and has consulted many international corporations for doing business in Korea as well as US. Mr. Son graduated from the economics department of Seoul National University and the public policy department of Rutgers University graduate school. And he began her public career in the Korea Customs Service in 2001. Prior to her current position, he worked as Director of Audit Policy Division, Corporate Audit Division, FTA Cooperation Division, Origin Verification Division, and Foreign Exchange Investigation Division of the headquarter of Korea Customs Service.

Opportunity of Big Data AI in Korea-USA

JONGWOOK WOO Full Professor, Department of Information Systems, California State University, Los Angeles (CalStateLA) [email protected]

Abstract

In this talk, I share the experience to run the Big Data AI business in Korea

Biography

Dr Jongwook Woo received his Ph.D from USC and went Yonsei University. He is a Professor at CIS Department of California State University Los Angeles and has served as a Teradata Academic Ambassador, a president at KSEA-SC, a Council Member of IBM Spark Technology Center, and a Technical Advisor of Isaac Engineering. He has consulted companies in Hollywood: CitySearch, ARM, E!, Warner Bros, SBC Interactive. He published more than 70 papers and his research interests include Big Data AI Analysis and Prediction. He awards Teradata TUN faculty Scholarship and received grants for distributed deep learning and Big Data from NRF of Korea, Amazon, IBM, Oracle, MicroSoft and partnered with Intel, Databricks, Cloudera, Hortonworks, SAS, QlikView, Tableau. He is a founder of Hemosoo Inc and The Big Link. He was invited as an invited speaker to more than 20 events, and as a keynote speaker at Open Innovation Network I-CON 2019, The 14th Asia Pacific International Conference on Information Science and Technology 2019, Conference of Korea Society of Computer and Information 2017.

Speech Processing and Applications

JANGWON KIM Applied Scientist, Amazon

Abstract

Speech signal is a source of various and rich information of complex knowledge, subtle meaning, and the state of speaker. In this talk, Jangwon will discuss information in speech, processing the information, and their applications in HCI, security, education, and healthcare. This talk includes high-level description of speech processing, speech representation, prediction, and existing applications. Jangwon will present state of the art speech and language technologies as well as various issues and challenges in research and development in industry.

Biography

Jangwon Kim is a research/applied scientist in multimodal signal processing, speech processing and language processing. His interests include Healthcare AI, robust Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), affective computing, human-computer interface, computational paralinguistics, security, and defense. He finished his PhD at USC in 2015 and worked as a speech scientist at Cobalt Speech and Language for a year. From 2017 to March 2019, he worked as VP of Research at Canary Speech, where he developed machine learning and speech processing technology for healthcare applications. From 2019 to 2020, he was an applied scientist at Amazon Alexa, and he developed robust speech recognition models for English and Japanese. He is now an applied scientist at Amazon Care, working on healthcare AI, specifically ASR, NLP, NLU, and search.

D.N.A. Applications for Business

WOOSUK CHANG Chief Digital Officer, Riiid Labs Executive In Residence, Plug and Play Tech Center Tech and Business Advisor, Mentor and Innovator

Abstract

Learn more about Riiid Labs, where he works, and Riiid's educational AI solution, which recently invested $175M from Softbank. You can hear stories about the trap of AI technology and important data in how to connect it to business, as well as stories that can be referenced in constructing the entire system. In addition, based on the experiences of startup mentors and advisors over the past 8 years, he will share things to keep in mind when starting a startup and helpful stories for Korean startups especially.

Biography

Woosuk Chang currently works as a Chief Digital Officer and Head of Engineering for Riiid Labs, an AIEd Industry company with a mission to address global educational inequality through AI technology. As a software engineer for more than 20 years, he has been leading product development and Innovation R&D projects for many years. Based on his experience with three startups, he meets startups around the world to help set the direction of business for Technical Evaluation and Industry. Panasonic was responsible for technology in the new business development department, creating business synergies with many corporate partners, and leading innovation projects with startups. In addition, he worked with various VC networks for a long time to discover new technologies and invest in promising startups at Panasonic Venture Group. With both technology and business and investment experience, Woosuk has a special ability to train and grow startups that support programs for business partners who need to develop new businesses and challenge new markets. As the first corporate partner of the Plug and Play Tech Center over the past eight years, he has a wide range of industry experience and advises for the International team branch by planning programs together and signing various vertical programs. In addition, he has worked with the Plug and Play Team on several pilot projects with the University Research Lab and has recently worked with the International University Program development. Currently, he is interested in working with the Local Government on the Smart City Project. The school joined an outstanding IT company while conducting a master's degree at POSTECH in Korea and has been working in the IT Industry until now.

How To Use DoD SBIR Program To Kickstart Your Dream Deeptech Startup: Lessons from the 10-year Journey of EpiSci

BO RYU Founder & President, EpiSys Science, Inc. (“EpiSci”)

Abstract

In this talk, I will share my personal journey (lessons, regrets, and future) of starting a dream startup 9 years ago through DoD SBIR program, and how we grew from a single-person company to 30+ people and annual revenue close to $10M. For the last decade, the SBIR program in general, and DoD SBIR in particular, has changed dramatically. I see tremendous potential for Korean-American scientists and engineers to tap into this program and achieve their dream startups realized with minimum mistakes. As part of this talk, I will share an example of the DARPA program AlphaDogfight and how it compares to self-driving car AI/ML approach.

Biography

Dr. Bo Ryu has over 25 years of experience as Principal Investigator and Program Manager for high-risk, high-payoff Research and Development (R&D) projects valued over $100M sponsored by the US Department of Defense (DoD) and National Aeronautical Space Agency (NASA). Prior to starting EpiSci, he served in various technical positions at HRL Laboratories, Argon ST, and Boeing with responsibilities for spearheading internal research projects, pursuing new government programs and performing various government and industry-sponsored projects. He has authored and co-authored more than 40 publications and holds 15 US and 2 international patents. He received his PhD from Columbia University. During 2014-2016, he served as President for President, TeK One (also known as Korean-American Society of Technology Entrepreneurship, or KASTE, http://tekone.org) aimed at promoting technology-based Korean-American start-ups.

In 2012, he founded EpiSys Science, Inc. (EpiSci) with three other co-founders, a technology start-up and a multidisciplinary innovation company that develops next generation autonomous technologies for defense, aerospace, and commercial applications. Founded in 2012, we draw upon years of research and development efforts from DARPA, NASA, Army CERDEC, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and Office of Naval Research (ONR) among others. To date, EpiSci has received over $21M in R&D and system development projects from various DoD agencies and large system integrators aimed to utilize the full synergy our cross-disciplinary technologies. EpiSci holds approximately 4,000 sq. ft office and laboratory spaces in San Diego, CA, and an AI research lab in Seoul, Korea.

Hyprsense : Leader in real-time facial animation technology

DR. JIHUN YU CEO & Co-Founder, Hyprsense Director of Engineering, Epic Games

Abstract

This talk will follow the path of the speaker to his journey of starting a tech startup as an engineer, becoming an entrepreneur to build a cutting edge technology and connect it with the business opportunities and growing the company into a leader in facial animation technology in the gaming and entertainment industry.

Biography

Jihun Yu is an entrepreneur and leading innovator in the fields of AI and computer graphics with his career at Lucasfilm, Hyprsense and Epic games as engineer, entrepreneur and management experience. He developed the core facial technology at Industrial Light and Magic to realize realistic facial motions of digital characters in the movies. With the rise of Virtual and Augmented Reality, He founded a technology startup in Silicon Valley with a mission to democratize the best real-time facial motion capture solution to light up animation of 3D avatars and digital humans. He joined Epic games along with the Hyprsense team in 2020 when Epic games acquired the technology of Hypersense. At Epic games, he partners closely with Epic’s core tech team to bring the users closer to the Metaverse. He obtained his Ph.D in Computer Science from New York University and his Bachelor of Science in Physics from Seoul National University.

Starting a U.S. Business: from Incorporation to Taxation: International corporate tax lawyer’s perspective on cross-border business transactions

BYOUNG JO KANG Esq., CPA Founder and President of B.J. Kang Law, PC

Abstract

As an international corporate and tax lawyer, Attorney Kang will discuss what international entrepreneurs need to understand to properly engage in cross-border transactional matters, which often implicate international and domestic business laws, immigration regulations, intellectual property laws, and a myriad of tax laws. This presentation and discussion will include: (1) pre-incorporation considerations and advice pertaining to proper business structure, jurisdictional location, and common early-stage agreements (e.g. founders’ agreements); (2) initial incorporation matters spanning entity selection to corporate records management; (3) employment practice matters and issues in the context of business immigration and U.S. immigration laws; (4) developing, building, and/or acquiring assets, including intellectual property rights; (5) the financing process spanning angel investor rounds to venture capital investments; and, finally, (6) management and compliance advice related to international, federal, and state regulatory and compliance considerations. Attorney Kang’s session is not intended as an introduction to these critical subjects; instead, actual or sample cases/examples will be presented to attendees so that can learn to identify and explore a myriad of fundamental issues relevant to cross- border transactions. This way, attendees can be better positioned to identify and avoid, and subsequently reduce associated risks that stem from, costly mistakes commonly made by international entrepreneurs engaging in cross-border planning and business/transactions.

Biography

Mr. Byoung Jo Kang is a business/corporate attorney with expertise in U.S. federal and state income tax law. Attorney Kang often represents domestic business entities, international businesses, U.S. taxpayers living and working abroad, and foreign taxpayers living and working in the United States. Mr. Kang regularly advises high-net-worth U.S. and foreign individuals and families, multinational companies, and nonprofit entities in connection with U.S. income tax issues. Mr. Kang frequently represents both domestic and foreign biotech, life sciences, and healthcare companies. Mr. Kang assists these entities with a wide variety of issues, primarily including formation to financing; federal and state regulatory matters affecting operations; and M&A negotiations and transactional matters.

Prior to establishing B.J. Kang Law, PC, Mr. Kang worked as an Attorney for Flott & Co., served as the Director of Finance and Administration for the National Communication Association, and as both the Controller and Vice President for the Middle East Institute (2007-2010). During much of this time, Attorney Kang practiced as an Enrolled Agent, for eight years (2004-2012), in front of the Internal Revenue Service. Prior to coming to the United States, Mr. Kang co-founded one of the first online education companies in South Korea (2000).

U.S. Patents for Cross-Border Companies

JANICE H. LOGAN, PH.D. Partner, Morgan Lewis 1111 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, DC 20004 +1.202.739.5234

Abstract

This talk will focus on U.S. patent prosecution strategies. Specifically, we will discuss patenting strategies under the unique U.S. patent eligibility, written description and enablement requirements that are different from the rest of the world. We will also review how to patent digital therapy that uses artificial intelligence under the current U.S. patent eligibility standards. Tips to draft U.S. claim language and strong office action responses will be discussed as well.

Biography

Janice (Lee) Logan brings an extensive science and engineering background to her intellectual property law practice, focusing primarily on biotechnology, chemistry, and materials engineering matters. She guides clients through complex patent procurement and patent litigation matters, and handles patent portfolio management and development. She also manages due diligence for intellectual property asset transactions. Janice is fluent in Korean and Japanese.

Prior to entering legal practice, Janice developed bio-synthetic hybrid polymer materials and stem cell coculture systems for musculoskeletal tissue engineering as her Ph.D. studies and her dissertation research focused on stem cell differentiation in 3D hydrogel environments. She also has published various articles and is an inventor of several patent and patent applications in the field.

Georgetown University Law Center, 2010, J.D. Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, 2007, Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering Cornell University, 2002, B.S., Materials Science and Engineering, Magna Cum Laude

Legal mindsets for C-Suite Executives

J.J. KIM Esq. Managing Partner, ACI Law Group

Abstract

Startup entrepreneurs will encounter legal disputes in their journey. This presentation will provide C-Suite members why they need to have basic legal mindsets to be a winner instead of a loser in legal disputes between tech companies. Topics will include:

- 5 intellectual property strategy for Technology Startups - One sentence you need to keep in technology company contract. - Understanding discovery process (managing your Kakao Talk Messages) - Lesson from IP Litigation (LG Chem v. SK Innovation)

Biography

J.J. Kim is a founding partner at ACI Law Group. His practice is focused on international trade, customs, transportation & intellectual property law. He represents clients before U.S Customs and Border Protection, USPTO, USTR and International Trade Commission, as well as the Court of International Trade and various other federal and state courts and agencies which regulates the flow of goods, addressing issues such as governance and compliance; valuation and admissibility of goods; regulatory audits and investigation; anti-grey market, intellectual property rights (Trademarks, copyrights and patents; ITC exclusion orders); trade remedies, penalties, seizures and liquidated damages cases; cargo claims; country of origin marking; free trade agreements; international contracts; international litigation and alternative dispute resolution. Mr. Kim also handles commercial business disputes and historically was involved in the firm’s international trade and transportation practice, where he handled disputes of all kinds, including employment cases in both court and labor board. In addition, he has been involved in numerous high-value business cases over the course of his career and successfully represented Korean conglomerate. He is the author of numerous articles on international trade issues.

Professional and Civic Affiliation (Partial listing):

- Director of Foreign Trade Association - Former President of Korean American Chamber of Commerce of Orange County - Advisor, World OKTA (Overseas Korean Trade Association) - Advisor, Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency - Advisor, Korean Consul General in Los Angeles

My career experiment: Introduction to an investment activity group (FELIX)

NATHAN BYUN Sr. Advanced Robotics Test Engineer at Honeywell

Abstract

There was a tremendous interest in investment last 12 months, started from stock market, then cryptocurrency more recently, as spending behavior changed and the value of cash dropped after the COVID-19 outbreak. However, opinions on investment are always polarized because there are always people who make money, people who lose money and bystanders at the same time regardless of types of the investment.

To demystify investing, I'd like to share my story of more than a decade long stock trading experience, then introduce an investment activity group, FELIX - a sandbox where people can try investment for free, share the knowledge and profit, do research and discussion together.

Google form sign-up for the group is available here: https://forms.gle/287uCbsGuykhYpM17

Biography

Nathan has 10 years of combined experience with diverse domain in automotive, logistics, robotics industry and startup. He also has a passive side job as a stock trader since 2009.

B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology Quality Improvement Specialist at Hyundai Motor (HMMA) Founder at Fluxity (Startup) Sr. Software Test Engineer (Contract) at Tech Mahindra Americas Sr. Advanced Test Engineer at Honeywell (SPS-IGS)

Fundraising experience: Crowdfunding strategy

HANSOL HONG CEO & Co-Founder, Robolink

Abstract

Have you ever thought about launching a new product through crowdfunding? Is crowdfunding the right fundraising tool for you? What does it take to run a successful crowdfunding campaign? Crowdfunding is beneficial for a business or new product not just because of the financial support; it's a great way to test the desirability or scope of a product without spending too much time on R&D. Learn how crowdfunding is beneficial for a company, and how to run a successful campaign.

Biography

Hansol is CEO and Co-founder of Robolink. He and the Robolink team have taught over 10,000 students how to build robots and program drones. He also ran three successful Crowdfunding campaigns raising over $460K (Zumi, CoDrone, Rokit Smart), and over 2,000 schools across the world are using Robolink’s kits. He is also an organizer for the San Diego Robotics Club, with over 1,700 members. Hansol graduated from UC San Diego with the degree in Management Science, B.S.

Big Changes in Korean-Founded Startups in the US

KIHA LEE Founder & Partner, Primer Sazze Partners

Abstract

This talk aims to explain recent changes in Korean-founded Startups. There are more than 200 Korean- founded startups in the US and they are growing fast. Recently, several startups including Sendbird, Moloco and Noom became unicorns ($1 Billion valuation). Compared to those of previous years, these newer startups are different in several aspects. 1. Founders are fluent in English or have experience working in large companies such as Google or Facebook. 2. Because of the internet, they are equipped with a better environment for sales and/or marketing rather than being limited to physical meetings. 3. The funding situation has improved in the US. Following explanations about these changes, several early stage startups will share how they develop their products and find product-market fit.

Biography

Kiha earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering and MS in Computer Science from University of California, Berkeley. He co-founded Sazze, Inc. in Silicon Valley in 2005 and serves as CEO. Sazze, Inc. is a parent company to a number of fast-growing eCommerce sites including DealsPlus.com, Whizwallet.com, and Lately (formerly ShopLately). In 2012, he joined Primer as a partner, and in 2014 he launched Sazze Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in Korea and the U.S. Kiha currently lives and works in Silicon Valley. To meet more Korean startups, he makes frequent business trips to Korea as well as holds conference calls over Skype.

Investment Options for Cross-Border Startups

JOHN HAM Co-Founder / Managing Partner, Strong Ventures

Abstract

Discussion of experiences and keys to receiving investment from a diverse group of investors, both in Korea and the US, and how to thrive as a global multicultural, multilingual startup in the 21st century.

Biography John is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Strong Ventures, a seed fund with offices in Koreatown, Los Angeles and Gangnam, Seoul, which primarily supports and finances startups in Korea and Asian- American founders in the US. In addition, John is a Venture Partner of Primer, S. Korea’s first and top startup accelerator program, as well as the Executive Director of KOLABS, a co-working space created in partnership between BAM Ventures and Strong Ventures, in the heart of Ktown LA. Prior to becoming a seed investor, he co-founded and headed Phonevite, a top internet telephony startup which grew to profitability serving thousands of schools, non-profits and community groups. John started his Silicon Valley career as a Senior Product Manager and Business Development Manager at Dialpad, a hybrid Korean-Silicon Valley Voice over IP company that was acquired by Yahoo!, and which became Yahoo! Voice. His experience also includes working in finance as a Vice President of Corporate Banking at US Bank and Comerica Bank, and in IT Management at the United Nations in New York. John holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Master of International Affairs, both from Columbia University. Having grown in the Canary Islands of Spain and being of Korean descent, he is fluent in both Spanish and Korean as well.

Pursuing Global Health and Sustainability

Hyatt Regency Orange County, California December 15-18, 2021

13 technical symposiums and 12 forums including Innovation and Entrepreneurship Symposium (IES) and Startup Pitch Competition Paper Submission Deadline Sep 15, 2021 Online Registration Open Sep 30, 2021 Google “UKC 2021” or visit “ukc.ksea.org” for more information.

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