Hello, my name is
I build intelligent systems at the intersection of computer vision, neuromorphic computing, and machine learning. I direct the SPARSE Coding Lab at Drexel University.
Explore My ResearchEd Kim is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Drexel University. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Lehigh University in 2013, and his B.S.E. in Computer Science and M.S.E. in Computer Graphics and Game Technology from the University of Pennsylvania.
He is the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award (2019) and the STAR Scholars Outstanding Mentors of the Year Award (2024). His research focuses on developing computational methods inspired by biological neural systems, with applications ranging from medical imaging to adversarial robustness.
He directs the SPARSE Coding Lab at Drexel, where his team investigates sparse representations, neural architectures, and their applications to real-world problems in vision, language, and accessibility.
Alongside his academic work, he brings AI into practice as Chief AI Officer of RespondHealth, a healthcare data science and translational research company. He held the role full-time during a 2025–2026 leave from Drexel and continues as a consultant. He is also an AI advisor to HouseCall VR, a virtual reality patient-education company, and to 12Plus, a Philadelphia college and career readiness nonprofit.
Developing bio-inspired sparse representations that mimic neural coding strategies, enabling efficient and robust visual processing architectures.
Building robust visual recognition systems resilient to adversarial attacks, with applications in safety-critical domains and autonomous systems.
Applying machine learning and large language models to medical imaging, clinical decision support, and healthcare accessibility challenges.
Creating multimodal systems that bridge visual, textual, and auditory modalities to improve accessibility and inclusive technology design.
Leads AI at a data science and translational research company that turns complex healthcare data into real-world evidence for clinical researchers, health systems and life science organizations. Full-time during a 2025–2026 leave from Drexel; now consulting.
Advises on AI strategy and product design for a patient-education company whose clinician-designed virtual reality modules help patients with diabetes learn and retain key information in short sessions.
Advises a Philadelphia college and career readiness nonprofit on bringing AI to its work supporting high school students and alumni. The work centers on the 12Plus AI Assistant, which helps staff support more than 6,500 students and alumni across 15 partner high schools in their paths to college and careers.
I'm always open to discussing research collaborations, prospective students, or interesting problems in computer vision and machine learning.