Jungsun Yoo

• fMRI: memory, decision-making, and RL
• Representation learning
• Planning in humans and AI
• Cognitive computing

University of California, Irvine

Ph.D., Cognitive Science • 2020 — Present

• @ Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Lab (PI: Prof. Aaron Bornstein)

Free University of Berlin

M.Sc., Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience • 2017

• @ Heekeren Lab (PI: Prof. Hauke Heekeren)
• Thesis: Reward modulates memory encoding for objects and scenes in the medial temporal lobe

Sungkyunkwan University

Bachelor of Arts, Psychology & Philosophy • 2015

• Thesis: The Neo-Confucian approach to moral modularity

Preprints

[6] Yoo J, Chrastil RE, Bornstein AM. Cognitive graphs: Representational substrates for planning. In revision. [paper]

Peer-reviewed articles

[5] Schultz H, Yoo J, Meshi D, Heekeren HR (2022). Category-specific memory encoding in the medial temporal lobe and beyond: The role of reward. Learning and Memory 29 (10), 379-389. [paper]

[4] Yoo J, Bornstein AM (2022). Two-stage task with increased state space complexity to assess online planning. Proceedings of the 5th Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (RLDM 2022). [paper]

[3] Yoo J, Jun T, Kim Y (2021). xECGNet: Fine-tuning attention map within convolutional neural network to improve detection and explainability of concurrent cardiac arrhythmias. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, 208, 106281. [paper]

[2] Yoo J, Min S, Lee S, Han S (2021). Neural correlates of episodic memory modulated by temporally delayed rewards. PLoS ONE 16(4): e0249290. [paper]

[1] Shin H, Yoon H, Yoo J, Cho K (2013). The Effect of Metacognitive Strategies during Reviewing. Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.[paper]

Yoo J, Jun T, Kim Y. Method and apparatus of explainable multi electrocardiogram arrhythmia diagnosis. Republic of Korea, Dec. 2020 (Application No. 10-2020-0166666)

Yoo J, Bornstein AM. Increased state-space complexity encourages online planning in the two-stage task. 2022 Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (CNLM) Spring Conference, Univrsity of California, Irvine, CA, USA.

Yoo J, Bornstein AM. Task complexity and experience dictate the use of online, versus offline, planning in humans. Society for Neuroeconomics 2021 Annual Conference (virtual).

Yoo J, Schultz H, Meshi D, Han S, Heekeren HR. Differential modulation of reward on memory encoding for objects and scenes is reflected in functional connectivity patterns. Society for Neuroscience 2018 Annual Conference, San Diego, USA.

Schultz H, Yoo J, Meshi D, Heekeren HR. Reward modulates memory encoding for objects and scenes in the medial temporal lobe. Society for Neuroscience 2017 Annual Conference, Washington, DC, USA.

Shin M, Jung Y, Yoo J. Effects of LBS on Psychological Distance in CMC. International Communication Association 2015 Annual Conference, Puerto Rico.

Yoo J, Maeng M, H Chae. The study of how visual aesthetics in SNS affects user's emotion and usability. Oral presentation at The HCI Society of Korea (2013), Seoul, Republic of Korea

Jeong W, Yoo J, Park H, Cho K. Development and Evaluation of Gesture Interface Based Presentation Program Using Kinect. Poster presentation at The HCI Society of Korea (2012), Seoul, Republic of Korea

Tarow and Minako Indow Fellowship for Research Excellence

UCI Department of Cognitive Science • 2024

Awarded based on the research paper for the advancement for candidacy ($7,000).

Upper Bound Talent Bursary

Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) • 2023

Travel award for attending the Upper Bound in Edmonton, Canada (May, 2023; $1,500).

Student Travel Fellowship

RLDM 2022 • 2022

Travel award for attending RLDM 2022 (The 5th Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making; June 8-11, 2022; $300).

AI Week Talent Bursary

Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) • 2022

Travel award for attending the AI Week in Edmonton, Canada (May 24-27, 2022; $1,500).

Graduate Dean’s Recruitment Fellowship

UCI School of Social Sciences • 2020

Full tuition and additional stipend for 2 quarters.

Best Trainee Award

Korean Standard Association & Arificial Intelligence Industry Association • 2019

Awarded based on performance during a 6-month AI-specialist Training Program.

Best Project Award

Korean Standard Association & Arificial Intelligence Industry Association • 2019

Project: Transformer-based multilingual grapheme-to-phoneme conversion (awarded as a team)

Friends of the Pacific Rim Scholarship

The Pacific Rim Cultural Foundation • 2015

Recipient of the 2015 "Friends of the Pacific Rim" Scholarship (5,000,000 KRW)

Excellent Paper Award

Annual Symposium of the Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University • 2014

Paper: A Survey Research about the Social Functionality of Mixed Emotions

Excellent Paper Award

Korean Society for Cognitive Science • 2013

Paper: The Effect of Metacognitive Strategies During Reviewing

University of California, Irvine

Teaching assistant (TA) • Jan, 2021 — Present

Asan Medical Center

AI researcher • Jan, 2020 — Aug, 2020

Worked at CHILab with Prof. MD. Young-hak Kim and Dr. Tae Joon Jun

Department of Psychology, Yonsei University

Research scientist • Nov, 2017 — Dec, 2018

Worked at Applied Brain Cognition Laboratory with Prof. Sanghoon Han

Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Research assistant • Jan, 2017 — Oct, 2017

Worked at Connected Minds Lab with Prof. Wouter van den Bos and Dr. Lucas Molleman

Creativity (Prof. John Hagedorn; Psych129B)

Teaching as a TA in Fall 2023 at UCI

History of Psychology (Prof. Ted Wright; Psych120H)

Teaching as a TA in Spring 2022 at UCI

Research Methods in Psychology (Prof. Christine Lofgren; Psych112M)

Taught as a TA in Fall 2021 at UCI

Psychology Fundamentals (Prof. Barbara Sarnecka; Psych9B)

Taught as a TA in Spring 2021 at UCI

Matlab Programming (Prof. Mark Steyvers; Psych114M)

Taught as a TA in Winter 2021 & Winter 2022 at UCI

Programming

Proficient: Python, Matlab, Intermediate: C, Javascript, R

MRI operation

Passed the MRI safety training at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Berlin (CCNB) in 2017

AI of Things (AIoT) Planning Expert

License acquired in 2019 (license number: AIIA-003-010)

Language

Native: Korean, Fluent: English (iBT TOEFL score: 116)

Department of Cognitive Sciences, UC Irvine

Department Colloquium Committee Member • 2023 — 2024

Invited speakers from all over the world to give virtual or in-person talks to the department. Scheduled meetings for the speaker with department faculty and graduate students. Created and hosted panels and student flash talks with speakers.

Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA)

Volunteer • 2021

Participated in UKC 2021 (34th US-Korea conference on Science, Technology, and Entrepreneurship) as a student volunteer.

• Jan 2017, Will Neurocriminology make Minority Report Real?. Blog post on Brainy Sundays
• Jul 2016, On Determining whom to Kill: the Challenge of Moral Decision Making. Blog post on Brainy Sundays