Hyunwoong Ko

Gaining abilities to help improve human life was one of Hyunwoong Ko’s strongest motivators when deciding to pursue an engineering career. More specifically, Ko says it was realizing the power of additive manufacturing to “revolutionize almost every industrial sector” that led him to investigate the field.

Before joining Arizona State University, he was a research associate at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where he led various additive manufacturing initiatives. 

Ko now is looking forward to contributing to new discoveries and technology in the field when he joins ASU this fall.

In his future research pursuits at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, Ko plans to continue developing approaches to making advances in additive manufacturing systems through the use of emerging machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques.

“These approaches are progressing beyond traditional manufacturing to state-of-the-art, data-driven additive manufacturing focused on a variety of data analytics, machine learning and other AI techniques,” Ko says.

From his past endeavors in additive manufacturing research, Ko has come to believe that breakthroughs are made through applying multidisciplinary approaches. 

“I am very excited to solve problems associated with modern and future challenges of manufacturing and AI with combined knowledge and collaborative efforts,” Ko says.

His goal as a professor is to give his students the tools they need to be collaborative and become disruptors in this field.

“I want to create new opportunities for engineering students not only to expand their knowledge but to also gain understanding on the importance of integrating different fields to develop technologies,” Ko says.

Ko’s knowledge in additive manufacturing has given him opportunities to speak at several professional conferences, sparked various research projects and inspired many journal publications.

When Ko isn’t involved in professional pursuits, he enjoys decompressing on the basketball court and getting outdoors for jogging, kayaking and fishing.

Meet the newest faculty members of the Fulton Schools of Engineering here.