Nuri Kim

Assistant Professor

Department of Electronics Engineering, Jeonbuk National University

At Neural Robot Intelligence Laboratory (NuRI Lab), we explore how robots can develop world models to make informed decisions, utilize visual navigation for goal-directed movement, and leverage 3D Gaussian Splatting for enhanced spatial perception. Our research integrates techniques from task and motion planning, semantic mapping, skill chaining, and multi-modal perception to build robots that can operate robustly in real-world environments and collaborate effectively with humans.

Education

Seoul National University

Ph.D. in Electrical & Computer Engineering

Mar 2016 - Feb 2023

Advisor: Prof. Songhwai Oh

Korea University

B.S. in Electrical Engineering

Mar 2012 - Feb 2016

Graduated with Highest Honor (GPA: 4.2/4.5)

News

Jul 2026

Our project was selected for the AI Star Fellowship, receiving KRW 840 million in IITP funding over six years.

Jun 2026

Invited talk @ Gachon University.

Jun 2026

Co-organizing the SeMaNa: Semantic-Aware Mapping and Navigation workshop @ IROS 2026.

May 2026

Guest editor for the ICROS special issue on Physical AI for Robotic Autonomy in Manufacturing and Logistics.

Jan 2026

Invited talk @ KETI.

Dec 2025

Invited talk @ Seoul AI Foundation.

Mar 2025

Joined Jeonbuk National Univ. as an Assistant Professor in Electronics Engineering.

Sep 2024

SEA accepted to Knowledge-Based Systems.

Mar 2023

Start working @ SAIT autonomous car team.

Feb 2023

Invited talk @ KAIST.

Dec 2022

Successfully finished Ph.D. Thesis Defense.

Dec 2022

Oral presentation at CoRL 2022.

Sep 2022

TSGM accepted to CoRL 2022 as an oral presentation.

Talks

ICML 2026 Robotics Research Trends

Lab Seminar, Jeonbuk National University, Jul 20, 2026

Slides

From Hard-Coded Robots to World Models: The Evolution of Physical AI

Invited Talk, Gachon University, Jun 26, 2026

Advanced Sensing Technologies for Physical AI

Invited Talk, KETI, Jan 2, 2026

What Are World Models? The Next Frontier of Physical AI

Invited Talk, Seoul AI Foundation, Dec 12, 2025

Understanding LLMs and the Future of AI

Invited Talk, Jeonbuk National University, May 2025

Semantic Visual Navigation for Embodied Agents: A Graph-Based Approach

Invited Talk, KAIST, Feb 2023

Slides

CoRL 2022 Review

Lab Seminar, Seoul National University, Jan 2023

Slides

Oral Presentation of TSGM

Conference on Robot Learning, Auckland, New Zealand, Dec 2022

Video Slides

Honors and Awards

Brain Korea 21 Plus Scholarship

Seoul National University

2019-2021

Great Paper Award

Korean Institute of Information Scientists and Engineers

2017

Lecture & Research Scholarship

Seoul National University

2016

Graduate with Great Honor

Korea University

2016

Creative Challenger Scholarship

Korea University

2015

National Scholarship For Science and Engineering

Korea Student Aid Foundation (KOSAF)

2014-2015

Personal Projects

Quantitative Trading

2020. ~ Present

Development of algorithms for finding an optimal portfolio ratio.

Nurihobot

2023.09. ~ 2025.02. @ Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT)

An AI assistant bot on the Knox messenger, built as an AX (AI transformation) tool for employees. It serves an open-source LLM for multi-turn conversation, and uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) over Confluence data to track the status of ongoing work and send notifications.

Where to Meet

2017

A web app built to solve the hassle of deciding where a group of friends should meet, finding a spot that works for everyone.