Join Us
Join the Lab
We welcome motivated students who want to do publication-quality research on language models and coding agents. This page explains how the lab works, what we expect, and how to apply.
Who
Undergraduates in their third year or above who plan to go to graduate school
Baseline skills
Read English papers, understand code, and know CS fundamentals — without AI
Goal
A paper at a top-tier CS conference, with an SCIE journal at minimum
Apply
Email sh0416{at}knu.ac.kr, then a first meeting and a ~2-month probation
How We Work
- Progress is measured by research outcomes. Where a project goes is decided by concrete progress toward a publishable paper, not by the number of hours you log.
- Students drive their own research. You can pursue your own idea or start from a topic the professor suggests. Either way, you plan and run the experiments, lead the writing, and bring progress to each meeting.
- Support grows with momentum. Every student gets a desk and regular guidance from day one. Computing resources, funding, and formal lab affiliation expand as a project shows clear momentum toward a paper. If research progress stops, affiliation, resource access, and confirmation of participation may be paused.
This keeps things transparent and predictable. If you are looking for a result-driven environment built around publication-quality work, we would love to hear from you.
What You Will Do
- Read foundational NLP papers. We provide a list of papers related to the lab’s research areas. You do not need to read all of them; skim them to build background before you start your own research.
- Present at the lab seminar. The lab regularly shares recent research papers. When it is your turn, present a recent paper so that everyone can follow it. The professor may pick the paper, or you can choose one you find interesting.
- Plan and implement experiments. You design and run the experiments for a research paper, based on your own idea or on a topic the professor recommends.
- Weekly 1:1 research meeting. You meet the professor every week to review progress on the work above and get feedback. If you need to discuss something in between, you can ask for an additional meeting at any time. See the Research Meeting Guide for how to prepare.
Lab Life & Probation
Your desk. Every research student is assigned a desk in the student lab.
Core hours: weekdays 1–4 pm. The professor regularly drops by the student lab for discussions or calls students to the office, so please be in the lab during these hours. If you have a class at that time, go to class; you do not need to ask. The point is simply to be around during regular working hours so that we can talk when needed. This is not a time sheet; outside these hours, come and go as you like.
Probation: about two months. The first two months or so are a probation period, which may vary case by case. During this time we look broadly at your commitment to the lab and whether you can sustain research, in terms of passion and ability.
What We Look For
Who can apply. Undergraduates in their third year or above, and graduate students. Starting before your final year gives you time to carry a project through to publication before you graduate. Students who plan to go to graduate school and want intensive research experience are especially encouraged to apply.
Attitude. We value students who are diligent, committed to the team, and able to keep doing research in the student lab over time; who discuss research with other students; and who test new ideas persistently. We prefer students who enjoy discovering new things and trying them out themselves over students who hand everything to AI. This is assessed during probation, through working alongside every member of the lab.
Baseline skills, checked at the first meeting without AI:
| Skill | What we check |
|---|---|
| English | Read the abstract of a paper the professor provides and explain it. |
| Coding | Look at a given codebase and explain what it will output, or what bugs it has. |
| CS fundamentals | Answer basic questions, mainly on data structures and algorithms. |
Self-check guides. To gauge your readiness, try this list of LeetCode problems; you should be able to solve them within a day of focused effort. For English, current members have a TEPS score of 268 or higher or a TOEIC score of 780 or higher. These are guides, not cutoffs.
Using AI
We encourage you to use AI to boost your productivity. Abusing AI is not allowed. By abuse we mean sharing AI-generated output with other lab members without properly verifying it, or avoiding responsibility for that output. Whatever you share is your work, and you are responsible for it.
Publication Goals
Every student, undergraduate or graduate, aims for a regular long paper at a top-tier CS conference such as ACL, EMNLP, NeurIPS, ICML, or AAAI, with an SCIE-indexed journal paper as the minimum. Demo, workshop, short, and other non-archival papers do not count toward this goal. Other conferences may be considered case by case with prior approval from the professor.
For graduate students, the graduation requirement is two papers in SCIE-indexed Q1–Q2 journals, or one regular long paper at one of the top-tier conferences above.
How to Apply
- Check yourself against the guides. Try the LeetCode list and a few recent papers in our area.
- Send an email. Write to sh0416{at}knu.ac.kr with a brief self-introduction and your academic background. In your email, briefly tell us which of the three principles in How We Work matters most to you, and why. AI tools are welcome in your research, but please read this page yourself.
- First meeting. We talk about your motivation and goals, and check your English, coding, and CS fundamentals as described above, without AI.
- Probation, then research. You join the lab for a probation period of about two months, reading papers, presenting at the seminar, and starting experiments.
International applicants through the GKS scholarship program should read the GKS page instead.
After You Join
- When progress stalls. If progress falls short of expectations for a sustained period, the professor may offer additional guidance, adjust the research scope, or discuss your research direction and continuation in the program.
- Funded projects and compensation. Participation in funded projects is open to students with clear, paper-oriented progress. Compensation is decided month by month based on verified progress toward a publishable paper, and may be paused or discontinued during periods without tangible research output, at the professor’s discretion.