• Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, President, CTO of the Device eXperience (DX) Division and Head of Samsung Research
• Younsun Kim, Master at Samsung Research
• Timothy Hospedales, Head of Samsung Research’s Europe AI Center
• Michael Scott Brown, Head of Samsung Research’s AI Center in Toronto
• Yuri Masuoka, Fellow and Head of the SRAM Lab in the Foundry Business of the Device Solutions (DS) Division

The title of ‘IEEE Fellow’ is the highest membership grade and, following a thorough review process, is granted annually to the top 0.1% of IEEE members who have demonstrated significant contributions to societal advancement. Those with at least ten years of experience in their fields are chosen based on seven evaluation criteria, including outstanding research and development achievements, contributions to the industry and expertise in the field.

Achievements in Telecommunications and Standardization of 5G Mobile Communication

▲ President Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun (left) and Master Younsun Kim (right)

Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun was appointed as a Fellow in recognition of his leadership in 5G and virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) technologies.

Having joined Samsung Electronics in 2012 and serving as head of the Network Business Division, Cheun is a telecommunications technology expert who has led the development of core technologies and commercial solutions for 5G. He has contributed to the global network business by successfully commercializing the world’s first 5G mobile communication technology.

“Being appointed as an IEEE Fellow is an honor,” said President Cheun. “Samsung Electronics will dedicate itself more to innovative technology research and development that will lead the future, taking the initiative in technological advancements that add value and provide convenience and enrichment to people’s daily lives.”

Younsun Kim received IEEE recognition for contributions and leadership in 5G physical layer standardization. He has served as both the vice chair and chair of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Radio Access Network Working Group 1 (RAN WG1) for the past seven years, and is currently preparing for 6G RAN standardization which will be fully launched starting from next year.

Newly Elevated Fellows in Machine Learning, Cameras and Foundry

▲ (From left) Timothy Hospedales, Michael Scott Brown and Yuri Masuoka

Timothy Hospedales received Fellowship honors for his contributions to data-efficient machine learning and meta-learning. Hospedales, who joined Samsung Electronics in 2019, is a machine learning and data intelligence expert. Currently, he oversees Samsung Research’s overall research and development of AI across Europe at the AI Center located in Cambridge, U.K..

Michael Scott Brown contributed to in-camera color image processing to a degree that led to the IEEE naming him a Fellow. Brown, joined Samsung Electronics in 2019 and is an expert in computer vision, currently overseeing research and development at the AI Center in Toronto.

Yuri Masuoka was also named to the IEEE Fellow Class of 2025 for her contributions to leading-edge foundry transistor development.

Samsung Electronics has previously had several IEEE Fellows in various fields, including Executive Vice President Sunghyun Choi of the Network Business, Fellow Juho Lee of Samsung Research and Senior Vice President Charlie Zhang of Samsung Research.

¹ The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is the largest professional organization dedicated to the advancement of technology related to electricity, electronics, computing, and telecommunications. With over 460,000 members from more than 190 countries, IEEE actively manages over 2,250 ongoing projects.

Recognizing Achievement in Telecommunications Technology

Zhang was acknowledged with the Industrial Innovation Award by the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc). Recipients were recognized at an award ceremony on December 9 at the 2024 IEEE Global Communications (GLOBECOM) conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

An expert in mobile communications technology, Zhang was recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to the development and standardization of Massive MIMO systems — a technology crucial to network coverage and capacity. Introduced in 2009, the Industrial Innovation Award was presented for the first time in five years.

From 2009 to 2013, Zhang served as vice chair of the Radio Access Network Working Group 1 (RAN WG1) at the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) — a global mobile communications standardization organization — during which he led the standard development of LTE and LTE-Advanced technologies. In 2015, he was named an IEEE Fellow — the highest honor for IEEE members. Currently, Zhang leads Samsung Electronics’ global 6G strategy and technology innovation efforts at Samsung Research.

“As a researcher in the field of telecommunications, I am honored to receive this meaningful award,” said Zhang. “We will continue to research and develop innovative telecommunications technologies for a better user experience.”

A Legacy of Excellence at IEEE ComSoc Awards

Founded in 1963, IEEE is the world’s largest organization of technical professionals in the fields of electronics, communications and computers — with over 460,000 members in more than 190 countries. The IEEE ComSoc annually recognizes individuals who have demonstrated excellence in leadership and made significant advances in information and communications through a rigorous selection process.

Samsung has a history of being recognized for its outstanding achievements at the IEEE ComSoc Career Awards — a reflection of the company’s contributions to the standardization of communication technology and the development of mobile phones.

Former Samsung Vice Chairman Ki-tae Lee, who played a pivotal role in developing Samsung’s Anycall mobile phone series, received the IEEE ComSoc Distinguished Industry Leader Award in 2004. Former Samsung Vice Chairman Jong-kyun Shin, who played a key role in developing the world’s first color phone, received the same award in 2016. More recently, Samsung Research Fellow Juho Lee, who successfully helped lead 4G and 5G standardization, received the IEEE ComSoc Excellence in Supporting Standardization for Communications Award in 2023.

Continuing Next-Generation Communication Research

Samsung is working to standardize and integrate AI technology in next-generation communication.

The company currently holds two chairmanships and four vice chairmanships within 3GPP. This year, the company further engaged in standardization activities by adding a chair to the Radio Communication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R), a United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICT).

Samsung is a founding member of the AI-RAN Alliance, a global organization dedicated to advancing telecommunications technology. Recently, the company has also been reappointed as vice chair of the Next G Alliance — an initiative dedicated to advancing North American wireless technology leadership — further strengthening its leadership in the convergence of AI and wireless communication technologies.

▲ (From left) Dr. Daniel Ahn, EVP and Head of Mobile Platform Center, MX Business and Dr. Michael Polley, SVP and Head of MPI Lab at SRA

The highest grade awarded by the IEEE, the “Fellow” title is conferred by the institute’s Board of Directors when a person demonstrates an outstanding record of accomplishment in any of the IEEE’s fields of interest. The total number of fellows selected in any one year cannot exceed 0.1 percent of the organization’s total voting membership.

Other members of Samsung Electronics who have been named as IEEE Fellows in the past include: Chairman of the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology Kinam Kim, Executive Vice President and Samsung Research AI Center head Daniel Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of the Advanced Communications Research Center Sunghyun Choi, Senior Vice President Charlie Zhang of Samsung Research America, Vice President Xue (Steve) Liu of the Samsung AI Center (SAIC) in Montreal and Fellow Juho Lee of Samsung Research.

Dr. Ahn is Executive Vice President and Head of the MX Business’ Mobile Platform Center. His contributions include providing users with differentiated mobile experiences through the development of innovative security solutions for Galaxy smartphones, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud-based mobile platform function expansion and enhancement.

“I am both honored and humbled being elevated to IEEE Fellow,” said Dr. Ahn. “I will continuously devote myself to achieve technological advancements that would eventually help improve our products and provide better and meaningful experiences to our valued customers.”

Dr. Polley is Senior Vice President and Head of the Mobile Processor Innovation (MPI) Lab at SRA, where he leads a team of world-class algorithm and system designers focused on creating advanced technologies for Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones as well as next-generation mobile devices.

“I feel honored to be elected as an IEEE Fellow,” said Dr. Polley, “I am pleased that the innovative camera technology research that the MPI Lab at SRA, R&D team at MX Business and Samsung Research India-Bangalore Research Institute have worked closely together on to achieve is being recognized.”

¹ Samsung Research, acting as Samsung Electronics’ advanced R&D hub, leads the development of future technologies for the company’s Device eXperience (DX) Division.

The paper is derived from the Digital Health Lab’s Lung Health project, where the team is developing innovative technologies to help patients with chronic respiratory diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) or Asthma. The paper particularly focuses on algorithms that allow users to evaluate their lung function on their own without clinical supervision, simply by recording breathing sounds on their smartphones.

“Winning the Best Paper Award at such a competitive venue as the IEEE PerCom testifies to the recognition of our research from leading experts in pervasive computing. I feel fortunate to work in a lung health project that has potential to have an impact on respiratory patients, to support the control over their illness and improve the quality of life,” said Mahbubur Rahman, the first author of the paper who is working as Research Engineer in Digital Health Lab.

Acknowledging the Best Paper Award, PerCom 2020 General Chair and the University of Texas at Austin Professor Christine Julien shared an encouraging note emphasizing the potential impact of the Digital Health Lab’s work on real-world patients. She commented, “Having much more accessible tools for treating this [respiratory] disease would be so incredible. I love that there is this real-world impact of what you’re working on.”

The Digital Health Lab at SRA is partnering with world-leading physicians and advanced health research institutions to develop novel algorithms to make the health monitoring tools accessible anywhere, anytime through smartphones and smartwatches. The Digital Health Lab’s papers have also previously received the Best Poster Award at the IEEE Body Sensor Network (BSN) 2019 conference.

“Fellow” is the highest grade awarded by the IEEE, and is conferred by the institute’s Board of Directors when a person demonstrates an outstanding record of accomplishment in any of the IEEE’s fields of interest. The total number of fellows selected in any one year cannot exceed 0.1 percent of the organization’s total voting membership.

Dr. Liu is Vice President and Chief Scientist at Samsung’s Montreal AI Center. He develops novel AI solutions for real-world applications like the intelligent automation of 5G networks and has made tremendous contributions to performance and power management advancements in the areas of computing and networking systems.

In his work, Dr. Liu applies insights from a wide range of disciplines, including feedback control, optimization, and machine learning, to lead research in the fields of performance and power management of data centers and networked servers. This line of pioneering research, which helps complex systems adapt to highly dynamic workloads and diverse conditions, has influenced many subsequent research efforts in both academia and industry.

“I am both honored and humbled to be granted the grade of IEEE Fellow,” said Dr. Liu, “I am grateful to my colleagues and the community members who have recognized my contributions, and will continue to devote myself to the development of the AI technologies that will enable intelligent systems to better complement people’s everyday lives.”

Dr. Liu received a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and M.E. in Automatic Control from Tsinghua University in 1996 and 1999 respectively, then completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006. He has been a professor of Computer Science at McGill University since 2007, and a William Dawson Scholar since 2014. Dr. Liu is a recipient of several awards, including the Mitacs Award for Exceptional Leadership – Professor from MITACS, the Outstanding Young Computer Science Researcher Award from the Canadian Association of Computer Science, and the Tomlinson Science Award from McGill University.

Other members of Samsung Electronics who have been named as IEEE Fellows in the past include: Vice Chairman, CEO and head of the Device Solutions Division Kinam Kim, Executive Vice President and Samsung Research New York AI Center head Daniel Lee, Senior Vice President and Head of the Advanced Communications Research Center Sunghyun Choi, Vice President Jianzhong (Charlie) Zhang of Samsung Research America (SRA), and Fellow Juho Lee of Samsung Research.