10/12/2026 Em Jankauski
The Grainger College of Engineering is pursuing a multimillion-dollar funding opportunity to develop technology in artificial intelligence, nuclear power, quantum technology and robotics.
Written by Em Jankauski
The Grainger College of Engineering is pursuing a multimillion-dollar funding opportunity to develop technology in artificial intelligence, nuclear power, quantum technology and robotics.
The funding is provided by South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups and its research and development agency, the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA). In 2025, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was named one of 11 partner institutions selected to help develop high-impact technologies.
Four Illinois-led projects have already received about $90,000 each in initial funding. If all four are selected to advance to the next phase, each team could receive approximately $1 million to continue research and development.
Proposals were required to focus on one of 12 Korean government-identified national strategic technologies. A total of 100 awards have been made across the partner institutions this year. The four awards led by Grainger Engineers were handpicked by Korean funding agencies interested in furthering developing the proposed technology.
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering leads two of the projects. Associate professor Joohyung Kim and professor Nam Sung Kim will co-lead a robotics project, while Nam Sung Kim will lead a separate project focused on artificial intelligence.
The other Illinois-led projects focus on quantum technology and nuclear power. They are led by Department of Materials Science and Engineering assistant professor Chris Anderson and Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering associate professor Angela Di Fulvio and research scientist Ming Fang, respectively.
Building smarter, more capable robots
Joohyung Kim and Nam Sung Kim are collaborating with Korean company WIRobotics to demonstrate the feasibility of a physical artificial intelligence pipeline that could accelerate the deployment of useful robots in the real world.
Their project focuses on physical AI for humanoid robots — machines designed to resemble the human body. Specifically, the researchers will develop AI models that combine multiple types of sensory information, such as sight, sound and touch, with the robot’s ability to act on that information.
“Ultimately, I hope this can help people become a little freer from repetitive, physically demanding or undesirable labor,” Joohyung Kim said.
Joohyung Kim’s group will focus on the robotics side of the project, including teleoperation, multimodal data collection and robot learning. The team will also study how robots can use force and movement information from ALLEX, WIRobotics’ humanoid robot platform, which is designed to respond to physical interactions in human-like ways.
Nam Sung Kim’s group will focus on the computing and systems side, making AI models more efficient and optimized for specific hardware and designing software and hardware to work together on embedded AI systems.
“Ultimately, we hope to build multimodal action models that can use vision, robot state and force-level perception while still running efficiently on the robot,” Joohyung Kim said.
The ECE professors were drawn to the opportunity because it brings complementary expertise in robotics, AI systems and advanced humanoid hardware — the mechanical and electronic components that allow a robot to operate and interact with its surroundings.
“My group, KIMLAB, has strong capabilities in humanoid teleoperation, multimodal data collection and robotic learning while professor Nam Sung Kim’s group, FAST Lab, brings expertise in computer architecture, model efficiency and system-level operation,” Joohyung Kim said.
The Grainger Engineering researchers were eager to work with WIRobotics on the development ALLEX. Joohyung Kim said he is particularly impressed by the robot’s advanced hand capabilities and its ability to collect detailed data about physical interactions.
The partnership creates an opportunity for Illinois and WIRobotics to combine their expertise.
“Together we’ll study not only better action models, but also how multimodal robot data should be collected, represented and processed efficiently,” Joohyung Kim said.
Real-world experience for students
The project could also give Grainger Engineering students hands-on experience with technology they will likely encounter in industry.
Students working on the project will have opportunities to learn about teleoperation, multimodal sensing, force and movement data, robot learning, embedded computing and systems integration.
“This type of training gives them experience not only in developing AI models, but also in understanding how data, hardware and computation must work together in real robotic systems,” Joohyung Kim said.
ECE assistant professor Hyunseok Kim, who prepared Illinois’ application to become a partner institution, said the program is a “win-win.”
“Students will be able to learn the perspective of the industry on how research can be translated into solving real-world problems and making progress in real applications,” Hyunseok Kim said. “Those undergrad and graduate students and postdocs working in these projects are going to learn a lot.”
The Korean ministry anticipates the program becoming an annual opportunity, with millions of dollars in research funding available each year. Next year’s request for proposals is expected to be announced in December.
“This opens the opportunity to the broader U. of I. community,” Hyunseok Kim said. “This isn’t limited to a specific department or college.”
Hyunseok Kim sees the collaboration between Illinois faculty and Korean companies as another opportunity for researchers and industry to benefit from one another’s expertise.
“There is a lot to gain,” Hyunseok Kim said. “It advances their technology and provides industry with more infrastructure or other technology.”
Illinois Grainger Engineering Affiliations
Chris Anderson is an Illinois Grainger Engineering assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science, Department of Physics, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Holonyak Micro & Nanotechnology Lab, and Materials Research Library.
Angela Di Fulvio is an Illinois Grainger Engineering associate professor and associate head for undergraduate programs in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological Engineering. She is a Donald Biggar Willett Faculty Scholar. She is affiliated with the Illinois Global Institute and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
Hyunseok Kim is an Illinois Grainger Engineering assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Joohyung Kim is an Illinois Grainger Engineering associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is affiliated with the Coordinated Science Laboratory.
Nam Sung Kim is an Illinois Grainger Engineering professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science. He is affiliated with the Coordinated Science Laboratory and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Kim holds the W.J. ‘Jerry’ Sanders III – Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Endowed Chair Professor appointment.