Dr. Youngmoo Kim, associate professor of electrical & computer engineering and assistant dean of engineering for media technologies, was among the many members of Philadelphia’s vibrant geek community on the red carpet at the Academy of Natural Sciences for Philadelphia’s Geek Awards August 17. Not only did Kim rock the red carpet in his tux and show his inner geek pride, but he took home the award for Scientist of the Year.
“It was a tremendously fun event, and I was honored to be nominated alongside Paul Ehrlich and my Drexel colleague Andrew Hicks. It highlights the incredible work being done by scientists and researchers throughout the region and it was great to see such enthusiasm among the organizers, presenters, nominees and attendees,” said Kim.
Kim was nominated along with two other professors in the Scientist of the Year category. He won the award for his notable work in the community in addition to his outstanding achievements in the sciences. Kim has been an active leader for the Philadelphia Science Festival hosting the Philly Robotics Expo for K-12 schools, employing a humanoid robot to successfully throw out the first pitch at a Philadelphia Phillies game and revealing the Science of Music by organizing a unique concert event combining a world-class jazz ensemble with visualizations driven by the musical performance. In addition his participation in the Philadelphia Science Festival, Kim also participated in several Philly Tech Week panels and presentations and led the Community Genius Bar event, which encouraged neighborhood residents to bring their uncooperative computers, smartphones and media players to the student geniuses of Drexel Engineering’s TechServ for free unbiased advice.
“As I mentioned in my acceptance speech, I firmly believe that this community possesses the collective intelligence, passion, and experience (in short, the geekiness), to address some really tough problems (education, workforce development, and digital literacy) and transform Philadelphia. And I look forward to collaborating with everyone to make that happen,” said Kim.
Kim is Director of the Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies Center (ExCITe) Center at Drexel, a novel partnership bringing together research, education, civic engagement and entrepreneurship as interrelated and necessary ingredients for transformative regional development. He also directs the Drexel Music & Entertainment Technology Laboratory (MET-lab), which pursues research on the machine understanding of music and audio, human-machine interfaces and robotics for expressive interaction, and K-12 outreach for engineering, science and mathematics education.
For more information on the Geek Awards, visit the site. Photo compliments of Clever Girl Photography.