Sangbae Kim

Prof. Sangbae Kim, is the director of the Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. His research focuses on the bio-inspired robot design by extracting principles from animals. Kim's achievements on bio-inspired robot development include the world's first directional adhesive inspired from gecko lizards, and a climbing robot, Stickybot, that utilizes the directional adhesives to climb smooth surfaces featured in TIME's best inventions in 2006. Recent achievement includes the development of the MIT Cheetah capable of stable outdoor running up to 13mph and autonomous jumping over an obstacles at an efficiency of animals. This achievement was covered by more than 300 media articles. He is a recipient of best paper award from International Conference on Robotics and Automation (2007), King-Sun Fu Memorial Transactions on Robotics (2008) and IEEE/ASME transactions on mechatronics (2016), DARPA Young Faculty Award (2013), NSF CAREER award (2014), and Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching (2015).

Research Interests

• Robotic Actuators
• Dynamics
• Biomechanics
• Composite Sensor Fabrication

Education

2001 YONSEI UNIVERSITY B.S.

2004 STANFORD UNIVERSITY M.S.

2008 STANFORD UNIVERSITY Ph.D.

Honors. Awards.

• 2016, Best paper award, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
• 2015, Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Distinguished Teaching, SoE, MIT
• 2014, Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award
• 2013, Young Faculty Award (YFA), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
• 2010, Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Chair
• 2008, King-Sun Fu Memorial Best Transactions on Robotics Paper Award (first Author)
• 2007, Best Student Paper Award and Best conference paper finalist IEEE International Conference in Robotics and Automation 2007 (first author)
• 2006, Best video award, IEEE International Conference in Robotics and Automation 2006 (second author)
• 2006, TIME Magazine's Best Inventions of 2006

Professional Service

• Program Committee, Robotics: Science and systems (Jan. 2010 - June. 2010)
• NSF proposal review panel (Robust Intelligence, Feb 2010)
• NSF proposal review panel (IGERT , Jun 2010)
• Associate Editor, the Int. Conf. of Robotics and Automation (Sept. 2010 - Nov. 2010)
• Associate Editor, the Int. Conf. of Robotics and Automation (Sept. 2011 - Nov. 2011)
• Technical Editor, the IEEE/ASME Transactions of Mechatronics (Oct. 2011- Sept. 2012)
• Associate Editor, the Int. Conf. of Robotics and Automation (Sept. 2012 - Nov. 2012)
• Program Committee, Robotics: Science and systems (Jan. 2013 - )
• NSF proposal review panel (National Robotics Initiative, Dec, 2012)