Research Overview

• Global energy demands require innovative geological engineering that balances energy extraction with geological stability. Safe, sustainable solutions need understanding of coupled mechanical, hydraulic, and geochemical processes across scales.

Research Project

Earthquake Mechanics: Experiments-Simulations Bridging through Heterogeneity

  • Laboratory earthquake studies have often employed homogeneous fault conditions, which fail to capture the heterogeneity of real earthquake faults, whereas simulation studies typically incorporate it. This study focused on bridging this critical gap by developing experimental techniques that replicate frictionally heterogeneous fault conditions, with experiments conducted using 760 mm long Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) blocks in a biaxial machine. Studies of heterogeneous laboratory faults with PMMA and Teflon have revealed diverse slip behaviors that closely replicate quasi-dynamic earthquake simulations (Figure 1). By combining experiments and simulations, this work demonstrates that laboratory insights can be directly linked to natural earthquake processes, providing a robust framework for understanding fault slip dynamics and improving seismic hazard assessment.

Investigating Anthropogenic Effects on Shear Failure

  • Induced earthquakes from fluid injections pose significant threats to public safety, yet existing laboratory methods cannot replicate seismicity migration in real subsurface systems because fluid leakage limits the size of pressurized regions. To address this, I developed leakage-preventing techniques employing hydrophobic material (Teflon tape) to maintain fault pressurization, allowing experimental observation of previously inaccessible seismicity patterns. This research, collaborated with Prof. Chloé Arson’s research team at Cornell University, addresses critical questions about the factors controlling seismicity migration mechanisms, validated through poroelastic model (Figure 2). This work offers an experimentally grounded methodology revealing the core processes governing induced earthquakes, enhancing fundamental insights into human-induced seismicity.

Monitoring Fracture Processes in Engineered Materials

  • Understanding fracture behavior across different scales and materials is fundamental to ensuring the safety and reliability of both engineered systems and natural hazard assessment. To investigate fracture behavior at fine scale, this study focused on defects generated during additive manufacturing, which allows precise monitoring of cracks. By demonstrating that crack size can be estimated from AE signals, this project provides quantitative fracture characterization. The results offer insights into fracture mechanics that are relevant to natural geological systems due to scale-independent nature of fracture behavior.

Sustainable Strategies for Near-Surface Soil Stabilization

  • Traditional cement-based stabilization often involves additives that can disrupt soil ecosystems. This study addressed this limitation by utilizing enzyme-based mineralization that binds soil particles, providing a compatible alternative for geological stabilization. This work systematically demonstrated how enzyme-based techniques enhance soil strength, mitigate fugitive dust emissions, and preserve structural stability under vibratory loading conditions, while establishing cost-effective protocols compared to conventional soil stabilization methods. This research represents sustainable geological solutions that integrate fundamental processes with practical applications.

  • Project (ongoing): Multi-cloud service common framework
    • Role: design and development of multi-cloud platform, open-source based project management, standardization activity
  • Project: Heterogeneous multi-cloud service brokerage platform
    • Role: design and development of a cloud service brokerage platform, analysis of open-source projects, operation of openstack cloud testbeds, standardization activity
  • Project: Big data-based IT system operation and analysis framework
    • Role: design of a system for a big-data analytics-driven resource management in virtual EPC (NFV-based LTE core network)

TestMidas, Inc.

Senior Researcher, 2013 to 2014

  • Project: An open source-based testing tool for Cloud OS validation
    • Role: design and development of openstack validation tool, openstack-based cloud API testing.

Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST)

Ph.D. Student, 2009 to 2012

  • Project: Relaxed-criteria concurrent SLA negotiations for bolstering dynamic provisioning of personalized Cloud resources
    • Role: researches for bargaining-based cloud SLA establishment and cloud resource management

Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST)

Master Student, 2006 to 2008

  • Project: Development of e-organ system based on cyber computing
    • Role: development of a high resolution interactive brain visualization system (3D brain, MRI, and EIT images)
  • Project: Research on realistic digital broadcasting technology
    • Role: development of a realistic broadcasting system
  • Project: Development of Immersive 3D networked virtual environment technology
    • Role: development of a delay compensation mechanism to mitigate network delay problems in 3D network virtual environment with haptic devices


Professional Activity

Open Source Project Contribution

Reviewer for Reputed Journals

  • ACM Computing Surveys (ACM)
  • IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing (IEEE)
  • IEEE Transactions on Service Computing (IEEE)
  • Journal of Supercomputing (Springer)
  • Information Systems Frontier (Springer)
  • International Journal of Cloud Computing (Inderscience)
  • ETRI Journal (Wiley)

International Standardization

  • ITU-T SG13 : main contributor of Y.csb-reqts (recommendation for cloud service brokerage requirements)
    • Activities to obtain editorship of Y.csb-reqts document (Geneva, June 2016)
    • 19 proposals (contributions) have been accepted for Y.csb-reqts
  • ITU-T SG13 : main contributor of Y.mc-reqts (recommendation for multi-cloud requirements)
    • Activities to obtain editorship of Y.mc-reqts document (Geneva, June 2019)
    • 3 proposals (contributions) have been accepted for Y.mc-reqts
  • Committee of Korea ITU Committee

Conference Committee

  • Paper Session Chair: The 2012 International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications (PDPTA’12), Cloud Computing Session
  • Conference Committee: Mexico Satellite Session of IEEE BigData (Mexico City, May 8, 2014)

Invited Talk

  • Invited Talk regarding Introduction to Container-based Computing Platform (feat. Kubernetes), 2020
  • Invited Talk regarding Getting Involved in Kubernetes SIG Docs and Korean Localization, Kubernetes Forum Seoul (LinuxFoundataion), 2019
  • Invited Talk regarding Cloud Computing with IoT, Handong-Univ., 2017
  • Invited Talk regarding Cloud Service Brokerage Systems, in the Education and Training for CSP experts sponsored by Consortium of Cloud Computing Research , 2016
  • Invited Talk regarding HPC over Cloud, in Korea Supercomputing Conference 2015, 2015
  • Invited Talk regarding HPC Cloud, in SCENT HPC Summer School at GIST, 2015
  • Invited Technical Committee for Cloud computing and Big data, National Computing & Information Agency (Government data center of Korea), 2012
    • invited expert and lecturer of the SMART Cloud group in NCIA which is a national institute to operate information systems of Korea government. Made several lectures during a year regarding Cloud computing and big data to 30 public officials including senior civil servants.
  • Invited Expert for Cloud computing and parallel computing systems, Mokwon University in Korea, 2012-2013
    • assisted a research team in Mokwon University to help the team construct a distributed computing system to process massive data from a large antenna.


Honor and Award

  • Award from Startup Idea Contest 2020 of ETRI
  • Best Paper Presentation Award from Korea Information Science Society 2014
    • Best paper presentation in Korea Computer Congress 2014
  • Best Paper Presentation Award from Korea Information Science Society 2012
    • Best paper presentation in Korea Computer Congress 2012
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Education Research Grant 2012
    • A research proposal has been accepted from Amazon Web Services, Inc
  • National Scholarship for PhD from Korea government 2009–2013
    • Full financial support from Korea government as a PhD student in GIST
  • National Scholarship for MS from Korea government 2006–2008
    • Full financial support from Korea government as a MS student in GIST
  • Brain Korea 21 (BK21) Scholarship (3 times) 2003–2005
    • Scholarship from BK21 organized by Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development of South Korea.
  • Pukyong National University Scholarship for Top Student (2 times) 2005–2006
    • A financial support that fully covers a BS semester, given to a student who achieved the highest GPA in a semester.