April 30, 2025
Dean John Judge introduced Ko, including his background and previous academic contributions. Provost Aaron Dominguez cited Ko’s installation as a “beacon of scholarly leadership that will attract faculty and students,” and “amplify the academic mission of the University.” President Peter Kilpatrick formally accepted the endowed chair on behalf of the University and welcomed Dr. Ko to the community. Ko gave thanks to his family, friends, and colleagues who have supported him throughout career. He also laid out his plans for establishing an interdisciplinary AI research center at the University, where students, faculty, staff, and university partners can work together to use AI to solve the world's biggest problems.
This is the third endowed chair established for the School of Engineering, following the installation of Santiago Solares, Ph.D. and Jeffrey Herrmann, Ph.D. in 2023. This position was established through an endowment made by the Newton-Bennett estate and will support Ko’s research and goal of increasing the presence of artificial intelligence at The Catholic University of America. As AI and machine learning becomes increasingly relevant, the University is positioning itself to be an institution at the forefront of discovery and innovation in this field. Earlier this year, the School of Engineering announced new B.S. and M.S. programs in Artificial Intelligence. Ko, along with several other faculty members, will be offering courses in these new programs and working on developing a collaborative and interdisciplinary research community that will foster the development of artificial intelligence at the University.
Prior to joining Catholic University, Ko was a professor at Korea University, Seoul, in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has also served as a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University, U.S. Naval Academy, and University of Maryland, College Park. Earlier in his career, he worked in industry, as an electronics engineer at the Department of Defense and the Naval Surface Warfare Center. He has authored over 700 papers in multimodal signal processing and intelligent interface, and has over 80 patents issued.