Soongsil Graduate Student Wins ASME Poster Award for Fuel-Cell Prediction Research

A Soongsil University master’s student has won an international poster award for using artificial intelligence to predict how fuel-cell performance declines over time.

Kim Soo-bin, a mechanical engineering student in Professor Yoon Heon-jun’s research group, received the Graduate Student Poster Award at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ 2026 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. The event took place in Houston, Texas, from Aug. 23 to 26.

Kim presented first-author research on predicting degradation in the polarization curve of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell according to its operating cycles. The work applied scientific machine learning, a method that combines physical knowledge with data-driven learning.

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I am grateful to Professor Yoon Heon-jun for creating the opportunity to conduct international joint research and to Professor Nam-ho Kim for his guidance throughout the research process.

The study suggested that this approach could help predict the performance of AI-based energy systems and assess their reliability. The project received support from the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning’s global energy-industry talent program, and Kim conducted joint research with Professor Nam-ho Kim’s team while assigned to the University of Florida.

Kim thanked Professors Yoon and Kim for creating and guiding the international research opportunity. “I will continue working to grow as a researcher who creates meaningful value for society through convergence research between artificial intelligence and mechanical engineering,” Kim said. Soongsil described the award as an outcome of collaboration between the university and the University of Florida, combining AI and mechanical engineering in energy-system performance prediction.

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I will continue working to grow as a researcher who creates meaningful value for society through convergence research between artificial intelligence and mechanical engineering.