On July 1, Dr. Il-Min Kim began a five-year term as Head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Kim earned his B.Sc. from Yonsei University and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from KAIST. Prior to joining Queen’s in 2003, he held postdoctoral fellowships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University.
Kim’s current research spans the broad areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and communications, with particular emphasis on on-device AI, vision-language models, federated learning, generative AI, and sixth-generation (6G) wireless systems.
Since joining Queen’s, he has supervised a wide range of HQP—from undergraduate and graduate students to postdoctoral fellows. Notably, five of his former graduate students and/or postdoctoral fellows have secured full-time faculty positions at other institutions. Kim’s dedication to students and teaching is further demonstrated by his receipt of the 2025 Best Professor Award in Electrical and Computer Engineering—his seventh such honour.
He has authored over 130 refereed journal publications, holds more than 30 patents, and has published numerous conference papers, including four recent papers at top-tier AI conferences. He has served as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, and the Journal of Communications and Networks (JCN). In addition, he has been actively involved in organizing, executive, and technical committees for several national and international conferences.
He has served as Chair of the Undergraduate Program (for Electrical Engineering) since July 2022 and was Chair (Coordinator) of the Graduate Program from 2012 to 2015. He is currently Director of the Ubiquitous Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (UAI Lab), a core faculty member of the Ingenuity Labs Research Institute, and a faculty member of Queen's Centre for Security & Privacy.
Get to know Smith Engineering’s newest department head with this Q&A.
Tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you like to do when you’re not working?
I’ve enjoyed sports since I was young. I practiced Taekwondo seriously for about six years and hold a second-degree black belt. I’ve even competed in tournaments. Over the years, I’ve also enjoyed swimming, tennis, mountain climbing, and other sports. These days, I make it a habit to exercise early in the morning for at least 40 minutes almost every day. Outside of work, I’m a proud father of two daughters. One of my favorite things to do is take walks with my wife and our dog, Cookie. I also enjoy watching videos about quantum mechanics and relativity theories on YouTube. But more than anything, I love traveling with my family and starting the day with a cup of coffee.
What is the one thing (or more) that you want students and alumni to know about you?
I have a clear vision for the next five years, and it’s centered on building an even stronger and more collaborative ECE department. I want us to continue teaching solid fundamentals while also further expanding our offerings in cutting-edge areas like AI, quantum computing, etc. On the research side, I’m committed to raising the department’s international profile and impact. We’ve done a lot of great work so far, but I strongly believe we can do even better. I look forward to sharing good news and celebrating our successes in the years to come.