Seou Choi

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, supervised by Prof. Marin Soljacic. I work on photonics for AI, AI for photonics, quantum optics, and nanophotonics. I received my M.S. in EECS from MIT in 2024. Before joining MIT, I earned a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Seoul National University in 2022, graduating summa cum laude.

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Research Highlights

Photonic hardware has shown remarkable improvements in energy efficiency and speed for solving computational tasks. I study various building blocks of photonic computers for future AI applications.

• Photonic probabilistic machine learning using quantum vacuum noise
• Stochastic logic in biased coupled photonic probabilistic bits
• Topologically-protected all-optical memory

Optics represents one of the most foundational yet least automated experimental domains. I study how optical experiments can be automated using robotic arms and humanoid robots to improve the efficiency and accuracy of optical experiments.

• Paper link
• Project link

Quantum optics studies how light interacts with matter in the domain that cannot be explained by classical physics. I study how the intriguing phenomena of quantum optics can be transformed into impactful engineering applications.

• Observing the dynamics of quantum states generated inside nonlinear optical cavities
• Biasing the quantum vacuum to control macroscopic probability distributions
• Quantum sensitivity of parametric oscillators

When materials are structured at the nanometer scale - comparable to or smaller than the wavelength of light - their interaction with light enables unique optical properties and functionalities not possible in bulk materials.

• Supercollimating photonic crystal scintillators
• End-to-end design of multicolor scintillators for enhanced energy resolution in X-ray imaging,
• Chirality-selective all-dielectric metasurface structural color display

Research Interests

• Photonics for AI
• AI for Photonics
• Quantum optics
• Nanophotonics

Education and Experience

• MIT, EECS — Ph.D. candidate (2022-present); M.S. in 2024. Thesis: Photonic Probabilistic Machine Learning Using Quantum Vacuum Noise.
• Seoul National University, ECE — B.S. in 2022, summa cum laude (ranked first in the graduating class). Undergraduate thesis: Chirality-Selective All-Dielectric Metasurface Structural Color Display.

Awards & Honors

• Young Scientists Nominee for the 73rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, 2024.
• Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies Ph.D. Study-Abroad Scholarship, 2022 - Current.
• Outstanding Graduate Award, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, 2022.
• Presidential Science Scholarship, Korea Student Aid Foundation, 2016-2021.
• Silver Medal, 46th International Physics Olympiad, 2015.
• Bronze Award, Samsung Humantech Paper Award, 2015.

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