Yumin Awards honor KAIST Professor Meeyoung Cha for work on AI, data analysis

KAIST Professor Meeyoung Cha was honored at this year's Yumin Awards for her work applying AI-mixed research to social issues such as poverty and misinformation. Her work has involved detecting customs fraud and tracking Covid-19 misinformation.

Meeyoung Cha, professor of computer science at KAIST, was awarded this year's Yumin Award in the science and technology category in a ceremony at the JoongAng Ilbo building in Mapo District, western Seoul, on Tuesday. [JANG JIN-YOUNG]

Meeyoung Cha, professor of computer science at KAIST, was named the winner of this year’s Yumin Awards in the science and technology category, recognizing her work applying AI-mixed research to social problems such as poverty and misinformation.

Cha, a chief investigator at the Institute for Basic Science, was honored for many contributions including for the BACUDA (BAnd of CUstoms Data Analysts) Project, a collaborative research project designed with the World Customs Organization (WCO). Along with her team, she developed a deep learning algorithm that detects illegal activities commonly carried out to trick customs, such as the smuggling of duty-free goods exceeding the allowed limit, camouflaging of cargo and false declaration of shipments' origins.

The algorithm was successfully deployed at Nigeria's customs to detect fraud up to 40 times more efficiently than preexisting methods could.

The 44-year-old researcher describes her work as “actionable basic science” — it is grounded in computer science, but its results directly inform and influence social issues.

Cha also applies big data analytics to satellite images. She developed technology that uses satellite data to generate poverty probability maps at a six-kilometer (3.7-mile) by six-kilometer resolution to proxy economic activity in countries such as North Korea. Unicef has cited her analysis of the correlation between urban green space and citizens’ happiness in developed countries in reports.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Cha was part of a team that tracked global social networks to determine the prevalence of misinformation on the virus in 35 countries, with results showing that the same false claims had been reproduced in multiple countries.

She co-organized the Facts before Rumors campaign that aimed to shut down misinformation before it could spread.

Cha was also the first Korean to become scientific director at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy last year.

“Many offers for cooperation on global research have already been coming through,” Cha said. “I aim to be the bridge between Korea and Germany for cooperation on global research.”

Launched in 2010, the Yumin Awards are held annually to honor “Yumin” Hong Jin-ki, the late co-founder and former chairman of the JoongAng Ilbo, who served in numerous roles in government, business and media. The awards recognize Koreans who made outstanding contributions to society, science and technology, as well as the culture and arts. This year’s event is its 15th edition.

BY CHOI JOON-HO, KIM JU-YEON [kim.juyeon2@joongang.co.kr]