▲ Jungwoo Park, integrated M.S.–Ph.D. student (left), and award ceremony photo (right)

Jungwoo Park, an integrated M.S.–Ph.D. student in the research group of Prof. Youngsu Cha at the Korea University School of Electrical Engineering, achieved the outstanding honor of receiving the Best Student Paper Grand Award, the top prize awarded to only one participant, at the IEEE Seoul Section 2025 Student Paper Contest (IEEE 2025 SPC) held at Korea University on December 13, 2025.
 

The awarded paper, titled Wearable Device based on Soft Piezoelectric Sensors for Detecting Lower Limb Motion, presents the development of a wearable device for lower-limb motion recognition based on soft piezoelectric sensors. The study successfully demonstrates real-time integration with a virtual avatar, highlighting both technical sophistication and practical applicability.
 

The IEEE 2025 SPC is a student paper competition organized by the IEEE Seoul Section, covering a broad range of engineering fields including electrical and electronics engineering, communications, computer engineering, control, and robotics. It is a representative academic event that attracts undergraduate and graduate students from universities across Korea each year. The Best Student Paper Grand Award is the highest distinction of the competition, granted based on a comprehensive evaluation of technical completeness, academic contribution, practicality, and future impact. The work was particularly highly regarded for clearly demonstrating the potential of next-generation engineering technologies through creative ideas and multi-disciplinary applications.