Hakjae Kim

Dr. Hakjae Kim is the Chief Scientist at GINIA, Inc. As Chief Scientist, Dr. Kim leads the overall technology strategy and direction of GINIA. He works closely with the research and development branches of Intel, DoD, and DHS to develop the next generation of technology disruption.

Previously, he worked at Uber’s Advanced Technology Group (ATG) where he led Operational Domain Characterization for Self-Driving Vehicles, which plays a critical role in the deployment and operation of the future of self-driving technology. He oversaw a team that was responsible for building scalable tools and infrastructure that allow the ATG to perform rich geospatial analysis and reporting to plan, predict, and refine the current and future operational area for the fleet of self-driving cars.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Kim has also worked in various capacities with the federal government. At IARPA (known as the DARPA of the intelligence agencies), he served as a senior program manager leading multiple high-payoff research programs and was the principal expert and senior advisor to the Director of IARPA on geospatial intelligence and machine learning applied to satellite data. In 2017, his team received the Intelligence Community’s Science Technology Team of the Year Award. He also worked as a lead researcher and team manager at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), where he was responsible for researching and developing mapping products to serve the Defense and Intelligence Communities. There, he was a recipient of the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG) IGS Team of the Year and Ambassador awards in recognition of his dedication and contributions to the Imagery and Geospatial Science tradecraft.

In 2019, he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), which is the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government to exceptional scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers. His other distinctions include serving as an Intelligence Community postdoctoral fellow sponsored by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) at the University of Florida and receiving the Gator Innovator Award for his invention. Dr. Kim holds patents in systems and geo-location estimation.

He received his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo.