People

MPRL at KRoC 2026

Principal Investigator

Donghoon Son, Ph.D.

Associate Professor · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University

Donghoon Son is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Pusan National University, where he leads the MultiPhysics Robotics Laboratory. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Seoul National University and his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems before joining PNU in 2021. His research focuses on magnetically actuated wireless medical robots, soft robotic systems, and learning-based design optimization.

Magnetic robots
Medical robots
Robot kinematics & dynamics
Robot design
Machine learning

Career

2025–Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University
2021–2025Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University
2019–2020Postdoctoral Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Germany
2013–2018Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
2010–2012Lecturer / Full-time Lecturer, Korea Air Force Academy
2007–2009M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University
2003–2007B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University

Awards

2022Outstanding Young Researcher Award, Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems (ICROS)
2022Excellent Researcher Award, College of Engineering, Pusan National University