# Mike Young-Han Kim

> Mike Young-Han Kim is the founding CEO of Gauss Labs, a Palo Alto-based industrial AI startup revolutionizing semiconductor manufacturing. An 11th-generation academic descendant of Carl Friedrich Gauss, he holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford along with dual master's degrees in EE and Statistics. Before founding Gauss Labs in 2020, he was a tenured IEEE Fellow professor at UC San Diego and the inaugural recipient of the James L. Massey Research & Teaching Award. Backed by $55M from SK hynix, his company's Panoptes VM platform now inspects over 50 million wafers at SK hynix facilities - at one wafer per second - reducing process variability by 29%.

- **Role:** CEO and Founder at Gauss Labs
- **Organizations:** Gauss Labs, University of California San Diego (Professor), IEEE, Seoul National University, Stanford University
- **Nationality:** Korean-American
- **Education:** B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University, M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, M.S. in Statistics, Stanford University, Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Founded Gauss Labs, securing $55M seed investment from SK hynix in 2020, Built Panoptes VM - now inspecting 50M+ wafers at SK hynix at 1 wafer per second, Achieved 29% reduction in process variability for SK hynix semiconductor fabs

## Career timeline

- **1992-1996** — Studied Electrical Engineering at Seoul National University
- **1996-1999** — Software Architect at Tong Yang Systems, Seoul - worked on communication infrastructure for Incheon International Airport
- **1999-2006** — PhD studies at Stanford University, earning dual M.S. degrees (EE + Statistics) and PhD in EE
- **2006** — Joined UC San Diego as Professor in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- **2008** — Received NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award
- **2009** — Received US-Israel Binational Science Foundation Bergmann Memorial Award
- **2012** — Co-authored 'Network Information Theory' textbook with Abbas El Gamal (Stanford); received IEEE Information Theory Paper Award
- **2015** — Named inaugural recipient of the James L. Massey Research & Teaching Award for Young Scholars; elevated to IEEE Fellow
- **2020** — Founded Gauss Labs as CEO; secured $55M investment from SK hynix
- **2021** — Signed MOU with Seoul National University's Institute of New Media and Communications
- **2022** — Named one of the Most Promising Semiconductor Startups by StartUs Insights; SK hynix began deploying Panoptes VM
- **2023** — SK hynix deployment achieved 21.5% average reduction in process variability
- **2024** — Released Panoptes VM 2.0; presented 'From Lab to Fab: AI-Powered Metrology for High-Volume Manufacturing' at SEMICON West
- **2025** — Gauss Labs celebrates 5th anniversary; SK hynix achieves 29% process variability reduction; CEO presents at Korea Investment Week 2025
- **2026** — Panoptes VM achieves near-100% wafer inspection at 1 wafer/second; 15% additional process variation reduction; presented at SPIE AL 2026

## Achievements

- Founded Gauss Labs, securing $55M seed investment from SK hynix in 2020
- Built Panoptes VM - now inspecting 50M+ wafers at SK hynix at 1 wafer per second
- Achieved 29% reduction in process variability for SK hynix semiconductor fabs
- IEEE Fellow (2015) - for contributions to feedback communication and network information theory
- Inaugural recipient of James L. Massey Research & Teaching Award for Young Scholars (2015)
- 2012 IEEE Information Theory Paper Award for work on feedback capacity of stationary Gaussian channels
- 2008 NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award
- 2009 US-Israel Bergmann Memorial Award
- Co-authored 'Network Information Theory' with Abbas El Gamal - a foundational textbook in the field
- Solved a decades-old problem on feedback capacity of stationary Gaussian channels using convex optimization and functional analysis
- 11th-generation academic descendant of Carl Friedrich Gauss

## Latest updates

- **2026-02** — Gauss Labs and SK hynix presented joint research at SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning 2026, demonstrating AI-based virtual metrology with early anomaly detection and explainable overlay predictions
- **2026-02** — Panoptes VM achieved near-100% wafer inspection coverage at 1 wafer per second - surpassing industry standard of 1-5% sampling - with 15% process variation reduction
- **2025-09** — Presented at Korea Investment Week 2025, highlighting manufacturing AI's transformative potential for Korea's economy
- **2025-08** — Gauss Labs celebrated its 5th anniversary, reflecting on growth from virtual metrology focus to broader industrial AI platform
- **2025-06** — SK hynix achieved 29% reduction in process variability using Panoptes VM
- **2024-08** — Launched Panoptes VM 2.0 with Multi-Step Modeling, Operation-Group Modeling, and Automatic Model Selection features

## Links

- Website: https://gausslabs.ai
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-young-han-kim-45080511

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/mike-kim
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-12