On April 8, 2026, our lab held a strawberry party on a beautiful spring day. Lab members enjoyed fresh and sweet strawberries along with pizza, chicken, and various snacks. It was a meaningful time for everyone to take a short break from busy research and work, share laughter, and enjoy conversations together.

On April 3, 2026, we were pleased to host a delegation from the California State Legislature at the IRiS Lab, KAIST. During their visit, we showcased our latest advancements in robotics through live demonstrations and interactive hands-on sessions.

We are proud to announce that Dr. Sangmin Lee, a postdoctoral researcher in our laboratory, has been selected for the 2026 Jang Young Sil Fellow Program (Excellence Track).

The Jang Young Sil Fellow Program, organized by the KAIST Office of Research Affairs, is a prestigious initiative designed to nurture outstanding postdoctoral researchers into world-class scholars. As an “Excellence Track” fellow, Dr. Lee was recognized for his exceptional potential to produce research outcomes on par with KAIST faculty.

We are delighted to share that Professor Jee-Hwan Ryu has received the KAIST Breakthroughs ‘Readers’ Choice Award’ for the Fall 2025 issue.

His featured research, “A New solution enabling soft growing robots to perform a variety of tasks in confined spaces,” was selected as the most-read article of the season, highlighting the impact of the lab’s work on the future of robotics.

We are proud to announce that Professor Jee-Hwan Ryu was invited as a keynote speaker at the 2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2025), held in Hangzhou, China.

We are proud to announce that the paper, “Embodied Auxetic Intelligence in a Glove-Type Wearable Haptic Interface Connecting Humans,” has been selected as the cover feature for the August 22, 2025, issue of Advanced Functional Materials (Vol. 35, No. 34).

This past August 21st, our lab held its annual summer retreat at Donghaksa to foster teamwork and refresh our minds.

As the spring semester comes to a close, our lab gathered for a dinner celebration to mark the end of a fruitful academic term and to honor the significant achievements of our lab members.

Soft Growing Robots team from our laboratory, comprised of Ph.D. candidates Dongoh Seo and Nam Gyun Kim, along with Professor Jee-Hwan Ryu, was honored with the 2024 Best Paper Award at the prestigious 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Atlanta, USA. The award recognizes their outstanding paper published in Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), a premier robotics journal under the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

A refreshing spring gathering brought our lab members together through strawberries, cherry blossoms, and shared smiles 🍓🌸