About Me

Hi! I'm an undergraduate student at Seoul National University, pursuing triple majors in Linguistics, Psychology, and Computer Science. I am currently working as a Research Assistant under Jiook Cha and Woo-Young Ahn. I also worked as a visiting researcher under Yuan-Wei Yao at the University of Hong Kong.

I am looking for a Ph.D. position in Computational Neuroscience. My research interest is in identifying the principles linking behavior and neural activity by identifying the latent structure they share. I aim to use these principles both to better understand brain and cognition through computational models and to build more human-inspired AI systems.

Education

Seoul National University · Seoul, South Korea
Mar 2021 – Exp. Feb 2027
Degrees:B.A. Linguistics · B.A. Psychology · B.S. Computer Science
* Mandatory military service, Jul 2023 – Jan 2025
The University of Hong Kong · Hong Kong SAR
Jun 2025 – Aug 2025
Summer Research Program, Faculty of Psychology

News

  • Jul 2026 We presented our color-vision paper at the ICML 2026 Workshop on Structured Data for Health (SD4H). 🎉
  • Jun 2026 We presented a poster at the OHBM 2026 Annual Meeting.
  • Jun 2025 Selected for the HKU Summer Research Program (HKUSRP), Faculty of Psychology.
  • Mar 2025 Awarded the KOSAF Humanity 100 Years Undergraduate Scholarship. 🎓

Publications

Sole first author on all listed work.

Workshop Papers
Pipeline for inferring individualized color-vision distortions from fMRI
Inferring Individualized Color-Vision Distortions from fMRI Hue-Representation Geometry
Jinil Kim, Albert Minkue Cho, Jungwoo Seo, Jiook Cha
ICML 2026 Workshop on Structured Data for Health (SD4H), Seoul, Korea. 2026. [paper], [poster], [project page]
Under Review
State-conditional bounded-foresight inverse reinforcement learning
Inverse reinforcement learning of latent human planning
Jinil Kim, Jinwoo Jeong, Hyeongjun Yun, Min-hwan Oh, Woo-Young Ahn
Under review at NeurIPS. 2026.
Conversational relevance and the conjunction fallacy in language models
Conversational relevance in the conjunction fallacy is represented independently in language models
Jinil Kim, Jaejun Ryu
Under review at the NeurIPS 2026 Workshop on Linguistic Principles for Foundation Models (LP4FM). 2026.
In Preparation
Cortical hue representation geometry in color vision deficiency
Preserved categorical identification with impaired hue interpolation in color vision deficiency motivates a cortically derived correction filter
Jinil Kim, Albert Minkue Cho, Jungwoo Seo, Jiook Cha
Time-varying drift diffusion model of social decisions in depression
Depression relates to when, and not only how strongly, information enters a social decision
Jinil Kim, Yuan-Wei Yao
Presentations
fMRI Decoding Reveals Intact Neural Color Representations in Color Vision Deficiency
Jinil Kim, Minkue Cho, Jungwoo Seo, Jiook Cha
OHBM 2026 Annual Meeting, Bordeaux, France. 2026. Poster
When, not just how strongly: a delayed onset of attribute integration in depression
Jinil Kim, Yuan-Wei Yao
HKU Summer Research Program, Hong Kong. 2025. Poster

Research Experiences

Connectome Lab · Seoul National University
Apr 2025 – Present
Undergraduate RA
Advisor: Prof. Jiook Cha
Research Area: Brain Foundation Model; Neural Field; Uncertainty Quantification; Cortical Color Representation
Computational Clinical Science Lab · Seoul National University
Apr 2025 – Present
Undergraduate RA
Advisor: Prof. Woo-Young Ahn
Research Area: Inverse RL; Computational Psychiatry; Multimodal Digital Phenotyping
MIND Lab · University of Hong Kong
Jun 2025 – Aug 2025
Visiting Researcher
Advisor: Prof. Yuan-Wei Yao
Research Area: Computational Modeling; Social Decision-Making

Honors and Awards

Best Poster Award, SNU Undergraduate Research Program
Jan 2026
SNU Student-Proposed Liberal Arts Course Contest (1st Place)
Jul 2023

Scholarships & Fellowships

KOSAF Humanity 100 Years Undergraduate Scholarship
Mar 2025 – Jul 2026
Amount: $12,500
SNU Undergraduate Research Grant
Apr 2025
Amount: $3,500
The University of Hong Kong Foundation for Educational Development and Research Scholarship
Jun 2025 – Aug 2025
Amount: $1,300
Superior Academic Performance Scholarship
Mar 2022, 2023; Sep 2022
Amount: $1,650 each

Teaching

Teaching Assistant, Basic Computing (English) · Seoul National University
Mar 2026
Teaching Assistant, Basic Computing (Korean) · Seoul National University
Sep 2025