(PDF version)
Positions Held
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the School of Information Sciences
- Assistant Professor (Aug. 2024 – Present)
- Indiana University Bloomington, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering
- Assistant Professor (Jan. 2019 – Jul. 2024)
- (In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tenure clock has been extended by two years)
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, School of Information Sciences
- Co-Instructor (Fall 2016)
- Digital Libraries (LIS560LE)
- Research Assistant (Aug. 2011 – Aug. 2016)
- Projects: Music Information Retrieval Evaluation eXchange (MIREX), K-Pop Mood/Genre Annotation, HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC)
- Teaching Assistant (2013 – 2015)
- Digital Libraries (LIS560LE)
- Software Developer (Jan. 2009 – Jun. 2011)
- Member System Development Team
Education
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- PhD in Library and Information Science (Dec. 2018)
- International Music Information Retrieval Systems Evaluation Laboratory (IMIRSEL)
- Advised by J. Stephen Downie
- Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
- MS in Media Program (Feb. 2010)
- BE in Information and Computer Engineering (Feb. 2005)
- Division of Information and Computer Engineering
- Graduated with honors
- University of Illinois at Chicago
- Exchange Student (Fall 2004)
- Dept. of Computer Science
- GPA 4.0/4.0
Research Grants
- Institute of Museum and Library Services, Early Career Research Development project of Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program
- Role: Principal Investigator
- Title: “Unbiased AI for Poetry Analysis: Toward Equitable and Diverse Digital Libraries”
- Budget: $420,819
- Period: Aug. 2022 – Jul. 2026
- Luddy Faculty Fellowship
- Role: Principal Investigator
- Title: “AI for Literature”
- Budget: $25,000
- Period: Nov. 2021 – Oct. 2022
- Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Leadership Grants
- Role: Co-Principal Investigator (PI: Hee Rin Lee at MSU)
- Budget: $249,999 in total, my portion is about $97,741
- Period: Aug. 2021 – Jul. 2023
Awards and Honors
- Teaching Database Design and Prototyping (IS 455), Fall 2024, University of Illinois
- Awarded the highest ranking of “Outstanding”
- Indiana University Trustees, 2023
- Awarded for outstanding contributions to the educational mission at IU
- Best Presentation Award
- ASIS&T SIG AI Workshop, 2022 (Presenter: Hee Rin Lee)
- Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, 2021
- The Luddy Faculty Fellows program is designed to support excellence in research, funded as part of a transformative $60 million gift from Fred Luddy in 2019.
- Title: “AI for Literature”
- Rayward Fellowship and Provost Match Fellowship
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, School of Information Sciences, 2017-2018
- Received a tuition waiver and stipend for dissertation writing
- Women in Music Information Retrieval (WiMIR) Award
- Received a travel grant to attend ISMIR 2016
- Merit-based university scholarships for four semesters
- Ajou University, Suwon, Korea, Spring 2004, Fall 2003, Spring 2002, Fall 2001
- Awarded for academic excellence over four semesters
- Graduated with honors
- Ajou University, Suwon, Korea
- Top 4% among the Division of Information and Computer Engineering
Teaching
- Teaching courses at IU (as the main instructor)
- Database Design (ILS-Z 511)
- Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019, Spring 2019
- Music Data Mining (ILS-Z 604)
- Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2020
- Teaching courses at the UIUC iSchool
- Database Design and Prototyping (IS 455)
- Spring 2025, Fall 2024
- Digital Libraries (LIS 560 LE)
- Fall 2016
- Teaching assistant at the UIUC iSchool
- Machine Learning Team Projects (IS 590 ML)
- Fall 2018
- Digital Libraries (LIS560LE)
- Spring 2017, Fall 2015, Spring 2015, Fall 2014, Spring 2014, Fall 2013, and Spring 2013
Publications
- Academic Peer-Reviewed Publications
- Huajie Cao, Kahyun Choi, Hee Rin Lee, “AI literacy for Underserved Students: Exploring an Asset-Based Approach to Library-Based AI Literacy Program,” In the Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2025
- Soo Hyeon Kim, Gi Woong Choi, Kahyun Choi, Andrea Copeland, Christine D’Arpa, Sarah Evans, Simpson Lance, Hee Rin Lee, Ayoung Yoon, “Public Library-University Research Partnerships in Library and Information Science: Exploring the Benefits, Challenges, and Strategies for Community-Engaged Scholarship,” Library Quarterly, 2025
- Kahyun Choi and Gyuri Kang, “An Analysis of Poet Demographic and Thematic Diversity in a Poetry Collection for Inclusive AI,” in Proceedings of the 20th iConference, 2025,
- Haven Kim and Kahyun Choi, “LyCon: Lyrics Reconstruction from the Bag-of-Words Using Large Language Models,” the 18th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR), 2024
- Xiao Hu, Kahyun Choi, Yun Hao, Sally Jo Cunningham, Jin Ha Lee, Audrey Laplante, David Bainbridge, and J. Stephen Downie, “Exploring the Music Library Association Mailing List: A Text Mining Approach,” in Proceedings of the 18th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference, (ISMIR), 2017
- Xiao Hu, Jin Ha Lee, David Bainbridge, Kahyun Choi, Peter Organisciak, and J. Stephen Downie, “The MIREX Grand Challenge: a framework of holistic user experience evaluation in music information retrieval,” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 97-112, 2015.
- J. Stephen Downie, Xiao Hu, Jin Ha Lee, Kahyun Choi, Yun Hao, and Sally Jo. Cunningham, “Ten Years of MIREX (Music Information Retrieval Evaluation eXchange): Reflections, Challenges and Opportunities,” in Proceedings of the International Society of Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR), Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 2014.
- Workshop Abstracts and Panels
- Soo Hyeon Kim, Gi Woong Choi, Kahyun Choi, Andrea Copeland, Christine D’Arpa, Sarah Evans, Simpson Lance, Hee Rin Lee, Ayoung Yoon, “Public Library-University Partnerships in Library and Information Science: Approaches, Challenges, Implications for Translating Research into Practice,” the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) [Panel], 2023
- Hee Rin Lee, Kahyun Choi, Selin Akgun, Ji Youn Shin, Pooja Malvi, Meredith Dedema, “AI & Co-design in public libraries: Empowering underserved youth to cultivate symbiotic relationships between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and their communities,” in ASIS&T SIG AI Workshop, 2022. (Best Presentation Award)
Student Advising
- Research Assistantship Advising
- Shu Chen (MSIM at UIUC), Spring 2025-
- Tan Debnath (MSIM at UIUC), Spring 2025
- Gyuri Kang (ILS PhD at IU), Summer 2024
- Leyi Zhao (ILS PhD at IU), Fall 2023-Spring 2024
- Meredith Dedema (ILS PhD at IU), Summer 2022-Spring 2023
- Shruti Padole (CS MS at IU), Summer 2022-Spring 2023
- Selin Akgun (Education PhD at MSU), Spring 2022-Summer 2022
- PhD Dissertation Committee Member
- Haining Wang (ILS PhD at IU), Spring 2024 – Spring 2025
- Tamy Chambers (ILS PhD at IU), Fall 2023 –
- Zheng Gao (ILS PhD at IU), 2020
- PhD Qualifying Exam Committee Member
- Yiting Xia (Informatics PhD at UIUC), 2025
- Pei-Ying Chen (ILS PhD at IU), 2021
- Independent Studies (at IU)
- Gyuri Kang (ILS PhD at IU), Spring 2024
- Haining Wang (ILS PhD at IU), Spring 2023 – Fall 2023
- Meredith Dedema (ILS PhD at IU), Spring 2023
- Sasidev Mahendran(Data Science MS at IU), Spring 2023
- Sumitha Vellinalur Thattai (Data Science MS at IU), Spring 2023
- Emerging Scholars Research Experience for Undergraduate Women Mentor (at IU)
- Alexa Walquist (Undergraduate at Kelley School at IU), Fall 2022-Spring 2023
- Women in Music Information Retrieval (WiMIR) Mentor
- Eunjin Choi (PhD at Graduate School of Culture Technology at KAIST), Spring 2022
Professional Activities
- Advisory Board Membership
- Audiovisual Metadata Platform, Indiana University (IU) Libraries, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 2022-2023
- Professional Memberships
- American Library Association
- Young Adult Library Services Association
- American Society for Information Science & Technology
- Research Community Work
- Korean Society for Music Informatics, Board member, 4/1/2025 – 3/31/2028
- The International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR), Meta-Reviewer, 2025
- The International Digital Libraries for Musicology workshop (DLfM), Program Committee, 2025
- The International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR), Meta-Reviewer, 2024
- The International Digital Libraries for Musicology workshop (DLfM), Program Committee, 2024
- The International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR), Meta-Reviewer, 2023
- The International Digital Libraries for Musicology workshop (DLfM), Program Committee, 2023
- The International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR), Meta-Reviewer, 2022
- The International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR), Volunteer Chair, 2021
- The International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR), Meta-Reviewer, 2021
- The International Digital Libraries for Musicology workshop (DLfM), Session Chair, 2021
- The International Digital Libraries for Musicology workshop (DLfM), Program Committee, 2021
- The International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR), Meta-Reviewer, 2020
- Midwest Music and Audio Day, Bloomington, IN, Organizing Committee (June 27, 2019)
- The Music Information Retrieval Evaluation eXchange (MIREX), Evaluation Committee leader, (Aug. 2014 – Aug. 2016)
- The Music Information Retrieval Evaluation eXchange (MIREX), Evaluation Committee member, (Aug. 2011 – Aug. 2013)
- Reviewer of Journals and Conferences
- Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval (TISMIR)
- The International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR)
- The American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T)
- ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology (TIST)
- International Journal on Digital Libraries (IJDL)
- Institutional Services at IU
- Doctoral Steering Committee, ILS
- Faculty Affairs Committee, Chair, ILS
- Master of Information Science (MIS) Review Committee, ILS
- Data Science Curriculum Committee, Luddy School
- Luddy Fellow Selection Committee, Luddy School
- Graduate Student Visit Day Planning Committee, Luddy School
- Departmental Colloquium Committee, October 2019-December 2021
- Outreach and Community Engagement Activities
- Maryland AI Workshop for Teens, Carroll County Public Library, Maryland, March 4 and April 4, 2023
- San Diego AI Workshop for Teens, the City Heights/Weingart Branch at San Diego Public Library, June 12 – June 15, 2023
Presentations
- Invited Talks
- “Responsible AI for Poetry Analysis & Acoustic Analysis of Poetry Reading,” Milner Library, Illinois State University, March 27, 2025
- “AI for Libraries and Libraries for AI,” Luddy Fellows Research Spotlight, April 5, 2023
- “AI for Libraries,” 2022-2023 Luddy Faculty Fellows Talk, March 7, 2023
- “Unbiased AI for Poetry Analysis: Toward Equitable and Diverse Digital Libraries,” Pervasive Technology Institute Speaker Series, Bloomington, December 2, 2022
- “Computational Lyricology“, The Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology Seminar, Georgia Institute of Technology, September 12, 2022.
- “Music Trend Analysis“, IU JSOM Music and Mind Lab, Bloomington, May 2, 2022.
- “Information Retrieval“, Digital Libraries (LIS560LE), Spring 2015.
- “Automatic Music Subject Classification and a Cross-Cultural Exploration of K-Pop Genre,” Shazam, Menlo Park, CA, Aug. 14, 2014.
- “A Cross-Cultural Study on the Mood and Genre of Korean Pop Songs“, Pandora Radio, Oakland, CA, Jun. 19, 2014.
- “A Cross-cultural Exploration of K-Pop Moods and Genres“, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, May 3, 2014 – May 9, 2014.
- Panels
- Soo Hyeon Kim, Gi Woong Choi, Kahyun Choi, Andrea Copeland, Christine D’Arpa, Sarah Evans, Simpson Lance, Hee Rin Lee, Ayoung Yoon, “Public Library-University Partnerships in Library and Information Science: Approaches, Challenges, Implications for Translating Research into Practice,” the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) [Panel], 2023
- Talks at Workshops and Doctoral Colloquia
- Kahyun Choi, “Insights from an Introductory Music-Based ML Course for Library Science Students,” DH2024 Workshop Teaching Machine Learning to Humanists, Aug. 6, 2024.
- Kahyun Choi, “Toward Equitable and Diverse Digital Poetry Libraries,” DH2024 Workshop Computational Literary Studies: How To Do Research Responsibly, Aug. 5, 2024.
- Hee Rin Lee and Kahyun Choi, “Hands-On AI Literacy Programs for Youth,” YALSA education session (webinar), Nov. 30, 2023.
- Hee Rin Lee and Kahyun Choi, “AI Literacy for Libraries,” YALSA’s Young Adult Services Symposium, St. Louis, MO, Nov. 10-12, 2023.
- Kahyun Choi, “Computational Poetry Collection Analysis via Context-Dependent Language Models,” ASIST AI workshop, 2022.
- Hee Rin Lee, Kahyun Choi, Selin Akgun, Pooja Malvi, Ji Youn Shin, and Meredith Dedema, “AI & Codesign in public libraries: Empowering underserved youth to cultivate symbiotic relationships between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and their communities,” ASIST AI workshop, 2022. (Best Presentation Award)
- Kahyun Choi, “Music Thumbnailing“, 2016 Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Doctoral Colloquium, Copenhagen, Denmark, Oct. 18, 2016.
- Kahyun Choi, “From Lyrics to Their Interpretations: Automated Reading between the Lines“, the IEEE/ACM Joint Conference in Digital Libraries (JCDL) Doctoral Consortium, 2015
- Posters
- Kahyun Choi, “Topic Modeling Users’ Interpretations of Songs to Inform Subject Access in Music Digital Libraries“, GSLIS Research Showcase 2015, Apr. 3, 2015.
- Kahyun Choi, “The Impact of Music Genre on Music Similarity: A Qualitative Exploration“, GSLIS Research Showcase 2015, Apr. 3, 2015.
- Kahyun Choi, “Exploring Music Subject Classification Based on User Interpretations of Music“, Midwest Music Information Retrieval Gathering (MMIRG), Evanston, IL, Jun. 14, 2014.
- Kahyun Choi, “K-Pop Genres: A Cross Cultural Exploration“, GSLIS Research Showcase 2014, Mar. 14, 2014.
- Kahyun Choi, “Music Mood Tag Prediction with Dimension Reduced Tag Space“, GSLIS Research Showcase 2013, Mar. 29, 2013.
Skills
- Programming languages: Python, MATLAB, Unix shell scripting, JavaScript, R, Java, C, PHP, C with PIC
- Machine learning tools: scikit-learn, Keras, Mallet, Weka
- Database: MySQL, MongoDB, Neo4j
- Others: Linux, NodeXL, Dedoose, Amazon MTurk