Sangoh Lee
Taken in Czechia, 2026

Sangoh Lee.이상오

Ph.D. @ POSTECH GSAI · advisor Wook-Shin Han · lab Data Systems

Building physical intelligence — vision-language-action models, world models, and the boring infrastructure that makes them work.

01about

Ph.D. student at POSTECH GSAI, working with Prof. Wook-Shin Han in the Data Systems Lab. Research focuses on Physical AI, Vision-Language-Action models, and World Models. I believe physical intelligence will be the next major leap in AI.

Previously: Natural Language Processing, Knowledge Graph Question Answering, and AI for Databases — publications at ACM SIGMOD 2024 and EMNLP 2025.

02interests

Physical AI Vision-Language-Action Models World Models Embodied Agents

03news

04publications

VAP teaser
ICML 2026 · regular track · Seoul, South Korea

Bring My Cup! Personalizing Vision-Language-Action Models with Visual Attentive Prompting

Sangoh Lee, Sangwoo Mo, Wook-Shin Han

A training-free perceptual adapter that gives frozen VLAs top-down selective attention — personalized object manipulation from a few reference images.

SAFE teaser
EMNLP 2025 · main track · Suzhou, China

SAFE: Schema-Driven Approximate Distance Join for Efficient Knowledge Graph Querying

Sangoh Lee, Sungho Park, Wook-Shin Han

A schema-driven framework for robust query graph generation and efficient KG retrieval, combining an Approximate Distance Join algorithm with compact schema graphs.

ASM teaser
SIGMOD 2024 · research track · Santiago, Chile

ASM: Harmonizing Autoregressive Model, Sampling, and Multi-dimensional Statistics Merging for Cardinality Estimation

Kyoungmin Kim, Sangoh Lee, Injung Kim, Wook-Shin Han

A learned cardinality estimator combining autoregressive models, sampling-based join merging, and multi-dimensional statistics merging.

ASM in Action teaser
SIGMOD 2024 · demonstration · Santiago, Chile

ASM in Action: Fast and Practical Learned Cardinality Estimation

Sangoh Lee, Kyoungmin Kim, Wook-Shin Han

A demonstration of ASM's internal estimation process and plan-space exploration, showcasing end-to-end execution-time advantages.

2026 · 1
  • ICML
    Bring My Cup! Personalizing Vision-Language-Action Models with Visual Attentive Prompting
    Sangoh Lee, Sangwoo Mo, Wook-Shin Han
2025 · 1
  • EMNLP
    SAFE: Schema-Driven Approximate Distance Join for Efficient Knowledge Graph Querying
    Sangoh Lee, Sungho Park, Wook-Shin Han
    pdf
2024 · 2
  • SIGMOD
    ASM: Harmonizing Autoregressive Model, Sampling, and Multi-dimensional Statistics Merging for Cardinality Estimation
    Kyoungmin Kim, Sangoh Lee, Injung Kim, Wook-Shin Han
    pdf
  • SIGMOD demo
    ASM in Action: Fast and Practical Learned Cardinality Estimation
    Sangoh Lee, Kyoungmin Kim, Wook-Shin Han

05ongoing

🧠
Intent-Aware Action Decoding for VLA Models
VLA action decoders are still trained largely by behavior cloning, which teaches which motor command was demonstrated but leaves what the behavior should achieve implicit. This work asks how a policy can form and act on that missing sense of purpose.
🧭
Active Spatial Intelligence in Embodied MLLM Agents
Embodied agents can act to gather the views they need, yet they often commit to an early belief and stop exploring. This work examines what limits active perception in MLLM agents and how much of that gap can be closed.
🧪
Dissociating Kinematics, Force, and Control in Video World Models for Manipulation
A systematic audit of whether the Physics Emergence Zone in video world models (e.g., DreamDojo, DreamZero, V-JEPA 2) encodes manipulation-relevant contact dynamics — friction, mass, and force inference.

06notes & posts

07cvpdf ↗

Education

  • 2023 –Ph.D. in AIPOSTECH GSAI · Wook-Shin Han · GPA 4.27/4.30
  • 2019 – 23B.S. in EEPOSTECH · Salutatorian (2/256) · GPA 4.25/4.30
  • 2017 – 19Daegu Il Science HSDG1S

Experience

  • '22 – '23Research InternPOSTECH Data Systems Lab · sampling-based cardinality estimation

Teaching

  • 2025 –TA · Deep Learning (AIGS538)
  • 2023TA · Database Systems (CSED421)
  • '20 – '22Tutor · Calculus, Linear Algebra

08honors & awards

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