Sukyoung Ryu

Sukyoung Ryu is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at KAIST's College of Computing, South Korea. Her research centers on programming languages and program analysis, with significant contributions to WebAssembly, JavaScript semantics, and language specification. She leads the Programming Languages Research Group (PLRG) at KAIST.

Her research spans multiple critical areas including executable specification engineering, static analysis techniques, and language interoperability. Recent work focuses on WebAssembly conformance testing, C-to-Rust translation, and bridging real-world implementations with formal semantics. Her group develops practical tools like SpecTec for mechanized language specifications and JISET for JavaScript semantics extraction.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications reveals strong trends in executable specifications (7 papers), WebAssembly tooling (5 papers), and language translation (4 papers). Key methodological approaches include record-replay debugging, filtered-simulation for binary lifting, and algebraic data type transformations for memory safety.

Ryu actively contributes to the programming languages community through leadership roles including Steering Committee Chair for APLAS, Program Co-Chair for SPLASH/OOPSLA, and committee positions at POPL, PLDI, and ICFP. She frequently organizes workshops on real-world language specification (RPLS) and presents keynotes on programming language research for social good.

Her mentoring activities include co-chairing New Faculty Symposia and participating in RTFM panels on faculty mentoring. She advises students through KAIST's programs and supervises research in the PLRG lab, which focuses on building practical language tools with formal foundations. Current projects emphasize WebAssembly standardization, secure language interoperability, and specification-based testing frameworks.