A research team mentored by Prof. Kyungtae Kim from the Department of Electrical Engineering at POSTECH has won the Gold Prize at the 22nd Korea Science and Engineering Fair (KSEF) and has been selected to represent Korea at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

The research was conducted as part of the R&E (Research and Education) Program of the Korea Science Academy of KAIST (KSA). The student research team—Junseop Shin, Kyungjin Shin, and Sanghyun Kim (KSA)—carried out a project titled “Drone Detection through Magnetic Field Analysis.”

In this study, the team analyzed the limitations of existing drone detection technologies and proposed a new detection approach based on magnetic field sensing. By detecting the magnetic fields generated by drone motors and electronic components, the researchers experimentally demonstrated a method that can overcome the limitations of conventional RF signal–based detection systems.

Notably, the system achieved high directional detection accuracy with an error rate within 0.5% in azimuth estimation experiments, suggesting that magnetic field–based detection could be an effective approach for identifying stealth drones and fiber-optically controlled drones, which are difficult to detect using traditional RF-based methods.

The research was conducted under the supervision of Prof. Kyungtae Kim, with the support of Jae-Hyun Park (Ph.D. student) as a teaching assistant. During the project, the team applied systematic research methodologies developed in the Intelligent Radar and Signal Processing Laboratory (IRAS) for drone detection, leading to meaningful research outcomes.

The team plans to further develop the research and aims to achieve outstanding results at the upcoming ISEF international competition.