I’m a Principal Applied Scientist at Amazon Web Services, working on Velocity Labs within the Agentic AI organization. My research focuses on agentic coding, where trust is the bottleneck to unlocking real productivity gains. I pursue a neurosymbolic approach that combines AI with automated and interactive theorem proving, so that coding agents can ship faster while delivering code with machine-checked correctness guarantees. I earned my PhD from Carnegie Mellon University under Prof. Edmund Clarke, focusing on delta-decision procedures.
Teaching LLMs Program Semantics via Symbolic Execution Traces. Jonas Bayer, Stefan Zetzsche, Olivier Bouissou, Remi Delmas, Michael Tautschnig, and Soonho Kong. arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.06184, 2026. [ bib | http ]
Intent-aligned Formal Specification Synthesis via Traceable Refinement. Zhe Ye, Aidan Z.H. Yang, Huangyuan Su, Zhenyu Liao, Samuel Tenka, Zhizhen Qin, Udaya Ghai, Dawn Song, and Soonho Kong. arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.10392, 2026. [ bib | http | project page ]
s2n-bignum-bench: A practical benchmark for evaluating low-level code reasoning of LLMs. Balaji Rao, John Harrison, Soonho Kong, Juneyoung Lee, and Carlo Lipizzi. In 1st Workshop on AI, Proof and Verification (AIPV 2026), 2026. [ bib | http ]
Learning Adaptive LLM Decoding. Chloe H. Su, Zhe Ye, Samuel Tenka, Aidan Yang, Soonho Kong, and Udaya Ghai. arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.09065, 2026. [ bib | http ]
ATLAS: Automated Toolkit for Large-Scale Verified Code Synthesis. Mantas Baksys, Stefan Zetzsche, Olivier Bouissou, Remi Delmas, Soonho Kong, and Sean B. Holden. In Dafny Workshop 2026, co-located with POPL 2026, 2026. [ bib | http ]
Synthetic Theorem Generation in Lean. Joseph Rotella, Zhizhen Qin, Aidan Z.H. Yang, Brando Miranda, Mohamed El Amine Seddik, Jingwei Zuo, Hakim Hacid, Leonardo de Moura, Soonho Kong, and Shi Hu. arXiv preprint, 2025. [ bib | http ]
DeRL: Diverse-Exploration Reinforcement Learning for Large Language Models Improves Mathematical Reasoning. Chenyang An, Zhizhen Qin, Soonho Kong, and Cedric Flamant. arXiv preprint, 2025. [ bib | http ]
Solving string constraints with concatenation using SAT. Kevin Lotz, Amit Goel, Bruno Dutertre, Benjamin Kiesl-Reiter, Soonho Kong, and Dirk Nowotka. In FMCAD 2024, 2024. [ bib | http ]
Solving String Constraints Using SAT. Kevin Lotz, Amit Goel, Bruno Dutertre, Benjamin Kiesl-Reiter, Soonho Kong, Rupak Majumdar, and Dirk Nowotka. In Computer Aided Verification, pages 187--208, Cham, 2023. Springer Nature Switzerland. [ bib | http ]
Certified Perception for Autonomous Cars. U. Guajardo, A. Bryan, N. Arechiga, S. Campos, J. Chow, D. Jackson, S. Kong, G. Litt, and J. Pollock. 6th Workshop On Monitoring And Testing Of Cyber-Physical Systems, 2021. [ bib | http ]
Numerically-Robust Inductive Proof Rules for Continuous Dynamical Systems. Sicun Gao, James Kapinski, Jyotirmoy Deshmukh, Nima Roohi, Armando Solar-Lezama, Nikos Arechiga, and Soonho Kong. In Computer Aided Verification, pages 137--154, Cham, 2019. Springer International Publishing. [ bib | DOI | .pdf ]
Evaluating Branching Heuristics in Interval Constraint Propagation for Satisfiability. Calvin Huang, Soonho Kong, Sicun Gao, and Damien Zufferey. In Numerical Software Verification, pages 85--100, Cham, 2019. Springer International Publishing. [ bib | DOI | http ]
Certified Control: An Architecture for Verifiable Safety of Autonomous Vehicles. Daniel Jackson, Valerie Richmond, Mike Wang, Jeff Chow, Uriel Guajardo, Soonho Kong, Sergio Campos, Geoffrey Litt, and Nikos Arechiga. arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.06178, 2021. [ bib | http ]
Certified Control for Self-Driving Cars. Daniel Jackson, Jonathan DeCastro, Soonho Kong, Dimitrios Koutentakis, Angela Feng Ping Leong, Armando Solar-Lezama, Mike Wang, and Xin Zhang. In DARS 2019: 4th Workshop On The Design And Analysis Of Robust Systems, 2019. [ bib | .pdf ]
Better AI through Logical Scaffolding. Nikos Arechiga, Jonathan DeCastro, Soonho Kong, and Karen Leung. In FoMLAS 2019: 2nd Workshop on Formal Methods for ML-Enabled Autonomous Systems, 2019. [ bib | http ]
REAS: Combining Numerical Optimization with SAT Solving. Jeevana Priya Inala, Sicun Gao, Soonho Kong, and Armando Solar-Lezama. arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.04408, 2018. [ bib | http ]
Delta-Decision Procedures for Exists-Forall Problems over the Reals. Soonho Kong, Armando Solar-Lezama, and Sicun Gao. In Computer Aided Verification, CAV'18, pages 219--235, Cham, 2018. Springer International Publishing. [ bib | DOI | .pdf ]
SMT-Based Analysis of Virtually Synchronous Distributed Hybrid Systems. Kyungmin Bae, Peter Csaba Ölveczky, Soonho Kong, Sicun Gao, and Edmund M. Clarke. In Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control, HSCC'16, pages 145--154, New York, NY, USA, 2016. ACM. [ bib | DOI | http ]
A network-driven approach for genome-wide association mapping. Seunghak Lee, Soonho Kong, and Eric P. Xing. Bioinformatics, 32(12):i164--i173, 2016. [ bib | DOI | http ]
Bifurcation Analysis of Cardiac Alternans Using delta-Decidability. Md. Ariful Islam, Greg Byrne, Soonho Kong, Edmund M. Clarke, Rance Cleaveland, Flavio H. Fenton, Radu Grosu, Paul L. Jones, and Scott A. Smolka. In Computational Methods in Systems Biology, CMSB'16, pages 132--146, Cham, 2016. Springer International Publishing. [ bib | DOI ]
dReach: Delta-Reachability Analysis for Hybrid Systems. Soonho Kong, Sicun Gao, Wei Chen, and Edmund Clarke. In Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems, TACAS'15, pages 200--205, New York, NY, USA, 2015. Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. [ bib | DOI | http ]
Towards Personalized Prostate Cancer Therapy Using Delta-reachability Analysis. Bing Liu, Soonho Kong, Sicun Gao, Paolo Zuliani, and Edmund M. Clarke. In Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control, HSCC'15, pages 227--232, New York, NY, USA, 2015. ACM. [ bib | DOI | http ]
The Lean Theorem Prover (System Description). Leonardo de Moura, Soonho Kong, Jeremy Avigad, Floris van Doorn, and Jakob von Raumer. In Automated Deduction, CADE'15, pages 378--388, Cham, 2015. Springer International Publishing. [ bib | DOI ]
SReach: A Probabilistic Bounded Delta-Reachability Analyzer for Stochastic Hybrid Systems. Qinsi Wang, Paolo Zuliani, Soonho Kong, Sicun Gao, and Edmund M. Clarke. In Computational Methods in Systems Biology, CMSB'15, pages 15--27, Cham, 2015. Springer International Publishing. [ bib | DOI ]
Parameter Synthesis for Cardiac Cell Hybrid Models Using δ-Decisions. Bing Liu, Soonho Kong, Sicun Gao, Paolo Zuliani, and Edmund M. Clarke. In Computational Methods in Systems Biology, CMSB'14, pages 99--113, Cham, 2014. Springer International Publishing. [ bib | DOI ]
Proof Generation from Delta-Decisions. Sicun Gao, Soonho Kong, and Edmund M. Clarke. In Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing, SYNASC'14, pages 156--163, 9 2014. [ bib | DOI ]
Automatically inferring loop invariants via algorithmic learning. Yungbum Jung, Soonho Kong, Cristina David, Bow-Yaw Wang, and Kwangkeun Yi. Mathematical Structures in Computer Science, 25(4):892–915, 2015. [ bib | DOI ]
Satisfiability modulo ODEs. Sicun Gao, Soonho Kong, and Edmund M. Clarke. In Formal Methods in Computer-Aided Design, FMCAD'13, pages 105--112, 2013. [ bib | DOI ]
dReal: An SMT Solver for Nonlinear Theories over the Reals. Sicun Gao, Soonho Kong, and Edmund M. Clarke. In Automated Deduction, CADE'13, pages 208--214, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2013. Springer-Verlag. [ bib | DOI | http ]
Compositional Sequentialization of Periodic Programs. Sagar Chaki, Arie Gurfinkel, Soonho Kong, and Ofer Strichman. In Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation, VMCAI'13, pages 536--554, New York, NY, USA, 2013. Springer-Verlag New York, Inc. [ bib | DOI | http ]
Automatically Inferring Quantified Loop Invariants by Algorithmic Learning from Simple Templates. Soonho Kong, Yungbum Jung, Cristina David, Bow-Yaw Wang, and Kwangkeun Yi. In Asian Conference on Programming Languages and Systems, APLAS'10, pages 328--343, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010. Springer-Verlag. [ bib | DOI | http ]
Deriving Invariants by Algorithmic Learning, Decision Procedures, and Predicate Abstraction. Yungbum Jung, Soonho Kong, Bow-Yaw Wang, and Kwangkeun Yi. In Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation, VMCAI'10, pages 180--196, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2010. Springer-Verlag. [ bib | DOI | http ]
Abstract Parsing for Two-staged Languages with Concatenation. Soonho Kong, Wontae Choi, and Kwangkeun Yi. In Generative Programming and Component Engineering, GPCE'09, pages 109--116, New York, NY, USA, 2009. ACM. [ bib | DOI | http ]
PCC Framework for Program-Generators. Soonho Kong, Wontae Choi, and Kwangkeun Yi. In Workshop on Proof-Carrying Code and Software Certification, 2009. [ bib | .pdf ]
Automated Testing of Environment-Dependent Programs - A Case Study of Modeling the File System for Pex. Soonho Kong, Nikolai Tillmann, and Jonathan de Halleux. In Information Technology: New Generations, ITNG'09, pages 758--762, 4 2009. [ bib | DOI ]
Systems and methods for automatically generating solver code for nonlinear model predictive control solvers. Sarah Koehler, Soonho Kong, Frank Permenter, Kevin Zaseck, and Avinash Balachandran United States Patent #12208809. January 2025. [ bib | .pdf ]
Personalized notification system for mobility as a service. Soon Ho Kong, Jonathan DeCastro, Nikos Gonzalez Arechiga, and Frank Permenter United States Patent #11543258. January 2023. [ bib | .pdf ]
Wearable exoskeleton. Jonathan DeCastro, Soon Ho Kong, Nikos Gonzalez Arechiga, Frank Permenter, and Dennis Park United States Patent #11918535. March 2024. [ bib | .pdf ]
Actively adapting to driving environments based on human interactions. Soon Ho Kong, Jonathan DeCastro, Nikos Gonzalez Arechiga, and Frank Permenter United States Patent #11801852. October 2023. [ bib | .pdf ]
Certified control for self-driving cars. Daniel Jackson, Jonathan Decastro, Soon Ho Kong, Nikos Arechiga Gonzalez, Dimitrios Koutentakis, Feng Ping Angela Leong, Mike Meichang Wang, and Xin Zhang United States Patent #11745732. September 2023. [ bib | .pdf ]
Predictive impairment monitor system and method. Nikos Gonzalez Arechiga, Soon Ho Kong, Jonathan DeCastro, Frank Permenter, and Dennis Park United States Patent #11518408. December 2022. [ bib | .pdf ]
Predictive parking due to weather. Nikos Gonzalez Arechiga, Soon Ho Kong, Jonathan DeCastro, Frank Permenter, and Dennis Park United States Patent #11479239. October 2022. [ bib | .pdf ]
Simulation-based Technique to Synthesize Controllers that Satisfy Signal Temporal Logic Specifications. Nikos Arechiga, Karen Y. Leung, Soon Ho Kong, Jonathan Decastro, and Frank Permenter United States Patent #11256611. February 2022. [ bib | .pdf ]
System and Method for Detecting Errors and Improving Reliability of Perception Systems Using Logical Scaffolds. Nikos Arechiga, Soonho Kong, Jonathan DeCastro, Sagar Behere, and Dennis Park United States Patent #11157756. October 2021. [ bib | .pdf ]
Actively Adapting To Driving Environments Based On Human Interactions. Soonho Kong, Jonathan DeCastro, Nikos Arechiga, and Frank Permenter United States Patent #11072342. July 2021. [ bib | .pdf ]
Systems And Methods For Improving Situational Awareness Of A User. Jonathan DeCastro, Frank Permenter, Soonho Kong, and Nikos Arechiga United States Patent #10621858. April 2020. [ bib | .pdf ]
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