Yim is a professor of Mechanical Engineering at UNLV. He received his MS (1984) and Ph.D. (1987) in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and B.S. (1981) in mechanical engineering from Hanyang University in South Korea. His research has been focused in the area of robotics, smart materials, and unmanned autonomous system development. His recent research activities include the development of aerial sensor network using UAS swarm for radiation source localization and mapping. He received the 2011 Harry Reid Silver State Research Award, and inducted as a Fellow of ASME in 2009.