Youngmoo Kim joined Drexel in 2005 as a faculty member in Electrical & Computer Engineering. In 2013, he established the ExCITe Center, Drexel's institute for transdisciplinary collaboration spanning technology, creative expression, and digital equity. He is a recognized leader in music technology research and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) education and has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications spanning AI for music, human-machine interfaces and robotics for expressive interaction, and integrating arts and STEM learning. He was appointed Vice Provost of University and Community Partnerships in April 2023.

He served on the National Academies committee for “Branches from the Same Tree,” a highly impactful report on the integration of the Humanities & Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education. Kim's education research has more recently focused on revealing exclusionary structures at the core of technology-centered learning. He co-authored “Making Culture” a national study of implicit bias in education makerspaces, and his TEDxPhiladelphia talk in May 2019 focused on the stunning lack of progress in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the technology fields in both higher education and industry. This research has helped establish the ExCITe Center as the home of Drexel’s efforts to advance digital equity, particularly in West Philadelphia, spearheaded by a Digital Navigators team and supported by the City of Philadelphia and industry partners.