Reflections on Being a Visiting Researcher in South Korea: ABM, Digital Twins, and Cross-Border Collaborations

An International Research Experience in South Korea

During my time as a Research Assistant working on the Korea-UK Digital Transport Project (KUDATA), I had the privilege of spending an intensive, highly productive period based in South Korea as a Visiting Researcher at Pusan National University (PNU) in Busan.

This international visit combined hands-on teaching, in-depth industry collaboration with technology partners, co-authoring academic research, and conducting outreach across national research institutes and leading universities in both Busan and Seoul.

Delivering Practical Agent-Based Modelling Seminars at PNU

One of the highlights of my visit was designing and delivering a tailored seminar series on Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) to undergraduate, Master's, and PhD students across the Urban Engineering Department at Pusan National University.

Rather than confining the sessions to abstract simulation theory, the seminars were deliberately practical and hands-on. The curriculum was designed to teach students how to build their own agent-based simulations from the ground up in Python, with a specific focus on urban transportation, route choice behaviour, and spatial network dynamics.

The discussions that emerged were genuinely bi-directional: comparing how micro-level agent rules operate in the dense, multi-tiered transit corridors of Korean metropolitan regions versus the polycentric, lower-density layouts typical of the UK provided invaluable cross-cultural insights for both the students and myself.

Industry Collaboration: A Week On-Site with Sundosoft & Podaris

A pivotal objective of the Korea-UK partnership is connecting academic research with private-sector geospatial software engineering. During my trip, I spent an intensive week working on-site at Sundosoft, collaborating closely with Gunhwa Lee and Sujin Son.

Collaborative Research: Paper Publication, Stakeholder Interviews & Future ABMs

My in-person research collaboration with Professor Jinuk Hwang and Dr. Jinhyeok Jang at Pusan National University was instrumental in advancing our shared research agenda.

Working together in the same physical space allowed us to collaborate seamlessly across multiple research phases:

• Stakeholder Interviews: Conducted qualitative and technical interviews with Korean urban transport stakeholders to ground the digital twin framework in practical governance needs.
• Systematic Literature Review & NLP: Co-designed and drafted the research manuscript that was subsequently published open access in Sustainability (MDPI): “Leveraging Advanced Technologies for (Smart) Transportation Planning: A Systematic Review”.
• Future Scenarios: Formulated plans for future collaborative projects applying Agent-Based Modelling to novel scenarios, such as autonomous on-demand transport and multi-modal transit resilience.

Expanding the Network: Visits to KRIHS & Hanyang University

Beyond our base at PNU in Busan, Professor Hwang facilitated introductions that enabled me to expand the project's footprint nationally across South Korea:

Reflections & Lasting Connections

Spending time as a Visiting Researcher in South Korea was an extraordinarily enriching milestone in my academic and professional trajectory. Experiencing firsthand the dynamism of Korean urban innovation—from their world-class public transit integration to their ambitious digital twin initiatives—has deeply informed my perspective on spatial data science and transport planning.

Most importantly, it established lasting personal and professional friendships with colleagues at Pusan National University, Sundosoft, Hanyang University, and KRIHS. I look forward to continuing these collaborative ties as we advance future joint research into agent-based simulation and smart urban systems.