Research

Complexity and Multi-dimensionality of Coupled Systems
Below is the last slide of dissertation defense, summarizing my Ph.D. research.
Ongoing research
Migration in Somalia
I am developing an agent-based model to capture internal displacement (IDP) and international migration in Somalia. As a part of MURI project (link), this is an extension of my proof-of-concept model (Oh et al. in preparation; more information will be soon provided). This study currently considers precipitation (CHIRPS dataset) and social network to predict IDPs between Somalia regions (PRMN dataset from UNHCR).

Left figure is a preliminary result. I compared observed and simulated IDP flow ranks in 2016 (started from 2014). I used Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between the two. I found that precipitation and social ties can substitute each other.
This research is right at the starting stage and requires much more improvements:
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Additional drivers (e.g., conflict)
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Simulation for 2017 and 2018
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Incorporating international migration to the model
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More connection to the stylized facts of migration (Griffith et al. in preparation)
More ongoing research will be updated soon!