Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) students from the Department of Resources and Energy Engineering forming the 'UAMETA Team' recently placed second (Excellence Award) in the Geospatial Information category at the '2025 National University UAM Olympiad' and received the President's Award from Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corporation (LX).

The UAMETA Team is composed of five members: team leader Seo Ji-won, a master's student supervised by Professor Cho Sang-ho, and students Jeon Geun-su, Choi Ki-hwan, Lee Seo-jin, and Lim Chae-rin. The competition was a nationwide Urban Air Mobility (UAM) contest co-hosted by Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corporation (LX) and several other institutions. It served as a forum to compete with creative UAM-related ideas and demonstrate technical feasibility.

The JBNU team participated under the theme 'Design of Geospatial Information and Site Analysis for Public Contribution-Type UAM Vertiport.' The entry received high marks for its empirical geospatial analysis based on geographic and terrain data and for demonstrating potential contributions to local public infrastructure.

Professor Cho Sang-ho said, 'This study was highly evaluated because it did not remain a mere technical proposal but provided direction for establishing region-specific UAM infrastructure through empirical analyses using actual spatial data.'

Team leader Seo Ji-won commented, 'Although we experienced many trials and errors while collecting data and validating models with team members, the process was a great learning experience,' and added, 'I hope to further develop the research following this award.'

JBNU regards this achievement as an example demonstrating the university's tangible research outcomes in UAM and geospatial information and its contribution to the development of the domestic future mobility industry. Going forward, the UAMETA Team plans to expand its research into autonomous flight drones, integrated geospatial information platforms, and urban air mobility infrastructure design.