Research
What connects your different research interests?
Although my research spans materials, information systems, and interactive experiences, it is guided by a common question: How do coherent patterns emerge from many interacting components without central control? Whether I am studying geometry-driven complexity, information dynamics, or embodied experiences of emergence, I am ultimately interested in understanding how structure, meaning, and collective behaviour arise through local interactions. Rather than viewing these as separate disciplines, I see them as different manifestations of the same underlying principles of complexity.
Why do you work across such different fields?
I've never been particularly good at fitting neatly into a single disciplinary box. Although I was trained in mathematics and physics, I have always found myself following questions rather than labels. If the same question appears in materials science, ecology, communication, music, or AI, I'm naturally inclined to explore all of them.
Many of these seemingly different systems are connected by common ideas, such as emergence, self-organisation, feedback, adaptation, and collective behaviour. Rather than studying each domain in isolation, I enjoy looking for the recurring principles that govern how complex systems organise themselves. That search for universality is one of the most rewarding and thrilling aspects of my research.
How did you get into complexity science?
My entry point into complexity science came through my PhD research on geometry-driven hyperuniformity. What began as a study of disordered materials quickly became a fascination with a much broader question: how can remarkably simple local interactions generate striking forms of large-scale order?
That experience introduced me to a rich landscape of ideas, including emergence, self-organisation, adaptation, phase transitions, nonlinearity, and collective behaviour, which continue to shape my research today. Although the systems I study have expanded from materials to information, communication, and embodied interaction, the underlying questions have remained remarkably consistent.
What is cybernetics? How does it inform your research?
Cybernetics is the study of how systems regulate, adapt, and organise themselves through feedback. Originally developed to understand purposeful behaviour in both living organisms and machines, it has since evolved into a rich way of thinking about complex systems across the natural, social, and technological worlds.
What draws me to cybernetics is not simply its concepts, but its way of asking questions. Rather than viewing systems as isolated components, cybernetics encourages us to think in terms of relationships, interactions, feedback loops, adaptation, and emergence. It asks how collective behaviour arises, how systems remain resilient under change, and how they continue to learn and reorganise over time.
Voilà, that's what I found in cybernetics: a common language for communicating across fields, connecting research themes from geometry-driven complexity and information dynamics to embodied experiences, such as Musical Homeostasis. Cybernetics therefore serves not only as a theoretical foundation, but also as a practical orientation for exploring how complex systems organise, communicate, and evolve.
What do you mean by studying information dynamics?
I am interested in how information moves, changes, stabilises, or becomes distorted as it circulates through systems. This includes communication among people, interactions between humans and machines, and the evolving structures through which knowledge is produced, interpreted, and trusted.
Why topology?
Topology offers a way to study shape, structure, and connectivity without reducing a system to isolated parts. I use topological thinking and methods to identify structural signatures in high-dimensional or dynamic systems, especially where meaningful patterns may not be immediately visible.
Teaching and supervision
What kinds of students do you supervise?
I welcome students whose projects engage with complexity, cybernetics, information dynamics, topology, AI-mediated systems, or broader questions about emergence, communication, and knowledge systems. Projects may be computational, conceptual, empirical, design-oriented, or embodied. Above all, I enjoy working with students who are curious, open to crossing disciplinary boundaries, and willing to explore unfamiliar ideas with intellectual generosity.
Do students need a strong mathematical background to work with you?
Not always! Some projects require mathematical or computational depth, while others are more conceptual, design-oriented, or interpretive. What matters most is a willingness to work carefully across methods, assumptions, and levels of abstraction with an open mind and curiosity.
What is your teaching style?
My teaching is grounded in inquiry, reflection, and learning by making. I aim to help students develop conceptual clarity by breaking complex ideas into digestible pieces that can be communicated thoughtfully to diverse audiences. Along the way, I encourage students to learn through practical tools, prototypes, interactive demonstrations, real-world examples, and situated problems, building confidence not only in understanding complexity but also in explaining it.
Collaboration and public engagement
What kinds of collaborations are you interested in?
I enjoy collaborations that bring together complexity science, cybernetics, natural and artificial intelligence, knowledge systems, communication, education, and creative practice. I am particularly interested in projects where computational, conceptual, or interactive approaches can reveal hidden structures, dynamics, or organising principles. More recently, I have become increasingly interested in developing embodied experiences of complexity, creating ways for people not only to study emergence, but to participate in and experience it firsthand.
Are you available for talks, workshops, or public events?
I am open to invitations that align with my research and teaching interests, particularly around cybernetics, complexity, generative AI, human–AI relations, responsible technology, and topology-informed approaches to understanding systems.
How can I contact you?
The best starting point is to write an email to sungyeon[dot]hong[at]anu[dot]edu[dot]au. For supervision or collaboration enquiries, it is helpful to include a brief description of the topic, context, and what kind of conversation or outcome you have in mind.
Me-human
How do you pronounce your name?
Many people find my name difficult to pronounce (sometimes I do too!) and often misspell it by adding a mysterious "g" at the end. Here's a simple trick.
I love singing. The verb "sing" becomes "sang" and then "sung". Say the last one again: That's exactly how the first part of my name sounds!
The second part is "yeon", which is shorter than "yawn" and lighter than "young".
Now, put them together and you get **Sung-yeon** (which is **성연** in Korean). Don't worry if you don't get it right the first time — I respond to a surprising number of variations. :)
What do you do for fun?
Outside work, I enjoy drawing, cooking (+ eating), gardening, hiking, travelling, playing music and singing, watching French comedies, and spending time with my family and doggos. Sport-wise, I love racquet sports, especially squash and badminton. It just feels as though I've grown wings whenever I have a racquet in my hand!
What languages do you speak?
My mother tongue is Korean, which I am continually trying to keep up with its ever-evolving modern forms while living abroad. I speak French, can read German, can produce a surprisingly convincing Italian accents (thanks to my Italian/Swiss-Italian amici), and have a patchy understanding of Chinese. Languages fascinate me, as each offers a different way of seeing and describing the world. As an ongoing stretch goal, I am also a keen listener to our fellow doggos and babies, both of whom seem to communicate far more than they are often given credit for.
This FAQ is intentionally informal and evolving. I expect to update it as my research, teaching, and collaborations continue to develop along with my own self. :)