Interview with a SATREPS Scholarship Student

On 2 September 2021, a SATREPS* scholarship student under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology in Japan, Mr Witsarut Achariyaviriya, delivered a presentation at his doctoral thesis defence. After the presentation, he responded to the interview as below.

*SATREPS=Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development

Q1 Your doctoral thesis is on “QOL-oriented MaaS (QOL-MaaS).” What is QOL-oriented MaaS?

“In the past few years, you’ve likely seen several transport-related apps on smartphones, such as Grab or Uber that provide on-demand rides, and OFO and Mobike that offer bike-sharing services. These kinds of services are part of mobility as a service or MaaS, which is the concept of integrating multiple transport systems and related services into a digital platform, such as an information service, travel planning service, payment service, etc., to make it more convenient for people to travel by public transport. In my study, the MaaS concept was integrated with the quality of life (QOL) concept that considers individuals’ different perceptions in designing daily commute solutions to achieve the best quality of life for people.”

Q2 Why are you interested in QOL-MaaS?

“I think developing a travel advisory system (like QOL-MaaS) is one way to improve people’s quality of life. Today’s technology has a significant influence on people in their daily lives. Especially when travelling, people always check the time and route of the trip before leaving, so if we have a good advice system, it can increase people’s quality of life.”

Q3 What are the benefits for people using the QOL-MaaS system?

“The QOL-MaaS system we are developing will include activity and travel tracking to measure the daily quality of life. The system will collect and analyse data to find solutions to change people’s routines for a better quality of life. Those who use this system will see new alternatives for daily activity travel that will improve their quality of life.”

Q4 To enhance QOL in Thailand, what do you think is the most important thing?

“In my view, I think solving the problem of traffic congestion in Bangkok is essential. Bangkok is one of the most congested cities in the world. People waste more time in their daily commute than is necessary, depriving people of the opportunity to take advantage of that time in other beneficial activities, and resulting in the accumulated stress of travelling for a long time each day. Therefore, I think that solving the problem of traffic congestion should be done quickly.”

Q5 What was the most challenging thing in your study?

“My challenge was probably learning the basics of transportation engineering. This is because my bachelor’s and master’s degrees mainly focused on information and communication technology. In changing to study the transportation field, I urgently needed to learn more about this field to understand and integrate it with the knowledge of information technology in research.”

Q6 What was the most exciting thing for you during your research?

“It’s probably that I’ve come to do research on transportation and the urban planning field. I have opened my eyes to see new things, like the problems in the transportation system in more depth, including research and research topics that are quite different from when studying for a master’s degree.”

Q7 Please outline your daily life during doctoral study.

“I will spend most of my time in the lab. I walk to the research room at the university late in the morning and go back to my room around 9 PM. Before the coronavirus outbreak, during the long holidays, I travelled to many places and had the opportunity to go to academic conferences both in Japan and abroad, but since the COVID outbreak, I rarely go out.”

Q8 Living in Japan, what were the best and worst parts for you?

“In Japan, the climate is good, and the country is clean and tidy, and the delicious food makes me feel safe and happy. Part of the difficulty was communicating with Japanese people since I can’t speak Japanese well.”

Q9 What is your next plan after the doctoral course, any decisions?

“Now, I plan to continue working as a researcher at Chubu University.”

Q10 What is your advice for future Thai students who want to study abroad?

“I would recommend preparing well in both English and the language of that country because in some countries such as Japan people may not use English for communication. If you know their language well, it will be more fun studying and travelling.”