All Things Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)

by Matthew Oldham

Project maintained by moldham74 Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham

About me

“There is only one to avoid criticism: Do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing” - Aristotle

I recently earnt my Ph.D. in Computational Social Science (CSS) Ph.D. through the Department of Computational and Data Sciences at George Mason University. My adviser, Professor Axtell, is a leading expert in agent-based modelling (ABM), and most other things as well. My original intention was to only complete my masters in CSS but as things turned out I took on the challenge of earning a Ph.D.. Being awarded a prestigious George Mason University Presidential scholarship was certainly a great help, and provided me extensive freedom to research and explore a variety of topics as I progressed through the Ph.D. program.

me

My research is focused on applying CSS for the purpose of gaining a greater understanding of how financial markets behave and to explore the dynamics driving innovation. To achieve my research goals, I have positioned myself at the intersection of ABM, network analysis, and big data/data science. This has meant that I have had to get up to speed on all the latest computation techniques.

Thus far my research has produced two publications relating to the influence of investor networks on the behavior of stock markets, and another on innovation. These papers can be found on my publications page, while my economics and finance pages provide a detailed summary of my work and the justification for it. Beyond this I have implemented an ABM to explore the strategies used in the Battle of Britain, and have pioneered the use of ABMs for use in sports analytics.

Background

If you are not that interested in reading the details here, you can check-out my resume, or my Linkedin profile.

Personal background

I was born on the great island of Tasmania, which sits to the south of mainland Australia. Most people think not a lot happens in Tasmania but it was a great place to grow up. I made the big move to the mainland, where I lived in Melbourne following the completion of my initial tertiary studies. My family and I then made the big move to Fairfax, Virginia, in 2014 where I started my current studies.

Education

My academic career originally commenced in Tasmania, where I attended the University of Tasmania and was awarded a Bachelors of Economics with honors in 1995. My honors thesis, following Schumpeter’s “creative destruction,” investigated the relationship between market concentration and research and development (R&D) spending in Australia.

I then put myself through the Chartered Financial Analyst program, earning my charter designation in 2012. However, my desire to continue learning and to gain greater insights in CAS prompted me to enroll in the Masters of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in CSS at George Mason in 2014. I was subsequently awarded that degree in 2016.

Work experience

In between my studies I have had an exciting and varied professional career. After university, I started work at Toyota Australia, and undertook numerous tasks including:

I then moved onto Ford Performance Vehicles where I helped run the sales and production planning processes.

A career change beckoned, and I made the switch to finance when I joined Equity Trustees in 2006. Initially my work involved strategic planning and merger and acquisitions work. I was then lucky enough to join the equities team, where I was a buy-side analyst for a number of years. It was during this period when, searching for greater insights to help inform superior investment decisions, that I came across the field of complexity, and as they say the rest in history.

Eduation summary

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY Fairfax, VA 2019
GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY Fairfax, VA 2016
UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA Hobart TAS, Australia 1995
CFA INSTITUTE 2012

Work summary

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