For past, present and future students

_{SOCIAL & ECONOMIC NETWORKS GAME THEORY DATA SCIENCE}

Hi!

I'M OWEN SIMS

About Owen Sims

Life is about making connections. That's why I decided to study them.

Hello! I'm a PhD student and TA in Queen's University Belfast studying a combination of network science and game theory applied to problems such as contagion, competition, entrepreneurship, and power in networks. The methodology is primarily quantitative; specifically using set theory and statistics.

Apart from Econ, I enjoy technology, algroithm design, machine learning, UX and UI, photography, coffee and LOL'ing.

About owensims.co.uk

I used to build websites in my spare time before I began University. Many late nights were spent learning HTML, CSS, PHP, and Javascript... but I never really did anything with it. The intention is to add a 'teaching' tab, which will teach the basics of network science, game theory, and statistics applied to social sciences. It is going to take a long time to do, but it should be a great resource for all types of students across social sciences and computer science.

	sims.owen@gmail.com
	Belfast, United Knigdom

Working papers and

RESEARCH

My reseach focuses on social and economic networks and game theory applied to contestability and entrepreneurship. Mostly formal, quantitative work in economics, sociology and computer science.

Swipe or click right to find some papers.

Building Blocks: The Formation of Extractive Structures in Networks

			We extend the notion of middlemen to sets of extractive nodes, termed as blocks, which act as a collective middleman. We link the concept with a topological perspective of competition on networks - termed as 'network contestability'. A strategic-form non-cooprative game is derived in which players are endowed with positional attributes are incentivised to form either exploit their own position in the network or alternatively pursue the formation of a block with other players in the network. Blocks require consent and the power of a block is diseminated between all of its members. We charactrise the Strong Nash equilibrium, Nash equilibrium, and Monadic stability equilibrium of the game. (Last updated: July 2014) Conference Presentation (PDF)
			Code for identifying blocks and measuring brokerage (MATLAB)

Critical Nodes in Directed Networks

			The networked structure of exchange markets and the competition within those markets are important for the equilibrium price levels and profits generated by sets of nodes. We specifically investigate a topological perspective of competition in networks highlighting its duality with exploitation and so-called middlemen. We develop a brokerage measure on a directed graph and a corresponding algorithm that identifies strong and weak middlemen, and provides a value for their power, or brokerage, in the network. (Last updated: January 2014)
			Code for identifying middlemen (MATLAB)	Code for measuring brokerage (MATLAB)

Non-academic

PROJECTS I



V. Banking 2.NO!	IV. Google and Financial Crises (Part 1)	I. Social Structure of Technology

Can the recent technological revolution in finance save us from another collapse? I have been asked to give a TED talk about it.	Can Google be the key for containing the next global financial crisis? Kind of. We provide an analysis of PageRank and the financial system.	Reconstructing the social structure of technologists in Silicon Valley and Silicon Roundabout using Twitter data.

Non-academic

PROJECTS II



II. Retrospkt		III. Network Visualisation

An app that attaches time-stamped memories to locations. Memories are embedded with KML files.		Created a Javascript application to scrape an individuals Facebook network and reconstruct it in an interactive graph.