Displaying 4 of 394 results for "J Van Der Beek" clear search
The big picture question driving my research is how do complex systems of interactions among individuals / agents result in emergent properties and how do those emergent properties feedback to affect individual / agent decisions. I have explored this big picture question in a number of different contexts including the evolution of cooperation, suburban sprawl, traffic patterns, financial systems, land-use and land-change in urban systems, and most recently social media. For all of these explorations, I employ the tools of complex systems, most importantly agent-based modeling.
My current research focus is on understanding the dynamics of social media, examining how concepts like information, authority, influence and trust diffuse in these new media formats. This allows us to ask questions such as who do users trust to provide them with the information that they want? Which entities have the greatest influence on social media users? How do fads and fashions arise in social media? What happens when time is critical to the diffusion process such as an in a natural disaster? I have employed agent-based modeling, machine learning, geographic information systems, and network analysis to understand and start to answer these questions.
I am a Reader in the Centre for Health Economics, conducting interdisciplinary research aimed at tackling healthcare challenges and improving decision-making and implementation in healthcare policy. My research is centred around using systems thinking and modelling approaches in health economics evaluation and draws on tools and methods from mathematical epidemiology, economics, management science, and computer science, among other fields.
My main body of work involves systems modelling and simulation, and it involves integrating disease and economic models for policy impact evaluation and prioritisation. I am interested in both infectious disease and non-communicable disease modelling. From a methodological standpoint, I am particularly interested in strengthening rigour in agent-based modelling and hybrid models, which integrate modelling methods when this simplifies analyses. I have applied my research to studying and conducting knowledge-exchange activities addressing global health challenges. This includes conducting healthcare intervention and policy evaluations, studying health systems strengthening in low- and middle-income countries, studying antimicrobial resistance policy globally and in the UK, evaluating COVID-19 policy and interventions, investigating how behaviour and social structure affect health and diseases, and exploring the role of incentives in healthcare policy design.
I hold a PhD in Management Science, specialising in modelling for healthcare policy, from the University of Strathclyde and an MA in economics and BA honours economics from McGill University, in Montreal.
I am a University Academic Fellow (UAF) in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds. My research areas are agent-based modelling, decision making in complex systems, AI and multi-agent systems, urban analytics and housing markets. I obtained PhD in Economics from Iowa State University under supervisor Prof. Leigh Tesfatsion in 2014. I worked as a researcher at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland between 2014 and 2019. I joined the University of Leeds as a UAF of Urban Analytics in 2019. I am originally from Shanghai, China.
My main research areas are agent-based modelling, urban analytics and complex decision making enabled by AI. I am interested in the bottom-up transition of complex urban systems under major socio-economic and environmental shocks, such as climate change and the fourth industrial revolution. I want to understand how cities as self-organised complex systems respond to external shocks and evolve under a constantly changing environment. In the past, I have looked at various aspects of urban systems, including the housing market, the labour market, transport and energy system. I am also interested in decision making in complex systems. For example, I have studied the decision to become a vegetarian/vegan under social influence. I have also looked at global food trade in a complex trade network and the resulting food and nutrition security. Recently, I am interested in applying AI algorithms especially reinforcement learning in multi-agent systems, including applications of AI in urban adaptation to climate change, housing market dynamics and criminal behaviour in an urban system.
Displaying 4 of 394 results for "J Van Der Beek" clear search