About Me
About Me
I am a computational social science researcher who specializes in human contact (social) networks and economic networks (particularly financial systems).
I investigate the dynamics of and on these complex systems by conducting simulations using appropriate models. This approach allows me to gain insight into how individual entities influence each other within systems which underlie macro-level behavioral patterns and how contagious phenomena (e.g., information, disease, financial risk) unfold on the entire system.
Determination, delivery and collaboration are my core pillars. I’m determined to bridge the gap between academia and industry by collaborating with organisations to take applying systems approach to challenges, i.e., by identifying and understanding patterns in data, and finding creative and effective solutions.
My systemic approach to data analysis has been useful in providing insights into macro prudential policy adjustments that may improve our approach to financial systemic risk analysis, and also into the dynamical changes (network expansion and shrinkage) in systems over time, and the manipulability of human activity patterns in social networks.
Specialization
- Complex network analysis modeling and/or research
- Manipulate and analyze rich sources of data on large banks/financial institutions, human contact networks, infrastructural networks (e.g. transportation, power grids etc)
- Visualize the data and tell the story behind this data in written reports or published research.
Current Work
As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working on the “Racialized Sentiment: The Dynamics of Online Emotion Language” project, I have spearheaded an interdisciplinary investigation into the nuanced ways racial dynamics influence emotional expression across various online platforms. My work has combined advanced computational text analysis methods, including sentiment analysis and machine learning algorithms, with critical theories of race and emotion to uncover patterns of racialized sentiment in digital communication spaces.
Research Interest
To develop new models and computational tools for understanding and reasoning about the content, structure, and dynamics of complex social and economic processes.
Education
KOBE UNIVERSITY
Kobe, Japan
PhD. Economics.
Sep. 2022
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY
Sydney, Australia
M.A. in Economics
Feb. 2013
UNIVERSITY OF WEST INDIES
Kingston, Jamaica
BSc. in Economics
Nov. 2008
Experience
BARNARD COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
New York, NY, USA
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Mar. 2023 –
PROJECT: RACIALIZED SENTIMENT: THE DYNAMICS OF ONLINE EMOTION LANGUAGE (funded by Columbia Data Science Institute)
Conduct empirical examinations of exposure to racial violence against Black people via media, etc. (e.g., news coverage, Tweets RE: Black Lives Matter) giving special attention to psychological content (e.g., stress, affect, emotion) of text and images and their implications for well-being and social and political motivation. Key contributions and skills employed include:
- Data Analysis & Machine Learning: Processed and analyzed large datasets of online textual content to extract emotional tone and identify racialized language patterns, leveraging libraries such as NLTK, Pandas, and scikit-learn in Python.
- Sentiment Analysis: Utilized sentiment analysis tools, including VADER and custom lexicons, to quantitatively assess the emotional valence of online discourse related to race. Adapted sentiment scoring mechanisms to account for the complexity of racialized language expressions.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP): Applied a range of NLP techniques to extract and interpret semantic content from vast amounts of unstructured text data. Work included tokenization, part-of-speech tagging, and the development of NLP pipelines to automate data preprocessing and analysis workflows.
- Interdisciplinary Research through Collaboration: Integrated insights from PIs in psychology into my computational analyses to ensure a multidimensional understanding of online emotional expressions. Conducted literature reviews and collaborated with experts across fields to inform research methodologies and interpretations.
- Communication & Dissemination: Authored and contributed to research papers and presented findings at international conferences, contributing to academic discourse on racial dynamics in online communication. Developed visualizations and communicated complex analytical results to both technical and non-technical audiences effectively.
- Project Management: Coordinated a multidisciplinary research team, managing timelines, and ensuring the project’s objectives were met.
Program Mentor
- Successfully mentored students through a comprehensive data research project.
- Enhanced students understanding of fundamental data science principles.
- Provided valuable insights and guidance on statistical analyses and predictive modeling, ensuring student projects met program standards.
- Guided students in choosing their research question or topic, ensuring alignment with program goals.
- Offered feedback and constructive criticism on student research projects, helping them refine their analyses and presentations.
- Fostered the development of essential skills in data analysis, critical thinking, and effective communication among novice data science students.
KOBE UNIVERSITY
Kobe, Japan
Researcher
Aug. 2017 – Jul. 2022
PROJECT: DIURNAL EVOLUTION OF FINANCIAL SYSTEMIC RISK
- Conceptualized and led research that amplified why time-varying behavior of financial institutions in interbank network should be incorporated in systemic risk analysis. My investigation was centered on the idiosyncratic risk posed by individual banks, to understand how financial network structure, and time-variation in trading activity by individual banks engender system-wide breakdown.
- Distilled, analyzed and visualized large data set of almost 4,000 days of bilateral trades between financial
institutions - Designed a cascading model to simulate the contagion effects given interconnections among financial institutions.
- Wrote manuscript to communicate my research findings and presented at multidisciplinary conference, (i.e., NetSciX 2020) to elicit meaningful feedback
- Wrote all codes for for data analysis and visualization using knowledge of open-source programming languages and libraries
- Managed data and code repositories using collaborative tools e.g. Overleaf, Github etc.
OTHER PROJECT: OVERALL ACTIVITY AND POPULATION AS MECHANISMS BEHIND NETWORK DENSIFICATION
- Developed a new estimation method that uses only two basic features of social networks (i.e., total active individuals and number of connections between them) to quantify time-varying contribution of the mechanisms that cause networks to grow and/or shrink over time. This solves the problem of not having complete and detailed knowledge of specific individual activity from which we can gain insight into dynamic behavioral patterns, micro level data are not always available.
- Developed pragmatic, statistically rigorous, and scalable programs using open-source programming languages to explore human contact data, create actionable insights, and to allow others to make contributions to the research community by leveraging my work.
- Distilled and analyzed data from multiple sources.
- Wrote manuscript to communicate findings in peer-reviewed journal (Current Status: Resubmitted to EPJ Data Science after ‘Revise and resubmit’). Presented findings at Complex Networks 2021 and NetSciX 2022 conferences.
- My research bridged the gap between theory and practice by amplifying that, certain environmental factors used strategically, can reshape or influence individual behavior materially.
- Essentially developed an estimation method that, although derived using social networks, remains applicable to any network (including financial networks).
MINISTRY OF TOURISM
Kingston, Jamaica
Lead Economist
Aug. 2016 – Apr. 2017
- Informed by my economic projections of the impact of BREXIT on Jamaica’s Tourism, I redirected focus towards finding new markets as a strategic responses aimed at building sustainable, long-term growth of the industry.
- Access to Housing Initiative for tourism workers was supported by a feasibility study that I conducted using: targeted surveys, questionnaires, and interviews.
- Tourism Workers’ Pension Scheme that provides access to a livable pension for tourism workers was developed through my collaborative work with external and internal stakeholders who relied on my technical support in estimating funding cost given the target payable amount at retirement age.
- Conducted sensitization sessions to promote the scheme among employers and employees within the sector.
- Represented the Ministry in discussions on anti-competitive practices in Jamaica’s tourism sectors which were re-opened and addressed through collaborative work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (CARIFORUM-EU EPA).
- Collaborated with World Trade Organization, Caribbean Single Market Economy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Trade to monitor policy changes in the global landscape and the implications on trade in tourism services.
PLANNING INSTITUTE OF JAMAICA
Kingston, Jamaica
Economist
Feb. 2013 – Aug. 2016
- Collaborated with government departments and agencies to develop and refine 3 economic policies for the advancement of the Construction industry, Mining & Quarrying Industry e.g. Retail Payments and Financial Infrastructure Working Groups for the National Financial Inclusion Strategy aimed at promoting financial literacy and improving access to bank accounts nation wide.
- Developed macroeconomic growth models used for estimating the performance of the Jamaican economy.
- National development policies were guided by findings from my economic analysis on the performance of Mining & Quarrying, and Construction industries which I produce with high technical accuracy, and communicate findings to stakeholders and leadership via quarterly press briefings, presentations, publications. National budget presentation and sectoral debates among
high level ministers relied on these findings to guide the national economic plan. - A historical database on key indicators for Mining & Quarrying, and Construction industries were established and maintained to facilitate economic performance analysis used as inputs to policy discussions and high level sectoral discussions. This required interagency collaboration and developing ongoing relationships to ensure synergy at various levels e.g, central bank, ministries,
departments, and agencies.
Skills
Statistics: Forecasting, Time Series, Hypothesis Testing, Regression Analysis
Economic analysis: Linear regression analysis, econometric modeling, DSGE model
Tools: Anaconda, GitHub, Git, Networkx, Python-iGraph, Jupyter Notebook, Numpy, SciPy, Pandas, ggplot2, ggplot2, Matplotlib,
Text analysis tools: NLTK, SpaCy, Gensim, VADER, TextBlob
Programming: Python, R, Matlab
Languages: English (Native), Japanese (Basic)