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Academic Staff

Dr Steve Phelps

Staff position:Lecturer
E-mail:sphelps (non Essex users should add @essex.ac.uk)
Telephone number:4414 (non Essex users should add 01206-87 to the beginning of this number)
Room:5A.535
Office hours:Tuesday 13:30 - 16:00 (by appointment)
Biography:My research focuses on the application of agent-based simulation to economic analysis, and encompasses topics crossing several disciplines: finance (trading strategies & market structure), economics (game theory, auction theory, mechanism design) and computer-science/complexity (multi-agent reinforcement-learning, design of co-evolutionary algorithms, complex adaptive systems). 

Before coming to Essex, I worked on the EPSRC-funded Market-based Control of Complex Computational Systems project developing a novel technique for market design (evolutionary mechanism design) in which I applied techniques from agent-based modeling, evolutionary computation and heuristic optimization to the mechanism design problem.   More recently, I have been applying agent-based modeling and evolutionary game-theory to the study of social networks and the emergence of cooperation via indirect reciprocity.    

I also have commercial experience of the E-business sector, having worked as a consultant for a professional-services company delivering web-based auction solutions, with over ten years of commercial software engineering experience.  I co-founded two startup companies: Ripple Software Ltd. which developed econometric analysis tools for power-sellers in the eBay market place, and Victria Ltd, which developed a prototype dark-pool trading platform. 

Research interests:
  • Multi-Agent Systems
  • Mechanism Design
  • Agent-based Modeling in Finance & Economics
  • Evolution of Cooperation

Teaching responsibilities:
  • CF964 - Introduction to Java and Agent-Based Economic Platforms

  • CF967 - Agent-based Economics and Financial Market Modelling

Publications:Link to publications for Steve Phelps

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Last modified: 09 September 2009