People

Dr Mario Gutierrez-Roig

Lecturer
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Dr Mario Gutierrez-Roig

Profile

Biography

I'm a Lecturer in Data Science at University of Essex where I teach Statistics and Machine Learning at Undergraduate and Postgraduate level. My current research, within the field of Computational Social Science, focuses on using Data Science and Machine Learning methodologies to analyse and model urban systems and online human behaviour. Since the early days of my PhD in Physics I have developed a highly multidisciplinary profile with contributions on topics such as Complex Systems, Social Dilemmas, Financial Markets, Pedestrian Movement, Computational Archaeology and Urban Analytics. I also have closely collaborated with a wide range of policy stakeholders, local councils and private companies wanting to embed these methodologies within their core business and data analyses. I also support Open Source and Open Data movements as fundamental drivers of scientific progress.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Physics University of Barcelona,

  • MSc in Copmutational Physics Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya,

  • BSc in Physics Autonomous University of Barcelona,

Appointments

University of Essex

  • Lecturer in Data Science, Mathematical Sciences, University of Essex (1/4/2020 - present)

Other academic

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (1/2/2016 - 31/7/2020)

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Behavioural Science Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick (22/8/2016 - 31/3/2020)

Research and professional activities

Research interests

Geospatial Analysis

Spatial analysis is a type of geographical analysis that studies and develops methodologies to explain the behavioural patterns of humans, animals, epidemics, etc and their spatial expression in terms of geometry. Nowadays, much of the data surveyed from government institutions (eg. census) or generated by our mobile phones has a spatial component that should be considered when processing such datasets. For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial_analysis

Open to supervise

Urban Analytics & City Science

Cities are now home to the majority of the world’s population, and are drivers of economic growth, wealth creation, social interaction and well-being. They also present huge challenges for management, administration and policy such as important economic and health inequalities, massive and complex transportation needs, and an extremely dynamic lifestyle. In order to provide evidence-based solutions and a better urban design for the city of the future, we need to understand these urban systems first. Hence, the role of Urban Analytics, with in Michael Batty's words, is "the application of quantitative, computational, design and visual methods to the spatial and morphological structure of cities. and regions".

Key words: Urban Analytics
Open to supervise

Complex Systems

The most famous quote about Complex Systems comes from Aristotle who said that "The whole is more than the sum of its parts". Complex systems are systems where the collective behaviour of their parts entails emergence of properties that can hardly, if not at all, be inferred from properties of the parts. Examples of complex systems include ant-hills, ants themselves, human economies, climate, nervous systems, cells and living things, including human beings, as well as modern energy or telecommunication infrastructures. The new Science of Complex Systems is providing radical new ways of understanding the physical, biological, ecological, and social universe through analysing increasingly large quantities of data and stimulating revolutionary scientific breakthroughs (Check out more: https://cssociety.org/home).

Key words: Complex Systems
Open to supervise

Computational Social Science

The availability of big data has greatly expanded opportunities to study society and human behaviour through the prism of computational analyses. The resulting field is known as computational social science and is defined by its interdisciplinary approaches. It combines the experimental approach of natural sciences, the use of Computer Science methodologies and statistical models to process online data streams. Check out this article on Science: https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.1167742

Key words: Computational Social Science
Open to supervise

Teaching and supervision

Current teaching responsibilities

  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning with applications (MA336)

  • Professional Placement (MA911)

Publications

Journal articles (11)

Botta, F. and Gutiérrez-Roig, M., (2021). Modelling urban vibrancy with mobile phone and OpenStreetMap data. PLOS ONE. 16 (6), e0252015-e0252015

Law, S., Seresinhe, CI., Shen, Y. and Gutierrez-Roig, M., (2020). Street-Frontage-Net: urban image classification using deep convolutional neural networks. International Journal of Geographical Information Science. 34 (4), 681-707

Gutiérrez-Roig, M., Borge-Holthoefer, J., Arenas, A. and Perelló, J., (2019). Mapping individual behavior in financial markets: synchronization and anticipation. EPJ Data Science. 8 (1)

Fernández-López de Pablo, J., Gutiérrez-Roig, M., Gómez-Puche, M., McLaughlin, R., Silva, F. and Lozano, S., (2019). Palaeodemographic modelling supports a population bottleneck during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in Iberia.. Nature Communications. 10 (1), 1872-

Vicens, J., Bueno-Guerra, N., Gutiérrez-Roig, M., Gracia-Lázaro, C., Gómez-Gardeñes, J., Perelló, J., Sánchez, A., Moreno, Y. and Duch, J., (2018). Resource heterogeneity leads to unjust effort distribution in climate change mitigation. PLoS One. 13 (10), e0204369-e0204369

Gutiérrez-Roig, M., Segura, C., Duch, J. and Perelló, J., (2016). Market Imitation and Win-Stay Lose-Shift Strategies Emerge as Unintended Patterns in Market Direction Guesses.. PLoS One. 11 (8), e0159078-e0159078

Poncela-Casasnovas, J., Gutiérrez-Roig, M., Gracia-Lázaro, C., Vicens, J., Gómez-Gardeñes, J., Perelló, J., Moreno, Y., Duch, J. and Sánchez, A., (2016). Humans display a reduced set of consistent behavioral phenotypes in dyadic games.. Science Advances. 2 (8), e1600451-

Gutiérrez-Roig, M., Sagarra, O., Oltra, A., Palmer, JRB., Bartumeus, F., Díaz-Guilera, A. and Perelló, J., (2016). Active and reactive behaviour in human mobility: the influence of attraction points on pedestrians.. Royal Society Open Science. 3 (7), 160177-160177

Sagarra, O., Gutiérrez-Roig, M., Bonhoure, I. and Perelló, J., (2016). Citizen Science Practices for Computational Social Science Research: The Conceptualization of Pop-Up Experiments. Frontiers in Physics. 3 (JAN)

Gutiérrez-Roig, M., Gracia-Lázaro, C., Perelló, J., Moreno, Y. and Sánchez, A., (2014). Transition from reciprocal cooperation to persistent behaviour in social dilemmas at the end of adolescence.. Nature Communications. 5 (1), 4362-

Perelló, J., Gutiérrez-Roig, M. and Masoliver, J., (2011). Scaling properties and universality of first-passage-time probabilities in financial markets.. Physical Review E: Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics. 84 (6 Pt 2), 066110-

Reports and Papers (1)

Gutiérrez-Roig, M. and Perelló, J., (2013). Volatility polarization of non-specialized investors' heterogeneous activity

Grants and funding

2022

Sentiment Analysis for evaluating UN Development Programme reports

University of Essex (Research England - PSF)

2021

Strike KTP Application

Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board)

Advent Insurance Management Limited KTP Application

Innovate UK (formerly Technology Strategy Board)

Contact

mario.gutierrez-roig@essex.ac.uk
+44 (0) 1206 876293

Location:

2.524, Colchester Campus