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Mini-Projects

Each student of the Warwick Complexity Doctoral Training Centre is required to present two three-month miniprojects in order to satisfy the MSc criteria leading to PhD research in Complexity Science.

  • Miniproject 1: Intra-daily dynamics of dollar-sterling exchange market, with Dr Roman Kozhan and Prof Mark Salmon (Warwick Business School)

    Abstract

    This report describes the results of an initial exercise to explore the stylized facts of
    the dynamic properties of exchange rates employing a behavioral finance framework
    and high-frequency, second-scale, data. It uses a heterogeneous agent model, where
    chartist and fundamentalist traders coexist, in order to offer insights on their intra-
    daily movements and responses, to different market states. We find significant variations
    between the variables used to describe the agent’s behavior in daily scales and that of
    intra-daily scales. The evolutionary stability of the otherwise irrational chartist behavior
    is demonstrated.
    (PDF Document)
    Full Text (PDF Document) Poster


  • Miniproject 2: Characterizing fundamental frequency in Mandarin: A functional principal component approach utilizing mixed effects models, with Dr. John Aston (Department of Statistics) and Dr. J. Evans (Academia Sinica, Institute of Linguistics)

    Abstract

    This report describes the results of an initial exercise to explore the stylized facts of the
    fundamental frequency (F0, or commonly pitch) employing a functional principal com-
    ponent analysis (FPCA) framework. The examined language in the present study is that
    of Taiwanese Mandarin; this Sino-Tibetan language is rich in pitch-related information
    as the relative pitch curve is specified in each word’s lexical entry. The original 5 speaker
    data are preprocessed using a locally weighted least squares smoother. These smoothed
    curves are then utilized as input for the computation of the final FPC scores and their
    corresponding eigenfunctions. These scores are then lastly utilized in a series of mixed
    effect models to build meaningful categorical prototypes. These prototypes appeared to
    confirm known tonal characteristics of the language, as well as suggest the presence of a
    sinusoid tonal component that is previously undocumented.

    (PDF Document)
    Full Text (PDF Document) Supplementary Material (ZIP or other archive) Presentation ( .bz2 file contains presentation relevant audio files)