Charlie is now a Research Fellow at the University of Leeds.

Selected Publications

"Confirmation Bias Emerges from an Approximation to Bayesian Reasoning", Pilgrim, C., Sanborn, A., Malthouse, E., Hills, T.T. 2024. Cognition.

"piecewise-regression (aka segmented regression) in Python", Pilgrim, C. 2021. Journal of Open Source SoftwareLink opens in a new window

"Bias in Zipf's Law Estimators", Pilgrim, C. & Hills, T. T. 2021. Nature Scientific ReportsLink opens in a new window

"Organisational Social Influence on Directed Hierarchical Graphs, from Tyranny to Anarchy", Pilgrim, C., Guo, W. and Johnson, S. 2020. Nature Scientific ReportsLink opens in a new window

"When fairness is not enough: The disproportionate contributions of the poor in a collective action problem." Malthouse, E., Pilgrim, C., Sgroi, D. and Hills, T.T., 2023. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.Link opens in a new window

"Burstier Events: Analysing Human Memory Over a Century of Events Using The New York Times", JL Austerweil, C Pilgrim, K Cao. 2022. PsyArXiv pre-printLink opens in a new window

Research Interests

I am interested in understanding how humans communicate with each other and how that affects our beliefs, behaviour and outcomes.

My research includes elements of agent-based modelling, information theory, Bayesian networks, social science, psychology, evolution and data science.

My main supervisor is Professor Thomas HillsLink opens in a new window. My secondary supervisor is Professor Weisi GuoLink opens in a new window.

Education

• MSc Mathematics of Real World Systems (Distinction) - The University of Warwick
• MSc Sustainable Energy Futures (Merit) - Imperial College
• BSc Physics (1st class) - The University of Manchester

Conferences

Speaker - Conference on Complex Systems, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, "The BIASR Model: Confirmation Bias Emerges from an Approximation to Bayesian Reasoning", October 2022.

Poster Presentation - Cognitive Artificial Intelligence scientific meeting at the Royal Society, London "Confirmation Bias Emerges from an Approximation to Bayesian Reasoning", September 2022.

Poster Presentation - Warwick Data Science and AI Showcase, "Confirmation Bias Emerges from an Approximation to Bayesian Reasoning", September 2022.

Speaker - Mathematics of Real World Systems Annual Retreat, "Confirmation Bias Emerges from an Approximation to Bayesian Reasoning". April 2022. Winner of Best 3rd Year PhD Talk.

Speaker - British Applied Mathematics Colloquium, "Confirmation Bias Emerges from an Approximation to Bayesian Reasoning". April 2022.

Panel Speaker - AIUK Conference, Data Study Group AIUK Discussion Panel. March 2022.

Poster Presentation - AIUK Conference, "Confirmation Bias Emerges from an Approximation to Bayesian Reasoning". March 2022.

Speaker - Conference on Complex Systems, Lyon, France. “Attention Ecology”, October 2021.

Speaker. ResearchFish Strategy of Impact Conference. "Understanding and Informing Research Funding Through Data", 2019.

Poster Presentation, MathSys Annual Retreat, University of Warwick, 2019.

Poster Presentation, Sustainable Energy Futures Day, Imperial College, 2013.

Lecturing

Lecturer - Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, Warwick Summer School 2022.

Guest Lecturer - CS404 Agent Based Systems, The University of Warwick. Coursework Introduction Lecture. February 2021.

Guest Lecturer - CS404 Agent Based Systems, The University of Warwick. Coursework Introduction Lecture. January 2021.

Supporting Lecturer - CS404 Agent Based Systems. Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma Tournament. February 2020.

Guest Lecturer - CS404 Agent Based Systems. Coursework Introduction Lecture. January 2020.

Speaking - Seminars etc

Speaker - Computational Toolkit Seminar, The University of Warwick, "Publishing Python Packages", May 2022

Speaker - Lunch and Learn @ The Alan Turing Institute, "Approaches to Understanding Human Behaviour". April 2022.

Speaker - Statistics, Probability, Analysis and Applied Mathematics Seminar Series.. "Information Foraging in the Attention Economy Drives the Rising Entropy of English". November 2021.

Speaker - Warwick Psychology Department Internal Seminar Series. "Information Foraging in the Attention Economy Drives the Rising Entropy of English". November 2021.

Speaker - Mathematics in the Social Sciences Reading Group, The University of Warwick. "Entropy Rising in the Attention Economy". March 2021.

Speaker - Machine Learning and Bayesian Optimisation Reading Group, The University of Warwick. "The ABCs of Approximate Bayesian Computation Pt 2". Feb 2021.

Speaker - MathSys PhD Meeting. "Zettelkasten: How To Take Smart Notes". January 2021.

Speaker - Statistics, Probability, Analysis and Applied Mathematics Seminar Series, "Fixing Bias in Zipf Estimators using approximate Bayesian computation", December 2020.

Speaker - Mathematics in the Social Sciences Reading Group. "Linguistic Complexity". October 2020.

Speaker - Machine Learning and Bayesian Optimisation Reading Group. "The ABCs of Approximate Bayesian Computation". July 2020.

Speaker - MathSys PhD Meeting. "Bias in MLEs for Zipf Distributions". June 2020.

Speaker - Mathematics in the Social Sciences Reading Group. "Evolution and Communication". November 2019.

Speaker - MathSys MSc Project Presentation "From Tyranny to Anarchy: Social Influence on Directed Graphs". October 2019.

Teaching

Warwick Summer School Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. 2022. Lecturer. Designed and delivered a course for students to learn python and implement basic artificial intelligence algorithms.

CS404 Agent Based Systems. 2019, 2020 and 2021. Teaching Assistant. Led seminar groups and developed coursework software that allows students to submit bots to compete in auctions.

IB121-1 Quantitative Analysis for Management 1. 2019 and 2020. Teaching assistant. Led seminar groups.

IB121-2 Quantitative Analysis for Management 2. 2020. Teaching assistant. Led seminar groups.

MA112 Experimental Mathematics. 2019. Teaching assistant. Led students in experiments.

Private Tutoring. 2013-2015. Mainly A-Level Maths and Physics.

Reading Groups

Founder of the PhD Productivity GroupLink opens in a new window

Co-organiser of the Mathematics in the Social Sciences Reading GroupLink opens in a new window.

Member of the Machine Learning and Bayesian Optimisation Reading GroupLink opens in a new window,

Open Source Software Contributions

Developed and released the piecewise-regression python packageLink opens in a new window, which fits straight line models to data that include some breakpoint(s) where the gradient changes.

Contributed to the open source networkx python packageLink opens in a new window. I helped to write functionality to calculate the trophic incoherence parameter of a directed graph.

In collaboration with Paolo TurriniLink opens in a new window, developed and released a Google Colab Jupyter Notebook to teach Regret Matching and Minimisation algorithmsLink opens in a new window.

Non-Academic Career Highlights

• Full stack web developer with extensive experience in Python and JavaScript.
• Successful entrepeneur, having founded and ran a financial claims management business that employed over 20 people.
• Travelled and lived all over the world as a digital nomad. Including periods living in Spain, Morocco, Greece, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Indonesia, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico.

Contact

Email me at Charlie dot Pilgrim at warwick dot ac dot uk

Extra

Here is a flocking simulation I made based on Reynolds' Boids modelLink opens in a new window.