Statistics

My introduction to statistics came when I was studying A level Maths but it was not until I was at college that I studied the subject in any kind of depth. At various points in my career I have been involved in Accident Investigation and Prevention and, with hindsight, it was just a matter of time before I became interested in the statistical side of this particular aspect of my work.

In the early nineties, I decided to study with The Open University and took the units Probability and Statistics and Applications of Probability. This was very different to the statistics I had studied before : it was analytically based and concepts were treated in quite a rigourous manner. I also completed a unit entitled Fundamentals of Computing which was to prove very useful later on.

I enjoyed my undergraduate studies so much that I decided to carry on and do postgraduate research. I studied at Sunderland University under the supervision of Dr Malcolm Farrow and was awarded, in 2003, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy for a thesis entitled Bayesian Mixture Modelling with application to Road Traffic Flow. During the course of my research, I wrote over 10,000 lines of code, the majority of which were dedicated to carrying out the necessary Monte Carlo integration.

After receiving my doctorate, Malcolm and I worked on a paper, subsequently published in 2007, that dealt with aspects of my research.

I am currently conducting research that involves the development of software that will implement a Bayesian non-parametric model for the analysis of vehicle speed in residential areas. I am also designing and implementing simulation algorithms for a local market research company.

To view my PhD thesis, click the link below. N.B. It is quite a large file and may take a little while to download.

• PhD Thesis