Dr. Timmy Ma has received his Bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley and his PhD from the University of California, Irvine. He was a visiting professor at Dartmouth College prior to arriving at Xavier.
Dr. Ma's research interest is in mathematical modeling of complex social phenomena. Currently, he is working on modeling the evolution of language, evolutionary game theory, concept learning, and other social behaviors. His doctoral dissertation, "A Nonlinear Approach To Learning From an Inconsistent Source (with applications)", is about his novel approach to modeling language learning as well as presenting applications of the model to other social phenomena.
Publications
Chen,X., Wang, X., Ma, T., Escudero, D., & Fu, F. (2020), "Effectiveness of Massive Travel Restrictions on Mitigating Outbreaks of COVID-19 in China", In Review.
Ma, T., Wood, K.E., Xu, D., Guidotti, P., Pantano, A., & Komarova, N.L. (2017),"Admission predictors for success in a mathematics graduate program", https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.00595.
Ma, T. & Komarova, N.L. (2017), "Mathematical Modeling of Learning from an Inconsistent Source: A Nonlinear Approach" Bull Math Biol, 79: 635. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-017-0250-0.