Dr. Bruno Kamden

This research project develops a differential game-theoretic framework to analyze the strategic profit-sharing dynamics between multiple sovereign governments and transportation firms operating within multinational transport corridors. The study is set in a stochastic environment where commodity prices (e.g., oil or gas) evolve according to a geometric mean-reverting process, reflecting real-world price volatility influenced by geopolitical events.

Students will conduct a comprehensive review of academic literature on. Summarize findings and identify gaps.
Collect data on real-world transport corridors (e.g., freight rates, tax regimes, commodity prices).
Estimate model parameters (mean reversion speed κ, volatility σ) using historical price data.
Help design academic posters summarizing key findings.

This project welcomes students who are curious about economics, mathematics, and real-world policy problems, even if they have no prior research experience. The following background is helpful but not required. 

Students will prepare and present a poster or short talk at the SURI end-of-program symposium or the university’s undergraduate research conference. Students will present their progress in weekly meetings, building communication and storytelling skills in a low-stakes, supportive setting. Students will leave the program with tangible outputs for his academic and professional portfolio, including:
+A research abstract summarizing their work.
+Code repository (e.g., GitHub) with documented simulations and visualizations.
+Poster PDF and presentation slides.
+A letter of recommendation from the faculty mentor, based on their performance.

Hybrid
Final Schedule will be agreed upon with selected students.  

Weeks 1–2 
Orientation, literature review, basic Python training (Student Activities)
Research proposal & annotated bibliography (Intended Outcome)

Weeks 3–5 
Model implementation, running baseline simulations (Student Activities) 
Functional code, initial results  (Intended Outcome)

Weeks 6–8 
Sensitivity analysis, visualization, drafting results (Student Activities)
Draft poster & abstract  (Intended Outcome)

Week 9–10 
Preparing final presentation, refining outputs (Student Activities) 
Final poster, symposium presentation  (Intended Outcome)