After completing my undergraduate education at Bilkent University (Turkey), I continued my studies at the University of Cambridge, receiving first my MPhil and then my PhD in Assyriology/Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology, funded by a Chevening Open Society Scholarship and the Board of Higher Education of Turkey. After teaching for several years at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, I moved to eastern Turkey to start the Archaeology Department of Bitlis Eren University, and I was the Head of Department until the end of 2018. I have been a visiting researcher at the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman in 2011 (Mellink Fellowship), at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in 2014 (Fulbright Fellowship), and at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History of Uppsala University in 2019 (Swedish Institute Fellowship). I have also held a Newton Advanced Fellowship here at Leicester in the UK. I have previously co-directed several fieldwork projects: the Cambridge University Kilise Tepe Excavations (southern Turkey, 2009-13), the Cide Archaeological Project (survey, Black Sea coast, 2010-1), the Sirwan Regional Project (survey, northern Iraq, 2012-5), and the Lower Göksu Archaeological Salvage Survey Project (survey, southern Turkey, 2013-7). I am currently co-directing the Çadır Höyük excavations, which is a joint American, British, Canadian and Turkish archaeological excavation project conducted in north-central Turkey, and the Taşeli-Karaman Archeological Project, which was initiated in 2018 as a continuation of the Lower Göksu Archaeological Salvage Survey Project, to study the Göksu River Basin in its wider geographical context in the hope of better understanding its role as a network hub connecting the eastern Mediterranean world to the central Anatolian Plateau.

I studied Mathematics at Oxford (1979-1983) then did youth work in inner city areas for the Educational Charity. After teaching in Grenada in the West Indies we came back to the UK, where the first job I could get was in a 6th form college (ages 16-18). They sent me to do post16 PCGE, which was so boring that I also started a part-time PhD. The PhD was started in 1992 and was on the meaning and definition of the idea of “complexity”, which I had been pondering for a few years. Given the growth of the field of complexity from that time, I had great fun reading almost anything in the library but I did finally finish it in 1999. Fortunately I got a job at the Centre for Policy Modelling (CfPM) in 1994 with its founder and direction, Scott Moss. We were doing agent-based social simulation then, but did not know it was called this and did not meet other such simulators for a few years. With Scott Moss we built the CfPM into one of the leading research centres in agent-based social simulation in the world. I became director of the CfPM just before Scott retired, and later became Professor of Social Simulation in 2013. For more about me see http://bruce.edmonds.name or http://cfpm.org.

Lu Ping is a dedicated researcher in interdisciplinary fields including artificial intelligence (AI), digital economy, technological innovation, and industrial economics. Currently serving as an Associate Research Fellow at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), Lu Ping focuses on examining the impacts of digital technologies (e.g., AI, big data, and IoT) on economic growth, industrial ecosystems, policy formulation, and societal ethics through multidimensional data modeling and empirical research.
Representative Academic Contributions:
1. AI Development and Societal Implications
A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence Development in China (2017): Explored the technological evolution and policy-driven pathways of China’s AI industry.
Ethical Dilemmas Faced by AI Algorithms (2018): Analyzed ethical challenges such as algorithmic bias and data privacy, proposing governance frameworks.
A Brief History of the Evolution of Smart Hardware in China (2018): Systematically reviewed the technological iterations and market dynamics of China’s smart hardware sector.
2.Technological Innovation and Industrial Economics
An Empirical Analysis of Technological Innovation Driving Growth in Internet Companies: Evidence from A-Share Listed Internet Firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen (2019).
Research on Competitiveness Measurement of Frontier Emerging Industries Based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Models (2019).
3.Digital Economy and Market Behavior
Correlation Analysis of Crowdfunding Behavior and Funding Performance for Internet Products: A Bayesian Approach Based on JD.com Crowdfunding Data (2018): Uncovered nonlinear relationships between user participation and project success rates using crowdfunding platform data.
Analyzing the Effects of Developer and User Behavior on Mobile App Downloads (2019): Built predictive models for app market performance based on user behavior data.
4.Policy Simulation
General Equilibrium Analysis of Beijing’s Water Supply and Consumption Policies: A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model-Based Approach (2015).
Impact Analysis of EU Food Safety Standards on China’s Food Industry: A Dynamic Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Model-Based Study (2015).
Academic Contributions:
Pioneered interdisciplinary paradigms in industrial economics research by integrating perspectives from econometrics, data science, and sociology. Published high-impact research in AI ethics, digital economy policies, and resource-environmental economics, providing decision-making references for academia and policymakers.