Summary
Mathematical models of human decision making are a widely used tool for advising policy makers and industry by making predictions of future demand for products and services. The reliability of the predictions depends on the robustness of the underlying mathematical models. A very active field of academic research is concerned with the refinement of existing model structures and the development of new approaches. Over the last two decades, fuelled by the availability of ever more powerful computing resources, there has been a major step change in the mathematical complexity of these models. However, the vast majority of real world users of choice models, and also many academic users, lack a programming background. This means that most users are restricted to those models which are covered in existing software, and models developed by analysts who lack programming skills fail to be used in practice.
A core output from the ERC-CoG grant DECISIONS (615596) has been the development of the Apollo package. Apollo is a powerful open source solution for the estimation and application of choice models. The current PoC proposal seeks to fully explore the innovative research that led to the development of Apollo and to take the first steps in establishing Apollo as a next generation tool for choice modelling, with full customisation possibilities including for inexperienced users. We propose to make changes to the existing implementation of Apollo to provide users with an easy to use template for developing code and to create a system for testing user-developed functions for new models, standardise the code used in them, and incorporate them in releases of new versions of Apollo to make them available to other users. In addition, we propose to introduce a pay-to-program service where users can pay to have new features developed. These features will be released to all users after an embargo period during which they are limited to the user who paid for their development.
A core output from the ERC-CoG grant DECISIONS (615596) has been the development of the Apollo package. Apollo is a powerful open source solution for the estimation and application of choice models. The current PoC proposal seeks to fully explore the innovative research that led to the development of Apollo and to take the first steps in establishing Apollo as a next generation tool for choice modelling, with full customisation possibilities including for inexperienced users. We propose to make changes to the existing implementation of Apollo to provide users with an easy to use template for developing code and to create a system for testing user-developed functions for new models, standardise the code used in them, and incorporate them in releases of new versions of Apollo to make them available to other users. In addition, we propose to introduce a pay-to-program service where users can pay to have new features developed. These features will be released to all users after an embargo period during which they are limited to the user who paid for their development.
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More information & hyperlinks
| Web resources: | https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/875692 |
| Start date: | 01-02-2020 |
| End date: | 31-07-2022 |
| Total budget - Public funding: | - 150 000,00 Euro |
Cordis data
Original description
Mathematical models of human decision making are a widely used tool for advising policy makers and industry by making predictions of future demand for products and services. The reliability of the predictions depends on the robustness of the underlying mathematical models. A very active field of academic research is concerned with the refinement of existing model structures and the development of new approaches. Over the last two decades, fuelled by the availability of ever more powerful computing resources, there has been a major step change in the mathematical complexity of these models. However, the vast majority of real world users of choice models, and also many academic users, lack a programming background. This means that most users are restricted to those models which are covered in existing software, and models developed by analysts who lack programming skills fail to be used in practice.A core output from the ERC-CoG grant DECISIONS (615596) has been the development of the Apollo package. Apollo is a powerful open source solution for the estimation and application of choice models. The current PoC proposal seeks to fully explore the innovative research that led to the development of Apollo and to take the first steps in establishing Apollo as a next generation tool for choice modelling, with full customisation possibilities including for inexperienced users. We propose to make changes to the existing implementation of Apollo to provide users with an easy to use template for developing code and to create a system for testing user-developed functions for new models, standardise the code used in them, and incorporate them in releases of new versions of Apollo to make them available to other users. In addition, we propose to introduce a pay-to-program service where users can pay to have new features developed. These features will be released to all users after an embargo period during which they are limited to the user who paid for their development.
Status
CLOSEDCall topic
ERC-2019-POCUpdate Date
27-04-2024
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