Matthew Eric Bassett

I'm a mathematician from Colorado; I live and work in London.

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About me

Interested in how data science can advise public opinion research and policy development. I once served as a Data Specialist/Governance adviser with the Tony Blair Institute in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Served as founding CTO of Proda from Sep 2017 to Dec 2019. Proda builds AI-enabled software to automatically capture commercial real estate data.

Formerly Director, Data Science at NBCUniversal International. I started the data science programme at Universal Pictures International and led other projects with TV, digital distribution, and home entertainment.

Adjuct professor at the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics on the Master's Degree in Data Science programme and Research Fellow at the Frankfurt Big Data Lab.

Co-founded Gower Street Analytics, an ambitions data science startup that uses machine learning and statistical models to help new films find their audience.

Ph.D. in number theory from Queen Mary University of London. I still work on applications on noncommutative geometry to number theory.

Likes programming in Racket and teaching functional programming.

I accept encrypted emails. GPG Key

News

Now

Offering my services as an advisor or fractional CTO to help establish or improve high performing data science teams, software engineering teams, or startups.

6 Apr 2020

Published essay on the Future of Copyright & Competition Law in Media which outlines my Nov 2019 talk at the FIU Law Review Symposium on Intelligent Entertainment: Algorithmic Generation and Regulation of Creative Works.

Recent History

Show:

2020

9-13 Mar 2020

Visited Brussels on business with the European Commission. Cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic.

2019

26 Dec 2020

Resigned as CTO from Proda Ltd., after helping engineering, sales, and product find market success in the commercial real estate industry.

8 Nov 2019

Spoke at the Intelligent Entertainment: Algorithmic Generation and Regulation of Creative Works Symposium for the Florida International University Law Review.

22 Sep 2019

Published essay on how Healthcare is Distorting the US Economy.

3-7 Jun. 2019

Visited Brussels on business with the European Commission.

13 Feb. 2019

Published essay on how Brexit Needs a Constitutional Convention.

31 Jan. 2019

Published paper on Finite Noncommutative Geometries with Professor Shahn Majid.

2 - 4 Jan. 2019

Visiting Washington, D.C. to meet with public policy colleagues.

2018

31 Dec.

Published essay on the role of Empathy and failures of democracies.

5 Dec.

Speaking at the Business, Analytics & Data Science Meetup in London about data transparency and efficiency in Commercial Real Estate.

29 Oct

Completed PhD Mathematical Sciences after seven years of part time study!

6 - 7 Jun.

Teaching a two day course in Topological Data Analysis as part of a course at the Data Science Programme at BGSE.

10 -13 Jun.

Visiting Brussels on business with the European Commission.

2017

3 Sep.

Started as CTO at PRODA.

14 Jul. - 25 Aug.

Data Specialist/Governance adviser with TBI in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

12 - 23 Jun.

Visiting Brussels and colleagues at the European Commission.

8 - 9 Jun.

Teaching a course on Topological Data Analysis at the Topics in Big Data II course for the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.

30 May

Joining an Advisory Board and participating in research for a project on Data Acquisition and Blending to Improve the Quality of Healthcare Analytics.

3 May

Resigned from Gower Street Analytics, after building a small but highly effective data science team.

Apr.

Visited NYC and Washington, D.C. to learn about computation social science and applications of predictive analytics to public opinion research.

2016

8 Nov.

What "Data Driven" means in Hollywood" presentation at the Rave Technologies Publishing Conference 2016.

22 Sep.

Speaking at Big Data in Hollywood conference at Film University Babelsberg.

12 Sep.

On the panel Transforming the Big Screen with Big Data at IBC 2016.

10 Aug.

Headed a Q&A session on different job roles in data science at Pivigo's Science 2 Data Science.

All year.

Leading a study group on functional programming.

May

Preparing a new course on topological data analysis for Topics in Big Data II at Barcelona GSE.

11 Apr.

Attending CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

22 Mar.

Speaking about data science for businesses at the Barcelona Data Science Meeting 2016.

2015

9 - 11 Nov.

Visiting Denver, Colorado.

1 - 6 Nov.

Visiting Los Angeles for meetings with film studios.

18 Oct.

Gower Street Analytics partners with Rentrak to build new data science products for the global movie market. Press Release. Deadline article. Variety article.

2 Jul.

Giving a lecture to Ringvorlesung - Entrepreneurship on data science and the movie business.

22 - 25 Jun.

Visiting Barcelona for CineEurope 2015.

8 - 12 Jun.

Visiting Brussels.

21 May

Speaking on content acquisition and management strategies at the CSI Summit 2015 - Future of TV Business Models. CANCELED

16 Apr.

Expert article on Operations Research as a Data Science Problem at odbms.org.

2 Mar.

Co-founded Gower Street Analytics with Dimitrios Mitsinikos.

27 Feb.

Resigned Director, Data Science position at NBCUniversal International.

2014

6 - 8 Dec.

Visiting the Master in Data Science programme at Barcelona GSE

18 Nov.

Speaking at the Inspired by Big Data session at DICON2014 in Seoul, Korea. Watch the video.

20 Sep.

Talking about monetization strategies with big data in the media at the CII Big Picture Summit in New Delhi, India.

13 Sep.

Speaking at the "Big Data: Hype or Reality?" session at IBC2014. Watch the video.

4 - 8 Aug.

Teaching database and SQL basics at Science 2 Data Science.

16 - 20 Jun.

Visiting Brussels on business with the European Commission and H2020.

14 - 15 May

Speaking at the Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit in London.

Jan. - Apr.

Teaching a study group on functional programming every Thursday evening in London

11 - 13 Feb.

Attending the O'Reilly Strata Conference in Santa Clara

5 - 7 Feb.

Working at Universal Studios in Los Angeles

2013

29 Sep.

Speaking on using Racket for predictive analytics in the media at RacketCon in Boston.

25 - 30 Sep.

Visiting Boston for the International Conference on Functional Programming.

23 Sep.

Interview with Prof. Roberto V. Zicari at odbms.org

9 Jul.

Panel discussion on Big Data at the Customer Insight and Analytics Exchange 2013 in London.

6 - 7 Jun.

Workshop in Big and Open Data with Johann Stan at the European Young Innovators Forum Unconvention in Brussels. See video.

21 - 22 Jun.

Leading a tutorial on Big Data and Predictive Analytics at the Polish Business Analysis Summit 2013 in Warsaw.

8 - 12 Apr.

Attending the Workshop on Grothendieck-Teichmüller Theory and Multiple Zeta Values in Cambridge.

16 Jan. - 3 Apr.

Running a study group in Software Engineering and Functional Programming (following SICP).

4 - 8 Mar.

Visiting Brussels as an independent expert/evaluator for the European Commission/FP7.

26 - 28 Feb.

Attending the Strata Conference in Santa Clara, CA.

21 - 25 Feb.

Visiting Universal Pictures' offices in Los Angeles.

2012

4 Dec.

Speaking at the UCL Undergrad Maths Colloquium; giving a friendly intro to quantum groups.

14 Nov.

Speaking at the UCCS maths dept; giving a mathematical intro to quantum groups.

19 Oct.

Speaking at Big Data Innovation, Dublin.

15 Oct. to late Dec.

Running a study group in class field theory.

10 Oct

Attending the Haskell eXchange at Skills Matter, London.

Study Groups

I like to keep learning and studying new things. I especially like it as a social activity. So if you'd like to chat maths, programming, or physics please get in touch.

Research interests
Data science and the social sciences, especially competition law & data.
Geometrical optimizations for deep learning.
Machine learning & ethics.
Category theory & software engineering.

Stuff I want to know more about
Quantum groups, Grothendieck-Teichmüller groups, noncommutative algebraic geometry, Bost-Connes systems, analogies between number fields and function fields, deep learning, applied topology.

Last updated 6 Apr 2020.