Colin Frayn - Curriculum Vitae

Colin Frayn - Online CV

Name:	Colin Michael Frayn
Date Of Birth:	05/Jun/1978
Nationality:	British
Marital Status:	Single
Email:
Address:	On request

Current Position:AVP, Equity Derivatives IT
Employer:Barclays Capital Ltd., 5 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London

Education

Secondary Education: (Sep/89 - Jul/96)

King Edward VI School, Lichfield, Staffs, UK
GCE 'A'-levels : Physics (A), Maths (A), Further Maths (A), French (A), General Studies (A)

School Prize for GCSE Physics (1994)
School Trophy for Contributions to Music (1996)
School Prize for A-level Physics (1996)
School Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement (1996)

Further Education: (Oct/96 - May/03)

Robinson College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
MA (hons) Astrophysics - 1st Class

Highest Mark in the Year for Final Examinations (1999)
Elected Titular Scholar of Robinson College (1999)

PhD. Research
Awarded By:	Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University.
Thesis Topic:	"What is Population II?" : Using Computational model-fitting methods to analyse the formation history of nearby galaxies.
Supervisor:	Prof. Gerard Gilmore, Deputy Director, Institute of Astronomy

Experience

Previous Employment

April 2007 - October 2008: Developer, Netcraft, 2 Belmont, Bath, BA1 5DZ
Responsibilities: I was in charge of a number of research projects connected with the automated harvesting and analysis of large datasets, mainly in the realm of commodities and property. I developed several large, automated systems, primarily in Perl and a combination of scripting technologies.

September 2003 - March 2007: Research Fellow, Cercia, School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT
Responsibilities: As a member of a world-leading group within a (UK RAE) 5-rated research department, I was expected to maintain an excellent research and publication record, delivering consistently high quality academic work in the international arena. As a member of a team tasked with the commercialisation of cutting-edge research, I was required to work with industrial contacts, to explain the relevance of our technologies to non-experts, to investigate the application of novel technologies within established industries, and to write high-quality technical reports.

Recent Projects

A 3D Molecular Modelling Package
A solver/helper for the puzzle game of SuDoku.
An advanced, International Master level chess engine
Chessbrain.net, World-Record Holding distributed chess project.
A sophisticated Othello engine with a graphical interface.
A Galaxy Domination strategy game with complex heuristic-driven artificial intelligence
A Turn-Based Warfare strategy game with a fractally generated 3D terrain engine
A statistical simulation package for the games of Texas and Omaha Hold'em Poker
An open-source Genetic Programming (GP) Library
A web-based Task Management system
A cutting-edge 3D Data Visualisation Suite

Skills Learned

Computer chess
Designing highly optimised, speed-dependent algorithms and data structures; International team projects; Interface design; Cross-platform coding; Distributed computation.
PhD Work
Mathematical modelling; Model fitting; Bayesian statistics; Computational optimisation; Data processing; Image analysis.
Personal
OpenGL graphics; Fractals; Web database interfaces; Database design / implementation; Text processing; Windows interface design; Copy writing; Marketing; Content management systems
Cercia
Game theory; Financial forecasting; Data mining; Data visualisation; Scheduling; Process optimisation; Team-based coding; Incremental design; Project management; Lecturing; Sales & Marketing; Event Organization; Stochastic simulation
Netcraft
Database management; Advanced Perl techniques (including); Investment analysis; Bug-tracking systems; Task-management systems; Office 2007; Makefiles; Shell scripting; Javascript

Technical Competencies

Extensive knowledge of C, C++, including MSVC++ 6.0 & .NET
Thorough knowledge of Windows, UNIX and Red Hat Linux Operating Systems
OpenGL
Perl & MySQL
HTML, PHP, Javascript

Teaching

Nov 1999 - June 2002 : Supervising 12 first year undergraduate students in Physics (Cambridge)
Sep 2004 - August 2005 : Supervising 2 BSc students and 5 MSc students in Natural Computation (Birmingham)
Sep 2005 - August 2006 : Supervising 4 MSc students in Natural Computation
Sep 2006 - April 2007 : Supervising 2 BSc students and 1 MSc student in Natural Computation
2004 - Present : Many public and private lectures on Natural computation, astrophysics, communication and technical innovation.

Linguistic Abilities

English : Fluent
French : Nearly fluent
German, Italian : Intermediate Level
Russian, Japanese : Beginner Level

Private Consultancy

I am available for private consultancy, for firms and individuals, on the following topics:

Data Mining & Visualisation
Financial Data Analysis & Modelling
Optimisation Techniques
Automated Web Interfaces
Natural Computation
Model-Fitting Techniques
Computational Intelligence & Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence for Computer Games
Distributed Computation
Education in Physics, Mathematics & Computer Science

I also offer public lectures for all age groups in my series titled "Essential Science".

Personal Interests

Musical Abilities

Violin (Grade 8 Standard)
Viola (Grade 8 Standard)
Piano (Grade 6 Standard)
Voice (Baritone)

Musical Achievements

1989-1996: Played with School String Orchestra
- 1995-1996: Leader
1994-1996: Played Violin with Staffordshire County Youth Orchestra
- 1995-1996: Leader of Second Violin Section
1996-1999: Choral Exhibitioner with Choir of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
1996-2001: Played with numerous Cambridge orchestras, leading several.
Jan 2006 - Mar 2007: Sang with University of Birmingham Singers
Oct 2005 - July 2007: Sang with Birmingham Bach Choir

I am also a keen composer. A small selection of my compositions is available online here.

Astronomy

1997-1998: Observations Secretary, Cambridge University Astronomical Society
1998-1999: Chairman, Cambridge University Astronomical Society
1999-2000: Secretary, Cambridge University Astronomical Society
2001-2003: Advisory Committee, Cambridge University Astronomical Society

Sport

Badminton:

1992-1996: Member of School Badminton Team
1996-2000: Member of Robinson College First Badminton Team
2006-2007: Club player at University of Birmingham

Other Interests

I am a keen chess and Go player. I enjoy walking, cooking, comedy films, investment and business development.

I also enjoy writing both fantasy literature and comedy. The first book of my fantasy trilogy "Wilderness" has been published online here, and my light-hearted travel-diary Partout le Magasin is available here. My large scale travel-diary / comedy-spy-adventure Four Euros Only is published here. I am currently working on a new book on the topic of evolutionary psychology and cognitive neuroscience. The introduction is available here. I aim to publish it in 2007.

References

Provided on request.

This site is published by Colin Frayn, email

Last Modified 29/May/2008