AI · FinTech · EdTech · Business Analytics · Robotics · Research
100+ AI applications. 15 courses. 30+ supervised student research projects. 20+ commissioned government and industry reports. Taught in 5 countries across 22+ years. All built end-to-end on local NVIDIA infrastructure — no cloud, no institutional funding.
The Mission
AutoMatrixLab is a research, education, and industry platform with over 100 AI and automation applications built in-house. Every app was designed and deployed in the open, by one senior lecturer and his students, on local NVIDIA infrastructure, with no institutional funding.
By The Numbers
Industry Signals
“We no longer require a four-year degree for most of our technical roles. What matters is what you can do.”
— Google Career Certificates initiative
Tesla / xAI
“We don’t care where you went to school or whether you went to school. Show us your code.”
— Elon Musk, on Tesla hiring
IBM
“Half of our US jobs no longer require a degree. We are becoming a skills-first employer.”
— IBM Skills-First Hiring Policy
OpenAI
“The future of work will belong to those who can orchestrate AI — not compete with it.”
— Sam Altman, OpenAI
The Problem
2-year approval cycles
New courses take two academic years to pass committee approval — the technologies are obsolete by the time students learn them.
Expensive compute, idle students
Universities spend millions on cloud AI subscriptions while students never touch the infrastructure. I run the entire lab on one local NVIDIA machine.
Research that never ships
Papers sit behind paywalls. Here, every research project ships as a working app, a demo, and a story the public can understand.
Theory without production
Most analytics curricula end at “train a model on a Jupyter notebook.” My students deploy POS systems, research dashboards, and AI tutors in live production.
Lead the change. Don’t chase it.
The AutoMatrixLab Education Engine is a complete AI-native learning platform. Below are live demonstrations of its components.
Overview
A complete walkthrough of the AutoMatrixLab education engine and AI-powered course delivery system.
Platform Demos
Live demonstrations of the AutoMatrixLab education platform — courses, AI tutoring, admin tools, and infrastructure.
Real World Applications
Live demonstrations of the ML pipeline builder, fraud detection system, and interactive course features.
15 courses across industry domains. Every course runs on the Education Engine with interactive lectures, ML practicals, AI tutoring, and narrated content.
Every course comes with access to 100+ real AI and automation applications — built in-house, running in production, and open for students to explore, learn from, and extend.
Courses
15 courses across 8 industry domains.
Fraud detection, credit risk, portfolio optimisation, customer churn, credit default
Lead scoring, campaign attribution, customer segmentation
Readmission prediction, diagnostics, length of stay, drug response
Attrition prediction, performance forecasting, sentiment analysis
Churn prediction, demand forecasting, pricing optimisation, recommendations
Demand forecasting, supplier risk, logistics optimisation
Predictive maintenance, quality control, OEE & energy optimisation
Property valuation, rental yield prediction, market analysis
Panel data methods, SAS Viya, statistical analysis, data mining techniques
100+ AI and automation applications built end-to-end. Click any card for full details, tech stack, and demo video.
81 AI Courses & Projects
A free, interactive platform designed to empower children with financial skills through gamified learning and personalis...
An institutional-grade, course-specific AI learning assistant developed in collaboration with the University of Sydney a...
A multilingual personal tutor that can see what is on the page or screen, listen to questions, speak clear explanations,...
An AI application for delivering education at mass scale, developed as a counterpoint to a $1.5 million Auckland Univers...
An AI application capable of reading chats in multiple languages and replying instantly in the same language — English, ...
A bilingual AI tutor designed specifically for Māori language education, created as a personal commitment to supporting ...
An AI tutor that reads, hears, types, and speaks in every major language — reading English on screen and explaining it i...
Major feature expansion of the AI-Powered Interactive Learning Platform adding: an AI Examiner with unlimited random pra...
An AI tutor that tracks exactly what a student is looking at — the video frame being watched, the text selected, the cod...
A standalone all-in-one learning environment containing all course materials, full SAS and Python consoles running in-br...
A personal NVIDIA GPU converted into a web server hosting an academic research platform. Students access ML and AI model...
A dual-AI education platform providing context-aware learning unlike generic AI assistants. One AI handles application f...
An AI-driven education platform hosted on Azure that surpasses Zoom and Teams. Left panel: an AI Technical Tutor (Azure ...
A comprehensive education platform using agentic AI and gamification to deliver interactive lectures, workshops, and sim...
I just built a professional lecture video using Remotion, React, and AI-assisted development. Traditional academia can't...
A machine learning-powered retail analytics platform that transforms 500K+ transactions into actionable business insight...
A desktop tool that fuses SAS analytics with OpenAI intelligence for one-click data analysis and reporting. Users point ...
An automated end-to-end SAS pipeline orchestrated by custom AI applications. From data ingestion in SAS through model tr...
A pioneering approach to research dissemination that transforms academic findings into AI-generated songs. The research ...
A first-of-its-kind research collaboration platform unifying version control (full Git integration), LaTeX editing (real...
An extension of the ReCollab platform enabling one-click research workflows: automatic data analysis, full academic pape...
The unified research and industry collaboration system that collapses years of effort into days. ReCollab operates as a ...
A custom-trained LLM built on 50+ papers from top finance and economics journals that writes in the voice of the Journal...
An interactive dashboard for analysing how life events, financial hardship, and wellbeing transmit across family network...
A research platform born from the fusion of engineering precision, business insight, and AI intelligence. Combines advan...
A novel mathematical and AI model introducing Recursive Panel Machine Learning for predictive analytics. Unlike standard...
Presenting my working paper: I lost sleep over a research question no traditional model could answer. When a father lose...
An AI-powered enterprise application built on AWS Cloud using LangChain, OpenAI GPT, and Streamlit that goes beyond stan...
An AI-powered application developed for the Meta Quest 3 virtual reality headset, combining immersive VR experiences wit...
A smartwatch application that detects cognitive intent through brainwave signals (EEG) and triggers watch actions withou...
An Android application enabling voice command control over multiple AI agents that communicate with each other autonomou...
An AI-powered web application that analyses uploaded CVs using GPT-4 to suggest relevant career directions across market...
An intelligent shopping companion that tracks live product prices across New Zealand e-commerce sites and sends real-tim...
An AI agent that activates automatically when data is sent to a designated email address. The agent downloads attached f...
A custom AI infrastructure deployed on a personal NVIDIA 4090 GPU that outperforms OpenAI in both vision and speech task...
A personal NVIDIA RTX 4090 SUPER converted from a gaming GPU into an on-premises AI campus capable of: computer vision w...
A complete local AI pipeline running on an RTX 4090 desktop integrating all LLM models locally (Llama and others), compu...
I solved a problem that haunted me for months. I've built 100+ AI-powered apps, multilingual courses, educational g...
An AI-powered trading application featuring an intelligent trade suggestion engine. The AI Trade Tool provides data-driv...
A fully interactive credit scoring dashboard powered by AI, AWS, and LangChain for real-time decision intelligence in fi...
A smart budgeting and investment planner featuring a conversational interface for tracking income, expenses, and savings...
A Streamlit application that transforms raw financial statements into CFO-level insights within seconds. The system uses...
An AI agent integrating Gemini and DeepSeek models to provide financial advice based on budget estimations. The agent is...
A web-hosted AI agent linked to ChatGPT that provides personalised financial planning based on client budgets and financ...
A complete financial planning platform built specifically for New Zealand, performing in one minute what traditionally c...
A financial communication platform built on Azure breaking down barriers in financial services through three capabilitie...
A full-stack financial literacy platform combining gamification, AI-based assistance, and real-time visualisation to tea...
An AI-powered dashboard that produces complete, 20-page institutional-grade equity research reports in minutes. Performs...
An equity research workflow running entirely on a local NVIDIA 4090 desktop, automating reports for any public company. ...
An end-to-end agentic workflow that automates equity research from raw SEC filings to first-draft reports with no extern...
An AI application that recreates a company's annual report page by page using raw financial data and AI-generated commen...
A finance application that transforms an Income Statement and Balance Sheet into robust financial models, long-range for...
A machine learning application predicting insurance costs with 90% accuracy using age, BMI, smoking status, and other fa...
A property valuation platform combining 13 advanced ML models including Kernel Ridge Regression, XGBoost, LightGBM, CatB...
NZ small businesses are being bled dry by subscription software — hundreds per month for technology they could own. Whil...
I just modeled Fonterra's financial future in 5 minutes. Can New Zealand's dairy industry compete globally without this ...
A AAA-rated educational game built in Unreal Engine 5 featuring triple-A quality graphics and gameplay. Includes solo qu...
The world's first global analytics and logical reasoning tournament inside a student metaverse. Features skill-specific ...
A free battle royale game built in Fortnite UEFN where knowledge is the weapon. Players drop into a TMNT New York City m...
An educational open-world game inspired by GTA (Grand Theft Auto) — but replacing violence with learning. GPA 6 (Grand P...
A custom Mario Kart-style racing game designed for gamified course teaching. Students race competitively while answering...
An educational game modelled on Temple Run where questions serve as obstacles. Answer wrong and you stumble; answer righ...
A humanoid robot lecturer powered by an onboard LLM and OpenAI agent that watches presentation slides, explains them on ...
A fully autonomous AI companion robot capable of real-time conversation on any topic. The robot maintains a permanent pr...
An autonomous humanoid robot enhanced with a multilingual human assistant capability. The robot operates independently a...
A TonyPi humanoid robot running three independent AI engines entirely onboard — no cloud relay PC required. The robot se...
A fully autonomous see → think → narrate pipeline built into a humanoid robot. The robot analyses a company's financial ...
A humanoid robot running AI entirely inside its own system, matching the capability of cloud-based language models. The ...
A talking humanoid robot designed to teach financial literacy to children. The robot speaks and explains money concepts ...
An upgraded demonstration of the robot lecturer system with enhanced onboard LLM and OpenAI agent capabilities. The robo...
A complete hardware-software integration where a TonyPi humanoid robot joins Zoom calls, watches shared screens via HD c...
A humanoid robot that joins Zoom like a real professor, sees slides through its camera, understands every detail with AI...
A Raspberry Pi-powered robot configured as a permanent AI lecturer in a Zoom room. The robot watches whatever students s...
A milestone achievement where the humanoid robot transitions from a programmed machine to a fully autonomous AI companio...
A robot-based AI teaching assistant that maintains a permanent Zoom presence, allowing students to join anytime, anywher...
A humanoid robot that runs Zoom meetings completely autonomously using its own HD camera as video feed, its own micropho...
A self-contained TonyPi humanoid running three AI engines entirely within its own hardware — eliminating the need for a ...
A fully autonomous see → think → narrate pipeline where a humanoid robot analyses company financial statements from its ...
A humanoid robot reimagining how children learn financial literacy — replacing boring textbooks with interactive, embodi...
A distributed robotics architecture where autonomous agents separated by thousands of miles communicate seamlessly throu...
A vision for the next frontier of esports where gaming, robotics, and AI converge. Players use Xbox controllers to comma...
Technical Expertise
Self-hosted large language models with zero cloud dependencies
Unreal Engine 5 games for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch
Speech-to-text (Whisper) and text-to-speech (XTTS) systems
Applications supporting 17+ languages with real-time translation
Research as Sound & Story
Research findings transformed into AI-generated songs and emotional narratives.
Sole Parent Financial Wellbeing research converted into an AI-generated song — “Set Fire to the Pain” — where lyrics directly reference research results.
93–96% of hardship damage is psychological, not financial. Every lyric is a real coefficient. Every verse maps to actual model output.
The production platform that turns research datasets into narrated songs and short films at scale.
Real Results
These are not my projects. These were built by my students — people with no prior coding experience who learned to build intelligent systems from scratch. My role is teacher, not builder. Their role is innovator.
Advanced analytics platforms built by supervised students using real-world data. Each project demonstrates end-to-end research automation.
437,006 observations across 21 years of HILDA data. Automated survival analysis, transition matrices, competing risks, and AI-generated research draft sections.
Household-to-individual transmission analysis across partner, parent, and child dyads. Tracks financial anxiety trajectory (t=0, t+1, t+3) after household financial hardship landing. N=285,978 individuals.
Fisheries analysis dashboard with machine learning models and AI commentary for automated interpretation of results.
Seven-tab property valuation system including geographic visualisation and comparable sales analysis. Linear, Ridge, Lasso, Random Forest, XGBoost, LightGBM, CatBoost, and Stacked Ensemble models.
Supervised Research Portfolio
Supervised across Master of Analytics, Master of Finance, PhD, and industry internship programmes.
Drivers of Household Debt During COVID-19. CFFC Barometer data + Westpac economic bulletin.
Occupation Classification and COVID-19 Impact on Financial Wellbeing. CFFC Barometer data.
Sorted Website User Behaviour Analysis. Retirement Commission / Sorted proprietary data.
Financial Hardship Analysis using HILDA longitudinal panel data.
Learning Disability and Financial Hardship. HILDA longitudinal data.
Sole Parenting and Financial Wellbeing of New Zealanders. Retirement Commission data. Now PhD.
Kiwis and Retirement Planning. ANZ Bank survey + Retirement Commission data.
Financial Parenting and Emergency Saving. ANZ 2021 Financial Wellbeing Survey.
Health Shocks and Financial Resilience. European SHARE panel study.
Financial Wellbeing of Women. HILDA data with ANZ survey benchmarking.
Financial Wellbeing research. ANZ 2021 NZ General Population survey. Multiple projects.
Gender Differences in Financial Risk-Taking. HILDA + ANZ Banking Group data.
Debt Dynamics in NZ. FinCap Client Voices — 155,482 records. Third-tier lender analysis.
Financial Hardship Dynamics — 437K observations, AI-automated research platform.
PhD research — General Social Survey data. Progressed from MBS to doctoral programme.
US Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) econometric analysis.
ML models for predicting financial hardship. Decision trees on HILDA panel data.
Doctoral Research: Currently supervising PhD candidate in Household Finance & Financial Inclusion — 2+ years of advanced econometrics, survival analysis, and IDI-based research.
Master of Analytics (ongoing since 2018): Applied Econometrics, Big Data in Finance (world-first SAS Viya deployment), Financial Hardship research, panel data analysis. SAS/Python dual-language methodology.
Master of Finance: Multiple cohorts in financial economics, corporate finance, investment analysis, and behavioural finance.
Industry Internships: Dozens supervised across NZ organisations in data analytics, financial services, and technology. Several A/A- grades with strong client feedback.
International Teaching: UK (Durham, Aberystwyth), Singapore (PSB Academy/Massey), Mauritius, Pakistan, and New Zealand.
In the old world: to build software you needed a CS degree. To run advanced econometrics you needed years of statistics training. To automate a business you needed consultants. AI collapsed all of that. A child. A friend with no degree. A business management student. Each of them now building systems that would have required entire teams five years ago. This is the future of education — and AutoMatrixLab is built for it.
Industry & Government Research
Research and analytics projects commissioned by or conducted in collaboration with NZ government agencies, financial institutions, and industry organisations. Completed through Massey University Fin-Ed Centre, earning significant revenue for the school and Centre.
Commissioned by Ministry of Health NZ. Analysed FinCap Client Voices data to identify gambling-harm trends and guide prevention policies.
Compared crisis-response effectiveness between government and community support in NZ and Australia. Provided policy recommendations.
Used proprietary Retirement Commission data to identify financial hardship factors and recommend targeted interventions for single parents.
Investigated teleworking impact on wellbeing and income stability of NZ labour force using Retirement Commission datasets.
Explored engagement patterns among frequent and infrequent Sorted website visitors to enhance NZ financial-literacy initiatives.
2026 (in progress) · NZ Fin-Ed Centre. Cultural Dimensions of Financial Engagement in Aotearoa NZ. Hofstede–Triandis framework across 7 ethnic groups.
Utilised proprietary ANZ Banking Group data to map financial-wellbeing patterns and guide capability frameworks for households across AU and NZ.
Linked ANZ Bank and FinCap datasets to explore correlations between mental health, financial hardship, and emergency readiness.
Analysed FinCap client data to assess debt distribution and home-loan affordability trends. Informed responsible-lending strategies.
Evaluated Māori wahine and whānau business finance needs. Informed policy and support programmes for Māori entrepreneurs.
Published report on Māori enterprise financial capability. Carried out analysis on Financial Health Check and Cultural Perception surveys.
2018 · Westpac Massey Fin-Ed Centre + Te Au Rangahau. Financial capability of Māori entrepreneurs and enterprise viability across Auckland and Northland.
Applied advanced segmentation models to NZAA customer data. Identified strategies to improve loyalty and retention.
Analysed proprietary traffic data to evaluate user engagement and improve marketing and public-awareness strategies.
Analysed proprietary Massey data across 20+ admission criteria investigating factors influencing student completion and retention.
Used Eftpos data to generate customer-segmentation insights supporting targeted outreach.
Provided technical and subject-matter research advice to NZ public and private organisations including:
Ministry of Social Development · Financial Markets Authority · Inland Revenue · Banks & Insurance Providers · District Health Boards · Manufacturing Industries
Also assisted Silicon Valley-based startups with AI and analytics projects through global joint ventures.
World-first SAS Viya university deployment at Massey. Pilot participant shaping SAS Viya V2 with direct technical feedback to SAS USA team. 2026 SAS Global Educator Award recipient. Connected SAS with NZ's largest analytics community.
Journal of Banking and Finance
Establishes negative effect of psychological distress on household net worth using U.S. panel data. K6 distress increase decreases net worth by 13.2%.
Review of Finance
Distinct channels of stock market literacy and trust in stock ownership decisions. Literacy matters more than sociability.
Durham University Business School
Doctoral research on household financial decision-making, psychological distress, and financial literacy. Best Thesis Award at Summer Congregation 2015.
Grapevine, Texas, USA. Received the SAS Global Educator Award (Asia-Pacific) for pioneering SAS Viya teaching at Massey University — the first university in Asia-Pacific to adopt SAS Viya for student instruction.
Asia-Pacific spotlight presentation on integrating SAS Viya with AI and machine learning in university analytics curriculum. Demonstrated SAS + Python dual-language data science methodology.
New York, USA. Presented “When It Rains It Drains: Psychological Distress and Household Net Worth” at the Financial Management Association’s 50th anniversary meeting — a premier international conference in finance.
Auckland, New Zealand. Presented research on financial capability and household wellbeing at the Building Financially Capable Communities Conference. Research informed national policy on financial literacy.
Manchester, UK. Presented “Stock Market Literacy, Trust, and Participation” — published in Review of Finance (FT50). Established how financial literacy and institutional trust drive stock market participation.
Durham, UK. Presented doctoral research at the British Accounting and Finance Association Northern Area Group and Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group conference during PhD at Durham University.
Recognition
Asia-Pacific Region — SAS Institute
Presented at SAS Innovate, Grapevine TX, April 2026
Massey University was the first university in Asia-Pacific to teach SAS Viya — introduced and taught from its earliest development stage. Helped shape SAS Viya V2 as a pilot participant providing direct technical feedback to the SAS USA team.
Durham University Business School — 2015
Summer Congregation 2015. PhD in Accounting & Finance. Distinction in all coursework.
Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, UK — 2010
Full doctoral scholarship for studies at Durham University (2010–2014). One of the most competitive scholarships in the world.
Durham University — 2011 & 2012
Awarded twice for exceptional contribution to university community life.
Durham University — 2012
Durham University — 2012
Massey University — 2018–Present
Consistently excellent course evaluations across all three campuses (Auckland, Wellington, PSB Singapore).
Institute of Business Management — 2006–2008
CGPA 3.68/4.0. Second in graduating class.
NED University of Engineering & Technology — 2001–2004
CGPA 3.55/4.0. Industrial Electronics.
Advance HE, UK — 2015
Credential ID: PR055577
Durham University — 2014
Durham University — 2013–2014
Elected president. Previously served as International Students Officer (2011–2013).
Engineer. Researcher. Educator. Builder. Founder.
A career spanning four disciplines that rarely meet in one person: Electronics Engineering, Financial Economics, Management, and Artificial Intelligence. Taught at Durham University (UK), Aberystwyth University (UK) and its Mauritius campus, NED University of Engineering & Technology (Pakistan), Massey University (New Zealand) and its Singapore campus at PSB Academy — five countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.
Started as an Instrument & Control Engineer automating industrial giants across petroleum, telecoms, hospitals, manufacturing, and logistics — building safety-critical control systems for British Petroleum (BP), OMV, NRL, OGDCL, Pakistan Steel Mills, and Pak Suzuki. As an engineering undergraduate in 2002, built an interactive cable TV voting system via SMS that spread across South Asia — years before streaming existed.
After a PhD at Durham University (UK), led corporate finance teams at Deloitte, delivered projects for The World Bank and international investors, and collaborated with Silicon Valley AI startups. In New Zealand, advised the Ministry of Social Development, Financial Markets Authority, Retirement Commission, FinCap, IRD, major NZ banks, insurance providers, Ministry of Health, and District Health Boards.
Developed the first-ever university course using SAS Viya at a time when both academia and industry were barely aware of the platform. Shaped its V2 as a pilot participant, built SAS automation applications, and taught the entire SAS software ecosystem. In 2026, SAS Institute named me a Global SAS Educator Award winner — featured in the official press release, personally invited to SAS Innovate 2026 in Texas to receive the award among Fortune 100 executives and top tech leaders, and spotlighted at the inaugural SAS Educate APAC 2026.
Today building AutoMatrixLab — 100+ AI-powered applications, multilingual courses, and gamified learning for 500M+ Hindi, Urdu, and multilingual learners. At its core: “Educational Jarvis” — an always-on, screen-aware AI companion on local NVIDIA RTX 4090 infrastructure, orchestrating intelligent agents across every tool you use.
Career
Massey University, Auckland & Singapore (PSB Academy) | Jan 2018 – Present (7+ years)
Developed ‘Big Data in Finance and Banking’ and ‘Applied Econometrics Methods’ courses for Master of Analytics. Pioneered the first-ever university course using SAS Viya at a time when both academia and industry were barely aware of the platform. Shaped its V2 as a pilot participant providing direct technical feedback to the SAS USA team. Built SAS automation applications and taught across the entire SAS software ecosystem. Built 100+ AI applications on local NVIDIA RTX 4090 infrastructure. Supervised PhD and Master’s students in advanced analytics and household finance. See Student Projects for details. Also taught at Massey’s Singapore campus at PSB Academy. Recipient of the 2026 SAS Global Educator Award.
New Zealand | Jan 2019 – Present (6+ years)
Assisted Ministry of Social Development, Financial Markets Authority, Retirement Commission, FinCap, IRD, banks and insurance providers with data analytics consulting, policy research, and advanced econometric modelling.
Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK & Mauritius Campus | Jan 2016 – Jan 2018 (2 years)
Program Leader for Accounting and Finance. Module Leader for Investments and Financial Instruments, Corporate Finance, Financial Management, Auditing, and Financial Accounting. Also taught at Aberystwyth’s transnational campus in Mauritius.
Silicon Valley & Global | Jan 2015 – Dec 2017 (3 years)
Assisted several organisations including Silicon Valley based startups with local and overseas artificial intelligence and analytics projects.
Deloitte, Pakistan | Jan 2016 – Dec 2016
Led corporate finance teams in consulting and advisory projects for international clients including The World Bank and high-profile international investors. Provided training and mentorship to consulting teams.
Durham University Business School, UK | Jan 2011 – Mar 2013
Taught seminars in Advanced Microeconomics and Economic Principles modules. Assisted postgraduate students in dissertation work.
Institute of Industrial Electronics Engineering (IIEE), NED University, Pakistan | 2006 – 2009
Taught Engineering Economics and Mathematics modules at the same institution where I graduated as an Industrial Electronics Engineer. Conducted workshops in computer programming and automation.
National Engineering & Scientific Commission of Pakistan | Jan 2006 – Dec 2010 (5 years)
Led ISO 9001, 14001 and OHSAS compliance and EMI/EMC Engineering across major industrial clients in petroleum, telecoms, hospitals, manufacturing, and logistics. Delivered automation and instrumentation projects for OGDCL, Pakistan Steel Mills, Pak Suzuki, and national telecom and healthcare infrastructure. Supervised quality management systems and electromagnetic compatibility testing across diverse industrial environments.
ENAR Petrotech Services Pvt. Ltd. | Jan 2005 – Dec 2005
Designed, implemented and supervised instrumentation and control systems for petroleum giants including British Petroleum (BP), OMV, and NRL. Automated industrial processes across petrochemical, manufacturing, and energy sectors — building safety-critical systems where failure means explosions, chemical leaks, or production losses costing millions per hour.
Industry Impact
First lecturer in the world to teach with SAS Viya — deploying it at a time when both academia and industry were barely aware of the platform. Shaped SAS Viya V2 as a handpicked pilot participant, providing direct technical feedback to SAS USA. Built SAS automation applications using cloud and local license installations. Taught the entire SAS software ecosystem: Base SAS, SAS/STAT, SAS/ETS, Enterprise Miner, Enterprise Guide, SAS/GRAPH, SAS/OR, SAS Studio, SAS Viya, JMP, and more. Recipient of the 2026 SAS Global Educator Award. Personally invited to SAS Innovate 2026 in Texas. Spotlighted at the inaugural SAS Educate APAC 2026.
Assisted Ministry of Social Development, Financial Markets Authority, Retirement Commission, FinCap, IRD, Banks, Insurance providers, Ministry of Health, DHBs and manufacturing industries with analytics and subject matter advice.
Assisted several organisations including Silicon Valley based startups with local and overseas artificial intelligence and analytics projects through global joint venture collaborations.
Completed several commissioned and noncommissioned analytics and research projects for Massey University Fin-Ed Centre, earning significant revenue for the school and the Centre.
Qualifications
Durham University Business School, UK | 2011–2015
Best Thesis Award • Distinction in all coursework
Commonwealth Scholarship (full fee and maintenance grant). Research focus on household finance, financial literacy, and stock market participation. Published in FT50 journals.
Institute of Business Management, Pakistan | 2006–2008
Second Position — CGPA 3.68/4.0
Merit scholarship recipient. Foundation for transition from engineering to financial research and academia.
NED University of Engineering & Technology, Pakistan | 2001–2004
Fourth Position — CGPA 3.55/4.0
Merit scholarship (2001–2004). The engineering mindset that drives the technical architecture behind every AI project.
Academic Output
Journal of Banking and Finance (A* Journal) — 2022
Balloch, A., Engels, C. and Philip, D. Establishes a sizeable negative effect of poor mental health on net worth.
Review of Finance (FT50 Journal) — 2015
Balloch, A., Philip, D. & Nicolae, A. Examining financial literacy, trust, and stock market participation.
FamNet Research — 437,006 observations, 21 years HILDA data
Discovers that 93–96% of hardship damage is psychological. Hybrid Competing Risk Hit Model combining Cox, DeepHit, and neural survival analysis.
NZ Retirement Commission Insights Bites — Apr 2022
Demonstrated the power of panel data and advanced models to resolve critical social and economic issues.