Jason Veneman

What are your main interests?

My professional interests include systems design and modeling & simulation of socio-technical systems. I defended my thesis in April and two days before this course starts I'll begin my new position as an Artificial Intelligence Engineer at MITRE. I'm currently living in Denver but after the summer school I'll be moving to the DC area.

In my free time I enjoy getting outside and hiking, biking, snowboarding or just relaxing. I love music and going to live shows of any sort from electronic to hip-hop to bluegrass. It's been years since I've been in Santa Fe so I'm very excited to go to the art galleries. I'm also into making, fixing and/or hacking things ranging from electronics to furniture.

What sort of expertise can you bring to the group?

My recent work has been on balancing the technical and actor side of systems design. The pursuit of a graduate degree in Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management brought me to the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. At TU Delft I focused on how to tackle wicked problems through the design of creative technologies, institutions and processes. An interest in sustainability and the modeling and simulation of complex systems led to my thesis which used agent-based modeling to explore how the deployment of distributed energy generation technologies is influenced by social networks and consumer behavior. I did my BS at the University of Colorado at Boulder majoring in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Philosophy. I then worked for a number of years on the design, testing and support of RF/microwave electronic systems and research projects in the aerospace industry, military, and government labs.

What do you hope to get out of the CSSS?

With the CSSS being so interdisciplinary I'm looking forward to deepening my knowledge about complex systems from a wide range of perspectives. In particular, I'm interested in learning about more modeling tools and analysis techniques. I'm also excited to meet the other participants, learn about what they're up to and have some fun in Santa Fe.

Do you have any possible projects in mind for the CSSS?

Since the CSSS comes between finishing my thesis and beginning a new job I'm pretty open to projects at this point.